COLUMBUS, Ohio — Enrollment is down at Ohio’s five public law schools, and the number of applications has declined even more.
As students consider their chances of getting hired and debate whether the cost of law school is worth it, the decreased enrollment in Ohio has led to some of the smallest classes in the past decade, The Columbus Dispatch reported
About 45,000 students graduate from U.S. law schools each year, but experts say there are only about half that many positions available for new hires. A typical graduate last year had loans totaling more than $100,000, but the average median salary for the previous year’s class was only about $76,000.
“The lawyer bubble has burst,” said Craig Boise, dean of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University.
Combined enrollment at Ohio’s five public law schools at the University of Toledo, Cleveland State University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Akron and Ohio State University was 674 this year, down from 950 in 2009-2010. The number of applications dropped nearly 40 percent in that span, from about 8,500 to just fewer than 5,200 this fall.
Nationwide, applications dropped 18 percent this year to the lowest level in three decades.
