Over the past year, the University's Law School has followed a national trend of decreased application rates, according to Law School Dean John C. Jeffries Jr.
Despite this academic year's downward trend, the overall pattern in application rates during the past few years has been one of dramatic growth, according to Marshall E. Tracht, vice dean at Hofstra University School of Law.
Jeffries attributed this year's drop in applicant numbers to economic factors.
"The national economy has something to do with it," Jeffries said. "Law school applicants tend to ease off when the economy is better."
Representatives of other law schools with declining application rates also said that the economy is an important contributor to the recent decline.
"When people feel like the economy is not doing so well, there is a tendency to go back to school and get an advanced degree," said James Calvi, chairman of the Prelaw Advisors National Council and West Texas A&M University professor.
Jeffries added that when the economy is weak, law school graduates can receive high paying jobs more easily, citing the low applicant numbers during the dot-com boom in 1998 and 1999.
Catherine Gillespie, a pre-law advisor at the University, said she is not concerned about the recent decline. Over the past four or five years application numbers have been very high, so "a decline has been moving back to the norm," she said.
Gillespie attributed the decline in application numbers to graduates' confidence upon entering the workforce.
"The average age of law students is 26, and more and more people are aware of that," Gillespie said.
Since pre-law undergraduate students understand that there is no rush to attend law school, they are more eager to take a few years off and "get some experience under their belt," she said.
Jeffries also said he is not worried about the decline because while the number of applicants has decreased, "there was not a decline in the number of top-par applicants."
Jeffries added that about 1,100 students are currently enrolled in the University's Law School.
The reputation of the University will help it continue to attract many potential applicants, Jeffries said.
"A law school that is very selective like Virginia can generate more applications easily," he said.
Jeffries added that the University's Law School does not "affirmatively try to jet up a large number of applicants," so the applications that the law school does receive are from the "top of the pool."
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