KU School of Law ranks 11th in the nation for first bar exam pass rate

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas Law School graduates who took the bar exam for the first time in 2021 had one of the highest pass rates in the nation.

KU Law published on 11^and– the highest pass rate on the bar exam for the first time nationwide, according to a Reuters analysis. Nearly 96% of KU Law graduates who took a bar exam for the first time in the 2021 calendar year passed, according to recently released data from the American Bar Association.

Other law schools with top 15 pass rates include Harvard, New York University, Yale, University of Chicago, and Duke. KU is one of the few top 15 schools to be consistently recognized as a “Best Value Law School” by National Jurist magazine.

“As an institution, we have been focused on removing barriers for our students and investing in them through donor-funded bar exam preparation and other programs,” said Stephen Mazza, dean of the law school. “It is encouraging to see that, combined with the exceptional determination shown by the class of 2021, we have been able to achieve exceptional results.

KU Law’s Free Bar Prep program offers all students a post-graduation Themis Bar Review course which includes a mock bar exam. The bar prep program also includes a first-year diagnostic exam that tests students’ understanding of basic concepts, a bar exam prep course for credit during the spring of their third year, and assistance the law school bar prep director when they are studying for the bar. . KU Law graduates who took the bar exam in 2021 were in the first class to participate in the three-year Free Bar Prep program.

Donations from alumni support the Free Bar Prep program, enabling KU Law to be one of the few law schools nationwide to offer a commercial post-graduation bar review course at no cost to students.

In Missouri, 100% of KU law graduates who took the Missouri bar exam for the first time in 2021 passed. KU Law’s 100% pass rate was 17.8% higher than the Missouri average of 82.2% for new applicants.

In Kansas, 98.2% of first-time KU Law test takers passed the Kansas bar exam in 2021, placing the school 20.4% above the Kansas average. The state’s overall first-time pass rate was 77.8%.

Bar call reports generated by the American Bar Association from 2021 and earlier are available on the KU Law website.

The bar exam is a test to determine whether applicants are qualified to practice law in a particular jurisdiction. The bar exam is administered twice a year – in February and July – in most jurisdictions. Most students graduate in May and take the summer exam. Commercial bar prep classes typically cost several thousand dollars.