We’ve reached the dog days of file reading in the world of law school admissions—that period when admissions officers look ahead to spring when there will be admitted students coming to campus, deposit deadlines arriving, and just general excitement. But right now, it’s just a Sisyphean effort of clearing out all of the files from their reading list … only to watch the list refill the next day. Oh, and sending out Admittens. So let’s check in on the broader national trends and see how our AdComm friends are doing with all that hard work!
Decisions Rolling
As we mentioned last week, decisions are going to start flowing a bit more freely now that the calendar is turning from January to February. Even if it has been a slower cycle and even if some schools want to try and wait as long as possible to make sure they absolutely are sure before issuing decisions, the reality of matters is that it’s “go time.” The admitted student visit days of late March and early April will be here before we all know it, and it’s hard to have a successful recruiting event if you’re missing—you know—the people you’re trying to recruit. We even name-dropped schools like Columbia and Chicago as exemplars of the schools that “know they need to get moving in the next few weeks.”
Ask and ye shall receive!
This past week saw a bit more action from schools up and down the rankings list including movement from a few places that had been a bit slow to issue decisions to this point, such as:
And, of course, January 29 was when one school’s admissions office woke up and chose violence. See if you can pick them out of this lineup (via lawschooldata’s “Recent Decisions” view):
John Wick himself could not have cleared that app pool out more thoroughly.
Expect more of this kind of activity in the coming weeks as schools try to establish their admit pools prior to Yield Season.
National App Figures and LSAT Registrations
We remain in a bit of a hold pattern for both national apps and LSAT registrations.
Last week, national applicants were up 4.3% and applications were down 1.2%. This week, those respective numbers have shifted tremendously to
4.1% and -1.2%, respectively, per LSAC’s Current Volume Summaries report. Not much to write home about!
But as we’ve said for a few weeks, that can change in the coming days with the release of the January LSAT scores on Wednesday, January 31. Per LSAC’s Test Registrants and Test Takers report, January registrations were up 25% versus last year:
There were no great cries and gnashing of teeth throughout the land on test day regarding issues with LSAC, proctors, or a poor alignment of the moon with various constellations. It seems like it was a clean run for LSAC! Let’s see how that affects the application totals when we publish next week’s edition of this blog!
Digital Forum—February 2
While law fairs will be a thing of the past for the coming months—sigh!—a reminder that we still have one big recruitment event on February 2. LSAC’s Digital Forum is a great chance to chat with admissions reps (who should be thankful for a break from file reading!) and learn a bit more about their schools. The registration deadline is January 31, so be sure to register ASAP!
7Sage Events
And speaking of “ASAP” and “January 31st,” a quick reminder of our next Deans’ Roundtable discussion that evening at 8 PM Eastern. Join our host—7Sage Admissions Consultant Extraordinaire, Tajira McCoy—as she chats with admissions reps from Boston College, Catholic, Howard, Loyola-Chicago, Loyola-Los Angeles, and North Carolina law schools about all things related to scholarship procedures!
Additionally, we have further sessions of our latest admissions course available on Friday the 2nd and Monday the 5th. Join us as we talk about scholarship negotiations and application forms, respectively.