This week, the American Bar Association published this year's required 509 disclosures—standardized data on admissions, enrollment, scholarships, faculty, and more. We took a look at that data, and here are our early takeaways. (We'll also be publishing a Status Check with Spivey podcast episode in early January going more in-depth on this topic, joined by LSAC Senior Director and Law School Transparency founder Kyle McEntee.)
LSAT and GPA Medians
This fall, the majority of LSAT medians stayed flat relative to last year, and the majority of GPA medians went up, continuing the long-term trend that many in legal education attribute largely to widespread grade inflation. Here's the breakdown among different sets of schools (grouped by U.S. News ranking):
All Law Schools
LSAT Medians
- 103 schools (52.6%) flat vs. last year
- 60 schools (30.6%) up
- 55 went up by 1 point
- 5 went up by 2 points
- None went up by 3 points or more
- 33 schools (16.8%) down
- 25 went down by 1 point
- 6 went down by 2 points
- 2 went down by 3 points or more
GPA Medians
- 23 schools (11.7%) flat vs. last year
- 122 schools (62.2%) up
- 59 up 0.01-0.03
- 31 up 0.04-0.06
- 22 up 0.07-0.09
- 10 up 0.10+
- 51 schools (26%) down
- 35 down 0.01-0.05
- 12 down 0.06-0.10
- 4 down 0.10+
Top 100 Ranked Law Schools*
LSAT Medians
- 58 (57.4%) flat
- 25 (24.8%) up
- 18 (17.8%) down
GPA Medians
- 18 (17.8%) flat
- 65 (64.4%) up
- 18 (17.8%) down
Top 50 Ranked Law Schools*
LSAT Medians
- 32 (61.5%) flat
- 11 (21.2%) up
- 9 (17.3%) down
GPA Medians
- 10 (19.2%) flat
- 33 (63.5%) up
- 9 (17.3%) down
Top 14 Ranked Law Schools*
LSAT Medians
- 11 (78.6%) flat
- 2 (14.3%) up
- 1 (7.1%) down
GPA Medians
- 4 (28.6%) flat
- 8 (57.1%) up
- 2 (14.3%) down
Of the total 196 law schools with published 509 reports this year (including the newly provisionally accredited Jacksonville University), 40 total schools increased both their LSAT and their GPA medians. 22 of those schools are ranked in the top 100, 9 are in the top 50, and 1 is in the top 14 (the University of Virginia School of Law). Nine total law schools decreased across both medians, including multiple schools ranked in the top 50.
As the data above shows, only 5 total law schools' LSAT medians went up by 2 points, and none went up by 3 points or more. Only one school ranked in the top 50 went up by 2 points (Texas A&M School of Law), and no schools ranked in the top 25 or top 14 did.
GPA medians saw greater increases. The University of Hawaii School of Law saw the greatest increase in GPA median relative to last year (by far) with +0.22. No law schools in the top 100 went up by 0.10 or more; the biggest increases in that group were UC Irvine School of Law and Marquette University Law School, both with +0.09. The biggest increase in the top 25 was the University of Georgia School of Law with +0.08, and the biggest increase in the top 14 was Northwestern Pritzker School of Law with +0.03.
Class Size
Overall first-year law school enrollment went up by approximately 5% this fall relative to last year, a total increase of 1,880 students. That increase is less pronounced among higher-ranked schools. Here's the breakdown:
- All ABA-accredited law schools: 5% up (1,880 students)
- Top 100 Ranked Schools: 4% up (830 students)
- Top 50 Ranked Schools: 5% up (555 students)
- Top 25 Ranked Schools: 2% up (134 students)
- Top 14 Ranked Schools: 2.5% up (115 students)
In total, 129 law schools increased their incoming class sizes this fall, 57 decreased, and 10 brought in the same number of students as last year.
Looking more closely at the top 14 ranked law schools, 11 total schools increased their incoming class size, 7 of those by a relatively small margin (~3% or less). Cornell Law School and Georgetown University Law Center increased their class sizes by the largest margins within that group, by 13% and 8.4% respectively. Among all law schools, the biggest (by percentage) incoming class size increase was at Baylor Law School, which reported bringing in 111 more students this year relative to last year, more than doubling last year's 1L enrollment.
Race, Ethnicity, Gender, & International Students
Several factors (the most notable having to do with the elimination of the "nonresidents" category) have made comparing this year's race/ethnicity data to past years' more difficult, which we will discuss below—but first, let's look at the overall demographics of this fall's entering class:
Race/Ethnicity
- 56.86% White
- 14.4% Hispanic
- 9.55% Asian
- 7.80% Black
- 6.69% Unknown
- 4.21% Mixed Race
- 0.38% American Indian or Alaska Native
- 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
Gender
- 56% Women
- 42% Men
- 2% Other
As mentioned above, one of the most significant structural differences between this year's 509 disclosures and last year's is that the ABA has removed the "nonresident" category, a classification that was previously reported as part of race/ethnicity. To some extent, this change certainly makes sense, as international students were previously not accurately captured in race/ethnicity reporting, instead being reported as a monolithic group of "nonresidents." Access to more accurate demographic information about these students is a good thing. However, without any replacement, that means these 509 reports no longer include any information to indicate how many international students enrolled at a given law school.
