By Karen Sloan

Oct 22 (Reuters) - This year’s law school admission cycle is off to a strong start with a 26% increase in the number of people applying for a spot next fall compared with this time last year, while the number of applications sent to schools is up 37%.

Although the Law School Admission Council, which develops the LSAT, expects the early surge to slow — most schools began accepting applications in September or early October — the current applicant numbers and other key factors suggest that law school will be a hot ticket this year.

“We see multiple signs that this year’s admission cycle is starting off on a very robust path,” wrote council interim president Susan Krinsky in an analysis of the early data.

Krinsky has said that the upcoming election, recent U.S. Supreme court decisions, and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign focus on her career as a prosecutor could be prompting more people to consider legal careers this year.

Another reason for the sharp increase early on may be due to the removal of the so-called logic games from the LSAT in August, as people rushed to take the new version of the test, said law school admissions consultant Mike Spivey. Logic games, which involved mind-bending hypotheticals, were considered by many to be the most difficult section of the LSAT, and the council opted to eliminate them following a 2019 settlement with two blind LSAT takers who claimed they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Spivey said he expects the total number of applicants to be up between 10% and 15% by the time the cycle winds down in the spring, adding that an increase in high LSAT scores will likely make it tougher for lower-scoring applicants to get in.

The increase in the number of applicants tracks with a 13% jump in the number of people taking the LSAT during August, September and October.

The number of people registered to take the admissions exam in November is up 31% compared with last year, according to the council.

But there are a few caveats to this year’s early data. At this time last year, schools had received just 15% of their total applications. And many law schools opened their applications later than usual last year as they adjusted their essays and personal statement sections following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision barring the consideration of race in college admissions.

A return to the traditional application opening dates this year means the early numbers could be overstating the growth in the actual applicant pool, Krinsky wrote, because current applicants have had several more weeks to submit their applications than did their counterparts last year. Thus, the current numbers are not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Read more:

High LSAT demand points to competitive law school admission cycle, more interest in legal issues

Law schools' admission essays revamped after Supreme Court affirmative action ruling

(Reporting by Karen Sloan)