What Do Rising Law School Applicant Numbers Mean for 2018?

Law schools have an encouraging start to the new year! As of December 1, 2017, the Law School Admission Council reported the number of applications was up by 15% to 93,932, and the number of applicants was up by 12% to 16,784.

In recent years, the number of people applying to law schools has been on a downward trend. In the last 10 years, the number of applicants has decreased significantly by at least 33%. Applicants dropped from 84,000 in 2007 to 56,500 in 2016.

According to LSAC data, in September of 2017, 37,100 people took the LSAT and in June 2017, 27,600 people took the LSAT. Both of these numbers show a significant increase in comparison to previous years. This rise of applications will hopefully translate into more top-performing students for law schools to recruit.

With an increase in applications, competition will become more evident, but this doesn’t mean that law schools will take in as many students as they can get. The competition is still high but given this recent data, we’re optimistic that applications will soon be the highest they have been in the past years.