The numbers of law school applicants and total applications submitted nationwide decreased for the second year in a row, according to a Law School Admissions Council report.

This month, there were 30,000 applicants to law schools for the fall, which is a 20 percent decrease from last year, and a 38 percent decline from 2013, according to data from the Law School Admission Council.

Out of roughly 200 law schools across the nation, only four have seen an increase in applications this year. In 2004, there were 100,000 applicants to law school. This year, there will be approximately 54,000.

"We are going through a revolution in law with a time bomb on our admissions books," said William D. Henderson, a professor of law at Indiana University. "Thirty years ago if you were looking to get on the escalator to upward mobility, you went to business or law school. Today, the law school escalator is broken."

After the normal dropout of some applicants, the number of those matriculating in the fall will be about 38,000, the lowest since 1977, when there were two dozen fewer law schools, according to Brian Z. Tamanaha of Washington University Law School, the author of "Failing Law Schools."

"Students are doing the math," said Michelle J. Anderson, dean of the City University of New York School of Law, according to the New York Times. "Most law schools are too expensive, the debt coming out is too high and the prospect of attaining a six-figure-income job is limited."