Legal Education Gets Its Mojo Back: Fall 2018 Applicants Are Up 8%, June/July LSAT Test-Takers Surge 30%

National Law Journal, Number of Law School Applicants Surges, Especially Among High Scorers:

Does legal education have its mojo back?

The number of people applying to law school for the upcoming academic year shot up 8 percent—the only significant annual increase since 2010. The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) reported that 60,401 people applied for admission this fall, up from 55,580 the previous year.

“I’ve heard from a number of schools that this year they are worried about, not under-enrollment, but over-enrollment,” said LSAC president Kellye Testy. “Because the demand was so strong, some schools are finding that they may have had higher yield rates than they had in prior years, and they may have larger classes than they aimed for.” ...

Early indications also suggest that the applicant pool will expand yet again for the 2019 entering class. The number of people taking the Law School Admission Test in June and July was up 30 percent over the previous year. The June and July exams are considered the beginning of the new admission cycle, when early-bird applicants start the process. The June 2017 LSAT clocked a 20 percent increase in takers, foreshadowing the 8 percent applicant increase for the recently completed 2018 cycle.

This year’s applicant pool was not only larger, but also more qualified, council data shows. The number of applicants with LSAT scores of 175 to 180—the highest score band—increased 60 percent over the previous year. Applicants with scores of 170 to 174 were up 13 percent, while those with scores of 165 to 169 were up 27 percent.