April 2026 / Episode 10 / Under 30 minutes
Welcome to Keeping Up to DataSM, a space in which we discuss, analyze, and contextualize trends and perspectives in the current law school admission cycle.
SUSAN KRINSKY: Welcome back to Keeping Up To Data. I’m Susan Krinsky, executive vice president at LSAC®, with an update on the 2026 application cycle and a discussion with LSAC’s senior director of assessment sciences and our senior director of research about score trends and what affects them. More on that in a few minutes.
But first, the numbers. As I record this podcast, the admission cycle is winding down with respect to volumes. By this time last year, we had seen 90% of the final applicant count and 93% of the applications that were eventually submitted. As of today, the number of individuals applying to law school — that is, applicants — is 10.3% higher than last year at this time, and almost 32% higher than two years ago.
As of today, over 75,000 individuals have applied to at least one law school. Looking at the previous four years, the average number of applicants for those four years was just over 59,000 individuals. This year’s applicant volume is 27% higher than that four-year average. As for applications submitted, there are almost 550,000 applications in our system — 12.4% more applications than last year at this time, and 38.2% more than two years ago. Compared to the prior-four-year average of 420,000 applications, this year’s application volume reflects a 31% increase.
As I noted last month, both applicants and applications have slowed down pretty dramatically since the start of this cycle. Our applied research team has seen a significant increase in the number of applications submitted before January, so applicants are indeed applying earlier in the cycle, for a variety of reasons. As of this week, 49.3% of individuals who have submitted at least one application for 2026 admission identify as persons of color. That’s up slightly from last month and also up from last year at this time, when that percentage was 48.9%. There are 11.1% more applicants who identify as persons of color this year as compared to last year. This compares to the overall increase in the applicant pool, as noted earlier, of 10.3%. 57.4% of this year’s applicants identify as female and 39.8% as male — a very slight change from last month, when the female percentage was 0.2% higher and the male percentage was 0.2% lower. 1.9% of applicants did not indicate a gender, and just under 1% identify as gender diverse — no change from last month.
Applicants who describe themselves as being first-generation college attendees or graduates represent 27.3% of the 75,000-plus applicants; this is up slightly from a month ago. As was the case last month, applicants from all regions of the U.S. are up, and applications to schools in all regions of the U.S. are up, too. Canadian applicants are up 13.4% over last year, and applications to Canadian law schools are up 15.2% over last year.
As I record this podcast, the April LSAT® administration is still in process, and it appears that the number of registrants for the April test was virtually identical to the number of registrants for the April test a year ago, but about 14% higher than the April 2024 test. I don’t have final test-taker numbers yet for the April administration, but we’ll report them as soon as we do.
Registration for the June LSAT administration — the last one for this testing year and the last one before we move to predominantly in-center testing — has now closed. And as of the close of registration, we are seeing 5.6% more registrants than we did a year ago for the June test. Registration for the 2026-27 tests will open in the middle of May.
That’s our report on the April data. Remember that you can stay on top of our volume data by going to our website, LSAC.org, where you’ll find a link on the homepage to the latest volume data, which is updated every night.
As many of you already know, we have seen a steady increase in applicant and application volumes over the last two years, leading to very competitive admission cycles. Last year’s admission cycle, which closed in August of 2025, ended with an 18.3% increase in applicants. The current cycle is seeing roughly a 10% increase in applicants and a 12.5% increase in applications. All of this leads us to the question: How have these competitive application cycles impacted individuals’ test-taking and application decisions? Not surprisingly, we’ve done extensive surveys of test takers and applicants and first-year law students. Based on that research, one of our applied researchers at LSAC, Dr. Alicia Kershoff, notes that people are way more thoughtful, careful, and knowledgeable about their options and what law school is about than we give them credit for at the test-taking stage and beyond.
Candidates make intentional and often strategic decisions along the way that bear out in what we see in LSAT and applicant trends. For over a decade, we have seen candidates become more strategic in their test-taking and application behaviors, and that has influenced LSAT and application patterns. And in competitive years like we had last year and this year, we typically see increasing scores among test takers and increasing scores among applicants.
