As first-year enrollment gets slightly smaller, law schools have more non-JD students
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The total number of students at ABA-accredited law schools increased slightly this year. However, there was a small decrease in first-year enrollment, according to ABA data released Friday.
An ABA press release is here.
Data from individual schools can be viewed here. For 2020, JD enrollment is 114,520, compared to 112,882 in 2019, according to an overview posted on the website of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. There are 38,202 first-year students this year, while the 2019 entering class had 38,283.
Comparatively, in 2018, the entering class had 38,390 members.
According to the 2020 overview, 111 schools had “level or increased” 1L enrollment compared to 119 in 2019, and 86 had decreased enrollment in 2020, compared to 84 in 2019.
Also, the 2020 data shows a 7.4% increase in what’s considered “other than JD degree programs,” such as LLMs, masters and certificate offerings. ABA-accredited law schools have 21,292 people enrolled in non-JD programs in 2020, compared to 19,819 in 2019.
