Decision Desk: Law School Admissions, Live
Following the 2026–27 application cycle as it's reported by 7Sage users—decision waves, waitlist movement, and standout results—with analysis from 7Sage's former admissions officers and writers.
It's that time in the application cycle when my clients and I are moving from thinking about big, interesting questions about their motivations and values to scrutinizing page-length limits, word-count limits, character-count limits, and double-checking whether this school cares if the applicant's name in the header is on the left margin or the right margin. We really should all visit the NNLSO's annual conference next spring and sequester the LSOs in a conclave until they agree upon a single set of standards! But in the meantime, in this hypercompetitive landscape, you don't want to skip the small details.
LSAC has finally started updating their Current Volume Summaries report for the season! This gives us tons of insights into what's happening thus far in the applicant pool.
For example, we've been telling everyone that apps are like to go up again this year but not as radically as the past few years. We've been basing that on LSAT numbers from April to the present since LSAT test taking numbers almost always forecast app numbers. But now we don't need to do any quote::unquote forecasting! We've got the real stuff!
And the real stuff is telling us that apps so far are up about 14% versus the same time last year. That may seem like a lot but: 1) it's still really early and things can change, and 2) last year apps were up about 28% from the same day in October 2025. So again, the key message is "still up, still probably the biggest app pool since 2010, but not radically different from last year."
It's early, but I'll put in a guess that we start to slow down versus last year and that the app increase stays in the +5-8% range.
Welcome to Decision Desk! Here you'll find 7Sage's coverage of the application cycle as results come in. Opinions and analysis are the writers' own. LSAC will be updating its volume summary reports any day now. That's when the real show will begin!