It’s important for all of us to understand the reasons we’re seeing these increases. To help provide more insight into these LSAT and applicant trends, I’d like to welcome LSAC’s senior director of assessment sciences, Dr. Anna Topczewski, and LSAC’s senior director of research, Dr. Liz Bodamer, to put all of this together for us. It is great to have you both back on the Keeping Up to Data podcast.
ANNA TOPCZEWSKI: Happy to be here.
LIZ BODAMER: Glad to be here.
SUSAN: Looks like we have plenty to discuss. The first thing I wanted to get into is the bottom line of all of this. I’m going to address this to both of you, but Anna, I’m going to start with you. Are applicants the same as test takers, and are test takers the same as tests?
ANNA: Applicant trends are not test-taker trends, and test-taker trends are not even the same as test trends. Let me start with test trends. Test trends are based on the number of tests taken. An example is the percentile tables. The percentile tables show the distribution of LSAT scores obtained. It doesn’t consider the number of people taking those tests, and it includes tests canceled by the test taker. Now we move to test-taker trends. Test-taker trends are trends of the people, and it is commonly reported as a test taker’s average score or highest score, and the test-taker trends are often only reportable scores, so scores that are not canceled. This means that LSAT trends and test-taker trends are not the same thing.
SUSAN: Liz, what else should we be aware of as we look at trends?
LIZ: Now, the difference between applications and applicants. Application trends are based on the number of applications submitted in a cycle. Applicant trends are about people who submit at least one application in a cycle. Between the time someone decides to take the test and sits for the test and completes the test, so many decisions are made, from how they will prepare for the test all the way down to whether they will preview their scores and keep or cancel them. From that point, people make even more decisions, such as whether to apply now, to apply later, or to never apply. Test takers in one administration cycle are not the same as applicants in the admission cycle.
What do I mean? Applicants in any given application cycle may have taken the LSAT during that cycle, but more likely are test takers from two or more testing cycles. For example, most test takers between August and February of one cycle are applying to law school in this timeframe. Then we start to see a shift, later in the cycle, where most test takers in April and June become applicants in the next cycle that starts in August. It is key to remember that not all test takers decide to submit applications, and if they do, they may have taken the LSAT months or even years ago. All of this means when we look at trends, the first question we all must ask is: Who are we talking about? Because test takers are not the same as applicants.
SUSAN: With this clarification in mind, let’s talk about what impacts test-taker and applicant LSAT trends. Anna, what can you tell us about that?
ANNA: As I said earlier, test trends, such as the percentile tables, are compiled based on all tests taken, including scores and tests that the test taker has decided to cancel. What law schools see are a subset of those scores. Test takers can cancel their scores, with low scores being the ones most often canceled. Law schools only see non-canceled scores that are used in applications. Again, this is a subset of test takers, because, as Liz said, not all test takers apply. And often, in dashboards and reports like our own LSAC volume summary, only the highest LSAT scores for applicants are used.
So, again, we’re reporting on applicants, not all test takers, and just their highest non-canceled scores. And changes in individual strategies on when to take the test, when to cancel scores, taking the test again to try to get a higher score, all of these decisions impact what we see. Now, add on the layer of two back-to-back competitive applicant cycles, and individuals are even more strategic in what they’re doing.
SUSAN: Liz, what can you add to this?
LIZ: Absolutely. We see this with applicant trends. Our applied research shows that about 60% of applicant respondents spent more than 10 hours researching schools and deciding where to apply last year. Almost 30% spent more than 50 hours doing so. Applying to law school is not impulsive for most people; it is not an impulse buy, like some of the shoes I own. Prospective candidates are behaving intentionally. They’re active consumers of information. Not only are they spending more time practicing and preparing for the test, but they’re also spending a lot of time figuring out whether to apply, where to apply, when to apply, and how to present their best selves to schools. From mentors, family, lawyers, law school admission offices, prelaw advisors, friends, and even strangers, aspiring law students are taking in so much information as they try to determine the next best move for them personally. And unfortunately, some aspiring law students don’t have anyone providing reliable advice — another finding from our research.
