Will You Pass The Bar? ABA Data Shows Where Students Are Struggling

The ABA has released more information on bar passage rates for law schools, allowing us to see in more detail how students are stacking up against the bar exam. Check out below to see where your school (or schools you are thinking of attending) stack up.

This data reveals that while overall most ABA-approved law schools are doing fine at creating new lawyers, a significant number of schools are struggling to produce students capable of passing the bar consistently.

ABA data began including this “ultimate bar passage rate” for every ABA-approved law school beginning in 2015, allowing us to see not just first time passage rates but what percentage of students were able to pass within two years of graduation. Of approximately 34,000 students that graduated from ABA law schools in 2018, 89.99% had passed the bar within two years (note that a little over 7,000 students did not take the bar or did not report their status). This is an improvement over just two years earlier, when 88.70% passed within two years.

Let’s look at the numbers for ultimate bar passage rates from the class of 2018:

1	Belmont	100.00%
1	Chicago	100.00%
1	Univ. of Washington	100.00%
4	Boston Univ.	99.55%
5	Cornell	99.49%
6	Pennsylvania	99.16%
7	Yale	99.04%
8	Virginia	98.99%
9	Stanford	98.91%
10	NYU	98.89%
11	Vanderbilt	98.86%
12	Florida Int’l	98.47%
13	UC-Berkeley	98.34%
14	Duke	98.14%
15	Harvard	97.86%
16	William & Mary	97.80%
17	Liberty	97.62%
18	Pittsburgh	97.56%
19	St. Louis	97.44%
20	Michigan	97.27%
21	North Carolina	97.24%
22	Minnesota	97.21%
23	George Washington	97.19%
24	Kentucky	97.12%
25	Columbia	97.07%
26	Texas	97.06%
27	Florida State	97.04%
28	Cardozo	97.03%
29	Georgia State	97.01%
30	St. John’s	96.88%
31	Seton Hall	96.82%
32	BYU	96.72%
33	Toledo	96.49%
34	Oregon	96.46%
35	Oklahoma	96.32%
36	Fordham	96.29%
37	UCLA	96.25%
38	Samford	96.06%
39	Notre Dame	96.02%
40	Hawaii	96.00%
41	Texas Tech	95.92%
42	St. Thomas (MN)	95.88%
43	Utah	95.79%
44	SMU	95.73%
45	Washington Univ.	95.52%
46	Boston College	95.50%
47	Georgetown	95.47%
48	UC-Davis	95.35%
49	Colorado	95.29%
50	Georgia	95.24%
51	Illinois	95.17%
52	Ohio State	94.94%
53	Louisiana State	94.90%
53	New Mexico	94.90%
55	Texas A&M	94.78%
56	Alabama	94.74%
57	San Diego	94.59%
57	Washington & Lee	94.59%
59	Arizona State	94.55%
60	Campbell	94.53%
61	Missouri-Columbia	94.38%
61	South Texas	94.38%
63	New Hampshire	94.37%
64	Villanova	94.27%
65	Northeastern	94.16%
66	Syracuse	94.08%
67	Penn State-Univ. Park	94.07%
68	Cleveland State	93.90%
69	Nebraska	93.81%
70	Temple	93.63%
71	Oklahoma City	93.62%
72	South Carolina	93.58%
73	Penn State-Dickinson	93.55%
74	Duquesne	93.33%
75	Loyola-L.A.	93.26%
76	Regent	93.22%
77	Pepperdine	93.21%
78	Miami	93.13%
79	Tulsa	93.10%
80	George Mason	93.06%
81	USC	92.82%
82	Tennessee	92.79%
83	Houston	92.76%
84	Northwestern	92.56%
85	Maryland	92.46%
86	Florida	92.45%
87	Kansas	92.31%
88	UC-Irvine	92.04%
89	Massachusetts	91.84%
90	Richmond	91.76%
90	Loyola-Chicago	91.76%
92	Gonzaga	91.67%
93	Connecticut	91.46%
94	Baylor	91.23%
95	Washburn	91.21%
96	Lincoln Memorial	91.07%
97	Chapman	91.04%
98	Chicago-Kent	90.82%
99	Quinnipiac	90.59%
100	Indiana-Bloom.	90.54%
101	Louisville	90.38%
102	Santa Clara	90.32%
103	Case Western	90.27%
104	Brooklyn	90.22%
105	Maine	90.00%
105	Wake Forest	90.00%
105	Widener (PA)	90.00%

Ten law schools have pass rates below the 75% rate, bringing them below the in ABA accreditation standards set in 2019, which requires a minimum bar passage rate of at 75% within two years of graduation:

188	Charleston	74.19%
189	Mississippi College	73.83%
190	Dayton	73.33%
191	Barry	67.26%
192	Western New England	64.79%
193	San Francisco	63.13%
194	Western Michigan	62.31%
195	Golden Gate	57.50%
196	Inter American (PR)	55.43%
197	Pontifical Catholic (PR)	52.08%

Source: https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2021/04/law-school-rankings-by-ultimate-bar-passage-rates.html

Notable chart-toppers include University of Washington for whom 100% passed two years after graduation, and the University of Chicago, which lead the top 14 schools. (Chicago in a recent year had 100% of its graduate attempting the notoriously difficult California bar exam pass on the first try, an incredible feat).

Out of 205 ABA-approved US law schools, around 50 schools had ultimate bar passage rates over 95% and 105 schools reached over 90%, an improvement from when the ABA began tracking this data in 2015, when just 40 schools had ultimate passage rates over 95%, and 100 schools had ultimate passage rates above 90%. The average ultimate pass rate was 87.18 percent representing a slight drop from 2015.

Some law schools are, however, straggling behind. Although 178 schools had a bar passage rate over 80%, 35 schools had ultimate rates below 80%, with 10 falling below 70%. Some commentators, including the ABA itself, which has repeatedly tried to tighten standards for a minimum bar passage rate, are justifiably concerned that these schools are not able to ensure that all their students will have even a chance to work as lawyers. In 2019, the ABA finally began requiring a pass rate of 75% percent within two years of graduation, but this standard seemed to be a compromise that allowed the vast majority of schools to slip through.

Although in this data first time-bar passage rates are up recently, passage rates fell considerably during the recent recession and recovery period, when law school applications tumbled to around 60% of pre-recession levels. Lower-ranked law schools attempted to keep enrollment up by admitting less qualified applicants, some of whom are less prepared to take on the challenges of the grueling two-day bar exam.

If you are going to law school, generally you want to be headed for a school where nearly everyone passes the bar on the first try. The LSAT is an opportunity to see if you have what it takes to stay focused on study for months and then keep your cool during a high-stakes test. If you need help deciding how to prepare, come work with us!