Nexus: Chapman's Journal of Law and Public Policy

I am not sure why but I’ve always been intrigued by rankings. Deep down inside all of us know that rankings are barely worth their salt. With that said, let’s begin!

Recently, the California State Bar released the 2009 bar exam results: http://calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/admissions/Statistics/JULY2009STATS.pdf

Here are the 2008 results: http://www.calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/admissions/Statistics/JULY2008STATS.pdf

If we compare the results from 2008 and 2009 there are several interesting changes worth bringing to your attention:

In 2008 the average pass rate of all California ABA-Approved schools was 83.2% In 2009 the average pass rate of all California ABA-Approved schools was 79.3%

In 2008 UC-Davis posted a pass rate of 80.3%--14th highest in the state. In 2009 UC-Davis posted a past rate of 89.1%--4th highest in the state.

In 2008 Pepperdine posted a pass rate of 88.9%--5th highest in the state. In 2009 Pepperdine posted a pass rate of 79.9%--13th highest in the state.

In 2008 Whittier posted a pass rate of 84.3% In 2009 Whittier posted a pass rate of 60.1%

In 2008 Thomas Jefferson posted a pass rate of 76.2%. In 2009 Thomas Jefferson posted a pass rate of 46.5%

In 2008 La Verne posted a pass rate of 61% In 2009 La Verne posted a pass rate of 34%

In 2008 Golden Gate posted a pass rate of 77% In 2009 Golden Gate posted a pass rate of 67.7%

These school’s pass rates dropped in 2009: Stanford, UC-Los Angeles, Pepperdine, University of San Francisco, Loyola-LA, California Western, Whittier, Pacific (McGeorge), Golden Gate, Western State, La Verne, Southwestern, University of San Diego, Santa Clara, and Thomas Jefferson.

These school’s pass rates rose in 2009: University of Southern California, UC- Berkeley, UC-Hastings, UC-Davis, and Chapman.

In terms of US News Rankings, California Western is ranked as a Tier 4 school.
However, its bar pass rates in the past two years are 8th and 9th best in California.

It’s also important to take note of the number of students who sat for the bar exam from each school. For example, in 2009, 368 students took the bar as graduates from UC-Hastings. In contrast, 97 students took the bar as graduates from Stanford.

The average number of takers from all 20 schools combined is about 186 students.

Though these are minor calculations I think they give a general idea of how the bar can fluctuate both up and down in extreme fashion. As we see above, some schools did nearly half as well as they did the year before. Other schools outperformed their score in the previous year by nearly 10%.

Another interesting fact is how many schools saw their pass rate rise. Only five schools of the 20 California ABA-Approved schools could boast such a feat. Four of those five schools are ranked in the top 40; Chapman, a Tier 3 law school, was the only school outside the top 40 to see its bar pass rate rise.