Since the Great Recession, law firms have shed thousands of attorneys. The latest data from the National Association for Law Placement showed that 86.7 percent of 2015 law school grads had secured jobs 10 months after graduation, the same as the class of 2014, which represented an uptick after six years of declines. But only slightly more than half of 2015 hires were in private practice, and just two-thirds of graduates found positions that required passage of a bar exam.
But this may be a good time to apply to law school. As the employment picture darkened, law school applications dropped sharply; they now seem to be stabilizing at about 40 percent below where they were a decade ago, according to the Law School Admission Council. Even many extremely competitive top schools have seen fewer applicants and have accepted more of them in recent years, according to U.S. News data.
By carefully weighing your job prospects, looking closely at academic and experiential offerings, and coming up with a savvy payment — and loan repayment — strategy, you greatly increase the odds of finding the right path for you.
[Ask these 10 questions before applying to law school.]
Consider job prospects: Prospective students have more information than ever before to help them get a sense of how particular law schools will affect their prospects.
For starters, they can dig into the detailed reports that the American Bar Association now requires of schools . There, they can find a wide range of data about recent grads, such as how many are still unemployed, are in jobs that require a J.D., are in temporary or long-term positions, are working at private firms of different sizes, in clerkships or in government, or have taken positions funded by the law school.
Keep in mind, too, that location can make a big difference in terms of opportunities. At more than 80 percent of schools, at least half of 2015 grads who found positions landed in the state where they got their J.D.
By attending a school where you want to practice, you get “three years to be building relationships with the local bar, establishing community roots and that type of thing,” says David Montoya, assistant dean for career services at the University of Texas–Austin School of Law.
[Consider how a law school’s location can affect employment prospects.]
These days, your eventual employability — and your attractiveness as a law school applicant, too — may be boosted by work experience after college, which indicates an extra level of maturity and skills. At the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor and New York University, for instance, more than 70 percent of the most recent entering classes had one or more years of experience.
Choose a program: As new hires, “the faster people can get up to speed, the better,” says Jane Aiken, associate dean for experiential education and vice dean at Georgetown University Law Center. Georgetown Law and many other schools have greatly expanded their real-world experiential learning opportunities, even during the first year, and are also giving students more chances to practice in mock legal disputes.
At Georgetown, first-year students can take one-week courses that have them simulating negotiations, client counseling, legal document drafting and resolving conflicts. Yale Law School allows 1Ls in their second semester to enroll in one of about two-dozen legal clinics that entail work for actual clients — homeowners in foreclosure disputes, for example, or Connecticut veterans with legal needs.
[Explore how to choose a law school based on teaching style.]
At the University of California–Irvine, the University of Denver, Lewis & Clark and the University of Maryland, incoming students can connect with practicing attorneys who serve as academic and professional mentors.
A number of schools, including the University of Dayton, the University of Kansas, Pepperdine University and Brooklyn Law School, offer accelerated degree options. Students take courses in the summers and earn their degree in two years for the same tuition and credit requirements.
Save money: Applicants can find detailed data on how many students receive scholarships and what the typical amounts are by examining a school’s standard 509 report . These reports also include stats on an institution’s J.D. attrition, bar passage rates and diversity. Such information can be a useful tool in negotiating a financial aid package.
Attending a public law school, of course, can be a cost-effective move for in-state students. Tuition at the University of Iowa‘s law school, for example, runs about $23,700 for Iowans compared to the $45,500 average at private schools .
Though attending a part-time law school program typically costs about the same overall as going full time, students can lower their annual costs by spreading them over four years; by working, they can reduce their overall debt load.
The average indebtedness of 2015 graduates who had to borrow — as the vast majority of law students do — was about $92,700 for public school grads and $127,700 for those who chose private institutions, according to U.S. News data.
With federal loans, graduates in lower-paying jobs can adjust monthly payments to a percentage of their income and increase the terms of repayment from 10 to 25 years, while those working in certain public interest or government positions can have their remaining loan balances forgiven after 10 years of steady payments.
Students considering such programs should carefully research all the terms and verify whether a particular employer qualifies. You can make sure of that by completing an employer certification form from the Department of Education, which encourages borrowers to resubmit annually and whenever they change jobs. Roughly half of the states and more than 100 law schools have also established their own loan repayment assistance programs for grads in qualifying jobs.
Financial experts strongly advise borrowing only as much as you truly will need; limiting yourself to $20,000 instead of $25,000 in PLUS loans, say, would mean monthly bills of about $225 instead of $280 over the standard 10 years. That kind of strategizing upfront will feel really savvy when your payments come due.
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Graduate Schools 2018” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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Learn Whether Now Is the Time to Apply to Law School originally appeared on usnews.com
