How application trends are comparing with the previous year, so far
Have you been Keeping Up to Data? As application season moves toward a close, it’s time to take a closer look at the numbers. From applicants to application volumes to LSAT registrants, LSAC’s Vice President and Chief of Staff Susan Krinsky has the latest figures to share with you. Hear how the current data compares to last year, as well as a little-known fact about registration cancellation you may find surprising!
Transcript
Welcome to our April 2019 podcast. I am Susan Krinsky, director of enrollment management at LSAC.
We are now at the point at which we have almost 90 percent of this year’s likely applicants, based on our experience at this time last year. As we move ever closer to the end of the application season, the number of JD applicants in the system is pretty close to flat nationally, up just point 8 percent. As of today, there are just over 53,000 applicants nationally, as compared to just under 53,000 at this time last year — we have 448 more applicants than last year. We are seeing small increases in the number of applicants from the South Central and Mountain West regions, and a significant increase in the "Other" category, which includes applicants whose permanent residence is either unknown or outside of the United States.
JD applications to ABA-accredited law schools are currently down 3.7 percent. Only the schools in the South Central region — Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana — are experiencing a small increase in applications.
Overall, 65 law schools are showing application volume increases, and 128 schools are experiencing decreases, with 9 experiencing no change.
Canadian member law schools are experiencing small decreases as compared to last year, with applications down 4 percent, and applicants down 1.8 percent.
The experience in the LLM world is that LLM applications to ABA law schools are down just under 4 percent, as are LLM applicants.
We have just finished our sixth and final LSAT administration in the current testing year. While we don’t yet have final test-taker numbers, we did see 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 about 140,000 registrants. For the six test administrations this year, we had just over 151,000 registrants, for an increase of 7.6 percent. It appears that 55 percent of registrants would be first-time test takers. We hope to have final test-taker counts in about a month.
One interesting thing I learned this month when looking at the registrant numbers is that a significant number of registrants cancel their registrations in the 24 hours prior to the test date, in some cases as many as 2,000 cancellations. Note that these cancellations are not score cancellations, since these individuals choose not to sit for the test.
As always, 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.
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.