Schools are getting desperate. Penn State University, for instance saw a 17.5 percent drop in enrollment this last year, which is even harsher than the average 12 percent drop. What to do? To answer the situation, Penn Sate University announced on Tuesday that it would cut its in-state students enrollment at their Dickinson School of Law by nearly 50 percent, as reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
It seems a bold move, but it will cost them. Naturally enough, receiving less funds will affect who can and will work on their staff. But another unintended problem will be that Dickinson may have its rating lowered on the U.S. News and World Reports ranking of the best graduate programs. It ranked 64th out of 218 schools as of 2013.
Cutting tuition is one tact some schools have taken, though rarely as drastically as Penn State is doing it. Another popular tact is reducing the number of students admitted, a natural move befitting the supply and demand of the market place, and ensuring that law schools are only feeding into the market as many students as can in fact find jobs.
Every school must decide its tactic, but some tactic is required, as it is the harshest legal environment America has known in over a decade.