Two new reports available to LSAC member schools
Application volumes. Applicant trends. Test registration numbers. What do they all mean? Join LSAC’s director of enrollment management, Susan Krinsky, for a description of the latest data so that you can keep up with all there is to know. Also learn about two new reports available to member law schools through ACES² that allow you to view your applicants by state of permanent residence using a variety of helpful filters and to see at a glance the number of applicants, admits, and matriculants from each state.
Transcript
Welcome to our March 2019 podcast. I am Susan Krinsky, director of enrollment management at LSAC, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to describe to you some of the trends we’re seeing in the data and also to talk about two new reports that are available to you.
As of today, JD applications to ABA-accredited law schools are very slightly down—at .2 percent, although applicants are up about 3.7 percent—so a little stronger on both numbers than was the case last month when we recorded the February podcast.
Ninety-three law schools are showing application volume increases, while 102 are showing decreases. At this time last year, we had seen just over 75 percent of the final applicant count.
Canadian member law schools are experiencing small decreases as compared to last year, with applications down 3.3 percent, and applicants down 1.4 percent.
The experience in the LLM world is that LLM applications to ABA law schools are down just over 4 percent, with applicants down just under 4 percent.
As we head toward our sixth LSAT administration in the current testing year, we are now seeing an increase in total LSAT registrants as compared to last year. For the four test administrations last year—that would be June 2017 through February 2018—we saw almost 142,000 registrants, and about 90 percent of those actually took the test. For the six test administrations this year, we now have just over 149,000 registrants, for an increase of 5.2 percent over last year. Whether this will translate to a 5.2 percent increase in the final test-taker count remains to be seen. We hope to have those final numbers by late April or early May.
I thought I’d also take this opportunity to tell you about two new reports available to member law schools. When you access the Statistical History Dashboard from your ACES2 homepage, you will now see a Residency option. This page shows your applicants by state of permanent residence, enabling you to see one state at a time, and to filter by gender, ethnicity, GPA, LSAT score, decision, and status.
Another new report is called Applicants, Admits, Matriculants by State of Permanent Residency. When you run this report, you will see a chart showing all states. For each state, you will see the number of applicants, the number who received at least one offer of admission, the number who matriculated, the number who did not matriculate even though they received at least one offer of admission, and the number who were not admitted to any school. When you run the report, you can choose to see 2018 data or 2017 data, and of course, when the current cycle is over, you will be able to see 2019 data. To view this report, go to ACES2, and click on Reports. Then, go to the Subject drop-down, and choose LSAC Data. From the list of available reports, choose the one entitled Applicants, Admits, Matriculants by State of Permanent Residency.
In closing, remember that we update the current volume data for both JD and LLM programs on our website every night. Go to lsac.org, and look for Data & Research and then Data Library. The Current Volume Interactive Summary will show you a number of data visualizations and drill-downs. If you’re an LSAC member and you log in, remember we have many more data and research reports available to you.
As always, let us know if you find these podcasts useful. We’d love to hear your questions or suggestions. Just write to us at [email protected]. Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Susan Krinsky at LSAC.