Everything you wanted to know about the Class of 2006, but were afraid to ask.

I couldn’t get into this school if I were applying today.”

 So remarked a distinguished attorney, who had graduated the Law School a few decades earlier, at a recent Law School function. It’s debatable whether that assessment was correct, but one thing is certain: this year’s 1Ls faced stiff competition to gain entry into the Class of 2006. 

While the academic standards were high, the first-year students traveled very different roads to the Law School. Here’s a quick overview of the class using numbers, biographies, and a survey.

MORE THAN ACING THE LSAT

Yes, the mean LSAT for the Class of 2006 was 168 out of 180, but there are better ways to get a sense of what makes this class special. On the first day of the writing and research class, students were asked to write about an unusual skill that they have. Here’s who the instructors found was in their classrooms:

A research biologist who knows how to use radio telemetry to tag and track rattlesnakes.

A Mormon Missionary who is conversant in Catalan. 

A Democratic Staff Member of the US Senate Finance Committee. 

A dedicated Buckeye fan who knows every version of Ohio State University fight songs. 

A Navy Helicopter Pilot who has flown almost 2,000 hours.

A tap dancer who performed as a youth throughout Southern California. 

A native speaker of Kikongo, one of 200 dialects spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

REFLECTING THE NATION’S DIVERSITY 

Men 92 

Women 79 

Minority 60 

African American 15 

Hispanic 23 

Native American 3 

Asian American 19

RISING TO THE TOP

Number enrolled: 171

Number admitted: 386

Number of applicants: 5,139

LIFE BEFORE LAW SCHOOL 

There are 68 colleges/universities represented in the class: Amherst College, Beloit College, BYU, Brown, Bucknell, Cal Tech, Cal State LA, Carleton College, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, China University, Claremont McKenna, College of William & Mary, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Fairfield University, Georgia Tech, Gustavus Adolphus College, Harvard, Haverford, Iowa State, Johns Hopkins, Loyola Marymount, Macalester College, MIT, Middlebury, Morehouse, NYU, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Pomona College, Princeton, Rice, Saint John’s University, Stanford, Swarthmore, Texas A & M, Tulane, US Naval Academy, University of Alabama, University of Arkansas, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, University of Illinois, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Missouri, University of North Carolina, University of Notre Dame, University of Oklahoma, University of Oregon, University of Pennsylvania, USC, University of Texas, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Whitman, Williams, Yale. 

Undergraduate degrees: 

Prior to 2001 56 

Undergraduate degree 2001 29 

Undergraduate degree 2002 31 

Undergraduate degree 2003 55 

ADVANCED DEGREES 

MA/MS 27 

MD 2 

MBA 1 

PhD 7 

TOTAL 37