And so law school is a significant investment — financially, emotionally, mentally — and it’s a major time investment. This decision impacts not only the aspiring law student; it impacts their families. As our applied research found, when deciding where to apply, applicants are looking for a law school that is financially feasible and that will prepare them for successful entry into their legal careers. And then you have the speculations and noise during the admission cycle that can impact this whole decision-making process. When people speculate or harp on how hard or competitive a cycle is, this will impact people’s decisions to apply or not, especially for folks who do not have access to resources, the guidance and the supportive networks. In the end, who becomes an applicant in any given cycle is a result of a number of forces at play, circumstances, and decisions.
SUSAN: What are the LSAT score trends, and what would you say to someone who says the removal of the Analytical Reasoning section made the LSAT easier? Anna?
ANNA: Susan, again, what you’re asking for are trends for all the tests taken in a given cycle, whether or not the score was canceled and whether or not the individual who received the score applies to law school. When examining LSAT score trends, it’s important to look back several years. There have been a lot of changes to the LSAT, and if you only look back a year or two, you might misinterpret a longer-occurring trend to a more recent change in the test. And again, here, do not view applicant score trends as LSAT score trends. In doing so, you’re ignoring all the very strategic decisions candidates are making.
So, what do we see when we look back? We see that the percentage of scores earned in the 120-to-145 range have been steadily decreasing for about the past eight years, and the percentage of scores in the 160-to-180 range have been increasing for about the past seven years. What happened during this time? First, we started offering a test more often. Before that time, we only offered the test four times a year. Now, we offer it eight times a year, and individuals have more opportunities to delay testing if they don’t feel ready, and they have more opportunities to retest, both of which will result in increases in test scores.
Another important change was the expansion of free LSAT test prep. As Liz’s team’s research has shown, the amount of time individuals spend preparing for the LSAT has only increased over the years. Even with the removal of the Analytical Reasoning section — a whole section type — test takers haven’t spent less time studying. They have spent more time studying. Why? Because the last two years have been competitive application cycles. And if you know it’s competitive, why would you not spend more time studying to get your highest score possible? And we give you a variety of free resources on LawHub®, like webinars and articles, in addition to free test prep, to be prepared.
So, when people say the removal of the Analytical Reasoning section from the LSAT caused an increase in scores, they’re not taking into account trends that started before the removal of the Analytical Reasoning section and the larger context of candidates increasing strategic decisions and effort, especially during competitive application cycles.
SUSAN: Liz, what can you tell us about the applicant score trends and how this is playing out in the admission process?
LIZ: When we look at the LSAT scores and applicant score trends in the context of how the admission process is experienced, it’s clear that the trends are telling us about the admission experience in candidates’ decision-making process. So, applicant scores are increasing. As we talked about earlier, not all test takers become applicants. With Score Preview and score cancellations, applicant score trends are a reflection of how applicants have decided to present themselves and what scores are reported. In our applied research, people show us that they invest hours to ensure that they are putting their best foot forward when applying to law school. This bears out in the applicant LSAT trends. Over the last 10 years, we have seen a steady decrease in applicants with an LSAT score below 145 and an increase in applicants with an LSAT score of 160 or higher.
These are not increases that happened overnight. Rather, they are a part of a gradual change, tracking with how we are all experiencing the world. For example, in the last decade, we have seen an increase in education attainment across the country; technological advancement; and the availability of LSAT preparation courses, pathway programs, how-to materials, and free online content across social media platforms. We have also seen the financial cost of law school grow over the years. So, with all this in mind, people are taking in a lot of information to determine if, when, and how to apply to law school, because legal education is a significant financial investment that cannot be taken lightly.
