First Impressions of the Incoming Class of 2024: Largest Class Since 2021, Top-Line Diversity Is Level, More Research Needed and the Work Continues
Every year in mid-December, the ABA releases a trove of data about our nation’s law schools. The ABA’s Standard 509 data is compiled each fall by the ABA, LSAC, and all ABA-accredited U.S. law schools and is published annually by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. What follows are some key takeaways from this year’s certified data. Given LSAC’s deep expertise in admission and legal education, this blog post is also informed by data compiled by LSAC that complements and expands on Standard 509 data published by the ABA.[1]
Class Size
The incoming class of 2024 is about 39,600 J.D. students, 4.8% larger than the incoming class of 2023. Indeed, this year’s incoming class is the second largest in the last 10 years, second only to the large incoming class of 2021. Overall, 128 schools saw an increase in their incoming class size compared to 2023, 58 schools saw a decrease, and 10 schools admitted a class of the same size.
Racial and Ethnic Diversity
According to the data collected and analyzed by LSAC, 41.8% of the incoming 2024 class are from racially and ethnically minoritized groups[2], the same percentage as last year’s entering class, which was at the time a record, and up from 38.6% in 2021.[3]
Number of First-Year Law School Matriculants and
Proportion of Matriculants from Racially and Ethnically Minoritized Groups per Year, 2021-2024
More research is necessary to fully understand the details and nuances underlying this year’s admission data. As an organization committed to expanding access, equity, and fairness in law school admission, we believe it is significant that the overall proportion of racially and ethnically minoritized students in the incoming class did not decline.
Every school has its own unique admission policies. Schools worked hard to understand and implement the requirements of the Supreme Court ruling and put enormous time and effort into their individual holistic admission processes to admit a robust and diverse cohort of students based on their individual school missions.
As in previous years, law schools reported that 98% of the 2024 matriculants used the LSAT as part of their application process.
Additional Detail on Racial and Ethnic Diversity
Asian students comprise 9.5% of 2024 matriculants, compared to 9.6% in 2023 and 8.1% in 2021. Black/African American students comprise 7.6% of 2024 matriculants, compared to 7.7% in 2023 and 7.9% in 2021. Caucasian/white students comprise 50.8% of 2024 matriculants, compared to 51.6% in 2023 and 55.6% in 2021. Hispanic or Latina/é/o/x students comprise 9.7% of 2024 matriculants, up from 9.4% in 2023 and 8.9% in 2021.[4] Middle Eastern or North African students comprise 2.9% of 2024 matriculants, the same level as 2023 and up from 2.3% in 2021. American Indian or Alaska Native students represent 1.6% of 2024 matriculants, compared to 1.7% in 2023 and 2021.[5]
In recent years, the number of individuals who select two or more races and/or ethnicities has grown steadily, and now is the second largest matriculant group after Caucasian/white students, accounting for 10.1% of 2024 matriculants compared to 10.0% in 2023, and 9.1% in 2021.
The number of individuals who decline to indicate their race and ethnicity has grown over time. In 2024, 7.4% of matriculants did not indicate their race or ethnicity, up from 6.5% in 2023 and 5.8% in 2021.
Gender Diversity
Women once again made up more than half of the entering class, making up 55.9% of the entering class of 2024, up from 55.8% in in 2023. It is worth noting that women represented less than 50% of the entering class until 2015, and women currently represent about 41% of the overall U.S. legal profession, with significantly lower representation rates among senior job levels.
Men make up 41.1% of the class of 2024, compared to 41.3% in the entering class of 2023.
For this most recent entering class, 1.2% reported that they were gender diverse,[6] compared to 1.3% in 2023 and 1.1% in 2022. In addition, 1.8% of applicants did not report a gender identity.
