The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
Applying to law school isn’t an easy process, and lately, fewer and fewer people want to do it. In 2010, there were 73,118 applicants to U.S. schools accredited by the American Bar Association, but that number dipped to 53,306 by 2014, according to the Law School Admission Council.
Many schools saw applications decline as it became harder for new law graduates to find jobs and manage student loan debt. Some schools, however, still receive a large number of full-time applications, despite the trend.
[Understand how much law school costs and J.D. graduates make.]
Georgetown University had 7,748 applications to its full-time J.D. program for fall 2015, more than any other school among the 195 ranked law schools that submitted data to U.S. News in an annual survey. But the District of Columbia school’s total was down slightly from fall 2014, when it also racked up the most full-time applications among law schools: 7,793.
Washington University in St. Louis wasn’t on the fall 2014 list, but its 4,613 full-time applications were enough to earn it a spot among the 10 law schools with the most applications for fall 2015. The other schools that made the list saw their totals drop — some by more than 700 applications — from fall 2014, except George Washington University, which saw an increase of more than 600 applications.
The average number of applications among the top 10 schools was 5,544. Among all 195 schools, it was 1,650.
[Avoid these mistakes that can keep you out of law school.]
The 10 universities with the most applications were all ranked at No. 25 or higher in the 2017 Best Law School rankings.
Below is a list of the 10 schools with the most applications from prospective full-time students for fall 2015. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School name (state) | Full-time applications (fall 2015) | U.S. News rank |
|---|---|---|
| Georgetown University (DC) | 7,748 | 14 |
| George Washington University (DC) | 6,160 | 25 (tie) |
| Columbia University (NY) | 5,716 | 4 (tie) |
| New York University | 5,714 | 6 |
| University of California–Los Angeles | 5,254 | 17 |
| Harvard University (MA) | 5,206 | 2 (tie) |
| University of California–Berkeley | 5,136 | 8 (tie) |
| University of Pennsylvania | 5,069 | 7 |
| Duke University (NC) | 4,819 | 11 |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 4,613 | 18 |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Law School Compass to find applicant data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 205 schools for our 2015 survey of law programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Law Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The applicant data above are correct as of March 31, 2016.
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10 Law Schools With the Most Full-Time Applications originally appeared on usnews.com
