You may have heard some bad things about law schools in the news, but the yield rates — the percentage of admitted students who actually choose to enroll — at some law schools continue to fly high. Despite horror stories about employment statistics and bar passage rates, some law schools still have a certain je ne sais quoi that causes students to enroll in droves.
But which ones?
U.S. News recently released a list of the schools with the highest yield rates for the 2015-2016 academic year. For the sake of comparison, at all of the 195 schools that are numerically ranked, the average yield was 24.3 percent. At the schools with the highest yield rates, about half (52.4 percent) — and in some cases, WAY more than half — of accepted students enrolled, but you may be surprised by some that made the list.
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Here are the 10 schools with the highest yield rates for the 2015-2016 school year:
After taking a dip in the rankings last year, Yale is now back in the number one spot. The unranked University of Puerto Rico, which took the top slot last year with a 92.1 percent yield rate, is now nowhere to be found on the list. In fact, none of the three law schools in Puerto Rico made the Top 10 for the highest yield rates this year. ¡Ay, caramba!
It’s worth noting that many of the law schools on this list have yield rates that are almost double or more than double the average yield for all other law schools, but we should pair that fact with words of warning. One of these law schools made the Top 20 on lists of the law schools with the most unemployed and most underemployed graduates (Liberty). Other schools on this list place students at an “extreme” risk of failing the bar exam (Southern; North Carolina Central). People are eager to enroll, but they may wish they would’ve considered other choices when they can’t find a decent job or pass the bar.
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Here’s a sad little nugget of information about the schools that didn’t do so well:
On the other end of the spectrum, Vanderbilt University and the Charleston School of Law had the lowest yields among law schools, at 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
For what it’s worth, Cooley Law shouldn’t feel too bad about being left off this list. One of the other “second-best” law schools in the nation isn’t here either. Let’s look at it this way: at least Stanford will have Cooley’s shoulder to cry on again this year.
10 Law Schools Where the Most Accepted Students Enroll [The Short List / U.S. News]
Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.