Findings from an AccessLex study on law school admissions prove the old adage: If you’re early, you’re on time and, if you’re on time, you’re late. They found:
Submission timing matters greatly. Students who submitted applications early, prior to the end of November, gained admission to law school at a rate of 40 percent. Those who submitted applications “on time,” prior to the beginning of February, gained admission at a rate of 24 percent. Late applicants, even with similar admissions profiles, were less likely than those who submitted early or on time to receive an offer.
Kelsey Risman, a senior evaluation methodologist at the AccessLex Institute, spoke about the study results with the ABA Journal, emphasizing the impact that rolling admissions can have on applicants. “The deadline is not really the deadline. The deadline is just when they stop looking at things in a rolling admissions context. If you submit the day before the deadline, you might be fighting many people for one remaining slot,” she said.
LSAT timing drives an applicant’s submission. The report also showed that a key contributor to overall application timing is LSAT timing. Of the prospective law students who took the test after January 1st, almost two-thirds, 63 percent, submitted their application late. Among those who completed the LSAT before January 1st, the percentage that submitted late decreased to 26 percent.
Sound application strategy is different from law school readiness. The study found no correlation between high LSAT scores and early application submissions. Those who submitted applications early were simply more likely to have demonstrated knowledge of application tactics, while those who submitted late pointed to “an incomplete or inaccurate understanding of sound application strategy.”