The Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) has released its 2010 Annual Survey Results:

The Law School Survey of Student Engagement focuses on activities related to effective learning in law school. The results provide evidence of how law students use their time and what they think about their legal education experience, while simultaneously providing guidance to law schools seeking to improve engagement and learning.

The findings on the law school student experience reported in this section are based on responses from nearly 25,000 law students at 77 law schools who completed LSSSE in spring 2010. Results from several sets of experimental questions appended to the 2010 survey for a subset of respondents also are drawn upon. Three themes are featured.

In the first section, From Law Student to Lawyer, we examine the effectiveness of law schools’ efforts to prepare students to assume a professional role. Students at 22 law schools were asked how well their legal education has prepared them for various aspects of legal practice. In particular, we examine the relationship between common student activities—including interacting with faculty members and participation in pro bono and clinical opportunities—and the ethical and professional development of students.

In Understanding Motivation, we explore the factors that influence students’ decisions to attend law school and those that keep them motivated to work hard once they matriculate. From intrinsic drive to external pressures, these data inform us about how students’ individual characteristics and personal motivation affect their engagement.

Finally, Outside the Classroom looks at the influence of non-academic support on students’ personal and professional development. To better understand how non-curricular aspects of the law school experience influence students, we investigate the correlation between students’ relationships with faculty, administrators, and their peers, on one hand, with their assessment of gains in select areas, on the other hand.

What Is Going Well

• Three quarters of 3Ls (73%) reported that they were involved with pro bono or volunteer work during law school.
• Only 7% of 1Ls frequently came to class unprepared. Forty-two percent of first-year students never came to class without completing the readings or assignments.
• The average student spent 27 hours per week reading assigned material and studying.
• More than half of students (57%) frequently worked harder than they thought they could to meet faculty members’ standards or expectations.

What Needs Attention

• The average student found faculty members to be only moderately available, helpful, and sympathetic.
• Half of students never worked with faculty on activities other than coursework, such as committees or student life activities.
• More than a quarter of students (27%) never discussed ideas from readings or classes with faculty members outside of class.
• Female students were less likely than male students to ask questions in class frequently.
• One in four students (24%) said that their coursework placed a strong emphasis on memorizing facts, ideas, or methods from courses and readings so that the student could repeat them in pretty much the same form.

Press and blogoshpere coverage:

• ABA Journal, Female Law Students More Likely than Males to Cite Fear Factor as Motivator
• Chronicle of Higher Education, Law Students, Particularly Women, Have Limited Contact With Faculty, Survey Finds
• Inside Higher Education, Law Students in Search of Jobs