Sexual Orientation Diversity
While the majority of the first-year class identify as heterosexual or straight, the proportion of students who do not identify as straight has been increasing. Among 2024 matriculants, 14.7% identify as LGBQ+[7], up from 13.8% in 2022. As with race and ethnicity, a growing proportion of students choose not to disclose their sexual orientation; among the incoming class of 2024, 13.4% chose not to disclose their sexual orientation, compared to 12.5% in 2023 and 11.4% in 2022.
Parental Education and Socioeconomic Trends
Overall, the majority of the 2024 entering class are continuing-generation college graduates who were not Pell Grant recipients. Approximately 23.0% of the 2024 1L class are first-generation college graduates,[8] compared to 24.2% of the 2023 1L class and 23.6% of the 2022 1L class.
Among the 2024 entering class, 26.4% of students were Pell Grant recipients, meaning they and their families were economically under-resourced. This is a slight increase from 2023, when 26.3% of entering students were Pell Grant recipients.
LSAT and UGPA Trends
In aggregate, the incoming class of 2024 had higher undergraduate GPAs and LSAT scores than previous years — median GPA was up 0.02 points and median LSAT score was up 0.09 points.
Overall, 135 schools reported an increase in median GPA for their incoming class, 59 schools reported a decrease, and 1 school reported no change.
By contrast, 59 schools reported an increase in median LSAT scores, 33 schools reported a decrease, and 103 reported no change.
Conclusion
Now that the data from law schools has been certified and published, we have a lot of work to do to analyze the recent admission cycle to understand how we can better support candidates and schools. LSAC’s applied research team has a number of ongoing research projects and will be sharing insights with the legal education community, starting with presentations at the upcoming Association of American Law Schools meeting in January.
The environment surrounding law school admission is as challenging and unsettled as I have ever seen in my 42 years in legal education. LSAC is committed to helping schools and prospective students navigate this complex and rapidly changing environment.
[1] Historical comparisons in this blog are based on data collected and analyzed this year, compared to data for previous years calculated in the same manner, to ensure an “apples-to-apples” comparison across different years.
[2] “Racially and ethnically minoritized” includes anyone who identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Hispanic or Latina/e/o/x, Middle Eastern or North African/Arab, Multiracial or Ethnoracial (2 or more), or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
[3] Starting in 2023, LSAC began reporting the category of Middle Eastern and North African/Arab students as a separate category. Previously, these students had been counted in the Caucasian/white category. This change had been long advocated by the Middle Eastern and North African/Arab community, as well as demographic experts. All historical data and charts presented in this blog post use this categorization across all years, so year-to-year comparisons are apples-to-apples comparisons. Alternatively, using the ABA’s historical approach which considers Middle Eastern and North African/Arab students within the Caucasian category, the 2024 class includes 37.2% students from racially and ethnically minoritized groups
[4] Hispanic or Latina/é/o/x includes matriculants who self-identified as only Hispanic or Latina/é/o/x, only Puerto Rican, or who self-selected only Hispanic or Latina/é/o/x and Puerto Rican combined. Other multiracial identities, such as Hispanic-White, Hispanic-Asian, Hispanic-Black, are included in the Two-or-More category.
[5] As recommended by the community, LSAC counts anyone who identifies as American Indian or Alaska native both exclusively or as one of multiple racial ethnicities, as American Indian or Alaska native. Individuals with multiple racial ethnicities including American Indian or Alaska Native are not counted within the Two-or-More category but are counted within the American Indian or Alaska Native category.
[6] Gender diverse includes students who identified as transgender and/or nonbinary or another gender identity.
[7] The term LGBQ+ refers to anyone who identifies with a sexual orientation other than straight/heterosexual. By contrast, the term LGBTQ+ refers to anyone who identifies with any sexual orientation other than heterosexual and/or anyone with any gender identity other than cisgender man or woman.
[8] First-generation college graduates are defined as 1Ls who reported that their parent(s) or guardian(s) had an associate’s degree, some college, high school completion/equivalent, or less than high school completion.
