More Law Schools are Cutting Tuition

Drop in Applicants to Law School Generating Another Kind of Equilibrium

In December 2013,  I reported on the law schools cutting tuition, especially in highly competitive markets, like Pennsylvania.   

Another blogger has updated the list and suggested law schools use Groupon to offer tuition discounts.  

As I noted in my earlier posting, ASL has been and continues to be one of the most affordable private law schools east of the Mississippi River.  And, we held tuition stable this last year.  With scholarships, ASL can be as good a value as adjacent state-sponsored law schools, like University of Kentucky.

Yes, unmitigated plug. 

Feb. 11, 2014 Update:  More law schools drop tuition. 
  
Feb. 27, 2014 Update: Tulsa, on scholarships and tuition.

Tuition "Price War" Among Law Schools in Highly Competitive Markets

Tuition Costs & 

Scholarship Retention

Over the past several months, I have tried to track changes in the cost of law school.

Before providing some additional information, I want to highlight that ASL is one of the most affordable private law schools east of the Mississippi River.  And, we froze tuition costs for the coming year.  

Not only that, but our historical scholarship retention rate has been one of the highest across the nation -- above 90 percent. Thus, unlike several of the law schools who also serve our Appalachian region, ASL does not engage in a "bait-and-switch" scholarship strategy.  Once we invite you into our community, we want you to stay.  We do not want you worrying unnecessarily about whether you will retain a scholarship.

So, here is some tuition cost information for the highly competitive Pennsylvania market.

Dec. 15, 2013 Update:  Thirty law schools have cut tuition costs over the last three years.  For story, look here.  Most of them are not in ASL's service market.   No Florida school made the list.

Dec. 17, 2013 Update:  More on the Pennsylvania law school market here.

Jan. 1, 2014 Update:  For a list of law schools that have cut tuition, see this National Law Journal 2013-year-in-review summary:

2. TUITION REDUCTIONS 

The idea of lowering law school tuition would have been laughable just a few years ago. After all, average in-state tuition at public law schools remorselessly increased by 115 percent during the past decade and average private school tuition by 59 percent to $40,634, yet schools had more than enough applicants to fill their seats. 

But increased competition for a dwindling market in students prompted a number of law schools to slash their sticker price this year. The University of Akron School of Law; the University of Arizona James E. Rogers School of Law; the University of Cincinnati College of Law; Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law; and Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law all announced some form of tuition cuts this year.

Jan. 26, 2014 Update:  For a more current list of the law schools cutting tuition, see here, along with an idea to use Groupon to offer tuition discounts.   

"Toxic" Press Environment for Law Schools?

"Toxic" Press Environment 

for Law Schools?

At the October 2013 conference of the Midwest Association of Prelaw Advisors, Washington University School of Law Dean, Kent Syverud, gave a speech on the Future of Legal Education.  I have discussed different aspects of the speech in several postings.

At one point, he identified the current press environment surrounding law schools as "toxic."  I recently had my own experience with this press environment.

Yesterday, Brian Leiter discussed this toxic environment in his own blog, which I highly recommend.

A Complex Set of Factors

This week-end, I finished reading Brian Tamanaha's 2012 book, Failing Law Schools. I found his discussion of the ABA regulatory environment of law schools especially interesting.  While it created high quality law schools, it also drove up the price of a legal education by requiring additional "inputs," including higher salaries for faculty members; more time for faculty members to produce scholarship; more faculty members to reduce student-faculty ratios; shiny new buildings; advanced technology; and bigger library holdings.

A mission-driven school, like ASL, even if it wanted to pursue a low-cost strategy, had to comply with the ABA requirements if it wanted to obtain and keep accreditation.

I also liked Tamanaha's discussion of the role of the U.S. News and World Report rankings in escalating tuition costs. Law schools competed on services rather than price to ensure a higher position in the ranking. (ASL, as an unranked, 4th-tier access school, has been indirectly affected by the ranking system, but that story is too long to tell here.)

Falling Tuition Costs

The good news is that the cost of law school is coming down.  Several schools have cut tuition costs, including New York Law School, Seton Hall Law School, and University of Arizona College of Law.  Other schools are freezing tuition, including the Appalachian School of Law, the University of St. Thomas School of Law, the University of Massachusetts School of Law, and Ave Maria Law School.

Most law schools are offering scholarships to applicants with higher LSAT scores, thus substantially reducing the sticker price of law school.  Many schools, including ASL, offer 100 percent tuition scholarships to especially attractive students.  For some students, it has never been a better time to get an affordable legal education.

Tamanaha's book also discusses the risk of student debt, which all applicants to law school should read.

I will continue to do my best to sort through the data on the New Normal.  If that means I also personally deal with the "toxic" environment created by a few scambloggers, so be it.

And, I will continue to be proud of ASL, its faculty, staff, students, and graduates.  I know what we are doing here.   I know how dedicated we are to helping people.

Dec. 8, 2013 update:  The University of Iowa School of Law announced a tuition reduction.  For stories about it, see here, here, and here.

