Law Schools

The Law Schools With The Worst 'Ultimate' Bar Pass Rates

You better hope your law school isn't on this list.

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Late last month, the American Bar Association released an important spreadsheet that not only provides first-time bar pass rates for recent administrations of the exam, but it also provides a two-year “ultimate bar pass rate,” which ought to give students considering law school a more accurate picture of how a specific law school’s graduates fare on the exam.

Today, we’ll be examining the nine law schools with the worst ultimate bar pass rates (i.e., law schools with ultimate bar pass rates below the 70 percent mark). These statistics are based on students who graduated from law school in 2015 and sat for a bar exam and passed it within two years of graduation. For reference, 87.83 percent of those who graduated from law school in 2015 eventually passed the bar exam.

  • Thomas M. Cooley: 69.75 percent
  • Valparaiso: 69.35 percent
  • Wyoming: 68.92 percent
  • Atlanta’s John Marshall: 67.50 percent
  • University of D.C.: 64.71 percent
  • Inter-American Puerto Rico: 63.87 percent
  • Pontifical Catholic Puerto Rico: 60.73 percent
  • New England Boston: 60.26 percent
  • Arizona Summit: 59.75 percent

UPDATE (04/13): The ABA recently released its third revised bar passage spreadsheet, and this list has changed. Detroit Mercy reported incorrect data, and is no longer present on the list due to its unique dual U.S. and Canadian J.D. program.

Passing the bar exam is the ultimate rite of passage for would-be attorneys, and this is why it’s so important to thoroughly research each and every law school during the application process, lest you waste up to six figures of federal loan dollars.

Do yourself a favor and click here to check out the Excel spreadsheet for yourself.

ABA Section of Legal Education releases comprehensive report on bar passage data [ABA News]

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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