Gender, race and finances for law school admittees examined in new report
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In 2022, 70% of law school applicants received admissions offers, and men continue to be admitted at higher rates than women, according to a report released Tuesday by the AccessLex Institute, a nonprofit organization.
Titled Legal Education Data Deck: Key trends on access, affordability and value, the report claims that 2022 marked the first admissions rate increase in seven years. For 2022, 56% of the applicants were women, and 42% were men. Also, 2% of the group had another gender identity.
Regarding law school acceptance rates, the rate was 68% for women, and it was 71% for men. The report does not show an admissions rate for people with another gender identity.
The report’s data came from the Law School Admission Council, the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the National Association for Law Placement, the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Also, the report looked at admission rates by race and ethnicity. According to the report, 78% of the white applicants received at least one law school admission. That was also true for 70% of the Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders applicants, 67% of the applicants who are multiracial, and 67% of the applicants who are Asian.
Additionally, 58% of the applicants who were Hispanic, Latino or Puerto Rican were accepted to law school, as were 52% of the American Indian or Alaskan Native appliants and 48% of the Black or African American applicants.
Finances, including law school grants awarded to students, were also examined in the report. In 2013, the median grant award given to full-time students who received aid was $13,500, compared to $23,000 in 2021, according to the report.
Student loan data from 2004 to 2016 is also detailed. In 2004, 87% of all law school graduates used loans to fund their education, and it went down to 71% in 2016, according to the report. However, the average cumulative amount of graduate debt was $101,400 in 2004, compared to $141,400 in 2016. The average debt amount decreased between 2012 and 2016, from $152,400 to $141,400, according to the report.
Median salaries are also detailed. For bar-pass-required jobs, it was $80,000, and it was $70,000 for JD-advantage jobs. That data is from 2021, according to the report.
