Tuition Wars And Shrinking Class Size: More On The Philadelphia (Law School) Story

I've previously blogged about law school tuition wars in Philadelphia.  You can read those posts here and here. I've noted that underneath much of the broad-stroke reporting about law school enrollment and tuition are a variety of local markets and local stories.  This is the local market I know best.

Again this year, it appears that,  for applicants with moderately strong predictors, Philadelphia law schools offer among the lowest net tuitions in the country.  Scholarship competition in Philly is fierce.

But as this news story indicates, the Philly schools are also bringing down class size.  Overall, the six Philly area law schools have contracted 1L class size by 35% since 2009-10.  This greatly exceeds the national decline of just under 28%.  The reason parallels the explanation for such aggressive discounting in the market: every law school and every university wants to maintain quality.  Is that because of  US News?  Is it for bar pass rates?  Is it for reputation?   Is it because it's the right thing to do, given the job market?  Is it because all the schools are non-profits?  Or all of the above?   

And particular kudos is due to Widener University, which – without any US News stake (since they are unranked) – nonethess chose to shrink class size rather than seriously reduce student quality.  That was both a good choice and the right choice, but far from a foregone conclusion given the decisions of other law schools around the country.

This chart of Philly school first year enrollment  is from the Philadelphia Biz Journal article: