Summary: A recent NCBE report shows that 95 percent of universities have lowered their admission standards.
We’ve heard enough about how the legal market makes for pain for recent JD’s. There are plenty of lawyers knocking, but firms arent’ answering. No wonder, then, that 1L enrollment has dropped 28 percent these last few years. And when you have a dynamic like that, something’s gotta give.
We’ve seen exactly that with a new report released recently by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which looked at what sorts of LSAT scores law schools find acceptable nowadays.
It seems most schools are a little less choosy. Since 2010, 95 percent of the 196 accredited U.S. law schools lowered their LSAT standards. Even top 20 schools have succumbed, with 20 out of 22 of the top 20 schools slipping. Emory University topped the list with a 9 point slip on their 25th-pecentile LSAT score drop, and the runners up for lowering standards include Charlotte School of Law, Elone University, Suffolk University, and Arizona Summit Law School, each with a 7 point drop.
What this means, as we’ve been seeing, is a corresponding dropping in Bar Passage rates. After all, the LSAT corresponds to a section of the bar exam. That may explain why since 2010, there has been a 1.7 point drop in the bar exam.