By Angela Morris (Texas Lawyer, February 2019)
On the national stage, law schools saw a 3 percent boost in first-year student enrollment—the first gain since 2010—but Texas saw a more modest gain of just 1 percent, which is 2,220 students.
However small, an enrollment uptick is welcome news since law schools for years have tightened their budgets after the Great Recession wrecked the legal job market and dissuaded prospective students from choosing the law school route.
Texas A&M School of Law in Fort Worth saw the largest bump of 32 percent, and four other schools also grew their enrollment. On the other side, five schools saw declining enrollment, headed by St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, with an 18 percent drop.
Enrollment data comes from the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the nation’s law school accrediting body. How do Texas’ law schools compare? Each is listed below in alphabetic order.