SMU Law Students Love Them Some SMU Law

Posted on August 18th, 2008 1:00pm by Tim Rogers
Filed under Law

Texas Lawyer asked students to evaluate their educational experience at the nine ABA-accredited law schools in the state. Guess which school got the best reviews? Yup.

8 comments

  1. And TWU finished second. Good showing for the “don’t call me Metro” DFW area.

    @ 1:16 pm on August 18, 2008

  2. More accolades for SMU. We all know what that means. Alot of pissed off music majors and unemployed writers who wanted to go to Berkeley but ended up at UTD will get on here to b*tch about SMU’s lack of culture.

    @ 1:52 pm on August 18, 2008

  3. SMU may finish high but you’d be mentally retarded to go there over UT unless you are both going for free and have a guaranteed job. And by free i mean full scholarship, it’s not worth your parents money either if you got into UT.

    Baylor finishes low because it is the only school in the country running a law school like they did 30 years ago. This produces extremely well trained attorneys and the highest bar pass rates in the state but very morose student body.

    Any law school list that has TWU as #2 should immediately be discarded unless the title is “Graduates with the Lowest Median Income/Highest Unemployment Rate”…tex southern would claim the top spot.

    @ 2:09 pm on August 18, 2008

  4. I don’t know, exlaw. Though your logic is sound and your argument convincing, the numbers don’t lie. I’ve included a few of those numbers below for your convenience.

    Texas
    - U.S. News Rank – 18th
    - Bar pasage rate – 89%
    - Employed after 9 months – 93%
    - 3.6 Median GPA
    - 165 Median LSAT
    - 14:1 Student to Faculty ratio
    - Median private sector salary – $110,000

    SMU
    - U.S. News Rank – 46th
    - Bar passage rate – 89%
    - Employed after 9 months – 94%
    - 3.7 Median GPA
    - 165 Median LSAT
    - 14:1 Student to Faculty ratio
    - Median private sector salary – $104,000
    - 15% of students receive half scholarships or more
    - more than half receive some form of scholarships or grant

    @ 2:41 pm on August 18, 2008

  5. Josh needs to throw the Baylor stats up there. Then you will know where the best law school in Texas is. An 89% Bar passage rate means you have a 11% chance of not being a lawyer when you get out of Law School. I’m not sure I like those odds…

    I won’t even begin to discuss the lack of preparedness for courtrooms.

    @ 3:21 pm on August 18, 2008

  6. Ask and you will receive, El Rey. Although, I’m not sure I would crown Baylor the best law school in Texas just yet.

    For what it’s worth, SMU and UT are the only tier 1 law schools in the state of Texas. Baylor and the University of Houston are both tier 2s, Texas Tech is a tier 3, and South Texas, Texas Southern, Texas Wesleyan and St. Mary’s are all considered tier 4s.

    That’s not to say that one is definitely better than the other in all cases. For example, I hear the Baylor program is exceptional if you are considering litigation law.

    Baylor
    - U.S. News Rank – 53th
    - Bar passage rate – 93%
    - Employed after 9 months – 92%
    - 3.65 Median GPA
    - 161 Median LSAT
    - 17:1 Student to Faculty ratio
    - Median private sector salary – $75,000

    @ 3:52 pm on August 18, 2008

  7. Oops, should be 53rd, not 53th…

    @ 3:52 pm on August 18, 2008

  8. El Rey should have shared his Baylor Kool-aid with the 31% who wish they went elsewhere.

    @ 3:53 pm on August 18, 2008