Kutenda
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.
Chii chinoda mari kuti uwane — pakati pegumi neshanu yemari.
Mavhiki edzidzo, nguva dzose. Part-time zvinotora nguva yakareba.
Zvita zvemubhadharo wepremiyamu zvinodarika kuti zvibhadhare mari iyi. Hapana mwedzi kusvika wasvika kumashure zvakakwana. Kudzidziswa kwenguva iri pamusoro kunotanga.
Musoro: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 · Kuona
Chii chinonzi chikwereti chinoratidza, uye chii chisiri
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.
Ndezvipi zvikonzero zvakaita kuti vanhu vaite izvi, uye ndezvipi zvikonzero zvakaita kuti vanhu vaite izvi?
Ndezvipi zvinobhadharwa nevanhu vacho pagore
42,496 bar examination sittings that resulted in a pass — 2025, February and July 2025 examinations combined.
Hatina kuchinja kuti muchikamu chemamiriyoni. Kushanda mazita ndivo vakamirira stock, vese vari kushanda mubasa pamwechete. Kuparadzaniswa kubuda mumusika unogadzira nhamba iyo inoverenga sechikwereti rate uye hachisi chimwe. Kwatiri kuchengeta vakamirira kuongorora kwechikwereti vamiri isu kuburitsa chikamu vanoshanda; pano isu hatina mumwe, saka isu kuburitsa kubuda uye kudzima.
Chii chinosanganisira: 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) · Kuona
Chii chakaitika kune vanhu vakazodzokera kumusha mushure mekudzidza
Makore maviri mushure mekudzidza, kubva kuFederal Records
Of 40,840 vanhu vakagadzirira Law (JD), first professional degree and were no longer studyingkudzidza fouryears makore maviri gare gare, 1,860 aiva nemari yakawandisa pabasa rake — 4.6%. Vaya vakashanda vakawana mari inosvika mamiriyoni maviri nemakumi mana nemana emadhora. $107,773, nepakati pegumi pakati $75,568 uye $176,111.
“Zvikwereti zvakaipa” hazvireve kuti “haasi kushanda”. Mubvunzo uyu unobvunza kuti vanhu vapi zvavo vanowana mari yemubhadharo kana kuti mari yemubhadharo yemubhadharo wemubhadharo wemubhadhar
Chii chinonzi code cheprogramme chinotaura: 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.
Chii chiri mu cohort: completers vakagamuchira federal mwana anobatsira - pamusoro hafu yeUS vadzidzi, uye imwe hafu havachaongororwa pano. Vanhu vakaenda kudzidza zviri muzvinyorwa. The Department anobvisa zvikoro ne cohorts zvishoma zvikuru kuburitsa uye anowedzera statistical nyoro kune vamwe, saka izvi ndezvimwe mari pamusoro zvikoro zvikuru zvakakwana kuti vaongorore: 163 yevaviri ava, 97.0% ye Department's own national count for this program. Kubvisa zvidiki kuzivisa zvirongwa zvinofamba rate ne 0.0 muzana mapoinzi.
Musoro: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 — release of 10 June 2026; measured four years after completion · Kuona · iyo imwecheteyo nhamba yese yezvirongwa zvatinogona kuburitsa
Chii chinokubvumidza kuita
Mari inobva kubasa, kwete kudzidziswa. Izvi ndizvo zvidzidzo zvaunogona kudzidza kana iwe ukawana chitupa chekudzidziswa.
| Job | Inofanira kuitwa here? | Median | Mushandisi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawyers | Legally required to hold the job | $159,670 | 754,500 |
Median mari uye employment: BLS Occupational Kushanda uye Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Ichibhadhara here?
The basa izvi anovhura anobhadhara a median of $159,670. The employment-weighted median across every occupation we publish is $50,020, saka premium yekuchengeta izvi ndezve $109,650 a year before tax.
Ona kuti sekuenzanisa nechiyero basa, kwete kubasa rako. Chii chinonzi baseline, uye chii chinosiya kunze
Uye inofungidzira kuti iwe unowana basa. Kana iwe uchida kudzidza zvakawanda nezvekubhadharwa kwemari, tarisa kune yedu webhusaiti. Kana iwe uchida kuziva zvakawanda nezvekubhadharwa kwemari, tarisa kune yedu webhusaiti. Kana iwe uchida kuziva zvakawanda nezvekubhadharwa kwemari, tarisa kune yedu webhusaiti.
Chii chaunoda usati watanga
- A bachelor's degree
- A place at an ABA-accredited law school
- A pass in the state bar examination
- A character and fitness review
Usaite izvi kana
- 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
All credentials, by payback nguva · Maitiro ekuishandisa · Tarisa chimwe chinhu chimwe