The number of LSAT test takers is at its lowest in years. You’ve probably already read what the New York Times thinks this means for lower-tier law schools. You may read that article and think that the legal profession in America is dead. You may see gloom, doom, and any number of other cold pricklies. Well, here’s a warm fuzzy: your competition pool just got smaller.

In other words, if you are among those who still have a strong desire to enter the legal profession, and thus also go to law school, the ball is now more than ever in your court. And your incentive to be a stellar LSAT test taker is thus also greater.

As many of us know, the LSAT comprises a large chunk of the U.S. News and World Report rankings. Schools, for better or worse, care a lot about these rankings. The better your LSAT test score, the more desirable an applicant you become. The more desirable an applicant you become, the greater your options. The competition between law schools for good students will only become fiercer as the talent pool shrinks.

You may very well have the ability to play seller in a seller’s market. For one, an excellent LSAT test score is more likely to make up for less than awesome grades. Secondly, a smaller applicant pool increases your chances of parlaying multiple acceptances into better offers. The more suitors you have, the easier it is to pit them against each other.

To sum things up, if you have your heart set on lawyering (yes, it’s a word), you now have a better chance of getting into a better school. You also have more incentive to study as hard as you can for the LSAT so you can get the best offers possible from the schools to which you are accepted.

On an unrelated note, I saw Cookie Dough flavored vodka at a CVS this past weekend. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather just eat the cookie dough and wash it down with some Stoli. Sign of the apocalypse? Possibly.