Five Charts That Show You Should Apply to Law School This Year

The last few years have been an unmitigated disaster for American law schools, which is excellent news for anyone with even the vaguest interest in getting a legal education. Sure, the job market for new lawyers hasn't exactly been peachy. Yes, the U.S. has too many law schools, given how uninterested Americans are in law school. And whether it's the fault of the students or the test, people have been failing the bar exam surprisingly often. It is still a perfect time to apply to law school, and here are five charts that prove it.

Fewer people are applying to law school than at any point in the past decade and a half. Enrollments are down, too, but aren't declining as fast. The convergence of blue and pink in the chart above is the closest we've ever gotten to watching law schools confront their darkest hour. Law deans have kept class sizes stable, despite tanking applications, for one obvious reason: they need the money. Tuition generally accounts for about half of a law school's budget, according to a 2011 report by Hanover Research, which also noted that it would be cuckoo to raise the price of a degree when people already have doubts about what these schools are selling. The best a dean can do is try to keep a healthy headcount, which means it's a good time to make yourself a part of an increasingly scarce supply of heads.