The statistics from the Law School Admissions Council show that during the 2017-2018 application year, 63 Towson students applied to a variety of law schools. Most of the schools are on the east coast, but a few are in the West.
While the range of graduation years run from 1992 to 2017, most students graduated from Towson in 2016 or 2017. Of the 63 applicants, 40 were admitted to one or more law schools, which is an approximate 64 percent acceptance rate. Applying to law school is often a self-initiated affair. There were clearly some who ought not to have taken the time, energy, and money to go through the application process, considering that it included fees for LSAC to take the LSAT and to join the credential referral service, fees for applications, and of course the heartache and headache of preparing for and taking the test.
The 40 students were admitted to a total of 108 law schools. All 40 of those admitted to at least one school chose to attend a law school in the fall of 2017. These included the two local law schools in the State of Maryland as well as some quite prestigious ones, including William and Mary, George Washington, American, Rutgers, Washington University, Hofstra, University of Denver, University of Georgia, Ohio State, and Florida State.
The fact that the most popular schools chosen by students is unremarkable: students matriculated in the University of Baltimore School of Law, which saw the most admissions of all, some 24 students. Thus, 60 percent of those who applied to law school were admitted to UB Law. Of these 17 chose to attend.
The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law came in second with acceptances of 13 students, or about 33 percent of those who were accepted at least one school. Five of these students chose Maryland Law.
Thus, 37 of the 40 applicants who were admitted to at least one law school chose to attend either UB or Maryland.
Most other students chose to stay in the area. For example, nine students will attend law school in Washington, D.C. These include George Washington, AU, Catholic, Howard, and UDC. No applicants were admitted to Georgetown this year.
New York and New England also grabbed the interest of some of our applicants. Law schools in New York accepted 17 students and Massachusetts six. New Jersey and Delaware had three admissions, and Pennsylvania four.
The rest were scattered over a wide range of territory and schools: some examples include Louisiana, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Florida (5 admits), South Carolina, West Virginia, Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Washington (State), Tennessee, and California (3 students).
Many of those who were not admitted at all had no business in applying in the first place. Their GPAs or LSAT scores (or both) were woefully below a minimum that law school admissions committees are looking for. No law school would, for example, accept students applying with a 2.5 GPA or 131 LSAT score.
Overall, our students performed well in choosing their schools and making the case why they should make excellent contributions to the legal profession.
By Jack Fruchtman, Prelaw Advisor