Dec. 14, 2013 Update:  More on the "price war" among some law schools in highly competitive markets.

Dec. 31, 2013 Update:  Even Above the Law (or at least its readers) seems to be tired of the law school "crisis" storyline.  Perhaps, having declared "victory," even he will reduce the toxic environment surrounding law schools and the decision to become a lawyer.

Debate Continues About the Value of a Law Degree

As you know, I have followed the debate between the authors of the report -- The Economic Value of a Law Degree -- and the author of a book -- Failing Law Schools (FLS).

I thought we were about done with the back and forth, but now it seems the author of FLS, the Law Professor at Washington University School of Law, Brian Tamanaha, has gotten help from a member of his faculty.  The story appears here.

Tamanaha has targeted a group of expensive ($40,000+/per year), mostly California law schools, that also have low employment stats when you look only at the category of  full-time jobs requiring bar passage.  I've discussed how to understand the reported employment numbers here.

In the end, I agree that prospective students should carefully consider the decision to go to law school.  They should carefully adopt a strategy that gets them the best education possible at a reasonable cost.  I discuss one possible strategy here.  And yes, they should consider whether they want jobs in BigLaw (assuming they exist) -- which associates rank as soul-sucking experiences. And yes, law school is no longer a cheap default option if you don't know what else you want to do with your life.

So here are my disclosures:  I have not read FLS yet (although I bought it months ago).  I teach at a mission-driven fourth-tier law school.  After teaching for 12 years, I still do not make what I made the year I left private practice.  I also serve on our school's Admissions Committee.

I started my career working in BigLaw.  I did not find the work soul-sucking.  Yes, I worked mostly on document productions and due diligence projects.  I loved my associate and para-legal colleagues. They were funny, smart, mischievous, talented, diligent, and dedicated.  They opened a world to me that I did not know existed.  I came away from the experience absolutely fearless.  I became a much better attorney than the folks who did not have that experience (at least that's my perspective).

Because of my BigLaw experience, I am a better writer, can produce highly professional-looking work product, have deep research skills, became an early-adopter of law firm marketing practices, take all-nighters in stride (because this, too, will pass), and made life-long friends.

A career in BigLaw is not for everyone.  My best friend stayed, later managed a D.C. firm, and now manages a practice group.  She has the temperament for it and makes a shit-load of money because of that.

A law degree offers so many ways to find a satisfying career path -- in and outside a traditional legal practice.  I've been bloggging on this topic all summer, first looking at careers as a solo practitioner, then considering the opportunities that could arise as Baby Boomer lawyers increasingly retire, then summarizing employment trends for new grads, then considering jobs outside traditional law firm practice, and then summarizing employment trends over the last 25 years.

I believe deeply in informed decision-making.  I just hope that all the negative talk about law school, educational debt, and BigLaw practice does not continue to distort (as I see it) the decision-making process for college graduates.  I am glad to see additional perspectives coming into the discussion, whether I agree with them or not.

Dec. 26, 2013 Update:  For more about the value of a law degree, see here.

February 23, 2014 Update:  For an update based on 2013 data, see here.

"Jane, You Ignorant Slut": Law Professors Debate Economic Value of a Law Degree

Michael Simkovic, one of the authors of the new report --The Economic Value of a Law Degree, is debating the author, Brian Tamanaha, of the 2012 book -- Failing Law Schools.  The debate began earlier this week and appears at Brian Leiter's Law School Reports.  It should be an interesting exchange that will go on for a while.

Both authors are law school academics. Simkovic serves as an Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall University School of Law.  Brian Tamanaha, serves as the Dean of Washington University School of Law (my alma mater).

I summarized Simikovic's paper here.  Tamanaha's book is available here (yes, I am encouraging you to use Barnes & Noble, and not Amazon).

One of the factors affecting both authors' projections is the cost of law school tuition. Given the drop off in applicants to law school -- from about 100,000 in 2004 to about 50,000 this past recruiting season -- lower-tiered law schools have substantially reduced the sticker price of tuition.  Some schools are offering top students 100 percent merit scholarships, plus moving or book expenses!

Despite what all the spambloggers are saying, for the class of 2011, only 3,990 (or 9.6 percent) graduates were unemployed and seeking work.  Another 1,044 (2.5 percent) of graduates were unemployed, but not seeking work. 41,623 grads reported their employment status that year.

Preliminary data for 2012 grads shows a .07 percent increase in unemployment, partly or mostly because the class had more graduates in it.  But, the data disclosed so far does not split out the numbers for seeking or non-seeking grads.  And, as I reported earlier, the prospects for 2012 graduates showed an improving trend.

Yes, you might be under-employed directly out of law school for some period of time. But, that is just the next step on your career path, not the determining one.  In addition, other research suggests job prospects improve after the 9-month NALP reporting deadline, especially when the recessionary economy may make employers slower or more cautious in hiring.

Tomorrow: Would I recommend a law school education to new college graduates?

December 26, 2013 Update:  For more about the value of a law degree, see here.