Application Timeline

For whatever fall semester that you intend to enter law school, applications for that cycle become available in or around September one year prior. Although application deadlines vary and may not occur until spring, because law schools use a rolling admissions process, it is not in your best interest to wait until nearing a school’s spring deadline to apply. Rolling admissions means that law schools start evaluating and deciding on applications in fall, almost a year before classes start and well before the application deadline. Applying relatively early in the admissions process may increase your likelihood of admission because at the beginning of the process you are competing against a smaller pool of applicants for a larger number of available spots than you would later in the process.

A good rule of thumb is to plan to apply to law school one year before you wish to start. Applicants who apply right away in September have a higher chance of admission, and also an increased likelihood of being eligible for merit based scholarship aid (which all applicants are considered for, and are often awarded in large part due to GPA and LSAT scores). We recommend that applicants apply sometime between September and the end of November one year before they wish to start law school for best results. For more information on scholarships, see our Financing Law School page.