Funding the First Year: How 2024 1Ls Paid for Law School

Promoting access, equity, and fairness in law school admission and supporting the learning journey from prelaw through practice requires data-informed and community-wide effort. Building on LSAC’s 2024 1L Profile report, this report focuses on how the 2024 1L class financed their legal education. In a series of factors categorized in seven broad categories, cost of attendance was ranked as the top factor considered by the 2024 1L class in their enrollment decision.

So, how did the 2024 1L class finance the total cost of attendance in their first year, and what does this tell us about access to legal education? Using data collected in LSAC’s 2024 Matriculant survey, this report provides answers, diving deeper into:

• the funding sources the 2024 1L class used and relied on,
• the number of funding sources the 2024 1L class used, and
• how much projected debt the 2024 1L class anticipates they will accrue to finance their legal education.

This report provides important insights that can help law schools and stakeholders in the legal education community understand how to support future law students on the prelaw through practice journey. Specifically, it highlights how law school is financially possible – but often creates a heavy debt burden – for many law students today. The data reveals that:

• School specific scholarships or grants and federal loans were vital in enabling the 2024 1L class to pay the total cost of attendance in their first year.
  • About seven out of ten 1Ls report they used school specific scholarships or grants to pay for their first year of law school. In fact, about one in five 1Ls heavily relied on school specific scholarships or grants, using them to pay 76% to 100% of the total cost of their 1L attendance.[1] Racially and ethnically minoritized 1Ls used school specific scholarships or grants at a rate 15% lower than their white peers.[2]
  • Just under half of all 1Ls report using federal loans. A quarter of 1Ls who used federal loans heavily relied on them, using them to pay 76% to 100% of the total cost of their 1L attendance. The reliance is even heavier among some groups: 31% of Pell Grant recipients and 29% of racially and ethnically minoritized students heavily relied on federal loans to make their law school dreams a reality, which are reliance rates significantly higher than their peers.
• The vast majority of 2024 1Ls used three or fewer funding sources to finance their legal education.
  • 91% of 1Ls report they used 3 or fewer sources of funding to cover their cost of attendance in their first year of law school.
  • Of those who only used one source of funding, a third paid their total cost of attendance using only federal loans.
• Overall, the 2024 1L class anticipates accumulating significant debt to secure their legal education, but the amount of debt varies widely from person to person especially for students from marginalized communities. On average, the 1L respondents report $76,300 in projected law school debt upon graduation, and 17% of 1Ls anticipate owing $150,000 or more.
  • Black/African American 1Ls report an average debt load of $108,713, 43% higher than the average debt of all 1L respondents, and 31% anticipate owing $150,000 or more.
  • First-generation college graduates anticipate owing an average of $84,796, almost 20% higher than the debt load that continuing generation students anticipate.
  • Pell grant recipients anticipate an average law school debt of $97,197, almost 50% higher than that of non-recipients.
  • About 30% of all 1Ls who reported using federal loans anticipate graduating law school with a debt of $150,000 or more. This rate jumped to 55% for all 1Ls who heavily relied on federal loans to cover the total cost of attendance.

Today's law students are making a tremendous financial investment on their journey to practice law. Cost is a known barrier to legal education, but when students are admitted to a preferred law school, they will do their best to find a way to enroll (as we know from LSAC surveys). The 2024 1L class reports using a number of funding sources, but many students, especially those from marginalized communities, are using school specific scholarships or grants and/or federal loans and relying on those sources to finance the greater part of their legal education. Understanding how students cover the total cost of attendance provides insights to help schools and other stakeholders innovate, leverage, and advocate for various sources of funding.

To learn more, download the report here. 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] Reliance is divided into four levels. Somewhat reliant means students used it to cover 1-25% of their total cost of attendance. Moderately reliant means students used it to cover 26%-50% of their total cost of attendance. Very reliant means students used it to cover 51%-75% of their total cost of attendance. And heavily reliant means students used it to cover 76%-100% of their total cost of attendance.

[2] The term “minoritized” refers to populations that have been treated as less important than the dominant population in terms of access, power, and other aspects of social processes. Minoritized incorporates an understanding of social structures rather than being numerically/statistically smaller/fewer. Minoritized can be used to describe various populations and is not synonymous with or limited to racially/ethnically underrepresented populations. This term is used interchangeably with marginalized in this report.