Law Schools

Which Law Schools Are 'Overperforming' On Their Ultimate Bar Exam Passage Rates?

Did your law school make the list? Find out here.

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The results of the July 2023 bar exam will soon be released, so there’s no better time to discuss the law schools that are beating the odds and “overperforming” when it comes to their ultimate bar passage rates.

According to a new paper — “Ultimate Bar Passage Rates: Which Law Schools Are Overperforming and Underperforming Expectations” — there are quite a few law schools that are doing better than expected when it comes to their graduates passing the bar.

Law.com has the details, courtesy of its author, Professor Jeffrey S. Kinsler of Belmont University College of Law, the school’s founding dean:

Kinsler used Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores and undergraduate grade point average (UGPA) to calculate a predicted bar passage rate, identifying which law schools are overperforming or underperforming in terms of preparing their students to pass the bar exam. …

Kinsler used linear regression models to assess the performance of 186 law schools using median LSAT and Ultimate Bar Pass Rate and median UGPA and Ultimate Bar Pass Rate.

He proceeded to calculate an annual rank for each law school based on its overperformance (or underperformance) of predicted expectations for bar passage, and then he calculated an average annual rank based on each law school’s performance over the three-year period of 2017– 2019.

Without further ado, based on Kinsler’s findings, these are the top 20 law schools that overperform on ultimate bar exam rates (based on UGPA and LSAT scores of incoming students from 2017 to 2019):

  1. Campbell University Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law
  2. Liberty University School of Law
  3. Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law
  4. Belmont University College of Law
  5. Samford University Cumberland School of Law
  6. Georgia State University College of Law
  7. Saint Louis University School of Law
  8. Syracuse University College of Law
  9. South Texas College of Law Houston
  10. University of Oklahoma College of Law
  11. Florida International University College of Law
  12. Seton Hall University School of Law
  13. Northern Illinois University College of Law
  14. Texas A&M University School of Law
  15. City University of New York School of Law
  16. Willamette University College of Law
  17. University of South Carolina School of Law
  18. Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University
  19. University of Kansas School of Law
  20. Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

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“It is possible to show which law schools are adding the most bar passage value to their students,” Kinsler noted in his study, which differs from the recent work of Professor Christopher J. Ryan Jr. and Professor Derek T. Muller, which identified the law schools that overperformed (and underperformed) on the bar exam from 2014 to 2019. How different were the results? Law.com has the details:

For their study, Florida International was No. 1 (compared to No. 11 in Kinsler’s report); University of South Carolina was No. 3 (compared to number 17); Belmont was No. 6 (compared to No. 4); Campbell was No. 11 (compared to No. 1); and Georgia State was No. 18 (compared to No. 6).

Congratulations if your law school made the list, and best of luck as bar results are released, no matter where you went to law school.

New Study: The Law Schools Overperforming—and Underperforming—Ultimate Bar Passage Rate Expectations [Law.com]

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Staci ZaretskyStaci 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 and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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