To call the current law school admissions cycle a rollercoaster is an understatement.
The total number of applicants nationwide is up 17% and the number of people applying for fall 2021 with Law School Admission Test Scores of 170 or higher is up 65%, according to data from the Law School Admission Council. All of which means it has been a tough year both for law school hopefuls—who have been hit with more rejections than usual—and for law school admissions offices, whose historical data models have largely been rendered useless amid the surge in applicants and high LSAT scores.
All the confusion has left some law schools with a higher yield than expected—meaning a higher percentage of admitted students than the schools want have accepted those offers. Boston College Law School; the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; the University of Texas School of Law; and Duke Law School are among the overenrolled law campuses for the fall, though their numbers of incoming law students may come down over the summer through deferrals or admitted applicants opting to go elsewhere.