HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Dumpster Diving Into the ABA’s 509 Information Reports (Statistics + Graphs).

Holy precipitous decline Batman! Just look at all that red. I had to make this chart gigantic to fit the huge declines the schools have been facing. Again, it’s much, much worse at the bottom ranked schools, but a few things stand out.

Virginia and Michigan, the #9 and #10 ranked schools respectively, both have had double-digit percentage decline in matriculants. Is that just tightening the belt a bit or a sign of things to come?
The bottom ranked schools, with the exception of Chapman, are having a bloodletting. New York Law School has had nearly a 50% decline in matriculants since 2011. That can’t be sustainable.
This isn’t even taking into account all the “unranked” schools listed by US News & World Reports.

All in all, it looks like the general malaise affecting law schools is going to continue.

Ouch. It’s getting less and less fun to say I told you so.