Aaron Taylor

Attending law school has always been about the value proposition. For decades, the value of the J.D. was assumed to be high. And there was clear evidence supporting that assumption. But while the J.D. can still reap a lucrative payoff, the risks of the law school investment are much higher than in the past. Moreover, the trappings of the payoff are not as clear as they once were. These trends render the law school investment particularly speculative for prospective students who score highly on the LSAT. They are likely to have other options.

The LSAT score, to the extent that it correlates with undergraduate grades, performance on other admission tests, and on socioeconomic affluence, is a proxy for other educational and professional options. Individuals with the highest scores may be weighing legal education against other postgraduate programs or a lucrative job offer. For those individuals, law school may not appear to be a great investment a perception that could very well be accurate, given their options. Thus, increasing the enrollment of students with the highest LSAT scores will require a conspicuous increase in the value proposition of legal education. Or a comparable decline in the payoff of other options.

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