After Northwestern University, Loyola University Chicago law school is the second University in the city to cut down its enrollments by 10 percent due to fewer job opportunities.
The university will offer admission to only 225 full-time students, this fall. However, the university is not planning on shrinking its part-time program, which comprises of 40 students.
David Yellen, Loyola's law school dean, told Chicago Business, "Everybody saw it as a necessity given the decline in applications in recent years. We're doing it to be very selective and make sure our students find the right (jobs)."
The university's decision is set to affect its law school revenues.
The officials are planning to compensate the loss by hiking the tuition by 2.5 percent and not recruiting for available positions.
Over the past few years, law students have expressed their disappointment in paying around $150,000 tuition for three years and struggling to find decent jobs in good legal firms after their graduation.
On the other hand, other Chicago universities such as DePaul University, University of Chicago and John Marshall Law School are not implementing similar initiatives.
Two weeks back, Northwestern University School of Law announced plans to reduce its class size by 10 percent or 20 to 25 students less due to declining applications and a shrinking job market.
Daniel Rodriguez, the school's dean, said that the reason they decided to decrease the class capacity was because of fewer job opportunities for graduates (hiring freeze and outsourcing jobs at law firms), decline in law school applicants and loan debt burdens on graduates.
Until now, the university did not face any employment issues for their graduates.
The enrollments at law schools across the country have noticed a 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.
Apart from Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago law school, George Washington University, University of California and Creighton University have also decided to lessen their class strengths.
