COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Enrollment is down at Ohio’s fivepublic law schools, and the number of
applications has declined evenmore.As students consider their chances of getting hired anddebate whether
the cost of law school is worth it, the decreasedenrollment in Ohio has led to some of the smallest
classes in the pastdecade, The Columbus Dispatch reported (http://bit.ly/197gMCb ).About45,000 students
graduate from U.S. law school each year, but expertssay there are only about half that many positions
available for newhires. A typical graduate last year had loans totaling more than$100,000, but the
average median salary for the previous year’s classwas only about $76,000."The lawyer bubble has
burst," said Craig Boise, dean of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State
University.Combinedenrollment at Ohio’s five public law schools — at the University ofToledo, Cleveland
State University, the University of Cincinnati, theUniversity of Akron and Ohio State University — was
674 this year, downfrom 950 in 2009-2010. The number of applications dropped nearly 40percent in that
span, from about 8,500 to just under 5,200 this fall.Nationwide, applications dropped 18 percent this
year to the lowest level in three decades.And public schools aren’t alone in seeing decreases.The
entering class at the private Capital University Law School in Columbus decreased by 37 percent to 156
students this year.Capitallaw school dean Rich Simpson said technology and outsourcing are takingover
the most-mundane tasks, leaving less work for lawyers."It’s a new world out there," Simpson
said.In Ohio, law schools are graduating nearly twice as many students each year as there are positions,
experts say.That has led many schools to cut faculty positions and teach students more practical skills
so they can find better jobs.Makingsure that students have the skills to find work is "job No.
1," saidAlan Michaels, dean of Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law.SeveralOhio law-school
deans also noted that students are no longer choosinglaw school just because they don’t know what they
want to do with theirlives."They’re coming in with their eyes open, and that makesthem more serious
about their studies and passionate about potentialjobs," said Daniel Steinbock, dean of the
University of Toledo Collegeof Law.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This
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