Admission Cycle -- All the Anxieties

[Onward3507]

I am planning on applying to law school this fall. I am taking the LSAT in August and missed the LSAT Flex due to work / health reasons. I didn't expect (like many of us) that there would be such a peak of scores from the Flex, so now I know I am at a disadvantage as the LSAT returns to its original format. It's pretty discouraging, but I am trying my best to adjust.

Predictions feel very tentative right now, but are there any predictions on how school admissions or the LSAC will account for this change in the tide? Will our applications be viewed differently? Some of the attorneys I work for have suggested waiting to apply until next year to avoid the law school "bubble" and the hiring crisis that will inevitably occur when I was to graduate, but I am already an older student and it's taken a lot of familial sacrifices and time to get here. I'm not sure if waiting is really ideal when those variables are considered.

Also, what can those of us on the latter end of the "bubble" do to boost our applications, outside of LSAT scores? Is there any suggested strategy? I know this is unprecedented so it's hard to plan for this. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Onward3507]

Also... I did listen to the recent podcast about the competition in these cycles. Just looking for more information about next year and those of us not in the Flex group.

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Onward,

What you heard in our recent PowerScore LSAT podcasts has not changed. We need a lot more data before knowing how next cycle will really shape up, and we won't have that data for months unfortunately. So, there's not much more I can say other than what I've said elsewhere, namely that the next cycle will not be easy. It should be easier than this cycle, but we'll have to see applicant volumes before knowing for sure.

A few points to add to the above:

• * Every day next cycle is looking tougher as I'm seeing a lot of good applicants opt-out of this current cycle. They will all front load the next cycle and be tough to compete against.
  
  * The LSAT is not returning to its original format, regrettably. That was a 5 section test taken at a testing site; the new LSAT is a 4 section test taken at home. The new LSAT is likely to produce higher overall scores, in the vein of the Flex. Maybe not quite as high overall, but if they keep scaling the same it will be higher than the old format.
  
  * The attorneys you talked to might be right. But, we simply won't know until we see applicant volumes come through next year. This year is 20% larger though, so it's a definite bubble.

As you can see, the problem is that making predictions about next cycle while this one isn't over is pretty tough. Kind of like talking about the next NFL season before this one has finished and before we go through the off-season The best advice I can give is to keep listening to our podcast since that is where we talk about news and updates related to admissions trends, and as soon as we have information and thoughts, we share them there!

Thanks!