Kredi
Law licence (law degree and bar exam)
The most expensive credential on this site by a wide margin, leading to the best-paid occupation on it. Three years, six figures of debt, and a national exam that 37% of sittings fail.
Ki sa li koute pou jwenn — mwatye mitan nan seri a.
Yon mwa de fòmasyon, tan plen. Tan pati pran plis tan.
Mois de la prime de salè ki nesesè pou kouvri sa koute. Pa mwa jiskaske ou se devan an jeneral — tan an nan fòmasyon anwo a vini premye.
Fonksyon: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 · View
Ki sa sa a se yon valè, ak sa li pa se
Six figures, and this is only the borrowed part. That range is median cumulative FEDERAL LOAN DEBT at completion, not a tuition sticker price and not total cost. It is what completers actually borrowed, so it excludes grants, savings, family money, employer funding and living costs — which makes it a FLOOR on what the credential costs, never a ceiling. The low and high figures are the 25th and 75th percentiles across the institutions that report a figure for this programme, so a quarter of institutions sit below the low end. College Scorecard pools two award years into each figure; the release used here is dated 10 June 2026.
Three years full time for the degree, after a bachelor's, then a bar examination and a character-and-fitness review before admission. Part-time programmes run four years.
Admission is per state and each maintains its own continuing legal education requirement and annual fees.
Ki kantite moun ki gen sak ki kantite moun ki travay nan jaden an
Ki kantite moun ki resevwa sa chak ane
42,496 bar examination sittings that resulted in a pass — 2025, February and July 2025 examinations combined.
Nou pa pral fè sa tounen yon pousan. Sa a se yon flux ane a - moun ki te resevwa kredatif nan yon ane. Figi travay yo se yon stock ki chita, tout moun ki travay nan travay la nan yon moman. Divizyon an nan yon flux nan yon stock pwodwi yon nimewo ki li tankou yon pousantaj kontra ak se pa yon sèl. Lè nou kenbe yon kont ki chita de detentè kredatif nou pibliye pati ki te travay; isit la nou pa gen yon, se konsa nou pibliye flux la ak sispann.
Ki sa ki gen ladan kont la: 67,442 people sat a US bar examination in 2025 and 42,496 passed, a 63% pass rate. It counts SITTINGS rather than people: someone who failed in February and passed in July appears in both columns, and someone admitted in two states can appear twice. It is a one-year flow and not a count of anyone holding a licence to practise today.
The American Bar Association publishes a standing count of US lawyers — about 1.37 million in 2025 — but only rounded to two decimal places of a million, and its underlying survey PDF is not publicly retrievable. We use the exact bar-exam flow rather than a rounded stock, which means this page shows how many qualify each year and no percentage.
National Conference of Bar Examiners, 2025 Statistics — Persons Taking and Passing the Bar Examination (People newly credentialed during one year) · View
Ki sa ki te rive moun ki te fin antrene a?
Kat ane apre li fin fini, nan dosye federal
Of 40,840 moun ki te fin Law (JD), first professional degree epi yo pa t ap aprann ankò 4 ane pita, 1,860 pa t gen okenn revni sou dosye a nan tout — 4.6%. Sa yo ki te travay te resevwa yon mwayèn de $107,773, ak mwatye mitan ant $75,568 ak $176,111.
“Pa gen okenn revni nan dosye” pa vle di “pa gen travay”. Se yon mezi ki montre pa gen okenn dosye sou salè ak okenn revni ki soti nan travay pou tèt ou pou ane a tout antye. Pa gen moun ki te mande si yo te vle travay, se poutèt sa kont la gen moun ki te kite fòs travay la pa chwa yo — pou yo te ka grandi pitit, pou yo te ka pran swen, pou yo te ka vwayaje, pou yo te ka viv sou revni yon lòt moun, pou yo te ka deplase aletranje — ansanm ak tout moun ki te vle travay men pa t gen okenn travay. Pa gen moun ki pibliye kantite sa a e nou pa pral fè yon deduksyon. Sa li montre se kantite moun ki te fini fòmasyon sa a epi ki pa t ap touche anyen de sa ni de nenpòt lòt bagay pandan kat ane, sa se egzakteman sa kantite salè ki anwo a pa ka di w.
Ki sa kòd pwogram lan kouvri: CIP 22.01 at first-professional level is the Juris Doctor. The figure is about law graduates, not admitted lawyers: it counts everyone who finished the degree, including those who never sat or never passed a bar examination. That is the right population for the question "was law school worth it" and the wrong one for "how many lawyers are out of work".
This measures law graduates, not admitted lawyers: everyone who finished the degree is in it, including those who never sat or never passed a bar examination.
Ki moun ki nan gwoup la: Moun ki te ale sou pou etidye plis yo pa nan nenpòt nan kolòn yo. Depatman an supprime inivèsite ak cohorts twò ti pou pibliye ak ajoute bri statistique a rès la, se konsa sa a se yon kantite lajan sou inivèsite gwo ase pou rapòte: 163 100 nan yo, rekiperasyon 97.0% nan kont nasyonal Depatman an pou pwogram sa a. Dropping pi piti pwogram rapòte deplase pousantaj la pa 0.0 pousan pwen.
Fonksyon: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 — release of 10 June 2026; measured four years after completion · View · menm chif la pou chak pwogram nou ka pibliye
Ki sa li pèmèt ou fè
Salè a gen rapò ak travay la, pa ak lisans lan. Sa yo se travay li bay ou dwa pou yo.
| Job | Èske li nesesè? | Median | Travayè |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawyers | Legally required to hold the job | $159,670 | 754,500 |
Sit ofisyèl (an angle) Sit ofisyèl (an franse) Sit ofisyèl (an angle) BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Èske li peye pou li?
Travay sa a deblotché peye yon mwayèn de $159,670. Median emploi-pondérée nan tout travay nou pibliye se $50,020, Se konsa, prim pou kenbe sa a se sou $109,650 yon ane anvan taks.
Li sa a kòm yon konparasyon ak yon travay mwayèn, pa nan travay ou. Ki sa ki se bazline a, ak sa li pa gen ladan
Li pa t' gen okenn travay. Tout figi ranbousman sou sit sa a se kondisyonèl sou yo dwe anboche nan travay la. Sa a se supposition a kredatif-posede kont la anwo egziste pou teste, epi li se supposition a chak lòt sit peye fè san yo pa di anyen.
Ki sa ou bezwen anvan ou kòmanse
- A bachelor's degree
- A place at an ABA-accredited law school
- A pass in the state bar examination
- A character and fitness review
Pa fè sa si
- you are borrowing the full amount without a clear route to the higher-paying half of the profession — the pay distribution here is famously bimodal and the median hides it
- you assume passing is routine — 37% of bar examination sittings in 2025 did not pass
Tout kredansyal, pa peryòd ranbousman · Kijan sa a se kalkule · Chwazi yon lòt bagay