LSAC Data and Predicting Number of Applicants for Fall 2014, part 16

The LSAC reports that "As of 5/09/14, there are 337,978 Fall 2014 applications submitted by 49,907 applicants. Applicants are down 8.3% and applications are down 8.9% from 2013.  Last year at this time, we had 92% of the preliminary final applicant count.  Last year at this time, we had 96% of the preliminary final application count."  If this year's applicants follow last year's pattern, we'll have approximately 54246 total applicants for the class entering in fall 2014.  Dan Filler has some historical data on the first year enrollment from 1964 to 2012 here.  I link to some more comprehensive data (going back to the 1940s) here. 

My last post in this series is here.

Comments

[Anon123]

hmm, applicants are at same percentage as last week, but applications have made up some headway? That to me is even more scary. More applications per person may mean applicants will play financial aid offers against each other.

[terry malloy]

Why is playing financial aid offers against one another a bad thing?

In finance, taking what is offered without negotiating is called "leaving money on the table."

I'm sure that the students deserve the financial aid more than the schools deserve the additional revenue.

[Former Editor]

I think Anon123 is coming at it from the perspective of law schools who are already having a difficult time with enrollment and, as a consequence, having enough of an operating budget.

[Anon123]

I did not mean that playing financial aid offers against each others is a bad thing for students, I meant acary in terms of some law schools' finances. Very sorry I was not clear. What I was trying to say was a number of things. 1. My perception is that last year, some students responded to solicitations from one law school, and now they may realize that others will be looking for students. 2. It is not only the drop in number of students that will be hurting some schools, but also the drop in the number of "full-pay" students (counting loans as full pay).