As more and more lawyers are embracing social media, so are the law schools. This month, the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) and Association of American Law Schools announced a joint effort to create a social media campaign to attract more qualified law school applicants much sooner in their academic careers.
The Association of American Law Schools is currently conducting a study on how and when college students make the decision to continue their education – specifically looking into a student’s decision to either attend or not attend law school. According to the Association of American Law Schools, the results are already showing more and more students making plans or at least greatly considering the idea of attending law school as early as high school.
Therefore, over the next six months, the two legal organizations plan to push out promotional content for a social media campaign that gives future applicants an inside look into what goes on at law school campuses across the country. They also plan to promote what law school graduates can do with their law degrees and what the law school application process entails.
Determined to negate the negative connotations tied to attending law school, both the LSAC and the Association of American Law Schools also plan to address job scarcity and the overwhelming cost of a J.D in their social media campaign.
Law schools across the country are likely to be supportive of the promotional campaign. Enrollment numbers dropped 30% from 2010 to 2016, and haven’t quite bounced back to their peak.
News of the social media campaign also comes after a trend in legal education erupted in 2017. Law schools across the country began accepting the GRE as an alternative to the LSAT, the examination put out by the LSAC each year. Currently, 14 schools across the country have jumped on the GRE bandwagon, with more likely to consider it in 2018.
This also isn’t the first time that the LSAC has recently made efforts to rebrand the LSAT. Last spring, the organization announced its plans to offer the admissions test on tablet devices.
Regardless of the motive, it’s clear the two organizations, just like lawyers, need to get creative to stay competitive in the higher education marketplace.