TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Mar 13, 2024

The comprehensive set of data on bar passage rates released by the American Bar Association (ABA) this week included some additional findings not previously reported in TBA Today. According to Reuters, Vanderbilt University Law School placed third in the nation for its first-time bar pass rate of 96.97%, coming in behind the University of Michigan Law School (97.27%) and the University of Chicago Law School (97.1%). Reuters also reports that longstanding racial disparities in the rates of passage continued in 2023. White exam takers had the highest first-time pass rate at 84%, followed by Asian test takers at 74%, Hispanic examinees at 71% and Black examinees at 58% — continuing an ongoing trend that has fueled criticism of the bar exam as biased.