How to Apply to Law School: Application Timeline, CAS and Deadlines

LSAC's date and fee pages — the sources for this page — publish no national application deadline: what LSAC fixes is the test calendar.

So your working calendar gets built backward from the schools on your list, and their application deadlines are not something this page verified school by school — take each one from its admissions office.

The test calendar matters here because LSAC says the LSAT is the only admission test accepted by all ABA-approved law schools.

Scores stay usable for a long time.

A result is reportable for five testing years after the testing year in which you earned it, and testing years run July 1 to June 30.

Scores earned before July 2021 are no longer valid for law school admission.

Planning to retake?

You can sit the LSAT five times within the current reportable score period and seven times in a lifetime, at the same fee as a first attempt.

LSAC says test takers retaking in the same testing year raise their scores by 2 to 3 points on average — one reason an earlier first attempt leaves room for a second.

For 2026–2027, the LSAT is offered in August, September, October, November, January, February, April and June, plus LSAT–Puerto Rico in February.

One logistics change to know: starting with the August 2026 test, LSAC requires the LSAT to be taken in person at Prometric test centers, with remote testing only for limited medical/disability accommodations or test takers living more than 180 miles or three hours from a center.

Working backward also means knowing what schools evaluate in the first place — the law school requirements are the other half of the picture, and they are worth confirming before you lock in a test date.

The Credential Assembly Service is the LSAC subscription that sits behind the law school reports: you subscribe, then order reports at $45 each.

For 2026–2027 the CAS subscription costs $219, and each report — the CAS Law School Report or the LSAT-Only Law School Report — costs $45.

One rule surprises repeat test takers: law schools receive all reportable LSAT scores, not just your best.

LSAC advises that the average score is the best predictor, though it notes some schools weigh the highest score more.

The scale itself runs from 120 to 180, with no deduction for wrong answers.

If cost is the barrier, LSAC's fee waiver program is tiered: a Tier 1 waiver covers up to two LSATs in the two-year waiver period, while a Tier 2 waiver does not include a retake.

One honest limit: the fees above are what LSAC publishes, but what each report must contain — and when each school needs it — was not verified for this page.

Its research covered LSAC's fees and test dates, not school-by-school report rules, so get those directly from each admissions office.

The simplest way to see the cycle is LSAC's own date table.

These are the 2026–2027 U.S./Canada test dates from November onward, each with its registration deadline and score release:

Registration closes roughly six weeks before each administration, and scores arrive on fixed dates about three weeks later — which is why the test you pick decides when your application can be complete.

Plans shift, and LSAC prices the changes: moving your test date is free through the registration deadline, $153 up to 7 days after it, and $253 from 8 days after the deadline until testing.

If a score disappoints, the retake rules from the first section apply — five tests per reportable score period, seven in a lifetime, same fee either way.

Where a law school offers a binding early decision plan, the word does the work: admitted under the plan, you are bound by that school's published early decision terms.

What those terms commit you to is written by the school, and this page's research (LSAC's test, scoring and fee pages) does not describe early decision plans.

Those terms are the only authority; read them before you apply early, not after you are admitted.

A regular round runs on the same logic — its terms and deadline come from the school too; what an early round adds, per its name, is earlier timing and, where the plan is binding, the commitment its terms describe.

The timeline interaction is the practical part, and it is the half this page can pin down.

An early deadline moves your LSAT date earlier, because scores only exist on the release dates in the table above — so aim at the administration whose release lands before that school's early deadline.

And remember that schools receive all reportable scores: an early-round review sees whatever is reportable when your report arrives.

A waitlist place is neither an admit nor a denial — the decision is still open.

Everything operational about how that works — how long a list stays open, whether it is ranked, and what updates or materials it accepts — was not covered by this page's research, which sits on LSAC's test, scoring and fee pages.

The school's own instructions are the authority; its admissions office can tell you what updates it welcomes.

The procedural side is yours to control.

Follow the school's instructions exactly, answer any update request the way it asks, and keep every other deadline alive — be ready to respond within whatever deadline another school sets if it admits you while you wait.

If the cycle ends with a waitlist and a decision to reapply with a stronger score, the constraints are the ones from the top of this page: the LSAT can be taken five times in the current reportable score period and seven times in a lifetime, an average gain of 2 to 3 points when retaking in the same testing year per LSAC, and a record that keeps every reportable score — a retake adds to what schools see; it does not replace it.

Career information, not legal advice — and not a substitute for the source. Dates and fees above are LSAC's 2026–2027 schedule, and each law school's own published deadlines and program terms override anything here. Confirm current details with LSAC and each admissions office before you act on them.