In 2021, the entering law school class made headlines for being the largest and most diverse to date, with almost 35 percent of students identifying as people of color. But now, although the class size has returned to “normal levels,” two-thirds of the 2022 incoming law school class identify as students of color. LSAC describes the incoming class as “by far the most racially and ethnically diverse law school class in history.”
The LSAC 2022 entering class profile incorporates LSAC data along with the ABA’s published Standard 509 data. Below are some highlights from the profile on the makeup of the incoming class.
The class size totaled over 38,000, a decrease from the unusually large 2021 entering class, but on par with the class sizes seen since 2018.
Using demographic categories that directly compare to previous years, 36.6 percent of the incoming class identify as students of color, up about 2 percentage points from last year (34.7 percent) and up over 3 percent from 2018 (33.3 percent).
Using updated demographic breakouts that include a category for Middle Eastern and North African/Arab students (who historically have been incorporated into the Caucasian category), the percentage of students who identify as a person of color increases to 39 percent, an increase of 2.1 percentage points over last year.
Women continue to make up the majority of the incoming class (55.3 percent), while men comprising 42.5 percent of the class.
Almost all of the incoming class, over 98 percent, took the LSAT as part of the application process. The 2022 incoming class had a higher average LSAT score, up by 0.32 points, when compared to the 2021 entering class.
The 2022 entering class also earned a higher median undergraduate GPA, up by 0.04 points, than the 2021 class.
You can find LSAC’s full profile here, or access the ABA dataset here.