Now that law school admissions officers have returned from the Washington, D.C. Law Forum and are hopefully done refamiliarizing themselves with how to navigate their university’s travel reimbursement forms, they now turn to the home stretch of both their preparations for the incoming class as well as the upcoming recruitment cycle. Regarding the former, we noted in last week’s blog that the D.C. Forum really serves as the soft launch for the upcoming cycle … so why are we still mentioning the enrolling 1L class? Because odd things sometimes happen in the last few weeks of the summer and admissions officers must be ready with their “Break Glass in Case of Emergency”-style plans if the situation arises.

And on that ominous note (which we’ll return to down below!), let’s take our weekly lap around the news and notes of law school admissions.

August LSAT Numbers

When we checked in last week on LSAC’s LSAT Registrants and Test Taker Volumes report, August LSAT registrations were at 28,995. That’s compared to the 29,317 hearty souls who were signed up for the exam at the time of the registration deadline two weeks ago. One week later and the August numbers still aren’t shifting too much:

That’s a decline of just 2.5% in two weeks with three weeks to go before test date. While we initially projected that August LSAT numbers would eventually settle down in the range of 22,000 test takers, we’re not so sure anymore. Given the slow rate of cancellations and rescheduling of the August test date, we’re nudging our over/under on test takers a smidge higher to 23,000.

We’re now keeping our eyes firmly on the September numbers. This year’s registration numbers have nearly caught up with last year and we know that a number of folks register for the test right at the deadline.

All of these signs seem to indicate that there will be more law school applicants in the coming cycle. So to repeat our suggestions that are practically becoming a weekly segment at this point—now is a great time to start your application materials! Be on the front end of the application wave!

Late Summer Waitlist Activity

But this time of year isn’t all just “existential dread about a possible significant increase in applications.” We’re also tracking some last-minute waitlist activity at a few schools. People are alive out there at places like Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Florida. Meanwhile, we’re also seeing chatter on Reddit where students are asking for crowd-sourced assistance in choosing whether to attend Law School A or Law School B in a month. This points to the possibility of a little more waitlist activity as we hit August 1st since these students can only attend one of those two schools unless they’re buddies with Hermione Granger and have access to a time-turner. And once they make their final decision on where to attend, they—hopefully—will contact the other school to cancel their deposit there, thus opening up an available seat for a student off the waitlist.

This kind of last-minute activity is pretty typical of an admissions cycle and represents the “other side of the coin” that we often see discussed on the r/LSA message boards. While there are a few varieties of these posts, the general question is “Why haven’t I gotten a final decision from the school I’m waitlisted at?” Variants of this question include:

  • Does anyone know if School X is full? I’m on the waitlist and I’m dying to get a final decision!
  • What should I do? I’m deposited at School A but on the waitlist at School B. I need School B to give me a decision soon if I’m going to be able to move there in time for orientation!

The underlying assumption of these messages is often:

  • If there’s still a waitlist,
  • that means that there are still seats to fill in the class,
  • because if there were no available seats in the class, the admissions office would just tell us,
  • so if they aren’t admitting anyone from the waitlist and if there are no seats available in the class and if the school is still maintaining a waitlist, it’s only because the admissions office is just stringing us along.

And that’s not the case! Admissions officers maintain a waitlist even if there are no seats currently available in the incoming class. Why? Because of the heavy work that the word currently is doing back there!

AdComms know that there are some students in their incoming roster of 1Ls who will not be there for the first day of orientation. They know it’s a matter of time until those students make a final decision and notify the admissions office. But until those students make that final decision, there’s nothing admissions officers can do other than wait. Trust us that AdComms would love to be done with waitlist activity as soon as possible. It would make their summers infinitely easier! But that’s not how it goes. They know that something is going to happen—someone in their deposited group will get pulled off another school’s waitlist, someone will have a family emergency, someone will get a last-minute promotion at work, etc.—and they must have available students via the waitlist to fill that seat.

So what can a waitlisted applicant do with this knowledge? First, you can stop raging against AdComms! Direct that anger in a more appropriate direction like your avant-garde art or writing an epic poem in rhyming couplets about your law school admissions journey (And with greatest woe did I feel verily undone / When the Harvard interview day passed without receiving a KJ1). Second, set the actual final date that you could receive an offer from your waitlisted school and still accept the offer. For example, if you’re starting an apartment lease near School A on August 1st, it would be reasonable to set July 30th or 31st as your final date for School B. Third, send a last LOCI to your waitlist school, reiterate your interest, and communicate that final date. Fourth, go do something that gets you excited for School A. You’re about to start law school in a month! There will be enough things to be nervous about (outlining, making friends, cold calls!) in the near future so the present should be a time for you to be kind to yourself!

7Sage Events

But enough information for the veterans of the 2023–2024 admissions cycle! Let’s come back to the newbies looking ahead to the 2024–2025 edition!

We’ll be hosting a Zoom session at 8 PM Eastern on Tuesday, July 23rd entitled “Applying to Top Law Schools—What Are They Looking For?” Join 7Sage Admissions Consultant extraordinaire Taj McCoy as she hosts a panel with representatives with experience working at various T20 law schools including Berkeley, Northwestern, UVA, and Penn. They will discuss the different review processes at these schools and how candidates can maximize their application materials accordingly. The meeting is free to attend but registration is required.

And Aaron Thier has a new blog post on how to write the right personal statement for you. Examples include rodeo clowns, migrating sea turtles, and everything in between!