11/08/2022
National First Gen College Celebration, held each year nationally on November 8 to commemorate the anniversary of the Higher Education Act of 1965, encourages colleges and universities across the country to celebrate the successes of the institution's first-generation faculty, staff, and students.
First generation law students, defined as those students who do not have at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree, face unique hurdles in higher education. New data from the National Association of Law Placement (NALP) found that first-generation law students who don’t have at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree or higher have a harder time securing jobs after graduation than their peers. Moreover, first-generation students, who are often racial minorities, earn less than their peers and aren’t as likely to secure coveted private practice jobs or judicial clerkships.
Overall, 22.5% of the class of 2020 graduates were first-generation college students. However, this number was higher for Native American or Alaska Native (55%), Latinx (41.9%), Black (35.9%), and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (33.3%) graduates.
The employment rate was almost 5% higher (92.8% vs. 88%) and the rate of employment in bar passage required/anticipated jobs was more than 11% higher (84.3% vs. 73.2%) for continuing-generation JD students than for first-generation students.
Median salaries for continuing-generation JD students and continuing-generation college students were about $13,000 and $8,000 higher, respectively, than those of first-generation college students.
