UC Davis Law Welcomes Exceptional Class of 2027

This week, UC Davis School of Law welcomed one of the most accomplished and diverse first-year classes in the law school’s history.

The Class of 2027 consists of 198 students, with a median undergraduate GPA of 3.68 and median LSAT score of 163. A remarkable 68% of the class are students of color, with enrollment of African American (14%) and Latinx (26%) first-year students at their highest levels in at least a decade. The class includes four Native American students. Women compose 54% of the class, and 24% of 1L students identify as LGBTQ+.

“We at UC Davis School of Law are proud of the excellence and diversity of our students,” Dean Kevin R. Johnson said. “Such a combination is most appropriate for a law school housed in a building named after Martin Luther King Jr.”

UC Davis Law often draws national accolades for its ground-breaking “majority-minority” faculty as well as its long-standing emphasis on student diversity.

The Class of 2027 contains 13 alums of the King Hall Outreach Program. Initiated by then-Associate Dean Johnson in 2001, the program helps college students from underrepresented communities prepare for the law school admissions process. More than 44% of participants have gone on to law schools including UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Georgetown, Howard and the University of Michigan.

Johnson also helped establish and has been a prolific mentor in UC Davis Law’s First Generation Advocates program, which pairs first-generation college graduates with faculty mentors. Twenty-six percent of incoming 1Ls are first-generation students.

Assistant Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Kristen Mercado and her team will continue to pursue innovative recruitment strategies to draw outstanding students from all backgrounds to King Hall.