We Know About Cornell, But What about Vandy, GULC, Duke, Etc?

[WSJ Law Blog]

We’ve already pretty firmly established how Cornell Law School is like Lady Gaga.

But for anyone perhaps searching for another pop-culture based metaphor to describe the situation, we bring you this one: The Cornell admissions situation is like Lost: The harder we scrutinize it, the more confused we get.

Our readers put forth a host of possible explanations for why applications to Cornell Law are up over 50 percent from last year. Many of them make sense: its admissions standards have historically been slightly less rigorous than others in the so-called T14; more on the high end of the application spectrum are thinking of it as a safety school, while those on the lower end are rolling the dice, realizing that, given the economy, why not take a shot at an Ivy League school.

But still amazes us is the 50 percent figure, especially given the numbers at other schools in the Top 25. Click over to the Business Insider’s Law Review, which today presents the application numbers for a handful of other schools generally considered to be in the Top 25.

Vanderbilt’s numbers appear to be flat. Georgetown and Berkeley’s are each up 4 percent. UCLA’s are up 6 percent. Of the schools that gave Business Insider their figures, only a handful of schools are witnessing double-digit increases: Michigan, Duke, Illinois and Indiana, and three of those are public schools.

What’s going on? We have no idea. We feel like Hurley (pictured): Increasingly bewildered by the world in which we live.