Marissa Knodel '09 had always planned on attending law school right after graduating from the College, but the current economic downturn has convinced her to weigh her employment options as well.
"It might be a good idea to have some money for law school that I've earned, instead of going straight into debt," she said.
The financial crisis has prompted a number of Dartmouth students, like Knodel, to reconsider when they will pursue postgraduate studies.
Karen Whittet, assistant director at Dartmouth's Career Services, predicted that many students who took the Oct. 4 LSAT test will have to change their plans because of the current economic situation.
"What we may see this year is that the people who were planning to apply in a year or two might move up their application as well as apply for a job, to see how things play out for them in both of those areas," she said.
Norton Zhang '09, who took the LSAT last Saturday, said he originally planned to work as a paralegal before attending law school, but the financial situation has convinced him to apply to law school this year instead.
"Since the job market is really bad right now I'm going to apply [to law school] at the same time, so that if I don't get a job I know I can go to law school," Zhang said.
Dave Hollenberg '09, who also took Saturday's LSAT, said he is no longer confident that he will find a job straight out of school.
"For the longest time I was pretty sure I wanted to work a little bit, but now with the job market so unstable, and economic uncertainty the way it is, it's looking more certain I'm going straight to law school," he said.
Students who are now considering graduate studies in order to delay entering the workforce may find it difficult to register for the necessary tests, Whittet said. Due to the level of preparation required for the LSAT and other graduate school exams, students often register months in advance.
This month's LSAT testing at the College was completely full, as it has been in previous years, Whittet said. She added that these numbers are not likely to be affected by economic changes.51,786 people registered for the October 2008 exam date, a 3.5 percent increase from October 2007, according to Wendy Margolis, director of communications for the Law School Admissions Council, which administers the LSATs. The number of test-takers increased by 3.4 percent between 2006 and 2007. The LSAC does not release data for individual testing sites.
