The 12 Law Schools With The Lowest Acceptance Rates (2022)

//

(Image via Getty)

How can you measure a law school’s worth, aside from the employment statistics of its graduates? Another telling sign of its success may be its selectivity — i.e., its acceptance rate.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-top-300x250" ); });

But which law schools had the lowest acceptance rates? There’s a ranking for that, of course.

Sponsored The Digital Transformation Imperative Private funds’ in-house and external legal teams are stretched thin by growing legal demands. Firms need digital transformation to thrive. From Troy Pospisil, Ontra CEO  

According to U.S. News, the average acceptance rate in fall 2022 was 41 percent. Among the schools with the lowest acceptance rates, the average rate was much lower, at 11 percent. As you may have guessed, the law schools with the lowest acceptance rates are some of the usual suspects, the elite schools found at the tippy top of the U.S. News rankings.

Please feel free to check them out below, courtesy of U.S. News.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-middle-300x250" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-storycontent-440x100" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-in-story-youtube-1x1" ); });

SCHOOL NAME (STATE)

APPLICANTS (FALL 2022)

ACCEPTANCES (FALL 2022)

ACCEPTANCE RATE

U.S. NEWS RANK

Yale Law School (CT) 4,129 236 6% 1 (tie) Stanford Law School (CA) 4,882 336 7% 1 (tie) Boston College Law School (MA) 6,022 612 10% 29 (tie) Harvard Law School (MA) 8,170 822 10% 5 (tie) University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School 6,816 664 10% 4 Duke University School of Law (NC) 6,250 671 11% 5 (tie) Columbia Law School (NY) 7,972 951 12% 8 (tie) University of California, Berkeley School of Law 6,722 838 12% 10 (tie) University of Southern California Gould School of Law 5,867 745 13% 16 (tie) University of Virginia School of Law 6,031 777 13% 8 (tie) University of Chicago Law School (IL) 5,246 747 14% 3 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor Law School 6,253 845 14% 10 (tie)

Ten of the 12 law schools with the lowest acceptance rates fall within the top of the most recent U.S. News rankings, with USC (#16) and Boston College (tied at #29) sneaking in to complete the list. Some of the top 14 schools that didn’t make the cut here were Northwestern, UCLA, NYU, and Cornell, with acceptance rates of 15.05 percent, 15.50 percent, 15.65 percent, and 17.44 percent, respectively.

Sponsored Sponsored The Digital Transformation Imperative Private funds’ in-house and external legal teams are stretched thin by growing legal demands. Firms need digital transformation to thrive. From Troy Pospisil, Ontra CEO   Sponsored Security: The Stakes May Be Higher Than You Think We surveyed Above the Law’s readers on challenges facing smaller law firms. Join us to learn what we found. CLE credit available if you attend… From iManage and Above The Law   Sponsored Clio Users: New Ways To Add Value To Your Practice! Want to quickly and easily identify the products that work well with Clio? Read on. From Above The Law   Sponsored This Early Adopter Found Success With Legal AI. Here’s How You Can, Too Hear how one company brought the power of artificial intelligence into its contracting workflow. From LexCheck and Above The Law  

Where does your law school stand when it comes to its acceptance rate? Check out your school’s most recent Standard 509 Report to find out.

12 Law Schools That Are Hardest to Get Into [U.S. News]

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-bottom-300x250" ); });

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Sponsored Sponsored This Early Adopter Found Success With Legal AI. Here’s How You Can, Too Hear how one company brought the power of artificial intelligence into its contracting workflow. From LexCheck and Above The Law   Sponsored Documenting Secured Transactions: A New Guide For Practitioners A newly updated PLI treatise provides both the legal framework and practical guidance on documenting secured transactions, including important details about 2022 amendments to the UCC. From Practising Law Institute   Topics

0Ls, Acceptance Rates, Law School Acceptances, Law School Admissions, Law School Applications, Law Schools, pre-law students, Pre-laws, Prospective Law Students, Rankings