These law schools' grads crush the bar exam. It's not who you think - Reuters
(Reuters) - The law schools at Florida International University, Belmont University, Campbell University and Louisiana State University are far from the top of U.S. News & World Report's influential law school rankings.
But they punch above their weight when it comes to graduates passing the bar exam on their first try, a new study found.
They are among 25 law schools whose graduates perform better on the bar exam than their Law School Admission Test scores and undergraduate grade-point averages would predict, according to an analysis by University of Louisville law professor C.J. Ryan and University of Iowa law professor Derek Muller.
The pair examined six years of first-time bar passage data to identify overperforming and underperforming schools. Then they surveyed the schools to identify approaches and programs that correlate to bar exam success.
“We wanted to figure out, ‘What are the schools that do the best, and what do they do?’” Muller said.
The bulk of the overperformers are also ranked in the top 50 by U.S. News, such as Stanford Law School, the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and the University of California Berkeley School of Law. But seven are outside the top 50, including top overperformer Florida International, which is ranked No. 88 by U.S. News.
Two overperforming schools identified in the study — Campbell and Liberty University School of Law — are in U.S. News' lowest tier and are not numerically ranked.
Campbell Law Dean Rich Leonard on Monday credited a trio of test prep programs offered during and after students' third year, as well as the school's high required course load, which he said exposes students to more legal subjects.
Muller and Ryan found there was no one-size-fits-all approach among schools that overperformed on the bar exam, but they identified some common approaches. The schools tend to zero in on first-year law school grades to identify students who need more support, the found. They also make bar exam preparation a focus of students’ final semester — but they don’t necessarily spend more on bar prep.
“I was surprised that a lot of these schools that are doing well are not spending dramatically more money than other schools on bar exam or academic success programs,” Muller said. “It’s a question of how those resources are being used.”
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source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/these-law-schools-grads-crush-bar-exam-its-not-who-you-think-2022-02-07/
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