Law School Application Deadlines: When Being on Time is Already Too Late

Students seeking admission to law school need to pay careful attention to deadlines. Registering for the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) and the CAS (Credential Assembly Service) are critical to the process—law schools will not consider an incomplete application. The LSAT exam represents a "hard deadline"—a date that are not optional and must be adhered to in any given admission cycle for your application to be considered complete. But one deadline that guides the timing of the entire application process is a little fuzzier: the final date by which all materials must be submitted to a given law school for admission consideration.

Understanding Law School Application Deadlines

All law schools have a final application deadline—the latest possible date that an application can be submitted to receive consideration. But many schools have pushed that date further back, making it closer to the start of the semester. At the same time, early admission application deadlines can be very early indeed. The benefit of early admission is an earlier answer from one’s preferred law school. The tradeoff is that, to be considered for early acceptance, one generally has to agree to not apply to other law schools. Admissions practices thus leave a lot of time in between these early admission and final application deadlines, meaning that in between these dates, admissions decisions are being made on a "rolling basis." As the admission cycle progresses, the pool of applicants typically expands, and the number of available seats shrinks. In other words, when you apply matters. And, if you wait closer to the end of the cycle, your chances of admission, as well as favorable financial assistance, decrease.

New Data on Application Timing

A new study, “If You’re On Time, You’re Late,” details the evidence on applying later in the admissions cycle, though still before the official deadline. For applicants of similar profiles (LSAT scores and grade point averages), those who applied earlier in the process were more likely to be admitted—there was a 40% versus a 24% acceptance rate for those who waited until late in the process. The report also found a disproportionate impact for racially or economically underrepresented applicants for the very reason that applicants in these groups tend to apply later.

What Can you Do?

Part of the problem may be that students are waiting too long to take the LSAT. The LSAT is offered more frequently now with new post-pandemic remote testing options. There is also a much quicker turnaround in the release of LSAT test results. Thus, rather than taking the LSAT the summer or fall of the year before, they are deferring the LSAT until January (or later) of their target admission year. This, in turn, pushes consideration of their application back until later spring or even the summer—sometimes only mere months ahead of the start of the fall semester. In combination with law schools’ increasingly late final application deadlines, this gives students a false sense that there is still plenty of time to apply for fall admission. In other words, because applicants can wait until later, many are waiting until later unaware that application timing affects the chance of success.

According to the study, “LSAT timing is a key contributor to application timing. The predicted likelihood of applying late is 63% for applicants who sat for the LSAT late (after January 1) compared to only 26% for early or on-time (before January 1) applicants.”

Perhaps this should not be surprising—early application reflects more pre-planning and attention to detail. Last-minute applications may suggest disorganization, or a lack of intentionality.

The way to maximize your chances of successful admission is to apply as early in the process as you possibly can. It is not necessary to apply under a more restrictive early acceptance process, but the long-standing rule-of-thumb that one should apply at least a full semester before the start of the law school’s new academic year is still good advice.

To increase the likelihood of acceptance:

• Register for and take the LSAT early (no later than summer or fall of the year before your targeted admission date) to ensure a complete application in January or by early spring. This leaves time to retake the exam if necessary.
• Register for the CAS and solicit letters of recommendation on this same timeline.
• Aim for the completion of your application by January 1 of your target application year.
• Consider early acceptance program options, but only if they are right for you.
• Research their admissions processes. Understanding the school’s application process can inform your application strategy.

Does this Mean I Should Never Apply Later in the Process?

There may be situations in which a later application is still a reasonable, or even the right, choice for you. Applying later in the process may be more advisable than deferring your application for an entire year. Conversely, there also may be advantages to waiting until the next cycle. Later applicants may be waitlisted with a final admission decision coming very close to the start of the semester.

But absolutely do recognize that the school’s final application deadline is not the optimal deadline for most applicants. The "real" deadline is much earlier than the final application date given by the law school.