So, of course, we see people’s strategies changing with access to more information and support programs. For example, last year, for the first time, we saw the majority of applicants submit their first applications before January — a 6.5% increase from the year before. This was observed across various groups, resulting, in some cases, the narrowing of group-based differences. So, when we contextualize the data, the LSAT score trends, based on test takers and based on applicants, tell us more about how people are making their testing and application decisions, rather than a reflection of the validity and reliability of the test.
SUSAN: How are LSAT score trends and applicant score trends related? Anna, given that applicants’ scores have steadily increased over the past decade, have you seen that in the LSAT scores as well?
ANNA: Susan, yes and no. We have seen similar trends, over the past seven to eight years, of decreasing lower scores and increasing higher scores, but there are differences. For example, in the 2021-2022 testing year, LSAT scores went down compared to the previous testing year. During that same time, applicant scores went up. LSAT score trends and applicant score trends do not exactly mirror one another, and that further reinforces that applicant score trends are not LSAT score trends. Applicant score trends are not a reflection of the validity and reliability of the LSAT.
SUSAN: If someone should not use applicant score trends to judge the validity and reliability of the LSAT, what should they look at?
ANNA: They should look at the predictive validity research summarized in the LSAT correlation study report. In this report, we evaluate the effectiveness of LSAT score, undergraduate grade point average, and the combination of LSAT score and undergraduate grade point average for predicting a student’s first-year average in law school. The report provides summaries of the combined results for the law schools participating in the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 LSAT correlation studies. Therefore, these correlation studies represent a large span of LSAT test takers from about 2016 to 2024. And remember, this is the exact same timeframe where we were having changes to the LSAT score trends and applicant score trends.
Even with those trends, the summary is: The LSAT continues to be the best predictor of first-year law school performance. But why is that important? The big reason is because undergraduate GPAs over these years have increasingly been affected by grade inflation. Grade inflation occurs when average GPAs increase and the variability of the GPAs decrease. Undergraduate GPAs have been experiencing more and more grade inflation over these years, making it more and more difficult to use undergraduate GPA to distinguish among high performers. Essentially, the predictive validity of undergraduate GPA is waning, while the predictive validity of the LSAT is holding strong.
SUSAN: One more question about this, Anna. Why have you not released the predictive validity results of the LSAT without the Analytical Reasoning section?
ANNA: Easy answer, Susan. Test takers who took the LSAT without Analytical Reasoning, at the earliest, could have entered law school this past fall. They are finishing their first year right now. First-year averages don’t exist yet for matriculants who got into law school with an LSAT score without an Analytical Reasoning section. So, the next report, which should be available early 2027, will be the first to incorporate the first-year performance of students who took the LSAT without the Analytical Reasoning section.
SUSAN: LSAC provides a lot of data about testing, test performance, and applicants. Liz, what is your advice for how to use this data?
LIZ: First, I encourage everyone to be data informed. All right, so, what do I mean? It is easy to look at LSAT trends and make a quick claim that something must be wrong with the test, as opposed to looking at what is happening in real time that can influence the trends. In addition to knowing exactly who we are talking about, take into consideration what is happening that can influence the trends.
Second, I recommend law school deans, law school admission professionals, and anyone supporting someone who wants to go to law school to check out LSAC’s applied research reports. Are you wondering what factors people consider when deciding to apply, where to apply, or deciding where to enroll? You will find that in our reports. Are you wondering how people approach the application process? Check out our reports. Do you want to know who’s enrolling in law school and who will be impacted by federal loan changes? Check out our reports.
Lastly, I hope everyone listening will not simply consume the data, but use it. There is no shortage of information. When we examine who’s applying and who is going to law school and who is not, I hope we can work together as a community to bridge the gaps by creating resources and structural support to help aspiring law students comb through all of the information and noise, and to develop the skills necessary to succeed on this journey to and through law school.
SUSAN: Thank you, Liz and Anna, for joining me today. To learn more about this research, please visit LSAC.org. Thank you for joining us at Keeping Up to Data. We look forward to your joining our next episode. Until next time, stay well.
Keeping Up to DataSM is a production of LSAC. If you want to learn more about the current law school admission cycle and the latest trends and news, visit us at LSAC.org.