Marquette has roughly 1,000 applications for the fall 2001 entering class, or about 24 percent more than the previous academic year. This still falls below the 1,400 applications per year in the early 1990s - a time when many observers attribute the high interest in law school at least in part to the "L.A. Law" syndrome. Mirroring the trend at law schools nationwide, Marquette's applications gradually slipped to as low as 811 by 1999. Throughout the past decade, however, Marquette has kept its yearly entering full-time student count in the 139 to 177 range. For fall 2001, "we'll probably admit about 30 percent of our applicant pool, expecting 160 of those to enroll (full-time)," reports Edward Kawczynski Jr., assistant dean for admission. An additional 65 to 70 will enroll as part-time law students.

The average grade point average (GPA) of entering students has nudged steadily upward in recent years, from 3.07 in 1995 to 3.25 in 2000. Kawczynski says the fall 2001 admitted applicants' average GPA is 3.4, but it's still unknown how many of those will matriculate. As for entering students' Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores, the average has hovered from 154 to 156 (the possible scores range from 120 to 180) since 1995. Next fall's admitted applicants' average is 157, which is at about the 74th percentile, according to Kawczynski. In other words, of all test-takers nationwide, only about a quarter scored higher than the Marquette admitted applicants' average. What that says to prospective employers of graduates is that "our goal is to get some of the best students," Kawczynski says. "Competition is tough just to get into Marquette."

In addition to LSAT scores and academic records, the admissions committee weighs several other factors, such as letters of recommendation, personal and professional accomplishments, special strengths and skills, past community service, reasons for wanting to go to law school, and so on. "We look at the whole package," Kawczynski says. "Everything the student presents to us, we consider."

About three-fourths of entering students for each of the past several years have been Wisconsin residents. "We're slowly moving down from that," Kawczynski says. "Right now we're at about 60 percent" for fall 2001 applicants. Marquette has stepped up its out-of-state recruitment, especially in the last year. The 2000 entering class came from 80 different undergraduate institutions across the country and abroad.

With tuition running almost $20,000 for the 2000-01 academic year, 85 percent of students receive financial aid, mostly loans. Federal government loans usually total enough to cover tuition, but that falls considerably short of the $34,000 total tuition and living expenses each student faces each year. The average indebtedness of year 2000 graduates was nearly $66,000, compared to $38,000 in 1991. Marquette awards scholarships based on academic merit to roughly 20 percent of its students.