2025 1L Profile
Building on prior LSAC 1L Profiles and another previous report — The Composition of the First-Year Law School Class and Enrollment 2021-2025 Trends — this report focuses on the 2025 first-year (1L) class; as such, it includes insights into the final enrolled class prior to the implementation of federal loan cap and repayment plan changes. It also provides the legal community with data-informed and contextualized insights into:
- Who is enrolling in law school
- Where they enrolled
- How they made their enrollment decisions
- How they view and plan to finance their legal education
Based on 2025 enrollment data and more than 3,000 1L respondents to LSAC’s 2025 Matriculant Survey, the 2025 1L class offers a baseline and critical indications of how some of these students’ future peers may be affected by the recent federal loan changes and ongoing uncertainty about how to pay for law school.
Key Insights About Enrollment Decision-Making and Financing Law School
- First Thought About Law School: A majority (53%) of 2025 1L respondents reported first thinking about law school before college, a rate similar to prior classes.[1]
- Law Motivation: The primary motivations for studying law continue to be financial security (52%), helping others (49%), and advocating for social justice (38%), similar to prior classes.[2]
- Confidence in Their Enrollment Decision: Among 1L respondents, 80% said they are attending the right law school for them.
- Access to Effective Guidance: Access to effective guidance varied, with 64% of continuing-generation college graduates indicating they had access to effective guidance, while 56% of first-generation college graduates did — an absolute difference of 8%.[3]
- Views on the Cost of Law School: Generally, 1L respondents viewed the financial cost of legal education as a worthwhile investment. However, concerns about the financial burden were more pronounced among students with fewer access to resources. For example, 64% of first-generation college graduates reported that they were concerned about their future ability to pay off the cost of attending law school, compared with 52% of continuing-generation college graduates — an absolute difference of 12%.
- Understanding Law School Financing: Students with more access to financial resources reported greater confidence in their ability to manage costs than their peers. For example, 77% of 1L respondents who did not receive a Pell Grant reported they know how to pay for law school, compared with 68% of 1L respondents who are Pell Grant recipients — an absolute difference of 9%.
- Anticipated Law School Debt: Among 1L respondents, 57% reported borrowing to pay their total cost of attendance, while 22% expect to graduate from law school debt free; only 12% of 1L respondents who are Pell Grant recipients reported the same.
- High Law School Debt for Some: More than one in five 1Ls who received a Pell Grant anticipated owing $150,000 or more at graduation.
First-year law students in the 2025 1L class come from diverse communities, backgrounds, and experiences. Consistent with this diversity, students’ priorities and decision-making factors vary widely. Disparities in access to resources and effective guidance persist, especially for first-generation college graduates and Pell Grant recipients. Despite these disparities, most 1L respondents view the cost of legal education as a justified investment, even given their financial concerns.
To learn more, download the report. If you have any questions related to this project or future work informed by the results, please contact LSAC Applied Research at StrategicResearch@LSAC.org.
[1] Refer to LSAC’s Knowledge Report: The 2023 1L Profile and LSAC’s Knowledge Report: The 2024 1L Profile.
[2] Refer to LSAC’s Knowledge Report: The 2024 1L Profile.
[3] Absolute difference measures the absolute difference of two values; for percent values, this is also sometimes referred to as “percentage point change.” Throughout this report, the phrase “absolute difference” is used to describe this comparison.
