Michelle Warren once wanted to be a lawyer. The Kansas University senior was a debater in high school, and some of her family members were attorneys.

Now she isn’t so sure. Her fiance is a law student, and she’s seen some of his friends struggle with the challenge.

“I’m going to take a year and work before I decide,” said Warren, an international business major.

She added, “I didn’t want to get halfway through law school and change my mind.”

She’s not alone. Applications to both of Kansas’ law schools have dropped the last two years – 15 percent at KU; 3.6 percent at Washburn University in Topeka – tracking with nationwide declines of 4.6 percent last year and 9.4 percent this year.

That decline follows skyrocketing applications during the early part of the decade at both schools.

“We assume that (the decline in applications) relates to the economy and the availability of jobs both in law and in other types of disciplines,” said Wendy Margolis, spokeswoman for the Law School Admission Council, which tracks nationwide trends. “When there are jobs available, some people put off going to graduate school and decide instead to enter the job market.”

“KU law applications follow the trends, particularly the Midwest trends, in declining applications,” said Carrie English, director of admissions at KU’s law school.

Like Margolis, English attributed the drop-off to an improving economy. Some current KU law students, though, say they needed time off from school before taking on the challenge.

Jana Budde, a second-year law student at KU, took a six-year break between college and law school to work in financial services in the Kansas City area. This experience, she said, helped prepare her for law school.

“I really needed the break to work and gain perspective,” she said. “I feel that at times I have an advantage because I’m able to draw on real-world experiences, especially in business-based courses.”

Sarah Voss, also a second-year law student at KU, took a year off to work before starting school. She worked as a residence hall director at Emory University in Atlanta.

“Having worked for a year, it helped me treat school more like a job,” she said. “I also think I was a little burned out coming out of college, and starting law school refreshed was helpful.”

Money is also a factor.

Budde said although it didn’t deter her, money was a considerable hurdle in her decision to go to law school. She is still paying on her undergraduate loan debt.

“Having been out of school and working full time, I was used to being able to spend money when I wanted to,” she said. “I can no longer afford to do all the things I once did.”

To counter falling application numbers, the KU law school last year hired two recent graduates to recruit prospective students at events across the nation, English said.

But Law School Admission Council’s Margolis said she did not yet see much cause for concern.

Margolis said she could not yet draw any conclusions about the future of law school applications until the admission council finalized its 2006 data this summer.

“At this time, I wouldn’t draw broad conclusions,” she said. “This is basically a leveling off from a peak that occurred a few years ago.”