This is particularly significant because many law schools, in many years, enroll very few or no international students at all, while others enroll large numbers. Without this information moving forward, international applicants will have to rely on historical data to understand which law schools are the likeliest prospects for them. The admissions process is already more difficult for international students relative to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, so we very much hope that, in the future, this nonresident race/ethnicity category is replaced by a new section that indicates the number of international enrollees at each law school in some other way.
This change also makes it much more difficult to accurately compare and track changes in the overall race/ethnicity data as well—which is of particular interest to many this year as we assess the results of the first admissions cycle following the 2023 Supreme Court decision on race-conscious admissions. This difficulty in comparing is especially prominent when looking at applicants categorized as Asian by the ABA, as data shows that countries in Asia are the most common source of international students studying in the U.S. Looking at one example, Harvard Law School's 2023 disclosures show that 103 Asian students and 31 nonresidents enrolled in the 1L class last fall. Looking at their 2024 disclosures' 2L demographics (i.e. the same class, but with nonresidents redistributed to their appropriate race/ethnicity categories), Harvard now reports 134 Asian students—an increase of 31. Some of that increase almost certainly comes from students who transferred into Harvard, which makes analyzing this data difficult to do with real precision, and attrition, too, further confounds analysis here. This illustrates how tricky understanding and comparing this data can be with the new elimination of the nonresident category.
Given the above, it comes as no surprise that students categorized as Asian saw a significant increase in law school enrollment this fall—but how much of that increase comes from comparable domestic students, and how much comes from students who were previously counted only as "nonresidents"? It's unclear. This also impacts the overall "people of color" (POC) category that 509 disclosures report, as that group includes all racial/ethnic categories other than white and unknown. Topline POC enrollment increased this year vs. last year, but we do not know how much of that is attributable to the nonresidents change. At this point, at least with publicly available data, it's impossible to say.
While increases among certain demographics cannot be precisely disaggregated from the elimination of the nonresidents category, decreases are not attributable to that shift (though certainly the decreases may have been sharper without the change). So, we will look more closely at the major demographic groups that show decreased enrollment this year.
First-year enrollment of both Hispanic and Black students decreased this fall relative to fall 2023. Black students made up 7.8% of the matriculating class relative to last year's 7.95%, while Hispanic students made up 14.4% of the matriculating class relative to last year's 14.47%. These changes vary across different ranges of schools, however. Let's look more closely:
Black First-Year Law Students - % of Total Incoming Class
- All ABA-Approved Law Schools: 7.80% (down from 7.95% last year)
- Top 100 Ranked Law Schools: 5.61% (down from 6.41% last year)
- Top 50 Ranked Law Schools: 5.88% (down from 7.16% last year)
- Top 25 Ranked Law Schools: 6.86% (down from 7.73% last year)
- Top 14 Ranked Law Schools: 7.29% (down from 8.05% last year)
Hispanic First-Year Law Students - % of Total Incoming Class
- All ABA-Approved Law Schools: 14.40% (down from 14.47% last year)
- Top 100 Ranked Law Schools: 11.98% (down from 12.44% last year)
- Top 50 Ranked Law Schools: 10.29% (down from 10.74% last year)
- Top 25 Ranked Law Schools: 10.03% (down from 11.34% last year)
- Top 14 Ranked Law Schools: 9.59% (down from 11.1% last year)
JD-Next
One of the other changes introduced to this year's 509 reports is the inclusion of JD-Next data. This data is, so far, extremely limited, which makes sense given how recently it was approved for limited use by some law schools through the ABA's variance process. A total of seven law schools reported enrolling at least one student through JD-Next, i.e. without an LSAT or GRE score. Other schools have used JD-Next as a supplemental exam in addition to evaluating LSAT scores, which would not be reflected in this data, as any applicant with a reportable LSAT must be counted by that score by ABA standards.
The University of Arizona College of Law (where JD-Next was originally developed) enrolled a total of 9 students (8.8% of their incoming class) whose only test score was JD-Next. Creighton University School of Law enrolled 6 of these students (3.9% of their incoming class), and the University of Dayton School of Law enrolled 4 (3.1% of their incoming class). Four more law schools (Texas A&M, Charleston, California Western, and Widener Delaware) enrolled one JD-Next-only student each. No other law schools reported enrolling students with JD-Next as their only exam.
You can find all of this official data on the ABA's official website here. Additionally, our online tool MyRank has been updated with all of the new data here, where you can search, filter, and rank law schools according to custom metrics that you decide (totally free, no sign-up required).
We'll speak more about this data on our podcast early next month.
*Due to ties in the rankings, 101 schools are in the "top 100," and 52 are in the "top 50." Additionally, prcentages may not add up to exactly 100% due to rounding.