Sharon N. Gaskin — An Admissions Adventure

An Admissions Adventure

BY SHARON N. GASKIN Assistant Dean of Admissions

During the past year, every facet of our lives has been impacted by the global pandemic. Law school admissions is no exception. COVID-19 has prevented law school admissions professionals from traveling to colleges and universities to recruit prospective students and has disrupted the administration of the Law School Aptitude Test (LSAT). NCCU Law admissions professionals have adjusted to meet the requirements of safety protocols mandated by the pandemic and to provide the same level of service and information to prospective students. Much like Dorothy in The Wiz after she was picked up by the tornado and dropped in the Land of Oz, the Office of Admissions needed to survey the new reality of virtual recruitment created by the pandemic and quickly adjust to meet enrollment goals and benchmarks.

Nationwide, the entire admissions landscape has shifted to a virtual platform. The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) administers the LSAT electronically and uses virtual proctors to monitor LSAT takers. During the fall of each admissions cycle, LSAC sponsors recruitment forums in major cities that anchor a region of the country like Atlanta, New York City, Houston, Chicago, or Los Angeles. When held in person, these forums would typically have a representative from 180 law schools or more and an average of 1000 prospective students would attend. When COVID took away our ability to assemble safely, LSAC created virtual forums where each law school is assigned a virtual booth to meet with prospective students. By way of comparison, the September forum had 12,450 registrants and 6892 attendees, and the smallest forum was November’s with a registrant count of 7237 and 3664 attendees. The virtual forums were popular with attendees, offering convenient and cost-effective opportunities for applicants to meet with multiple law school representatives without leaving the safety of their homes. Following the success of the fall forums, there was a nationwide increase in law school applicants of twenty percent while NCCU Law has seen an increase of forty percent. That 40% increase in applications is the Yellow Brick Road that will lead to success with recruitment and enrollment for the class entering fall 2021.

Like the LSAC forums, American college and universities host law school and graduate school fairs during the fall semester. Career Services offices will invite admissions professionals to their campuses to recruit. Pre-COVID, all of the admissions professionals would be herded into a room to meet face-to-face with prospective students. During the pandemic, the challenge has been to simulate the intimacy

of face-to-face recruitment events while keeping attendees safe. Out of necessity, colleges and universities converted to virtual formats. Just as students have adjusted to having classes online, the shift to virtual recruitment events has been seamless. While the preferred recruitment method is face to face, NCCU Law’s admissions professionals have still been able to connect with prospective students. In addition, Law School admissions professionals have been successful in building relationships with pre-law advisors and have scheduled multiple private virtual visits with prelaw groups at colleges in North Carolina and across the country. NCCU Law admissions professionals have capitalized fully on the flexibility permitted by virtual meetings to build relationships with career services personnel and prelaw advisors to increase the count of law school applications.

In addition to attending virtual recruitment events hosted by colleges and universities around the country, the Office of Admissions has also created in-house virtual recruitment events. With the University prohibiting campus visitors, the Law School has designed multiple opportunities for prospective students to schedule a virtual visit. Prospective students can schedule a one-on-one meeting with an admissions professional, observe a virtual class, or attend an open house or Information sessions. Admissions has hosted events during the day and evening hours to attract prospects to both the day and evening programs. There’s even a virtual tour of the Law School that will allow prospective students to see the Turner Law Building without physically entering the building. For the first time, admitted students have the ability to pay their enrollment fee online. These additions to the admissions process are good and several will likely continue beyond the pandemic.

This journey down the pandemic’s Yellow Brick Road has been similar to Dorothy’s quest to find her way home. There have been multiple adventures to find the best technology to communicate with prospective students. From Zoom calls to other technology that has allowed us to remain connected, we have learned that prospects are as likely to communicate from a cell phone as a laptop. We’ve also learned that the interest in law school is high. Prospective students view law school as an avenue to effect change and to confront the inequities that have been brought to the forefront of the nation’s conscience by the pandemic. Until there is a return to face-to-face recruitment, the Office of Admissions will continue to optimize virtual recruitment efforts. I expect that even when in-person recruitment has resumed, like Dorothy when she returned home, we’ll remember the lessons learned during the pandemic and continue some of the best practices to enroll classes in the future.