For years, the great law school brain drain has had a deleterious effect on bar exam passage rates across the country. According to Erica Moeser, president and CEO of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, “If you have a low LSAT score, you are more likely to have a low MBE score when you emerge from law school and take the bar exam.”
Research has shown that LSAT scores correlate with scores on the bar exam. Each year, as matriculants’ LSAT scores at some law schools have gotten lower and lower, graduates’ MBE scores have similarly dropped. In fact, in some states, bar exam passage rates have sank to their lowest in decades.
Given the recent spate of depressing bar exam statistics, we were interested in taking a look at how certain law schools measured up in terms of students’ entering LSAT scores and graduates’ subsequent performance on the bar exam. Luckily, U.S. News & World Report took a similar interest. Here’s some rather distressing information:
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The average among all U.S. schools approved by the American Bar Association has remained stable, according to the Law School Admission Council. In every testing year from 2007-2008 through 2013-2014, the mean LSAT wavered between 150 and 151.
During that same time period, however, data from the National Conference of Bar Examiners show the average pass rate for first-time test-takers of the bar exam across the country declined from 79 percent in 2007 to just 74 percent in 2014.
Given that data, how did things turn out for America’s most prestigious law schools? U.S. News broke down the numbers from the 11 law schools with the best stats, in order of their 2015 entrants’ median LSAT scores, from highest to lowest. Check out the info:
These results are what you’d expect from top-tier law schools. What happened at law schools that are considered less esteemed by the rankings gods at U.S. News?
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As far as we know, Texas Southern and Charlotte have the lowest median LSAT scores out of the 203 law schools in the United States (200 with full accreditation and three with provisional accreditation). This is what their numbers look like in terms of median LSAT scores versus bar passage rates. One word can best describe these results: ouch.
Texas Southern
- Median LSAT score for all 2015 entrants: 143
- 2014 bar passage rate for first-time test-takers (state): 63.3 percent (TX)
- Overall bar passage rate in that state: 77 percent
- How much worse grads did than state bar passage rate: 17.8 percent
Charlotte
- Median LSAT score for all 2015 entrants: 143
- 2014 bar passage rate for first-time test-takers (state): 57 percent (NC)
- Overall bar passage rate in that state: 69 percent
- How much worse grads did than state bar passage rate: 17.4 percent
If you’d like to see how your law school did in terms of entering LSAT scores versus bar exam passage rates, you need look no further than its 2015 Standard 509 Information Report. The American Bar Association has a listing for all law schools here. We hope the numbers aren’t as ugly as those from Texas Southern and Charlotte.
Compare LSAT Scores, Bar Exam Performance for Law Schools [U.S. News]