PANIC! SAT Scores Keep Dropping!

I made the very stupid decision to take the LSAT the fall semester of my second year in undergrad. My boss at an internship the previous summer let me come in early and use the conference room to drill using those evil study books of previous tests. In retrospect, this was probably the only way I would’ve ever had time & discipline to study. Also in retrospect, I should’ve just slept in and taken the GRE (which I later took twice).

I mention all of this because SAT scores are getting worse and Bar Exam scores are the worst in decades. I never did go to law school, so I’ll leave it to actual JDs to explain how during a law graduate glut, today’s 1st-year associates aren’t matching their forbears on the field’s certification exam. Neither am I an admissions expert, despite my life of trying to get around my subpar standardized test scores.

As an economist, a statistician, and a public policy enthusiast, I would say that it’s both fun and folly to call young people dumb. Law is one of the few areas where government should require costly, arduous certifications — as opposed to the hundreds of fields like salon artistry where certifications are regressive, special-interest clusterbleeps. But, declining SAT scores isn’t a sign you’re a bad parent, or your peers are, or that the #teens aren’t studying hard enough amidst their over-scheduled calendars.

The kids are alright. Now, they bother me too. I frighten anyone under 25 when I call them. “Wait, what is this ringing sound? Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!” Johnnie will take his mediocre SAT, carpet bomb his Common App across the country, head off to Sam Houston State, be scared by the economy into majoring in business and computer science, and hopefully get a job afterwards he doesn’t hate.

I worked my ass off for a middling 160 on the LSAT. Then, I walked down Ann Arbor’s State Street from one of the Mason Hall Auditoriums to Michigan Stadium where I watched Rich Rodriguez coach my Wolverines to a 45–20 drubbing. Years later, I got into the grad school where I fit in. Eventually, Jim Harbaugh became Michigan’s coach. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