Too Soon for Predictions, but the 2026 Admission Cycle Is Starting Strong
By Sudha Setty
The 2025 admission cycle was competitive, with applicants up 18% over the previous cycle. It was also the most racially and ethnically diverse set of applicants in history, with 50% identifying as students of color.
As we begin the next admission cycle, it’s only natural to ask – how is this next cycle shaping up? While it’s too soon to predict, this post provides a snapshot of early numbers and some important context and cautions.
Every year at around this time, LSAC begins publishing on LSAC.org its interactive volume summary data for the new law school admission cycle. The volume summary provides detailed information about the overall number of applicants and applications. For your convenience, it can be filtered and analyzed by geographic region, race and ethnicity, gender, LSAT score band, first-generation college status, and other criteria. The data is updated daily and serves as a resource for law schools, prelaw advisors, prospective students, and others interested in understanding admission trends.
We have launched the volume summary for the 2026 admission cycle today, and you can find it here.
A Word of Caution on Early Data
Before we discuss the numbers, it is important to underscore that this is extremely early data, and it should be viewed as broadly directional at best.
At this point in the cycle, we typically have only about 15 percent of the total number of applicants and applications we expect to see by the end of the cycle. These early figures should be viewed with considerable caution, as they can shift significantly as the cycle progresses.
The Early Numbers
With that important caveat, here is what we are seeing as of early October 2026.
As compared to the same point in the 2025 cycle, the total number of applicants is currently up 33 percent. Applications are up 27 percent.
The composition of the applicant pool continues to reflect robust racial and ethnic diversity. Applicants of color are up 33 percent compared to this time last year. Notably, Black and African-American applicants are up 38 percent.
Women applicants are up 34 percent, men applicants are up 32 percent, gender-diverse applicants are up 15 percent, and applicants who choose not to identify are up 31 percent.
First-generation college applicants are up 38 percent.
What May Be Driving These Numbers?
There are several potential reasons why these numbers may be high at this early stage of the cycle. More law schools are now offering early decision programs and emphasizing rolling admissions, which may be creating a larger early surge in applications. Additionally, last year’s cycle was extremely competitive due to the volume of applicants; we often see a wave of early applicants in years following more competitive cycles. We will continue to monitor these types of factors as the 2026 cycle develops.
There are also several indicators that suggest continued strong interest in law school across a broad applicant base. LSAT testing volumes continue to remain high. The August LSAT administration had approximately 26,000 test takers, up 18 percent compared to the same administration last year and up nearly 60 percent compared to August 2023. September saw approximately 23,000 test takers, an increase of 24 percent over last year. The October administration, just completed, had approximately 26,000 test takers, up 16 percent from last year.
We don’t have first-time test taker data for the October LSAT yet, but we had nearly 27,500 first-time test takers in the August and September LSAT administrations alone, which represents a 13% increase in first-time test takers of those two tests combined in 2024.
The Value of Legal Education
There are several reasons why many people are interested in legal education right now. The especially dynamic political environment is cited as one reason – some people want to go to law school to advocate for the ideas and values they care about. The uncertain economic climate and the potential impact of AI and other trends on future employment is another factor – some people view law and advocacy as a field that will continue to grow. Every applicant has their own set of reasons.
LSAC surveys people who have taken the LSAT to understand their motivations for going to law school, and the results support the notion that legal education offers a wide range of opportunities, particularly in the current political and economic environment. The top three reasons people give for wanting to go to law school are to be helpful to others, to advocate for social justice, and to gain valuable skills.
What’s Next
As we are at the early stage of the 2026 admission cycle, and these preliminary numbers could shift significantly in the months ahead, we encourage people to regularly visit the volume summary data on LSAC.org, and not put too much weight on the early numbers we are seeing today.
If these early numbers tell us anything, it is this: there continues to be substantial and sustained interest in law school among a broad and deep group of prospective students.
For those of us committed to legal education, that is encouraging news.
