Top 50 Law Schools Ranked By Admission Rate

Graduate School Law School
1

US ABA accredited law schools ranked by admission rate (top 50 out of approximately 197):

  1. Yale–5.70%

  2. Stanford–6.90%

  3. U Penn–9.70%

  4. Harvard–10.10%

  5. Boston College–10.20%

  6. Duke–10.70%

  7. Columbia–11.90%

  8. UCal-Berkeley–12.50%

  9. USC–12.70%

  10. U Virginia–12.90%

  11. U Michigan–13.50%

  12. U Chicago–14.20%

  13. Vanderbilt–14.50%

  14. U Texas–14.60%

  15. UNC–14.60%

  16. U Georgia–14.80%

  17. Northwestern–15%

  18. GWU–15.10%

  19. UCLA–15.50%

  20. NYU–15.70%

  21. Boston University–16.30%

  22. Texas A&M–16.30%

  23. U Florida–16.90%

  24. Cornell–17.40%

  25. Georgetown–17.60%

  26. WashUStL–18%

  27. Fordham–18.80%

  28. UC-Irvine–19.50%

  29. George Mason Univ.–19.60%

  30. Fla. State (FSU)–19.60%

  31. ASU (Arizona State)–19.70%

  32. Notre Dame–24.60%

  33. U Arizona–24.90%

  34. UC-Davis–25.20%

  35. U Alabama–25.80%

  36. Emory–26%

  37. U Maryland–29.50%

  38. U Washington–30.30%

  39. U Colorado–31.20%

  40. BYU–31.40%

  41. U Utah–31.90%

  42. Wash & Lee–32.70%

  43. Wake Forest (WFU)–33%

  44. U Illinois–34.70%

  45. U Wisconsin–35.20%

  46. Ohio State–37.10%

  47. U Minnesota–37.20%

  48. U Iowa–41.30%

  49. Indiana U.–43.40

  50. William & Mary–46%

2

Baylor? Villanova? SMU? I think some missing from this list…

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Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) minimum passing scores for the 41 jurisdictions which use the UBA:

Minimum passing score of 270: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, & Wyoming

Minimum passing score of 268: Michigan

Minimum passing score of 266: Conn., Wash DC, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Virgin Islands, & Washington state.

Minimum passing score of 264: Indiana & Oklahoma

Minimum passing score of 260: Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, & Utah.

Jurisdictions which do NOT use the UBE: California,Nevada, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Delaware, & Hawaii.

4

I’ll check.

The list that I used calculated an “admissions index” rating of the toughest 50 ABA accredited law schools for admission. That index used acceptance rate, median LSAT score, & median GPA. I just sorted by rate of admission as I did not want to cite the inflated LSAT scores which arose as a result of the abbreviated LSAT test during Covid. Nevertheless, when all three admissions factors were considered, none of Baylor, SMU, or Villanova made the list of the hardest 50 Law schools regarding admissions.

P.S. Most recently, SMU admitted 42%, Baylor admitted 23.9%, and Villanova admitted either 49%, 22.5%, or 16.5% of all applicants depending upon which source one believes. However, Baylor had a significant number of applications withdrawn–which might have a considerable effect on the admissions rate. Additionally, Baylor law school has three entering full-time classes per year (Summer, Fall, & Spring) with different admit rates.

Thank you for your observation.

P.S. The admission rates above for SMU, Baylor, & Villanova may not match the year used in creation of the admissions index.

P.P.S. Baylor University admit rate varies by term admitted (Summer, Fall, or Spring) and is affected by a significant number of withdrawn applications (which some educational institutions still count in order to appear more selective).

https://law.baylor.edu/admissions/apply/quick-facts

The below shows that 69 applications to Baylor law school were withdrawn:

5

So Villanova has a lower acceptance rate than Cornell and Georgetown? I find that very surprising (and I went to VLS, albeit over 30 years ago).

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For fall 2023, Villanova School of Law website shows an acceptance rate of 22.5% with medians of 164 LSAT and 3.80 GPA.

https://www1.villanova.edu/university/law/admissions/how-to-apply/class-profile.html

Yet, lawschoolnumbers dot com shows an admit rate of 49% for VLS with lower medians.

Three different sources show three different–dramatically different–admit rates for VLS. Probably one reason why VLS was not included among the top 50 hardest to get into law schools.

The VLS admit rate of 16.5% is shown in the below article on Pennsylvania law schools:

7

Well the lawschoolnumbers dot com website also shows tuition as $42K while the Villanova Law school website shows it as $58K. Which one is accurate? :wink:

8

Which makes the point that there are conflicting numbers on the internet due to facts from different years. Goes back to your original question about admit rates and the need to assure that all data is compiled from the same admissions cycle.

9

Interesting that the admission rates for the top schools do not correlate closer to T14 rankings.

10

I think as a general rule that versus the top private/OOS colleges, there are fewer people applying to top private/OOS law schools with uncompetitive numbers, including because of the relative lack of aid.

If you look instead at reported GPAs and LSATs, it is a lot closer to what you would expect (I like looking at L25 and G25 because I think this gives you the best single read of what it takes to truly be competitive for admission):

https://7sage.com/top-law-school-admissions/

So Boston College may have nearly the same acceptance rate as Harvard, but the latter has a L25 of 171, G25 of 3.84, and the former is at 161/3.59. You can argue that might make BC a slightly tougher admit than comparable law schools like George Mason, but it is not in fact as hard to get admitted to BC as Harvard. And necessarily, this means a lot of the people applying to BC, some getting admitted, must not be applying to Harvard, and vice-versa.

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