Update from the road

Some brief things I've heard from week 1 of travel that might be of interest to applicants.

  1. Another WL wave is likely coming soon. That said, the general consensus is that this will be a slow summer as far as WL movement. Most schools feel "content" (precise word I keep hearing) with where they are right now.

  2. The ABA ditching 503 might not be as much of a slam dunk as I (and my collegue Dave Killoran at PowerScore) have thought (see our blog on the topic). Apparently both a dean I had dinner with who has been working closely with the ABA as well as some scuttlebut from the admissions conference tends to believe that the ABA House of Delegates are more likely to amend Section 503 (on standardized tests) and send that back to the council, rather than letting it be deleted altogether in favor of a hyped up Standard 501 regarding sound admissions practices. Indeed the history of the LSAT is that law schools asked for it, so the ABA is a bit miffed about now nixing it for law schools.

  3. Schools in general think next cycle will be up (but that's nothing new from my perspective of doing this 20 years now). I still think mostly flat (see our prediction blog). I would bet a great deal of money that it will be way up early but then calm down dramatically. Reapplicants who apply early should have a boost versus this past cycle is still my strong guess.

  4. Schools are being more creative. They are certainly listening more than ever about different ways to connect woth prospective students. That might mean we get a school to host a bunch of law school advice videos/podcasts for everyone. I've been planting that seed some. We'll see...