While the October 2009 LSAT boasted the single largest administration of the LSAT ever, the October LSAT this year did not continue this upward trend. As reported by Most Strongly Supported, the number of test takers this October decreased by 10.5% from last October, yet this turnout was still the “second highest single administration in the history of the test.”
It’s difficult to determine what these numbers indicate—are they up or down? Either way, there are still droves of people applying to law school, and they should probably take a look at the figures released from the NALP earlier this year. When examining the distribution of full-time legal salaries of each year’s graduating class, the median salary hasn’t changed drastically in the past few years, but the distribution has become more adversely affected. The number of legal salaries in the middle has decreased, and there seem to be larger numbers of salaries in the ranges of $50,000 and $160,000.
Potential law students should be aware that they could end up on either end of the spectrum. However, “the legal profession points to jobs at the low end of the spectrum while would-be law students focus on the BigLaw starting salaries of $100+K…. It seems that, as long as marquee legal jobs are out there, there are students who feel they can get them, even in the face of extreme statistical unlikeliness.”
So, if you want to go to law school, you should try to calculate the ratio of probable debt to probable earnings. Again, how do you determine what your future salary would be? It’s worth checking out the law schools’ employment rates and salary stats, although these clearly need to be taken with a grain of salt.
In the end, you just need to shoot for the best LSAT/GPA combination you can, try to get in to a highly ranked, reasonably priced school, and perform well there. Yet, “if you have the numbers to get into a top twenty-law school, then you almost certainly have the numbers to obtain substantial financial aid at a lower ranked school. The tradeoff might be a less prestigious job, but you won’t have the debt that necessitates it in the first place.”
If you have your heart set on law school, use your head to run the numbers.
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Read the full article: LSAT Numbers Down, But Not Really…
