First-year Enrollment at Colorado Law Largest in History

Increase of 22 percent bucks national trend.

Colorado Law’s newest class is the largest in school history, with first-year enrollment up 22 percent in 2015, even as law school enrollment nationally remains depressed.

Applications and yield — the percentage of admitted students who enrolled — also rose for the Class of 2018.

Law school leaders believe the rise in enrollment — to 205 in 2015 from 168 last year — is partly because of the school’s success in placing students in jobs.

“Our rising appeal reflects, among other things, our success on the employment front,” says Dean Phil Weiser. “Colorado Law continues to make important strides in its career development efforts, with a higher percentage of graduates from the class of 2014 working at the conclusion of the employment reporting period than any class since 2008.”

Also, Colorado Law has held tuition steady since 2012, while increasing the scholarship budget.

Total applications rose to 2,383. Yield rose to 19 percent from 15 a year earlier.

In 2014, the most recent year for which data are available, nearly two-thirds of American Bar Association-approved law schools saw declines in first-year enrollment, according to the group, and total first-year enrollment in U.S. programs was down 4.4 percent, to 37,924 — the lowest since 1973.

Since 2010, when first-year enrollment nationwide peaked at 52,488, it is down 27.7 percent.