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The second-ranked law school in the country just found itself slipping down the ladder in one of the most important metrics.
California released the stats behind the July administration of the bar exam and it did not look pretty for Stanford Law School, whose 86.4 percent bar passage rate for first-time examinees proved only good enough for fifth place among California schools. Looking up at Berkeley, UCLA, USC, and UCI. At least Stanford is cheaper than USC… so that’s something!
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To put this in perspective, Stanford’s first-time California bar passage rate averaged 94.6 percent over the previous 5 years. That wasn’t always enough to top Berkeley (who slipped by them by 1 percent in 2021), but it never fell below second.
Adding to the misery, bringing the out-of-state schools into the mix placed Stanford at 16th just behind… Arizona State. Nothing against the Sun Devils, but Stanford can live with falling behind Harvard grads moving West, not ASU.
Seriously though, everyone has an outlier. There shall be much tittering among the UC schools, but wake us up when this becomes a trend.
Still, it’s a good thing the school has already publicly declared its disdain for rankings, because that number 2 slot might not be happening next year.
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July 2022 California Bar Exam Results [Tax Prof Blog]
July 2022 California Bar Exam Results For Out-Of-State Law Schools [Tax Prof Blog]
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.