Building Your Law School List: The Numbers & Data
By Alice Foley, Director of Pre-Law Programming
If you are planning to start sending in your law school applications this fall, my guess is that you are already starting to think about building the list of law schools that you plan to apply to. But what are you looking for when it comes to a “good” law school?
In this blog post, we’re going to walk through some different hard factors that you may want to consider as you’re beginning to build your law school list. Hard factors typically refer to numeric data points, like LSAT scores and employment rates.
While these are only one part of what you should consider (learn about soft factors here), they are a great place to start on your search.
LSAT & uGPA
The very first thing I want you to look at as you start to build this list are your undergraduate GPA (uGPA) and your LSAT score. If you haven’t taken an LSAT exam yet, take a diagnostic test to get an idea of what your score may be.
Once you have your uGPA and LSAT (or diagnostic) score, start looking at admissions data. Law School Transparency, the ABA 509 Reports, and the law school’s website will be helpful places to look to begin finding this data.
You’ll want to take a look at their uGPA and LSAT score medians. Take a peek at them and see how each school’s medians compare to your stats. Don’t start counting out any schools just yet, just have that in mind.
The other information I want you to look at in these reports is the acceptance rates, the size of the school, and the scholarships that have been offered in the past. Those are really helpful to have in the back of your mind as you begin compiling your list.
Bar Passage Rate
While admissions statistics are great, you also want to dig into outcomes for students that attended that school. Finding out the bar passage rate is a key indicator that you should be paying attention to.
There are a variety of ways to decide what is a “good” or “bad” bar passage rate. Schools have to maintain a certain percentage to remain their accreditation with the American Bar Association, so that is one standard to look at.
What you’ll learn from the bar passage rate is how hard you’re going to have to work on your own, in addition to what you’re doing at law school, to ensure that you will pass the bar. If a school has a lower bar passage rate, you will likely need to put in extra work and get external support to pass the bar.
You may be thinking, “But Alice, I’m super self-driven. Even if they’re not providing me with the best support, I can pass the bar on my own.” I don’t love that. I want you to go to a bar with a very high bar passage rate, because schools with higher rates are going to offer a lot of extra support through your time in law school to help you pass the bar.
Employment Outcomes
Bar passage rate is also tied pretty closely to a school’s employment outcomes. You want to see graduates from the school you plan to attend are finding jobs.
The piece of employment data that I want you to pay attention to very closely is the overall employment numbers.
For overall employment, that encompasses any job as long as it is full-time and long-term. It doesn’t necessarily mean being a lawyer, which not everyone at law school wants to be. Some schools may give you a bigger breakdown of jobs, but that overall employment will be a good indicator.
Programs
If you know exactly what it is you want to do when you graduate law school, you want to look for law schools that specialize in that particular field. Unless you’ve picked a super niche field, there’s going to be a school out there with a program in it.
Law Review is another great opportunity that is going to give you the chance to write a lot. It looks really wonderful on a resume, especially if you’re looking to go into Big Law. Another example is if you want to do appellate-level work, looking for a school with a moot court team.
Finally, make sure that you’re looking at clinical programs. They give you the chance to represent real clients and help them with real problems. Many law schools have specialized clinics, so make sure you’re looking for a school that offers them in the area(s) that you’re interested in.
The Rankings
If you are building your list solely on the U.S. News & World Report rankings, please, please consider doing something else. You can start there if you want to, but I want you to do research in all of the schools that you put on your life. You can see more of our thoughts on the rankings here.
If you still want to apply to schools mainly in the T14, that’s fine, but the rankings do not tie directly to outcomes. They do not tie directly to the opportunities you will have in law school, and that’s what you’re there for.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of things to consider when you’re creating a balanced school list (and we haven’t even gotten to the soft factors yet!). What’s most important is that you’re setting yourself up at a school that will help you succeed and that you will feel at home in.
When you work with us one-on-one, we’ll walk you through this process and help you build a school list that is customized to your wants and needs! Learn more about our private packages with sliding scale pricing for BIPOC, first-generation, and other marginalized students here.
As always, reach out to us if you have any questions at hello@smontgomeryconsulting.com.