Yahoo Finance 10 Law Schools Where the Most Accepted Students Enroll
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Choosing a law school can be a tough decision, and an important one at that.
But students are more likely to accept an admissions offer from some J.D. programs than others.
Yale University, which ranks No. 1 in the 2017 Best Law Schools, topped the list of ranked institutions with the highest yield -- the percentage of accepted students who enrolled -- at 74.3 percent in fall 2015, according to data submitted to U.S. News in an annual survey.
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Harvard University, which ranked in a tie for No. 2 among top law schools, was third on the list with a yield of 60.4 percent. The school accepted 931 students -- more than any of the others where admitted students enroll at the highest rates.
Not all schools on the list were as highly ranked. Brigham Young University, where 68.8 percent of admitted students enrolled and which ranks No. 38, came second after Yale. The school, which is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offers discounted tuition to members of the church.
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Among all 195 ranked schools that submitted these data to U.S. News, the average yield was about 24.3 percent. In comparison, the average yield was much higher for the 10 schools on the list : 52.4 percent.
On the other end of the spectrum, Vanderbilt University and the Charleston School of Law had the lowest yields among law schools, at 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
Below is a list of the 10 law schools with the highest yield rates for the 2015-2016 school year. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
School (name) (state) | Students accepted | Students enrolled | Yield | U.S. News rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
269 | 200 | 74.3% | 1 | |
186 | 128 | 68.8% | 38 (tie) | |
931 | 562 | 60.4% | 2 (tie) | |
408 | 210 | 51.5% | RNP* | |
224 | 104 | 46.4% | 78 (tie) | |
562 | 254 | 45.2% | 100 (tie) | |
113 | 51 | 45.1% | RNP | |
314 | 140 | 44.6% | 123 (tie) | |
266 | 115 | 43.2% | 136 (tie) | |
473 | 199 | 42.1% | RNP |
* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of all law schools. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Law School Compass to find enrollment data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 205 schools for our 2015 survey of law programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Law Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The enrollment data above are correct as of May 31, 2016.
Jordan Friedman is an online education editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at jfriedman@usnews.com.
