High Number Ask Entrance To Law School

Applications for next year's entering class at the Law School will probably reach an all-time high, Assistant Dean Louis A. Toepfer, director of admissions, disclosed yesterday.

Nine hundred applications have already been received, indicating that the total will exceed 1,800 and is likely to reach 2,000. "At the same time last year," Toepfer points out, "only 680 applications had been received, and last year was the biggest ever. We finally received 1,600."

In addition, the size of the new class will be reduced from 525 to 500, a decline which Toepfer attributes to a faculty effort "to stop the Law School's creeping growth." Probably only a fifth of the entering class will be graduates of the College."

Scholarships Still Rising

Scholarship awards in the past five years have jumped from $70,0000 to $155,000, and will continue to rise this year. The Law School, says Toepfer, "is interested in enabling the qualified students to get in, regardless of their financial position. He added that the School is also more interested in the prospective entrant's capacity for the law, as shown in his admissions test, than in what he has already done in college.

Scholarships were awarded to 75 students in last year's entering class and to a total of 223 students throughout the School. More will be given this year, and the Law School will also grant between $65,000 and $70,000 to students through loans.

Service Men and "Renaissance"

Men leaving the armed services are probably the main reason for the School's sharp rise in applications. Increased scholarship and financial aid to students as well as what Toepfer calls "the Law School's Renaissance" also appear to be important factors.

This renaissance has come about principally in the form of improved facilities. In recent years the School has built several new dormitories and increased its faculty to 50. The graduates center, constructed four years ago, is also a large attraction to new applicants.