Northwestern University School of Law is set to reduce its class size by 10 percent due to declining applications and a shrinking job market.
As a result, every class beginning this fall will have around 20 to 25 students less in attendance. The university enrolled 259 students last year.
Daniel Rodriguez, the school's dean said that they wanted to decrease the number of graduates entering the legal profession as the current legal market was not in a good shape.
Rodriguez told City Town Info that the reason they decided to lessen the class strength was due to fewer job opportunities for graduates (hiring freeze and outsourcing jobs at law firms). A decline in law school applicants and loan debt burdens on law school graduates were some other considerations.
The university's decision to cut the class size reflects the true prospects and demands for young lawyers currently. Earlier, they never struggled to find jobs in well-paying law-firms for their graduate students.
Overall, law schools received 20 percent fewer applications and witnessed around 38 percent decline in applications since 2010.
Bill Henderson, a law professor at Indiana University, told the Wall Street Journal that the university's decision to shrink its classes was to avoid slipping down the law-school rankings.
"The worry is that if you try to fully subscribe your class, your median admissions statistics will drop and you'll plummet in the rankings," Henderson said. "And then it'll be even harder to attract students."
Apart from the Northwestern University, George Washington University, University of California and Creighton University have also proposed similar cuts.
The Northwestern University also hiked tuition by 3 percent, similar to last year, which was its smallest tuition increase in more than 40 years. It also increased both need and merit-based financial aid for students by 25 percent for the next two years.
Currently, the tuition is $53,168.
The officials plan to obtain funds for financial aid through budget cuts, fund-raising efforts and from the university's unique two-year degree option, which currently enrolls about 30 students.
