Kugwirizana
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.
Kodi ndi ndalama kuti ayambe — m'katikati mwa theka la mlingo.
Miyezi yophunzitsa, nthawi zonse. Nthawi yowonjezera imatenga nthawi yayitali.
Miyezi ya ndalama zofunika kuti zikwaniritse ndalamazo. Si mwezi mpaka mutafika patsogolo pa zonse - nthawi yophunzitsa pamwamba imayamba.
Choyamba: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 · Kuwonetsa
Chiyani kuti mtengo chiwonetsero ndi, ndi zimene si
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.
Kodi anthu ambiri ali ndi izi, ndi mmene ambiri akugwira ntchito m'munda
Kodi pali anthu angati amene amapeza ndalamazi chaka chilichonse?
42,496 bar examination sittings that resulted in a pass — 2025, February and July 2025 examinations combined.
Tiyeni sikuti amasintha kuti mu peresenti. Izi ndi mtsinje chaka chilichonse - anthu amene analandira chilolezo mu chaka chimodzi. Kugwira ntchito zigawo ndi stock wamphamvu, aliyense ntchito mu ntchito pa nthawi imodzi. Kugawa mtsinje m’ma stock amapanga mnda kuti amawerenga ngati ntchito mtengo ndi si imodzi. Kuti tikuchita mtsinje mnda wa chilolezo oyang’anira tikufalitsa mfundo ntchito; apa ife sitinathe mmodzi, choncho tikufalitsa mtsinje ndi kuletsa.
Zomwe kuti kuwerengetsa amaphatikizapo: 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) · Kuwonetsa
Kodi chinachitika kwa anthu amene anamaliza maphunziro
Miyezi itatu pambuyo pomaliza, kuchokera ku Federal Records
ya 40,840 anthu amene anamaliza Law (JD), first professional degree ndi sanali kuphunzira kwa zaka zitatu zapitazo, 1,860 analibe ndalama pa record pa zonse — 4.6%. Omwe anali ntchito analandira median ya $107,773, ndi pakati pa theka pakati $75,568 ndi $176,111.
“Sitikulimbikitsidwa” sikuti “osagwira ntchito”. Mtengo wa ndalama za ntchito za anthu amene amaliza maphunzirowa ndi 1000
Kodi kuti pulogalamu code amaphatikizapo: 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.
Kodi ndi ndani m’gululi: Kuphatikiza apo, 100% ya completers amene analandira federal mwana wasukulu thandizo - pafupifupi theka la US undergraduates, ndi theka lina sizimawerengedwa pano. Anthu amene anapita kuphunzira zambiri ndi m'modzi mwa bokosi. Department amaletsa mabungwe ndi cohorts kwambiri ochepa kuti asindikize ndi awonjezera kusowa kwa ziweto kwa ena, kotero izi ndi ndalama pa mabungwe lalikulu kwambiri kuti adziwitse: 163 a iwo, kuchira 97.0% 100% ya ndalama za msonkho wa dziko la Malawi. Kuwononga ochepa zolinga zolemba amasintha mtengo ndi 0.0 peresenti mapoints.
Choyamba: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 — release of 10 June 2026; measured four years after completion · Kuwonetsa · chiwonetsero chimodzimodzi kwa aliyense pulogalamu titha kufalitsa
Zimene zimakulola kuchita
Mtengo wa ntchitoyo umadalira ntchitoyo, si chitsimikizo. Izi ndi ntchito zomwe chitsimikizocho chikukupatsani.
| Job | Kodi ndi zofunika? | Median | Ogwira ntchito |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawyers | Legally required to hold the job | $159,670 | 754,500 |
Mtengo wapakati pa ndalama ndi ntchito: BLS Occupational Employment ndi Statistics ya Mtengo, May 2025.
Kodi amalipira yekha?
Ntchito imeneyi unlocks amalipira median ya $159,670. The ntchito-wolemera median m'madera onse ntchito tikufalitsa ndi $50,020, choncho premium kwa ku Holding izi ndi za $109,650 chaka chimodzi pambuyo pa tax.
Onani kuti monga kuyerekezera ndi ntchito yosawerengeka, si ntchito yanu. Chiyani kuti baseline ndi, ndi zimene amasiya kunja
Ndipo amaganiza inu mupeza ntchito. M'malo mwake, pali mfundo yoti mfundo ya 100% ya ndalama zolipira patsamba lino ndi yoyenera kulipira ndalama zolipira patsamba lino.
Zomwe muyenera kuchita musanayambe
- A bachelor's degree
- A place at an ABA-accredited law school
- A pass in the state bar examination
- A character and fitness review
Musachite izi ngati
- 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
Zomwe zimagwirizana zonse, ndi nthawi yolipira · Momwe izi ndi kuwerengedwa · Pezani chinachake china