We wanted to provide a bit of a wider view on current law school applicant data trends. When you look at applicant volume this cycle vs. last cycle, the numbers are somewhat down (this makes sense and was very much what we expected based on last year's historically huge applicant numbers). However, when you look at the data over a longer period of time, you can see that we still have a larger number of applicants this cycle than we did in any of the past five years (apart from last year).
And we don't just have more applicants — they're more competitive applicants, too. This cycle, we have 6% more total applicants than the 2017-2018 cycle, but 33% more 165+ applicants, and 20% fewer <150 applicants. Over time, the distribution of applicant LSAT scores has been shifting firmly to the right.
Data below.
| 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| < 150 Applicants | 8,053 | 7,456 | 6,613 | 6,790 | 6,568 |
| > 165 Applicants | 7,358 | 6,727 | 7,534 | 10,719 | 9,743 |
| Total LSAT Applicants | 34,443 | 32,694 | 32,357 | 38,203 | 36,309 |
| % < 150 Applicants | 23.4% | 22.8% | 20.4% | 17.8% | 18.1% |
| % > 165 Applicants | 21.4% | 20.6% | 23.3% | 28.1% | 26.8% |