The Law Schools With The Worst ‘Ultimate’ Bar Pass Rates (Class Of 2016)

The American Bar Association recently 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 10 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 2016 and sat for a bar exam and passed it within two years of graduation. For reference, 88.57 percent of those who graduated from law school in 2016 eventually passed the bar exam (a 0.74 percentage point increase from 2015’s ultimate bar pass rate).

Before we get to that hot mess, here are the law schools with the very best ultimate bar pass rates (i.e., law schools with perfect or near perfect ultimate bar pass rates). It should also be noted that Wisconsin had a 100 percent “ultimate pass rate” and Marquette had a 98.47 percent “ultimate pass rate” thanks to diploma privilege, a court rule that allows graduates of ABA-accredited law schools within the state to skip the bar exam entirely. Congratulations!

• Chicago: 100 percent
• Concordia: 100 percent
• Yale: 100 percent
• Michigan: 99.67 percent
• Pennsylvania: 99.61 percent
• Harvard: 99.48 percent
• Stanford: 99.43 percent
• Alabama: 98.56 percent
• Baylor: 98.08 percent

UPDATE (04/26): Please note that the ABA spreadsheet has some incorrect data that is in the process of being corrected. We’ve updated the below list accordingly.

And now, without further ado, the law schools with the worst ultimate bar pass rates:

• South Dakota: 67.92 percent
• University of San Francisco: 67.44 percent
• Elon: 66.27 percent
• Florida Coastal: 64.54 percent
• Thomas Jefferson: 63.83 percent
• Atlanta’s John Marshall: 59.76 percent
• Whittier: 57.26 percent
• Inter American: 57.22 percent
• Pontifical Catholic: 54.47 percent
• Arizona Summit: 50 percent

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]
Bar pass rate for 2016 law grads shows little movement; which law schools did best? [ABA Journal]

---

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked 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.