LSU Law jumped to No. 12 on this year’s ranking of the Best Value Law Schools by preLaw, up from No. 19 last year and No. 23 in 2017.
For the 11th straight year, LSU Law is ranked among the nation’s Best Value Law Schools by preLaw magazine.
LSU Law posted another significant jump in this year’s rankings, rising to No. 12—up from No. 19 last year and No. 23 in 2017—and it’s the only public or private Louisiana law school to be included in the rankings.
“We are a great law school and we’ve worked very hard to minimize tuition and fee increases while increasing our scholarship aid over the past 10 years,” says LSU Law Dean Tom Galligan.
preLaw magazine, a National Jurist publication, says “our Best Value Law Schools ranking is designed to recognize schools where graduates have excellent chances of passing the bar and getting a legal job without taking on a ton of debt.”
For its 2019 Best Value Law Schools, the magazine ranks law schools on the following formula: Ultimate bar pass rate and two-year pass rate (15% of study); Employment rate (35%); Tuition (25%); Cost of living (10%); and average indebtedness upon graduation (15%). All data comes from the American Bar Association except for indebtedness, which comes from U.S. News and World Report.
For employment, preLaw uses a weighted figure, giving more credit to full-time jobs that require bar passage. LSU Law’s employment figure is 91%, which is the fourth-highest rate among the top 25 law schools in this year’s rankings.
The ABA ultimate bar passage is the aggregate rate of the class of 2016 (LSU Law’s rate was 92.5%), and preLaw used the first-time pass rate for the classes of 2017 and 2018 for the two-year bar pass percentage (LSU Law’s rate was 86%).
LSU Law students routinely post Louisiana’s highest bar exam pass rate, and employment numbers for the school have also been very strong.
With 84.4% of its students passing the Louisiana State Bar Exam in July 2019, LSU Law had the highest pass rate of all Louisiana law schools, according to results released Oct. 4 by the Committee on Bar Admission of the Louisiana Supreme Court. Among first-time takers of the exam in July, 85.6% of LSU Law students passed, which also ranks first among all law schools in the state.
The new rankings are included in the fall issue of preLaw.
