The AccessLex Institute published its 2022 Legal Education Data Deck to showcase the latest trends in the access, affordability, and value of law school. AccessLex, a nonprofit institution with a mission to improve access to legal education and maximize its affordability and value, creates the data deck using publicly available datasets. We have provided key insights from the deck below.
Applicant Volume
Between 2017 and 2021 females made up the majority of applicants, and the proportion of male applicants declined each year during this period. Women accounted for 56 percent of applicants and men made up 42 percent in 2021. Correspondingly, women’s admissions rates were lower than men’s. In 2021, however, women’s admissions rate climbed to 70 percent (+2 percentage points from 2020), which was the first year-over-year increase in admissions rate for either men or women since 2014.
In 2017, female enrollment surpassed males. Since then, female enrollment has increased annually while male enrollment has declined.
In 2021, just under two-thirds of law degrees were awarded to white students (63 percent), while about a quarter went to students who identified as Hispanic/Latino (12 percent), Black/African-American (7 percent), and Asian (6 percent).
Costs
In 2021, there was a significant decrease in the average cost of full-time tuition and fees. Using 2021 dollars to compare costs across time, private school expenses decreased to a level not recorded since 2016, public school (resident) costs decreased to 2014 levels, and public school (non-resident) decreased to a level below 2013.
Between 2013 and 2020, there was a significant increase in the median grant amount awarded to full-time students. Using 2021 dollars to compare, the median grant amount increased from $15,800 in 2013 to $22,100 in 2020.
The share of full-time students receiving grant awards also increased between 2011 and 2019. In 2011, 13 percent of full-time students received a grant worth at least half of tuition, and in 2019, that number had more than doubled to 29 percent. Similarly, in 2011 52 percent of full-time students received a grant (worth any amount) and by 2019 over three-quarters (78 percent) received grant money.
Value
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlooks projects growth in legal employment between 2019 and 2029. Among positions requiring a graduate or professional degree, lawyers are projected to have the third largest increase in openings (32,300).
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