This year, graduate schools – law schools in particular – across the country received the most applications since 1991. Syracuse University is no different.

Along with the increased number of applications to the College of Law, SU also saw many more applicants accepting admission, resulting in overcrowding. There were 2,533 applicants to the College of Law this year, compared to just 1,910 last year, said Hannah Arterian, dean of the College of Law. Forty-seven percent of the applicants accepted admission this year; only 37 percent accepted last year. Normally, the law school expects about 270 incoming students every year, but this year the class size is 334, Arterian said.

The increased application pool raised the bar for acceptance; Arterian said the bottom quartile of incoming students needed two points higher on the LSATs than last year.

‘We gave the faculty a heads-up this summer,’ Arterian said. ‘Normally there is a meltdown in the number of people who accept admission, but not this year.’

There are many problems that come along with increased enrollment. Faculty are spread thinly with more students to advise and mentor, Arterian said. In order to help ease the overcrowding, the school hired an extra professor to teach two sections of the required writing class for all first-year students. Lack of classroom space is also an issue.

‘The faculty has been phenomenal. The students and faculty have had a tremendously positive attitude,’ Arterian said.

The increase in graduate school applications may be due to the sagging economy, said Justin Serrano, executive director for Kaplan Test Preparations.

‘With the weakened economy, more people are going to graduate school instead of trying to find a job in a tight market,’ Serrano said. ‘If people were considering law school, they now would move their plans up.’

Because the LSATs are the only prerequisite for aspiring law students, law school applications have gone up more than applications for other programs. Other graduate degree programs are also seeing increased applications, but at a slower rate because of their requirements.

The increased competition of a large applicant pool allows schools to be much more selective and set higher standards, Serrano said. Both Serrano and Arterian agreed that having a graduate degree cannot hurt anyone.

‘It’s already happening, but going forward having a graduate degree will be the new standard,’ Serrano said. ‘To be competitive, a masters or law degree will be much more helpful.’

Arterian said it could help to have a law degree in many jobs, even if the degree-holder didn’t practice law.

‘Lawyers are able to take complex systems and organize and analyze them,’ Arterian said.

Some current law students applied to school without thinking about the job market. Frank Savinon, a first-year law student, said law school has been his plan his whole life.

‘I would have ended up here anyway; the job market didn’t matter to me right now,’ Savinon said.

For now, no one is quite sure if the applications for graduate school will be any lower next year. No matter what happens, the College of Law is prepared.

‘We will be employing special strategies to try and gauge it,’ Arterian said. ‘The admissions office is terrific and very careful. This is just part of the fun for them.’

Published on September 17, 2003 at 12:00 pm