Even higher-ranked law schools compete for transfer students, school officials say
As law school enrollment declines nationwide, competition for transfer students is growing.
Transfer students can benefit law schools, which increase revenues by accepting students whose LSAT scores don’t impact rankings by U.S. News & World Report. And transfer students benefit when they “trade up” to a higher-ranked school after spending an initial year at a school that may be less expensive. The Maryland Daily Record (sub. req.) has a story on the impact on Maryland law schools; the information is recounted in a story by the Associated Press.
Donald Tobin, dean of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, said he’s seeing more and more competition for students in legal education. “As law schools shrink, some law schools are working harder to make their enrollments larger by taking transfer students, and so there’s been more of a move to try to entice students away,” he told the Daily Record.
Jeff Zavrotny, assistant dean for law admissions at the University of Baltimore School of Law, told the publication that even higher-ranked schools are competing for transfer students.
“I’m seeing more people who in the past would not have been admitted to other schools as transfers and are now getting admitted to those schools,” he said. “That would decrease our transfer numbers.”
At the University of Maryland law school (No. 46 in the rankings), 29 students transferred in for the 2012-13 school year, while 21 transferred out. At the University of Baltimore law school (No. 135 in the rankings), five students transferred in that academic year and 36 transferred out.
