<p>@HappyAlumnus: You’re absolutely right that for the past two years, USNWR has taken employment 9months out into account when calculating rankings. It is possible that schools will in the future respond to this by preferencing work experience, however I think this unlikely. As it stands, I haven’t seen any evidence that schools are following the change in methodology with a change in recruiting standards. However, as I mentioned earlier it remains possible that schools could use work experience as a tie breaker.</p>
<p>I think schools are unlikely to change acceptance standards to take work experience into account for two main reasons. First, LSAT/GPA are controllable inputs and job placement a relatively uncontrollable output. Second, the significant decrease in applications. </p>
<p>As to the first, admissions wants to score points where they can. They can control what GPA/LSAT combos are admitted and thereby pick up points on the front end. Employment is a concern 3 years out. The best employers are also far more selective by grades than they are work experience, outside a few outliers (e.g., several years experience in a targeted industry). Since employers care more for grades than work experience, and since a job is a job for rankings purposes, the marginal advantage provided by the year or two most law students have as work experience won’t tip the job scales enough to be worth considering over LSAT/GPA. Plus, job placement has a lot to do with how many jobs are available, something totally outside the control of admissions. There’s no point spending GPA/LSAT points betting on how the economy will be 3 years out. </p>
<p>As to the second, the decrease in applicants puts most schools in a very tough position. Several have all but created open-door policies. They are certainly not going to start restricting their applicant pool further by demanding work experience. Even at the top, the number of top LSAT scores has fallen dramatically. That means the top schools, who used to be able to be choosy enough to risk preferencing something like work experience, now are less able. They suffer less in bad economies since the T14 brand carries a lot of weight with employers, but they are unlikely to start sacrificing LSAT/GPA now for the mere potential to win points back in a few years. </p>
<p>I think a lot of the move toward work experience among applicants is as a result of the economy and the press law schools have been getting. Expensive schools force people to save, which necessitate work. Plus, there are an awful lot of people (including me) telling prospective applicants to go get work experience before they apply to law school. </p>