“Get ready to embark on a wild ride unlike anything you’ve ever experienced, packed with thrills, chills, and probably a few spills. Being a 1L will challenge you like you’ve never been challenged….. The first year of law school will be one of the hardest years of your life. Law school will profoundly alter the way you think, and view and interact with the world around you. Your 1L experience will change who you are, whether you want it to or not.” Andrew McClurg, 1L of a Ride, A Well-Traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School
My favorite week of the academic year is Orientation Week. For the 8th year, I had the great pleasure and privilege of welcoming our first year class of 179 JD, LL.M., and MLS students. They are talented, energetic, excited, curious, and yes, nervous - but that’s to be expected.
They are pursuing their dream by living, working, and studying a few years of their life like most people won’t, so they can spend the rest of their life making a difference in other people’s lives like most people can’t.
Our inspiring first-year JD Orientation was superbly organized by a team led by Assistant Dean Sarah Beznoska, Associate Dean/Professor Carolyn Broering-Jacobs, and Jill Natran, Manager, Administrative Operations, and the LL.M./MLS (Master of Laws / Master of Legal Studies) Orientation was superbly organized by Julie DiBiasio, Director of Graduate Studies and Professional Development.
Thanks to the unrelenting work of our JD admissions team led by Assistant Dean Barbara Andelman, Assistant Directors John Bell and Jessica Pringle, and former Director of Strategic Initiatives, Jill Johnson, we enrolled an exceptional class of 151 JD students, including 41 online part-time JD students, 56% of whom are from out of state (from 16 different states).
Thanks to the efforts of Julie DiBiasio, and Professors John Plecnik, MLS Director, Brian Ray, Cyber MLS Director, and Milena Sterio, LL.M. Director, we also enrolled a new class of 20 Master of Legal Studies (MLS) students (including 10 Cybersecurity MLS students) and 8 LL.M. students from Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Kuwait, Liberia, Philippines, and Ukraine. I will tell you more about these great graduate students in a future Monday Morning Message.
Thank you to those who led the planning of our very successful JD Online Part-Time (“JDO”) Residency Weekend for our 41 JDO students, including Patricia Riley, our new Coordinator of Online Education, Jill Natran, and Associate Deans Brian Ray and Carolyn Broering-Jacobs who led the planning and execution, Professor Doron Kalir for coordinating the always popular Ohio Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit oral argument, and Professors Karin Mika, Heidi Robertson, and Jonathan Witmer-Rich for their teaching over the weekend!
We set some records this year!
- The academic credentials of the 1st year JD class (LSAT/ Undergraduate GPA) are the highest in over a decade.
- Our total number of JD 1st-year students is 151, the largest 1st-year JD class in over a decade, and an over 50% increase in JD enrollment since 2016.
- For the first time in our law school history, we have a part-time online J.D. program that puts us at the forefront of the rapidly changing legal education landscape.
- We have the largest number of part-time JD students in decades.
- Our percentage of out-of-state JD students is 28%, the largest percentage in our law school history.
- Our total number of first year JD/LL.M./MLS students is 179 students, the largest JD/LL.M./MLS class in our law school history.
- Below are some more exciting facts about our 2023 first year JD Class.
2023 JD Class By the Numbers:
CLASS SIZE:
- Overall: 151
- In-Person: 110
- Part-time online: 41
AVERAGE AGE:
- Overall: 27
- In-Person: 25 (22 -48)
- Part-time online: 33 (19-53)
MALE/FEMALE:
- Overall: 55% women
- In-Person: 45% women
- Part-time online: 76% women
# MARRIED:
- Overall: 26 (+4 engaged)
- In-Person: 11 (+ 3 engaged)
- Part-time online: 15 (+ 1 engaged)
# CHILDREN
- Overall: 41 + 2 On the Way
- In-Person: 10 + 1 On the Way
- Part-time online: 31 + 1 On the Way
TOOK AT LEAST ONE YEAR OFF:
- Overall: 68%
- In-Person: 59%
- Part-time online: 93%
FIRST ATTORNEY IN FAMILY: > 70%
SERVED IN MILITARY:
- Overall: 10
- In-Person: 5
- Part-time online: 5
- CSU|LAW LEGACY: 15
GEOGRAPHY:
# OUTSIDE OHIO:
- Overall: 28% out of state (a record!)
- In-Person: 19% (12 states, including the Northern Mariana Islands, China, and Albania)
- Part-time online: 56% (17 states)
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:
# UNDERGRADUATE INSTITUTIONS:
- Overall: 72
- In-Person: 47
- Part-time online: 36
# GRADUATE DEGREES:
- Overall: 30
- In-Person: 12
- Part-time online: 18
PETS:
- 85 dogs!
- 50 cats!
Welcome to our very talented first-year class!