How many law schools should I apply to?

Most applicants apply to 4 or fewer schools.

Over the last ten years, however, the number of applicants applying to over 11 schools has more than doubled from 8% to 18%. I suspect more people are getting more competitive by applying to more schools (factor number one listed below).

A whopping 27% of applicants in 2007 applied to only one law school. I guess they had the scores to pick and choose their destination or, more likely, they settled for a safe school.

How many applications you send out depends on

1. How much you want to go a top school. More want, more schools.
2. How high your LSAT and GPA are relative to other applicants. Higher scores, fewer schools.
3. How much money you have to spend on applications.
4. How picky you are. More picky, fewer schools.

Given the cost of law school, I'd err on the side of applying to too many. Granted, it may cost you a few hundred dollars, but you're about to dish out thousands. Make sure you give that money to the right school for you. Besides, consider your post-graudation salary, which is positively correlated with law-school rank. The higher the rank, the higher your likely salary. No joke.

Here's the application data, provided by LSAC:

Number of Applications per Applicant 1993-2007