With the start of the 2022-23 academic year, UCLA School of Law has welcomed a talented class of J.D. students that is one of the most capable and promising ever to join the law school.

The incoming Class of 2025 includes people from a wide range of backgrounds who have already proven themselves to be skilled and successful scholars, advocates, and professionals. The class totals 310 first-year law students who are pursuing a J.D. degree. (Read all about UCLA Law’s new LL.M., S.J.D., and M.L.S. students here.)

The Class of 2025 arrives with the best academic credentials in UCLA Law history. Members of the class have a median LSAT score of 171 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.90. Both are the highest ever for an incoming class at UCLA Law.

To mark the start of the new school year, incoming students and their family members joined UCLA Law professors, staff members, and alumni on UCLA’s Dickson Court to celebrate the law school’s annual convocation ceremony.

In greeting the newest members of the UCLA Law family and setting them on their paths to success as lawyers and leaders of distinction and integrity, Dean Russell Korobkin, Student Bar Association President Max Roemer ’22, and distinguished alumna Rasha Gerges Shields ’01 delivered speeches that underscored the law school’s abiding values of service, excellence, and community. Students also swore an Oath of Professionalism, which will guide them as they pursue their law degrees at UCLA Law.

The new J.D. students were selected from nearly 7,300 applicants.

Students of color are 58% of the incoming class. At least 18% are first-generation students who are the first in their families to have earned a college degree, a fact for which UCLA Law continues to stand out among all top-20 law schools nationwide, and seven members of the class graduated from the UCLA Law Fellows Program. New J.D. students range in age from 20 to 45, and their average age is 25. Women comprise 58% of the class, 58% are California residents, and students come from 33 states, the District of Columbia, and eight foreign countries. All told, they are fluent in at least 25 languages.

The class includes many undergraduate leaders, elite athletes, scientists, teachers, four Ph.D. holders, two Fulbright Award recipients, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, an Emmy Award winner, an ordained minister, a standup comedian, a chess master, two holders of black belts in martial arts, a certified barbecue judge from the Kansas City Barbecue Society, a performer of Xiangsheng traditional Chinese comedy, and a student who has hiked the full Pacific Crest Trail.

In addition to a veteran of the U.S. Army, many members of the Class of 2025 are deeply committed to service in the public interest. They have worked at organizations including the Central Park Conservancy, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Planned Parenthood, and Public Counsel.

Incoming students have also worked at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Ten have worked for U.S. senators, 13 have worked for members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and others have worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Division, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In the private sphere, incoming J.D. students have worked at innumerable top companies in the media, technology, entertainment, business, and the law. These include Microsoft, Capital One, the New York Yankees, TikTok, NBC’s Today show, HBO, and many top law firms.

In addition to the new class of J.D. students, UCLA Law welcomed 15 transfer students, who join the law school’s Class of 2024 during its second year, and a visiting student. They have similarly worked for a wide array of leading law firms and companies, and they are equally committed to public service. The transfer class includes a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, a notary public, a former Walt Disney World character performer, a former competitive a cappella singer, and the holder of a master’s degree in electrical engineering.

Read about UCLA Law’s stellar new cohorts of LL.M., S.J.D., and M.L.S. students.