Understanding the LSAT’s Popularity Boom

Just like boba tea, Chappel Roan, and Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce (i.e. Tayvis), it seems like the LSAT has been getting more popular in the past year. According to the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), there has been a steady increase in registered test takers recently. What does this mean for law school admissions? We’re analyzing LSAC’s data on the number of people taking the LSAT, some possible explanations for it, and what this means for your law school chances.

Is the LSAT Getting More Popular?

More People ARE Taking the LSAT

To start, let’s look at LSAC’s numbers on test-takers this year. The 2023-24 testing year had the third-highest number of test takers in LSAC’s data set (since 2001). 155,070 LSATs were administered, a massive increase of 17.7% over last year. A little under half (48.6%) of test-takers took the LSAT for the first time.

For context, let’s examine the only other two years with more tests administered:

• In 2009-10, at the tail end of the Great Recession, there were 171,896 LSAT’s administered. This was an increase of 10.9% over the year before.
• In 2020-21, LSAC administered 169,599 tests, a record increase of 35.7% year over year. Of course, that testing year occurred during the height of COVID and its associated lockdowns, with all the economic and political uncertainty that entailed.

But each year after these record highs, there was a corresponding decrease in tests administered. After the 2009-10 testing year, the three following years all experienced drop-offs of over 13%. The 2021-22 testing year experienced a record -24% drop in people taking the LSAT.

Given this, one might expect a similar drop in test-takers for the 2024-25 test administration, but this does not appear to be happening. Across all three LSAT test dates this year, more individuals have taken the exam compared to the same months last year.

Of the people who have taken the LSAT this test year thus far, 53.7% were first-time testers.

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Why Are More People Taking the LSAT?

We might see even further increases in LSAT takers and law school applications due to the current political climate and the result of the 2024 election. In the years after President Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory, law schools saw a substantial increase in both applications and LSATs administered. 

Subsequent surveys confirmed that the “Trump Bump,” was real. A significant proportion of students surveyed indicated that the 2016 presidential election influenced them to apply to law school. We might very well expect a similar bump in LSATs administered and law school applications after this most recent election.

How Will More LSAT Test Takers Affect Me?

These are all very impressive and scientific-sounding numbers, I hear you saying, but what does it mean for law school applicants?

Well, with more test-takers, the number of testers with higher LSAT scores is likely to increase as well. This will probably lead to the scores for admitted students at top law schools rising.

For instance, the 2016-17 cycle saw only 113,550 tests administered, and came on the heels of the three lowest testing years recorded since 2001. And, in 2017, the 75th percentile LSAT score of students entering the then six-ranked New York University School of Law (my alma mater) was 170. 

In 2021, after the second-largest test administration recorded, a 170 was now a 25th percentile score. So, someone with the same score went from scoring higher than 75% of their peers at NYU to scoring lower than 75% of their peers.

Does this mean we need to ratchet up the anxiety and start a funeral dirge for our admissions chances? No, for a few reasons. 

First, these effects do not appear to be as pronounced in all schools. For instance, Harvard’s 50th percentile score was 173 from 2010-2020 and only increased to 174 in the three years since. 

Second, historical data seem to indicate that for most schools these admissions metrics don’t fluctuate wildly year by year. Most of the time, LSAT percentile scores don’t change more than 1 point in 1 year. So you can still use last year’s LSAT and GPA admissions numbers to gauge your law school admissions odds.

 Final Thoughts

To sum up, the 2023-24 testing cycle saw the third-highest number of test administrations since 2001. Preliminary numbers from this year suggest 2024-25 will be an even larger testing cycle, both because the first three tests either matched or exceeded the tests from last year, and because we may see another “Trump Bump” of students seeking to enroll in law school because of the political climate.

Because of this, we can expect admissions to get more competitive. With the LSAT score remaining the most important piece of a law school application, getting the highest LSAT score you can will continue to be a priority. 

That’s where Blueprint can help. Whether it’s in a Live course led by Blueprint LSAT instructors, in a Self-Paced Course that gives you total control over your schedule and studying, or one-on-one with a tutor, we have the LSAT prep that fits your learning style. Put yourself in the best position to get a top LSAT score and send out a competitive application to your dream school.