LSAC’s Knowledge Report: The 2024-25 Law School Applicant Profile

Amid a time of rapid and significant political, economic, and social changes in the U.S. — including major changes to federal Grad PLUS loans — more than 76,000 aspiring law students submitted applications to law school in the 2024-25 admission cycle, marking the highest volume of applicants since 2011 and an 18% increase from the 2023-24 cycle. In this highly competitive admission cycle, the core questions — Who applied? Why law school? How did applicants make the decision to apply? — are more important than ever. The answers to these questions provide insights into how today’s aspiring law students are approaching the application process in a time of disruption, change, and uncertainty. Understanding the who, when, why, and how at the application stage provides the legal community with the insights to support access, equity, and fairness in law school admission through tailored and evidence-based interventions, effective guidance, and resources for all aspiring lawyers on the learning journey from prelaw through practice.

Building on LSAC’s 2023-24 Test Takers, 2024-25 Test Takers, and 2024 1L Profile reports, this Applicant Profile report focuses on 2024-25 applicants to contribute to the legal community’s collective understanding of:

• Who applied to law school?
• When did applicants first think about law school?
• Why did they decide to apply to law school?
• How did they approach the application process? What resources and support did they use, and how confident were they in their decision-making process?
• What were the most important factors that informed their decisions on where to apply?

This report provides several important insights that may help law schools recruit and support future applicants along the prelaw-through-practice journey. Overall, using real-time data collected through the 2025 LSAC Applicant Survey and LSAC’s 2024-25 applicant data, this report reveals that 2024-25 applicants:

• Are widely diverse. Half of the applicants are from racially and ethnically minoritized[1] groups, 56% are women, 13% are LGBTQ+,[2] 29% are first-generation college graduates, and 77% are the first in their families to go to law school.
• Thought about law school years before applying. Almost half of applicants first thought about law school before college. About one in five Pell Grant recipients and first-generation college graduates first thought about law school as early as elementary school, and almost a quarter of Black applicants report they first thought about law school in elementary school. The journey to law school is intentional, spanning years for most applicants.
• Are motivated to go to law school both to do good and for financial security. The top reported primary motivations for attending law school are financial security, to be helpful to others, and to advocate for social justice.
• Spent a significant amount of time working on application materials. The median time spent on six core components of their application was 46 hours. Over half of applicant respondents spent more than 20 hours working on their personal statements, and almost 40% spent more than 30 hours researching to determine which law schools to which they should apply.
• Consulted their networks to inform decisions. The top three kinds of people consulted while applicants decided where to apply were (1) family, (2) an attorney, and (3) friends. However, 11% of applicants report they did not consult anyone for advice about where to apply to law school. There may be several reasons for this, including not having the time or lacking access to a support network.
• Reviewed several online sources to decide where to apply to law school. Most applicants used (1) law school ranking resources, (2) the official law school websites, and (3) LSAC’s website. About two out of five applicant respondents report using Reddit to gather information to decide where to apply.
• Are generally confident when working on application components (personal statements, acquiring transcripts and letters of recommendation, etc.). However, less than half of applicant respondents report feeling confident when filling out financial aid forms.
• Are multidimensional decision-makers but increasingly concerned about cost and their ability to afford law school. The factors that drove 2024-25 applicants’ final decision on where to apply are multidimensional and varied based on respondents’ needs and goals. Nonetheless, the total cost of attendance is the leading factor that influenced most applicants’ decision about where to apply.

Aspiring law students spend hours preparing their application materials to ensure they convey a compelling story about who they are and how they are ready to embark on the law school journey. This remains true even in times of change, as evidenced by the 2024-25 applicants. Overall, applicants have been thinking about law school for years, are motivated to do good, and are using a wide range of information sources and networks to gather information to help them make their individual decisions on how and where to apply. Like the 2024-25 test taker respondents, applicant respondents echoed that law school cost was top of mind for many, especially applicants who are Pell Grant recipients.[3]

The insights from this report can help inform a collective effort, from prelaw through admission, to make legal education attainable for future aspiring lawyers, especially when the financial feasibility of law school may appear uncertain for many. LSAC will continue to collect data, providing and sharing snapshots of the journey to support the legal community.

To learn more, download the report. If you have any questions related to this project or future work informed by the results, please contact LSAC Applied Research at StrategicResearch@LSAC.org.