But look under the hood and the frenzy is\u2026 leveling off? Just 9% of admissions officers predict the coming cycle will be \u201cmuch more competitive,\u201d 29% say \u201csomewhat more competitive,\u201d and 53% say it\u2019ll be \u201cabout the same.\u201d Compare that to last year\u2019s Kaplan survey<\/a>, where 13% said \u201cmuch more,\u201d 35% said \u201csomewhat more,\u201d and 42% said \u201cabout the same.\u201d The share expecting things to get tougher dropped from 48% to 38%. Only 6% think this cycle will actually be easier. Meaning there\u2019s a plateau in the law school rush, it\u2019s just at a very high altitude. <\/p>\n As for why everyone suddenly wants a J.D., admissions officers aren\u2019t mincing words. Looking back on the 2025-2026 cycle, 10% said the current political climate was the main factor behind the surge, 44% called it a major driver, and another 39% said it moderately drove the increase. Just 3% called politics a slight factor or no factor at all. Add in a rough post-college job market, and law school starts looking a lot like a three-year shelter from the storm (with tuition).<\/p>\n Of course, we\u2019ve been tracking the political pipeline for years, and back in 2018, Kaplan\u2019s survey of pre-law students confirmed the Trump Bump is real<\/a>, with 32% saying politics motivated their decision to apply. A year later, that number had jumped to 45%<\/a>, and by 2020, Kaplan was saying the effect appeared to have staying power<\/a>. Nearly a decade later, the Trump Bump is on its second Trump administration.<\/p>\n Kaplan\u2019s Glen Stohr, lead LSAT instructional designer, offered the obligatory note of caution, \u201cWhile passions may be high, the primary motivation for pursuing a J.D. should be a genuine desire to practice law. The decision shouldn\u2019t simply be about responding to the politics of the next few years, but preparing for a career that may span the next four decades.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is solid advice, and advice we\u2019ve been echoing for years. As we put it<\/a> in 2019, \u201cRemember kids, at worst, the Trump presidency will last eight years, but law school debt is forever.\u201d Even if we didn\u2019t expect the eight years to be nonconsecutive.<\/p>\n Earlier:<\/strong> U.S. Politics Drives Law School \u2018Application Boom\u2019<\/a> Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Politics Is Still Fueling The Law School Admissions Frenzy<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The law school applicant boom isn\u2019t going anywhere, and the people actually reading the applications say you can thank (or blame) the political climate.<\/p>\n According to a new Kaplan survey<\/a> of admissions officers at 90 of the nation\u2019s 198 ABA-accredited law schools (including 25 of the top 50, per U.S. News), a combined 91% expect the 2026-2027 cycle to be at least as competitive as the last one. That\u2019s coming off a cycle that saw an 8% increase in applicants on top of an 18% surge the year before \u2014 82,484 people applied this year, the largest applicant pool since the Great Recession<\/a>.<\/p>\n But look under the hood and the frenzy is\u2026 leveling off? Just 9% of admissions officers predict the coming cycle will be \u201cmuch more competitive,\u201d 29% say \u201csomewhat more competitive,\u201d and 53% say it\u2019ll be \u201cabout the same.\u201d Compare that to last year\u2019s Kaplan survey<\/a>, where 13% said \u201cmuch more,\u201d 35% said \u201csomewhat more,\u201d and 42% said \u201cabout the same.\u201d The share expecting things to get tougher dropped from 48% to 38%. Only 6% think this cycle will actually be easier. Meaning there\u2019s a plateau in the law school rush, it\u2019s just at a very high altitude. <\/p>\n As for why everyone suddenly wants a J.D., admissions officers aren\u2019t mincing words. Looking back on the 2025-2026 cycle, 10% said the current political climate was the main factor behind the surge, 44% called it a major driver, and another 39% said it moderately drove the increase. Just 3% called politics a slight factor or no factor at all. Add in a rough post-college job market, and law school starts looking a lot like a three-year shelter from the storm (with tuition).<\/p>\n Of course, we\u2019ve been tracking the political pipeline for years, and back in 2018, Kaplan\u2019s survey of pre-law students confirmed the Trump Bump is real<\/a>, with 32% saying politics motivated their decision to apply. A year later, that number had jumped to 45%<\/a>, and by 2020, Kaplan was saying the effect appeared to have staying power<\/a>. Nearly a decade later, the Trump Bump is on its second Trump administration.<\/p>\n Kaplan\u2019s Glen Stohr, lead LSAT instructional designer, offered the obligatory note of caution, \u201cWhile passions may be high, the primary motivation for pursuing a J.D. should be a genuine desire to practice law. The decision shouldn\u2019t simply be about responding to the politics of the next few years, but preparing for a career that may span the next four decades.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is solid advice, and advice we\u2019ve been echoing for years. As we put it<\/a> in 2019, \u201cRemember kids, at worst, the Trump presidency will last eight years, but law school debt is forever.\u201d Even if we didn\u2019t expect the eight years to be nonconsecutive.<\/p>\n Earlier:<\/strong> U.S. Politics Drives Law School \u2018Application Boom\u2019<\/a> The law school applicant boom isn\u2019t going anywhere, and the people actually reading the applications say you can thank (or blame) the political climate. According to a new Kaplan survey of admissions officers at 90 of the nation\u2019s 198 ABA-accredited law schools (including 25 of the top 50, per U.S. News), a combined 91% expect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Want To Go To Law School? Get Ready For \u2018Hyper Competition\u2019 To Earn Your Seat<\/a>
Law Schools Think Politics Is Driving Applications, But They Aren\u2019t Sure That\u2019s A Great Idea<\/a>
Over 30 Percent Of Applicants Want To Go To Law School Because Of Trump<\/a><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/07\/law-school-student-studying-for-final-exam-stressed-anxious-anxiety-300x216.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n
Want To Go To Law School? Get Ready For \u2018Hyper Competition\u2019 To Earn Your Seat<\/a>
Law Schools Think Politics Is Driving Applications, But They Aren\u2019t Sure That\u2019s A Great Idea<\/a>
Over 30 Percent Of Applicants Want To Go To Law School Because Of Trump<\/a><\/p>\n
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"