According to the Law School Admissions Council, via the WSJ, the total number of law school applicants is down 11.5% from this time last year. Thus far, there have been just short of 67,000 applicants - and experts anticipate that the process is about 86% complete. This is the lowest number of applicants at this date since 2001.
Since there are roughly 48,000 places in entering classes each year, this is sure to have an impact on at least a few schools. As I have blogged previously, one hard limit on the number of seats in law schools is the ABA's requirement that graduates pass the bar at a 75% rate. As the number of applicants drops, it will become more difficult for some schools to populate an entire 1L class with bar-viable students.
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