http://www.ctlawtribune.com/id=1202792445992/Are-There-Too-Many-Law-Schools?mcode=0&curindex=0
The Question: On July 7, 2017, the Editorial Board of the Connecticut Law Tribune published a piece entitled “Are There Too Many Law Schools?” Take a look at this exposition:
“Have you heard of Charlotte School of Law, or of Whittier Law School? Well, you may not hear of them for much longer. Both were scheduled to close this year, though in both cases there were campaigns by faculty and alumni to keep them open.
Charlotte has been faltering in recent years, with bad news that has included being placed on probation by the American Bar Association due to the dismal record of its graduates in passing the bar exam and being kicked out of the federal student loan program by the Department of Education.
Two deans then quit in rapid succession, and the North Carolina attorney general began an investigation of the school's state operating license. Though the school has applied to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to be allowed back into the federal student loan program, it is likely that too many current Charlotte Law students have moved to other schools to allow Charlotte to qualify for reinstatement. Whether students would be able to get their student loans discharged due to the school's closing was expected to remain a complicated and frustrating experience for students at the for-profit school.
Schools like Charlotte, Whittier, and Arizona Summit Law School, another faltering school, illuminate a larger problem, or set of problems. Law schools still struggle to some extent with a diminishing number of applicants, though some suggest that the news reports of all those attorneys working on their computers on the floor in airports when the travel ban hit may inspire a number of people to consider law school after all. But the last few years have seen a steep decline in the number of applicants to law schools, estimated by some as at least 30 percent. In an effort to fill classes, some schools accepted students whose college records would never have supported admission in the past. Then, to no one's surprise, those students failed to pass the bar exam after graduation. The result is a population of young people not able to find employment, yet saddled with significant loans to pay off.” [Emphasis mine]
There are over 200 ABA-accredited diploma mills located in the United States. And by all accounts, only a handful of these are worth attending. Another dozen or so are calculated risks to the student – and I am being a little generous in that assessment. This means that roughly more than 180 are bad investments for the borrowers seeking a law degree. Do you like your odds, lemming?! How do you think you will fare with your 146 LSAT and 2.8 UGPA from Lancaster Bible College, idiot?
http://abovethelaw.com/2016/10/law-schools-agree-there-are-too-many-law-schools/
Prior Judgment: Back on October 6, 2016, Kathryn Rubino posted an ATL entry labeled “Law Schools Agree: There Are Too Many Law Schools.” Enjoy this opening:
“Finally, we get a chance to look behind the curtain and find out what law schools really think. These seemingly inscrutable actors have tremendous pull on the overall direction of the legal profession, but, hidden behind a veil of bureaucracy and academia, observers are often left to reverse engineer their motivations and opinions. But no more, finally they speak.
Well, sort of. Kaplan Test Prep conducted a survey of law school admissions officers, and participation was high:
For the 2016 survey, 111 of the 205 American Bar Association-accredited law schools were polled by telephone between August and September 2016. Included among the 111 are 12 of the top 25 law schools, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.
So, what exactly did they say? Here’s the big one: 65 percent of schools surveyed agree it “would be a good idea if at least a few law schools closed.” I suppose none of the schools that answered in the affirmative think their institution should be the one that is shuttered. At a time when law schools are said to be in the midst of a “brain drain” with high quality potential applicants eschewing the law school life, this provides some valuable insight. It seems most schools recognize just because a student has the ability to take on educational loans for law school doesn’t mean they should be going to law school. Churning out graduates for the sake of the churn doesn’t benefit the profession.
Despite this welcomed bit of realism, another data point suggests that even though they recognize more law students for the sake of law students isn’t always a good thing, getting schools to do something about it is more challenging.
24 percent of law schools cut the number of seats for their 2016 class of first-year students, lower than the 35 percent who reported doing so for the 2015 class of 1Ls and and the 54 percent who did for the 2014 class.” [Emphasis mine]
For $ome rea$on, the law school pigs want other commodes to close their doors. They want to remain in operation so that they can continue to financially ruin LEGIONS of law students each year. How admirable, huh?!?! If the bitches and hags had a single shred of integrity, then they would insist of thinning the herd, at the beginning of the process – and not after the individual simpletons graduate with $165K in additional, NON-DISCHARGEABLE debt.
Conclusion: Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that there are many damn law schools in this country. As a corollary, the job market for lawyers is GLUTTED. Yet, the federal government continues to annually issue billions of dollars in student loan money to these stench pits. If you are still considering this route at this point in time, then you are a lost cause. Hell, you are the type of person who needs to read the side of a paint can, so that you do not drink the contents. Also, if someone encourages you to go to law school, ask them where they earned their JD and the year in which they graduated. Then ask them if they practice law. If they do so, follow up with how much they make and then inquire about their debt load. I have seen a few Boomers without law degrees push younger people towards this path. By the way, a $48K salary is not impressive, if the person has accumulated large amounts of student loans.