While last week’s blog detailed how law school admissions officers were preparing last-minute details for orientation, this is the week when there are no more “last minutes.” It’s the current minute! Orientation is here for many law schools! Admissions officers are busy staffing the check-in tables, greeting students in person that they’ve only previously “met” via their applications and email, and furtively trying to contact any no-shows who don’t arrive at the scheduled meeting time. It’s also the culmination of all the previous year’s work. It is typical at many law schools to host the entire incoming class in one lecture room for a welcome session. The topics are rather perfunctory—the dean tells the incoming students how amazing their class is, a faculty member tells the incoming students how amazing the professors are, a member of the student government tells the incoming students how amazing the community is, etc.—but the setting and composition of the room most certainly are not. Only the admissions officers in the room can appreciate how this assemblage of humanity came together. The combined experiences, dreams, and aspirations that the room contains are legion. The incoming students have accomplished so much simply to make it into that room. And now, they’re about to be shaped by one of the most intense academic crucibles in the American higher education system—law school—before leaving in three years to serve the local, national, and global legal communities. It’s kinda crazy if you stop to think about it for a minute. But speaking of “thinking,” it’s time to move past reflective reveries! With one class arriving and figuring out who they should and most definitely should not sit next to in Torts this semester, let’s take a quick look at the headlines in the world of law school admissions.

2023–2024 Applicant Pool—No, for Real, This Is the Last Call

With the vast majority of law schools beginning classes before Labor Day (and a majority with orientation events this week), this is the last call for 2023–2024 admissions decisions. Like we said last week, schools may admit an additional student or two from a waitlist if someone no-shows at orientation. It’s rare, but it happens!

More common is the realization on the part of law schools that it’s time to release the waitlist. What will this look like? A whole lot like UChicago’s lawschooldata page:

UChicago usually has one of the latest start dates to their academic year (the autumn quarter begins on September 30th!) so they’re just now doing the actions that we saw from many other schools at the beginning of the month.

LSAT Registration Numbers

And before we get to the meat of this week’s blog, let’s do our weekly check-in on LSAC’s LSAT Registrants and Test Taker Volumes report, where things appear to be holding steady:

Of note:

  • August LSAT scores will be released next week. At that point, we’ll get a sense of the first-time test-taker percentage and if it holds steady versus previous years at 60%. This will be an important way to gauge if the increased number of test takers was mostly driven by repeat test takers who just wanted to try an LSAT without Logic Games or by first-time test takers. If the latter, that’s another strong sign that apps will be going up this year.
  • September LSAT registrations went down 3.2% versus last week. That’s very normal to see in the period two weeks before test day.
  • And registrations for the October LSAT are quickly increasing as the registration deadline approaches on August 22. Interestingly, we haven’t yet exceeded last year’s registration total. No doubt there will be a last-minute registration rush (because there always is), but this could end up being the first exam in years where test-taking numbers are flat.

Application Instruction Updates

In last week’s blog, we mentioned that this is the time of year when schools start updating their app instructions on their respective websites as a lead-in to most apps going live on LSAC.org on September 1.

(And as a reminder, remember that we have all of last year’s app instructions on this page on our website. We’re in the process of updating this as schools publish their instructions!) Left unsaid was whether or not the instructions have actually changed. So let’s check out the results on our big board

that most schools thus far have kept their same instructions from last year. This includes:

Others have just tweaked things a smidge. For example, Georgetown has kept three of their old Optional Responses but has brought in two newbies to the fold. We would like to offer preemptive applause for any applicants who can somehow write a statement about how they changed their perspective on their perfect day and would like to explain this transformation via a Top Ten list.

Moving up the ladder a little bit, we also have a few schools who haven’t just tweaked something but have added something. For example, Minnesota Law has added an optional-but-kinda-not-really video statement. Instructions in the screenshot below:

Our main takeaway is the note about “priority consideration.” While interviews can always add a good dimension to an application (some students—like some lawyers—are more effective with oral rather than written advocacy), the wording of this note gives this more of the feel of an admissions filter. From the admissions office’s perspective, a student who is invited to submit a video and does not do so is probably less interested in attending your school.

Meanwhile, Duke Law has added two optional statements to their application:

While this may seem scary at first—especially since Duke already has a required short answer section with questions that don’t really overlap with any other school’s application—this seems fairly straightforward. The first prompt is probably going to be most regularly used as a “Why Duke Law” statement since most students address their interest in pursuing a legal education in their personal statement. The second prompt is similar to an addendum—is there something about you that you would mention in an interview but doesn’t really fit into the rest of the application? This could be something like further information on a senior thesis or a successful work project.

And, finally, there are the schools that have made substantial additions to their applications. Right now, this category is occupied by just one school—UC Berkeley.

Like Minnesota, Berkeley is adding a video component to their application. Unlike Minnesota’s Midwestern “politeness” (i.e., calling something optional … but also saying that it will give “priority consideration” to students who complete it), Berkeley is being direct and simply requiring applicants to submit a video statement. The topic at hand is discussing a time when the student engaged with conflicting opinions, how they reacted initially, but then how they’ve grown upon reflection. Not only does this subject get to the heart of a legal education at Berkeley specifically (given their community principles) but at law school more generally (to have a true Socratic learning environment, a multiplicity of voices is necessary).

Additionally, Berkeley has also added a few optional statements. Berkeley’s instructions note that their goal in presenting these statements is to get a better sense of a student’s personality and passion. As such, these tend to be more “get to know you” than academic types of questions and reflect what we have historically seen from Michigan Law’s supplemental statements. While perhaps not as much fun as telling Stanford Law about three of your favorite songs (which is one of their classic questions), at least these are a little lighter than Duke Law asking you to reflect on what the rule of law means to you and what experiences you’ve had thereof!

7Sage Events

A reminder that we are hosting weekly live classes on different components of the application process in the coming months. Up next—a session on “Why X” statements on August 21, followed by a round of “What Does My Score Mean?” sessions on August 28 and 30. Registration is required but free.