For the first time ever the American Bar Association — specifically the Data Policy and Collection Committee — is tracking who is getting law school scholarships. The results, at least if you care about diversity, are not fantastic.
The most notable data point relates to the full-ride scholarships. White law students are getting a whopping 70 percent of those scholarships, despite only making up 61 percent of total law students. As a result, the full tuition scholarships for other race/ethnicities fall below their representation in law schools. People of color, overall, make up almost 32 percent of law students but they receive only 22.5 percent of the full scholarships. Also of note, when diverse students *do* get full scholarships they’re often earmarked for diversity purposes — and those exact sort of programs are under attack in a post-affirmative action world.
Here’s more detail from the ABA committee:
via ABA Data Policy and Collection Committee
The corollary to this, of course, is that people of color are receiving more partial — defined as less than 50% of tuition — scholarships. White law students are getting 58 percent of partial scholarships, people of color are receiving ~34 percent.
Perhaps it isn’t surprising then, that according to the Law School Survey of Student Engagement, diverse law students are more likely to have massive debt upon graduation. Forty-four percent of Black law students and 48 percent of Hispanic students will owe $120,000+ at graduation.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
