Law School May Alter Admissions Procedure

This year's projected 17 per cent increase in applications to the Law School probably will necessitate an eventual change in the entire admissions procedure.

The huge number of applications--expected by the May 1 deadline to surpass last year's 2200 total by 400--is putting heavy pressure on the Law School's traditional system of "rolling admissions.'

"We might be able to continue it for one more year," Louis A. Toepfer, director of admissions, said yesterday.

Under the "rolling" procedure a three-man faculty committee reviews the applications as soon as they come in, accepting clearly desirable candidates, rejecting those who are not, and deferring action until May on a large body of borderline cases.

"When we had 1500 applications it worked very nicely," Toepfer explained, but with the larger number "we have the distinct sense that it is very hard to make early judgements." He said that the application rise was raising standards, thus increasing the possibility of filling too many places too soon, and later on having to refuse better-qualified people merely because of their late applications.

Future Problem

Although Toepfer confirmed that the committee had avoided this difficulty this year, it could become important with continued increases in the number of applications.

Another worry is that the complicated admissions process creates huge clerical problems, he added.

"We don't have any great plans and ideas as yet," Toepfer declared, "There just hasn't been time to think."

One possibility would be to adopt the procedure used in the college. Under this system, all applications are reviewed simultaneously, and acceptances and rejections sent out at the same time.

However, Toepier pointed out, rolling admission has been a "very fine system" and "may be we'll figure out some other way" rather than switching to the Collie's process.

He emphasized that the rolling system "gets the air cleared very quickly" and lets applicants adjust their plans with a minimum of delay.

Currently, Toepfer's committee has admitted approximately 700 candidates for a projected class of about 530, with about 70 more acceptances left to be sent out. These will be taken from two groups; late applications and deferred applications.

Toepfer emhapsized that candidates in the deferred group were all qualified for admissions and that "it would be nice to accept them all." He estimated that there would be approximately 250 in this category and another 450 late applications to be considered. The committee, he said, hopes to have finished its work by May 15.

In addition to the approximately 70 acceptances, he said, awaiting list of about 50 people would be drawn up.