Self-study
Big Wave Season
BY
Jacob Baska
As we pass the mid-point of January, we are solidly at that time of year—it’s Wave Season!
Whether it be the waves of snow that pummel college campuses and keep law school admissions officers focused on reading applications
or the waves of decisions that we’re tracking on the law school admissions subreddit and the Recent Decisions page lawschooldata.org (which we’ll cover down below), this is the prime time for schools to send out decision letters. And given the raw state of emotions this week stemming from the nature of some of the waves (avert your eyes if you have a gentle heart)
let’s jump right into the headlines from around the world of law school admissions!
Waves, Waves, and More Waves
How busy was this past week for decisions? Here’s a handy chart that lawschooldata publishes on their Recent Decisions page that puts things in perspective for the week of January 12th:
OOF!
There was a lot of good news
and there was a lot of the “less good” news that we mentioned in our opening, dramatically reenacted in this manner
But while this was a lot of news, it’s still a little too early to tell for certain what some schools are doing strategically. Take Harvard Law, for instance. This was the first big wave of decisions, and we were all waiting to see if we could parse out any trends. Taking a look at their admit chart on lawschooldata though is fairly inconclusive:
Their median LSAT for this past year’s entering class was a 174. We can see a bit of a vertical line at a 174, but it’s not distinct—there are enough admits with LSATs at-or-below a 173 who also have low GPAs that it muddies the water a bit.
What we would ideally like to see is something more akin to Michigan’s admit chart:
In this case, there’s a pretty distinct vertical at a 172 LSAT. That would represent an increase over this past year’s 171 median.
But while we continue to parse things out statistically, we also want to parse things out emotionally. Dear readers—there are going to be a lot of ups and downs in the coming weeks. Sometimes, you’re going to look at this gif and feel like the player kicking in a goal from midfield.
You’re going to be on top of the world!
But other times, you’re going to look at that gif and feel like the goalie … knowing you’ve been caught out of position … seeing that ball inching towards you … realizing that you’re going to come this close to it … but you’ve got to try … and—oof, it’s happened—you’re stuck in the net again.
The first step to managing this time of year is to understand and accept that emotional rollercoaster. Be sure to celebrate the wins, and be sure to do something healthy and positive after the not-so-wins to help yourself emotionally regulate.
As initial decisions come in, it can also be a good time to reevaluate your strategy and make sure you’re on the right path.
- Were you someone who started this cycle with a “T14 or Bust!” mentality but has been seeing mostly waitlist or deny decisions? You may want to consider expanding your application list by bringing in a few target and safety schools.
- At the other end of matters, were you someone who played things conservatively at first when applying (i.e., mostly safeties) and you now have a few good offers in hand that you’d be excited about? You may want to consider taking a shot or two at a reach school.
While we’re past the halfway point of the cycle, there’s still time to pivot if necessary. But that time isn’t unlimited because we’re going to start running into some application deadlines as soon as the end of the month (e.g., UCLA Law’s app deadline is January 30) and then in mid-February for a number of T14s.
Current Volumes Summary
And speaking of the applicant pool, it’s another week of the national applicant pool cooling off ever so slightly via LSAC’s Current Volume Summaries report:
But we really want to emphasize “ever so slightly” since apps and applicants were +18.4% and +20.1% nationally last week. The next time we may see these numbers move a good bit will be towards the end of the month when the January LSAT results come back.
Speaking of which …
National LSAT Numbers
The January LSAT has finally come and gone and we have final registration numbers via LSAC’s LSAT Registrants and Test Taker Volumes report:
That’s a drop of about 1,000 registrations between this blog post and our last edition, meaning that roughly 3% of January registrants canceled their testing plans the day of. In a surprising coincidence, April LSAT registrations increased by about 1,600 this past week.
While we’ll get the final January tally when the scores are posted at the end of the month, these current numbers are likely to be 98‒99% of the final figure. As such, we can safely say that this was the biggest January LSAT on record and at least a 10% increase over the January 2025 edition. Not bad, considering our initial best guess was that January 2026 would be slightly smaller. We’ll be sure to have a stern word with our Data Analytics team.
Meanwhile, the February LSAT is now officially on the clock. It’s set to be the biggest February edition since the “good ol’ days” when the LSAT was only offered four times a year and February was absolutely the Ringo of the bunch (in this analogy, the October and December tests were John and Paul, while June—underappreciated but at least bigger than February—was George).
National Recruitment Events
Speaking of “old things,” it’s the triumphant—if temporary—return of one of our running segments from this past fall!
While the vast majority of law fairs occur between Labor Day and early November, there is always a brief stretch of January and February when a number of Southern colleges have their law fairs. To be frank, everyone wins in this scenario:
- Applicants are a little less busy in January than they were back in October.
- Pre-law advisors have gotten through the rush of advising appointments.
- Law school AdComms may be less interested in sweating through a suit while attending a law fair in the Deep South in September, but January sounds like a delightful time to go somewhere warm.
So what do we have on the docket?
- Monday, January 26: Emory University Law School Fair
- Tuesday, January 27: Tuskegee University Law School Fair
- Wednesday, January 28: Auburn University Law School Fair
- Thursday, January 29: University of Alabama Law School Fair
- Friday, January 30: University of West Florida Law School Fair
7Sage Events
We’ll be hosting another Admissions AMA class on Wednesday, January 21st, at 1 PM Eastern. Please note the new time—an hour earlier than we’ve typically scheduled! Come on by and ask whatever questions are on your mind!
Our most recent podcast dropped last Monday and features a breakdown of the ABA 509 reports! Do you enjoy reading this blog but find the act of reading to be too labor-intensive? Then do we have a deal for you! Just like we broke things down in blog-form prior to the New Year, we walk you through the ins-and-outs of the 509 reports via the power of spoken words and engaging (or “engaging”) visuals! Be sure to check it out on Amazon, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you stream your podcasts!
Thanks for reading! You can learn more about 7Sage Admissions Consulting’s services here, and if you’d like help deciding which service is right for you, you can book a free consultation here.
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