June 9, 2015

2014-2015 Admissions Cycle Data Through June 5th!

2014-2015 Admissions Cycle Data Through June 5th!Spivey Consulting Group

ABA Fall 2015 Applicant and Application Counts

The following is a breakdown of ABA 2015 applicants and applications by region (based on data received through 6/05/15) and the percent change from last year:

Region Applicants # Applicants Pct Chg Applications # Applications Pct Chg
Far West 6,566 -3.1% 50,613 -4.9%
Great Lakes 6,036 -4.8% 47,020 -5.4%
Midsouth 6,104 -1.7% 62,164 -3.7%
Midwest 1,713 -1.5% 10,062 -6.4%
Mountain West 2,595 -0.9% 11,262 +7.9%
New England 2,248 -4.3% 27,345 -5.1%
Northeast 8,108 -1.5% 57,292 -5.5%
Northwest 1,303 -0.8% 6,589 -7.5%
South Central 5,470 -0.4% 22,952 -4.8%
Southeast 7,551 -3.5% 32,494 -5.4%
Regional Total 47,694 -2.5%
Other* 2,575 -3.8%
Total 50,269 -2.5% 327,793 -4.6%
  • Other includes those applicants whose permanent residence is not available or is outside the United States.

Currently there are 6 schools with an application volume increase of 40% or more, while 2 schools show a volume decrease of 30% or more. Fifty-two schools show an increase in applications, while 140 show a decline and 10 show no change. A more detailed breakdown of school increases/decreases is shown below:

Increase of 100% or more: -
Increase of 50% to 99%: 4
Increase of 40% to 49%: 2
Increase of 30% to 39%: -
Increase of 20% to 29%: 2
Increase of 10% to 19%: 16
Increase of 1% to 9%: 28
No change: 10
Decrease of 1% to 9%: 74
Decrease of 10% to 19%: 49
Decrease of 20% to 29%: 15
Decrease of 30% or greater: 2

Applications to private institutions are down 5.0%, and applications to public law schools are down 3.7%.

The following is a breakdown of 2015 ABA applicants by racial/ethnic groups and the percent change from last year.

Race/Ethnicity Applicants # Applicants Pct Chg
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australian 3 -50.0%
American Indian or Alaska Native 1,130 -0.5%
Asian 5,255 -7.0%
Black or African American 7,446 -0.4%
Canadian Aboriginal 38 -2.6%
Caucasian/White 31,653 -3.4%
Hispanic/Latino 6,051 3.4%
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander 230 -5.0%
Puerto Rican 1,487 1.4%
Not Indicated 1,448 -6.2%
Missing 3 -72.7%

The following is a breakdown of 2015 ABA law school applicants by gender groups:

Female applicants: 25,579, down 1%
Male applicants: 24,628, down 4.2%
Not indicated: 62, up 100%

The chart below shows the high LSAT score of 2015 ABA applicants with the percent change from last year:

Highest LSAT Number of Applicants Pct Chg YTD
< 140 4,060 -0.9%
140–144 5,259 0.5%
145–149 7,693 -2.2%
150–154 9,735 -3.9%
155–159 9,262 -4.1%
160–164 6,723 -5.6%
165–169 4,124 -12.3%
170–174 1,965 -10.4%
175–180 484 -19.7%
Authors
Mike Spivey

Founder and CEO

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