88.6% Of The Class Of 2016 Passed The Bar Within 2 Years Of Graduation, But 10% Of Law Schools Have Fail Rates > 25%

ABA Section of Legal Education Releases Comprehensive Report on Bar Passage Data:

The Managing Director’s Office of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar released today a comprehensive set of data on bar passage outcomes for American Bar Association-approved law schools.

That data shows that in the aggregate 88.57 percent of law graduates in 2016 who sat for a bar exam within two years of graduating have passed a bar exam. That two-year “ultimate” aggregate success rate is substantially the same as the outcome for those who graduated in 2015, where the ultimate pass rate was 88.49 percent. The 2016 ultimate bar pass data also reveals that 97 percent of all graduates had sat for a bar exam within two years of graduation and that schools were able to track 98.5 percent of graduates.

Here are the 25 law schools with the highest ultimate bar pass rates:

School	% Pass
1. CHICAGO	100.00%
1. CONCORDIA	100.00%
1. WISCONSIN	100.00%
1. YALE	100.00%
5. MICHIGAN	99.67%
6. PENNSYLVANIA	99.61%
7. HARVARD	99.48%
8. MARQUETTE	99.47%
9. STANFORD	99.43%
10. ALABAMA	98.56%
11. BAYLOR	98.08%
12. VIRGINIA	97.85%
13. CORNELL	97.79%
14. VANDERBILT	97.77%
15. ILLINOIS	97.58%
16. GEORGE WASHINGTON	97.55%
17. UC-BERKELEY	97.49%
18. TEMPLE	97.45%
19. FORDHAM	97.33%
20. REGENT	97.18%
21. CUNY	97.12%
22. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY	97.07%
23. PENN STATE - DICKINSON	96.97%
24. ARKANSAS - FAYETTEVILLE	96.91%
25. GEORGIA	96.83%

Here are the 25 U.S. law schools with the lowest ultimate bar pass rates:

School	% Pass
1. ARIZONA SUMMIT	50.00%
2. HOWARD	54.64%
3. WHITTIER	57.26%
4.JOHN MARSHALL - ATLANTA	59.76%
5. THOMAS JEFFERSON	63.83%
6. FLORIDA COASTAL	64.54%
7. VALPARAISO	65.99%
8. ELON	66.27%
9. SAN FRANCISCO	67.44%
10. SOUTH DAKOTA	67.92%
11. WESTERN MICHIGAN - COOLEY	69.02%
12. DAYTON	69.23%
13. APPALACHIAN	69.77%
14. NEW ENGLAND	71.13%
15. BARRY	71.14%
16. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	71.43%
17. AVE MARIA	73.33%
18. MCGEORGE	73.48%
19. GOLDEN GATE	74.00%
20. VERMONT	74.34%
21. LA VERNE	74.47%
22. FLORIDA A&M	75.86%
23. CHARLESTON	76.03%
24. ST. THOMAS - FLORIDA	76.85%
25. CATHOLIC	76.92%

First-time takers in 2018 achieved a 74.82 percent pass rate, which compares to a 77.34 percent pass rate for 2017. Spreadsheets are available on the section’s webpage under Legal Education Statistics, which report these outcomes on a school-by-school basis and in more detail.

“This information was reported to the ABA by law schools and is being made public as a matter of consumer information under the authority of ABA Standard 509,” said Barry Currier, the section’s managing director. “This report is not a compliance report for ABA Standard 316, which establishes bar exam outcomes that a law school must achieve under the accreditation standards, which is a separate and distinct matter. The public reports do provide important consumer information for students considering whether and where to attend law school and for others with an interest in legal education.”

Outcomes vary by school. The data also suggests that the “ultimate” pass rates – the rate of bar passage achieved within the time frame regardless of the number of attempts – show that aggregate and school-specific outcomes do increase significantly with additional tests over the first two-years after graduation. For example, the aggregate first-time pass rate reported for 2016 was 74.3 percent. That success rate rose to 88.57 percent within two years.

The collection of this data requires a considerable investment of time and resources by law schools. There is, however, no other single outcome that better measures whether a law school is offering a rigorous program of legal education to a group of students that the school has determined through its admissions process, are likely capable of completing the J.D. program and being admitted to the bar. “The council very much appreciates the work that law schools do to gather and report these outcomes,” Currier added.

ABA Journal, Bar Pass Rate for 2016 Law Grads Shows Little Movement; Which Law Schools Did Best?:

The bar pass rate for 2016 law grads who sat for the exam within two years of graduating is 88.57%, according to ABA data released Friday. ... The percentage is substantially the same as for 2015 law grads, who had an 88.49% bar pass rate within two years. ...

Four law schools had a 100% bar pass rate. They are the University of Chicago Law School, Yale Law School, the Concordia University School of Law and the University of Wisconsin Law School. The Wisconsin data stems from the state’s diploma privilege, which allows graduates of ABA-accredited law schools in the state to skip the bar exam. Concordia had only 25 graduates, and all 24 grads who took the exam passed. The ABA granted full accreditation approval to Concordia this year.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• ABA Delays Decision On Tougher Bar Passage Accreditation Standard (Feb. 23, 2019)
• ABA House Of Delegates Again Rejects 75% Bar Passage Within 2 Years Accreditation Standard, 79% to 21% (Jan. 29, 2019)
• Eighteen Law Schools Would Fail ABA's Proposed 75% Bar Passage Within 2 Years Accreditation Standard (Jan. 26, 2019)
• Bar Pass Rate Bonanza: The 'Ultimate' Law School Rankings (Mar. 30, 2018)
• State-By-State Comparison Of Bar Pass Rates (Mar. 29, 2018)
• Bar Pass Data Palooza (Mar. 28, 2018)
• 90% Of Students Pass The Bar Within 2 Years Of Graduation, But 10% Of Law Schools Have Fail Rates > 25% (Mar. 23, 2018)