Press contacts: Allegra Young (512) 471-7330 or Laura Castro (512) 232-1229
One of strongest UT Law classes on record matriculates
Austin, TEXAS -- The University of Texas School of Law announced today that its entering first year law class has the strongest Mexican-American and African-American population in years. The class is also one of UT Law's most academically accomplished.
Mexican-American and African-American enrollment hit a record high in the post-Hopwood era. Forty-three Mexican-American first-year students enrolled and 21 African-Americans, up from the 2001 first-year enrollment numbers of 34 Mexican-Americans and 16 African-Americans. Further, the median class GPA places this entering class among the top 10 U.S. law school classes.
The Mexican-American population now stands at 8% of the entering class, with the African-American population at 4%. The first-year law student Hispanic population is at 51, or 9% of the entering class. This year the Law School also admitted one additional African-American transfer student.
According to the State Bar of Texas Division of Research, the in-state attorney population stands at less than 1% of the Texas population. Of those in the State Bar, Hispanics represent 6.2% and African-American's represent 3.7%, according to the Annual Report on the Status of Racial/Ethnic Minorities in the State Bar of Texas (2001-2002).
"We had a fantastic recruiting year both for students and faculty. And our nationally-lauded commitment to expanding the pool of qualified, geographically diverse applicants from Texas has clearly paid off," Dean Bill Powers said.
UT Law has been nationally recognized for its innovative approach to increasing the pool of qualified geographically diverse applicants, despite an uneven playing field among law schools who recruit heavily for the same pool of minority applicants. For two years in a row, Hispanic Business Magazine ranked UT Law the number one school for Hispanics and Time Magazine cited UT Law as the school at the forefront of programs designed to expand the pool of qualified minority applicants.
Percent of the population
|
Hispanic/Latino
|
African-American
|
|
| 2002 UT Law First Year Class |
9%
|
4%
|
| Texas State Bar population |
6.2%
|
3.7%
|
Texas in-state attorney population: .3%, or less than one percent
Number of students:
|
Mexican-Americans*
|
African-American
|
|
| 2002 UT Law First Year Class |
43
|
21
|
| 2001 UT Law First Year Class |
34
|
16
|
*UT Law's historical data in the below links were recorded for Mexican-American students, a subset of the Hispanic/Latino population.
Related links:
Minority Enrollment
in UT Law School Over Time
Minority Enrollment of
UT Law Students Versus the State of Texas Population
Hispanic Business
Magazine Ranks UT Law #1 for Second Year in a Row
Time Magazine: UT Law #1
in Reaching Out to People of all Backgrounds
UT Announces San Antonio
Partnership