ABA Report Shows Little Change in Law School Enrollment
Enrollment for first-year law students at ABA-approved law schools was nearly flat for the 2007-08 school year, according to a new report by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
First-year enrollment stood at 48,964 students, an increase of only 27 students over the previous year, says an ABA press release summarizing the findings. Total enrollment for all law students was 141,433, an increase of 402 students over the previous year.
Men made up 53.2 percent of the total enrollment, and minorities were 21.6 percent of the total. The number of minorities enrolled as first-year students increased by 94 people, to 10,992, but their percentage of the first-year class dropped from 22.4 percent in the 2006 academic year to 22.3 percent this year.
The latest numbers include two new law schools that gained ABA accreditation, the Phoenix School of Law and the Charleston School of Law. ABA consultant on legal education Hulett “Bucky” Askew says there are no surprises in the numbers.
He notes that figures from the Law School Admissions Council show that fewer people are applying to law schools, although the decrease wasn’t as pronounced in 2007. He suggests the smaller applicant pool may have contributed to flat admission numbers for first-year classes. He also says some law schools may have decided to keep entering classes small, or they may have overestimated the number of students who would accept offers to attend.
The statistics are summarized in chart form (PDF) on the Legal Education website.
