Due to our fractured political panorama, hundreds upon hundreds of faculty graduates have been impressed to go to legislation college. Per latest LSAC information, purposes have surged since final 12 months, the very best year-over-year enhance since 2002, with greater than 76,000 candidates vying for admission to legislation college. In accordance with a new Kaplan survey, we shouldn’t count on this “software growth” to decelerate anytime quickly.
Kaplan requested legislation college admissions officers whether or not they thought the present legislation college admissions cycle can be as aggressive as that of final 12 months’s, and a mixed 90% stated they anticipated the 2025-2026 software cycle to be no less than as aggressive as that of the 12 months prior. Of that 90%, 13% stated it could be “way more aggressive,” 35% stated it could be “considerably extra aggressive,” and 42% stated the extent of competitiveness would stay “about the identical.”
The nation’s political local weather is considered the rationale behind the speedy escalation in legislation college purposes, with 49% saying it was a “main driver of the rise,” 38% saying that it “reasonably drove the rise,” and seven% saying it was “the primary issue” behind the rise. Solely 5% stated the U.S. political local weather was a “slight issue or non-factor,” with 1% saying they “weren’t certain.” Considered one of Kaplan’s survey respondents had this to say concerning the challenge:
“The present political and financial local weather has made legislation college more and more enticing for a variety of candidates. Authorized points, significantly in areas like constitutional legislation, civil rights, and the position of the courts, are on the forefront of nationwide dialog, prompting many to see a legislation diploma as a technique to have interaction meaningfully with urgent societal questions.”
“At Kaplan, over the previous 12 months, we’ve seen an enormous enhance within the variety of college students making ready for the LSAT, a powerful indication that the variety of legislation college candidates will stay at traditionally excessive ranges, making it crucial for potential college students to place collectively the strongest software doable. And given the depth of right now’s political local weather, we imagine politics will proceed to exert a powerful affect on applicant developments,” Krystin Main, director of LSAT applications at Kaplan, stated in an announcement.
“Whereas we perceive that passions are excessive, we remind potential legislation college students that the first motive to pursue a J.D. needs to be to apply legislation—and never only for the subsequent 4 years, however for the subsequent 40. We encourage each potential applicant to be introspective and make that call with objective. A profession in legislation might be each rewarding and fulfilling, but it surely requires considering not solely concerning the current second, however concerning the lengthy highway forward.”
Talking of the “lengthy highway forward,” one admissions officer instructed Kaplan that the 2025-2026 software cycle’s “elevated competitiveness is a double-edged sword because it ought to enhance the expertise degree for the authorized neighborhood on the expense of excluding many candidates who would have been wonderful contributors to the sphere.”
One other survey respondent appeared involved concerning the optics if legislation faculties determine to confess bigger class sizes as a result of wealth of candidates, saying, “I feel the occupation suffers if legislation faculties get grasping and usher in considerably bigger courses than the market can feasibly assist down the highway, as we noticed in 2009-2011, however that will not have recurred to the identical diploma this previous 12 months.”
Regardless of the case could also be, elections have penalties and our political system has attracted many worthy candidates to the authorized subject. We’ll quickly be capable of see simply what number of future attorneys had been impressed to use to legislation college when LSAC releases its newest information.
Kaplan Survey: One other Fierce Legislation Faculty Admissions Cycle Looms Giant, Pushed by Politics [Kaplan]
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Legislation, the place she’s labored since 2011. She’d love to listen to from you, so please be happy to e-mail her with any suggestions, questions, feedback, or critiques. You may comply with her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or join along with her on LinkedIn.
