7Sage Blog

The LSAT Surge Is Developing

BY Jacob Baska

The higher education calendar is in full swing by mid-September. Students know their schedule like the backs of their hands.

Star Trek

Professors are in a rhythm with their lectures and office hours. Administrators like career services, the registrar, and communications have smoothed out any kinks from the first few weeks and are now up and running smoothly.

And the admissions office contribution to this process? Oh, it’s “to not be there.”

Travel season is off to the races and—per the Recruitment Events section below—this is a week when our law school AdComm friends are hopefully enjoying some early fall foliage in southern New England before trying their best to navigate the Midwest. So while they consult their GPSs for the right directions and try to find the parking lot that the pre-law society says should be right here but now—in actuality—appears to be one mile over there, let’s take our usual lap around the headlines from the world of law school admissions.

National LSAT Numbers

One more week post-August LSAT, a week post-September LSAT, and one week closer to the October LSAT … so how are we doing out there per LSAC’s LSAT Registrants and Test Taker Volumes report…?

LSAT Registrations

We’re still in “oof!” range.

With the August LSAT, the Registered and Test Takers numbers have stayed the same since when we checked in last week. While that may elicit a “no duh” response from our readers, please know that there’s a lot of dust that gets kicked up around each LSAT administration. It can take a little time before we settle down on the final numbers. For instance, when we checked in on the August numbers right after the LSAT, LSAC was reporting 28,098 August registrants. Since the test had already happened, one would assume that this would also represent the final registration numbers for August … but, nope. That number finally settled down to 27,934. So we can officially pencil in an 18% increase in August test takers versus last year.

Meanwhile, the September LSAT has now come and gone. If the August LSAT saw registrations go down by just 164 from the first week post-test until the second week after scores were posted, we feel confident that the final registration number will be in the range of 24,500. That means that we’ll almost certainly see that 23,000 people took the test … and that would be a 22% increase in September 2025 versus September 2024.

So now let’s take a deep breath and look at the October LSAT looming over us in three weeks.

Deep breaths

October registrations last week stood at 37,074. This week, they’re at 36,846. That’s a “whopping” 0.6% decline in registrations.

For our newer readers, it’s normal to see registrations decline by 1-5% per week when the LSAT is a month away. That number could move to as high as 10-15% in the two weeks right before the exam. But the key to file away is that seeing a number as miniscule as 0.6% three weeks before the LSAT means that it’s almost certain that we won’t see the bottom fall out of October registrations before the test. We’re very much guaranteed to exceed last year’s final number of 22,789 registrations.

And thus do we hit our usual advice for our readers! Get working on your application documents, even if you’re one of those tens of thousands planning for the October LSAT. “More LSAT takers” inevitably means “more law school applicants,” so you just want to get a jump on the curve. You can do this!

National Recruitment Events

And if you want to avoid prepping for the LSAT and working on your application materials, you can go meet with admissions officers at a law fair!

As you can quickly tell, many pre-law societies coordinate their law fairs. If a series of law fairs in one region are synced up, that makes it easier for law school admissions officers to attend. And the easier they are to attend, the more likely your fair will attract lots of admissions officers.

But sometimes you also run into real world problems. For example, we assure you—our dear readers—that the American Midwest is a lovely place and that the drive from Bloomington, Indiana, to Champaign, Illinois, is a nice way to spend an autumn afternoon. On the other hand, leaving Champaign after the law fair there ends at 3 PM and then needing to be in Minneapolis for that event at 1 PM the next day?

Ooof.

That’s either

  1. An evening flight with a connection in Chicago that doesn’t get you to your hotel until about 10 PM, or,
  2. A morning flight out of Champaign before 8 AM with said connection in Chicago, and you’ll probably arrive in the Twin Cities around 11 AM, or,
  3. A drive to Chicago either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning so you can then fly direct to Minneapolis, or … sigh …
  4. A seven-hour drive across half of Illinois and the entire waistline of Wisconsin.

Travel season isn’t all “racking up the Marriott rewards points.” It’s also “what is the least worst way to get someone to different American campuses in one piece and semi-rested?” Pour one out for your AdComms this week!

7Sage Events

Our next Admissions AMA will be on the 10th with another on the 17th. Stop on by and ask whatever law school admissions questions are on your mind!

Our most recent law school admissions podcast dropped on Monday and is a recording from our August Law School Deans’ Roundtable. The deans reflect on how the 2024–2025 admissions season ended, and they offer some words of advice for the upcoming cycle. Be sure to check it out on Amazon, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you stream your podcasts!

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