Stanford is one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. It’s the alma mater of some of the world’s finest lawyers and legal scholars. This post details the Stanford law school acceptance rate.
Since 1992, Stanford has been ranked among the top law schools in the US. Its approach to legal education can be described as immersive, collaborative, interdisciplinary, and future-focused. The student programs themselves are one of a kind.
Upon graduation, Stanford Law School students receive their J.D., J.S.D., or LL. M. degrees. The most popular areas of study are clinical training, intellectual property law, environmental law, and international law.
A whole lot more about Stanford Law school has been covered in this article. This includes its history, academics, admission, bar passage rate, Stanford law school acceptance rate, GPA and SAT requirements, and how to get in easily.
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About Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School (Stanford Law) is a private research university near Palo Alto, California, and the law school of Stanford University. It was founded in 1893 and is often regarded among the most prestigious law schools in the world. Since 1992, it has been ranked among the top three law schools in the US every year, an accomplishment that has been achieved by only Yale Law School.
More than 90 part-time and full-time faculty members are employed at Stanford Law School. The school enrolls over 550 students studying for their Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) degree. There are four advanced legal degrees conferred by Stanford: a Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of the Science of Law (J.S.M.), and a Doctor of the Science of Law (J.S.D.).
Each fall, approximately 180 students enroll in Stanford Law J.D. class, hence Stanford has the smallest student body compared to any law school ranked in the top fourteen (T14). Stanford also maintains eleven legal clinics full-time. This includes the U.S first and active Supreme Court clinic. 27 formal joint degree programs are also offered.
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History
Stanford’s first curriculum was offered in legal studies in 1893 when the university employed its first two law professors: Nathan Abbott and former U.S. President Benjamin Harrison. Abbott was head of the new program and built a small faculty in the next few years.
On the other hand, the law department focused on enrolling undergraduate majors at that time. This includes the majority of students who couldn’t get into traditional law schools then, including students of color and women, especially Chinese, Hispanic, and Japanese students.
In 1900, the department moved from its Encina Hall original location to the northeast side located in the Inner Quadrangle. Stanford’s first law library was part of this larger facility. The school started to focus more on professional training causing it to start using a three-year curriculum. Stanford also became one of 27 charter members of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). In 1901, the school conferred its first professional degree, the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.).
In 1908, the law department transitioned into an exclusively professional school after Stanford’s Board of Trustees officially changed its name from Law Department to Law School. Eight years later, Frederic Campbell Woodward was appointed the first dean of the law school, and in 1923, the law school was accredited by the American Bar Association. In 1924, Stanford’s law program became a modern professional school when it started needing a bachelor’s degree for admission.
Between the 1940s and 1950, Stanford law school changed considerably. Though World War II reduced the law school’s enrollment to fewer than 30 students, the school was still able to quickly expand again after the war ended in 1945. The school moved to a new location in the Outer Quadrangle, and in 1948, the law school dormitory Crothers Hall was opened.
The 1948 inaugural publication of the Stanford Law Review (led by future U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher ’49) augmented the national reputation of the law school. It was decided that Stanford should continue to be a small law school with a very small enrollment. In 1970, the law school relocated in the 1970s, this time to the Crown Quadrangle, its current location.
After the school’s national recognition in the 1980s and 1990s, it started innovating its curriculum through new courses on law, environmental law, technology, intellectual property law, and international law. Students were allowed to specialize in new legal fields.
In 1984, the school’s first clinical program, the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, was launched. The 21st century saw a new emphasis on interdisciplinary education emerged. In 2009, Stanford transformed from a semester system to a quarter system to be on par with other graduate schools. It also expanded its international law upper-level offerings, by adding academic centers, new clinics, simulation courses, and increasing its joint degree programs.
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Academics and admissions
Stanford Law School’s student-to-faculty ratio is (7.3 to 1), which is one of the lowest in the country. The 180 students in the first-year class are divided into six smaller sections. Each section consists of 30 students.
The academic program is also flexible. During the autumn quarter, First-year students (or 1Ls) take the Contracts, Civil Procedure, Torts, and Legal Research & Writing, and Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, and Federal Litigation. In winter, they take one elective. In the spring quarter, they take Federal Litigation, and Property, and enroll in electives.
Beyond the first-year curriculum, Stanford Law offers 280-course titles. Advanced courses range from White-Collar Crime to a Supreme Court Simulation Seminar. Additionally, the law school is close to other campus academic programs and focuses primarily on interdisciplinary learning and joint-degree programs. Upper-level students may take classes at Stanford’s other graduate and professional schools.
Second- and third-year students at Stanford can gain hands-on experience by working full-time in an Environmental Law Clinic, a Religious Liberty Clinic, Criminal Defense Clinic, and an Intellectual Property and Innovation Clinic. The Supreme Court Litigation Clinic’s thirty previous court cases have been successful, making the clinic one of the most active Supreme Court practices.
Also, the clinic has worked on many cases as lead counsel or co-lead counsel on the merits. This includes Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (2009), Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), United States v. Windsor (2013), Riley v. California (2014), and Bourke v. Beshear (2015).
Stanford’s Law and Policy Lab were launched in 2013, to offer more opportunities for experiential learning. Second- and third-year students are allowed by the Policy Lab to enroll in faculty-supervised policy practicums, where students from small teams conduct analysis and policy research for real-world clients.
Topics include wildlife trafficking, prison realignment, and copyright reform. Prior clients include Governor of California Jerry Brown, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the California Law Revision Commission, the U.S. Copyright Office, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Outside of the classroom, Stanford Law students operate fifty student organizations and a total of seven legal journals are published. The Stanford Law Review is the most influential journal. In both 2013 and 2014, Washington & Lee Law Review ranked as a top law school. Advocacy skills are put to test in the Marion Rice Kirkwood Moot Court competition.
The Robert Crown Law Library at Stanford holds 500,000 books, 360,000 microform and audiovisual items, and more than 8,000 current serial subscriptions.
In August 2008, the Stanford Law School grading system was changed to no longer rely on traditional letter grades. Students were awarded one of four grades: pass, honors, restricted credit, or no credit. Unlike Yale Law School and Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School puts in place strict curves which cap the number of honors grades to 30%. As part of the grade reform, the law school no longer awards Graduation with Distinction honors or the honors of the Order of the Coif or Graduation with Distinction.
Beyond numbers, Stanford focuses on factors such as work experience, extracurricular activities, and prior graduate study. Approximately three-quarters of the members of each entering class have prior work experience of one or more years and over a quarter also have a graduate degree. In 2020, Stanford Law’s acceptance rate was 6.28%, the second-lowest of any law school in the USA. A small number of transfers is also accepted by the school each year.
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Bar passage rates
According to ABA Required Disclosures, Stanford Law School’s average bar passage rate in 2020 was 98.25%.
In 2020, 96.39% of Stanford Law graduates who took the California bar exam passed for the first time passed, and 100% of Stanford Law graduates who took the bar exam in other jurisdictions also passed.
Post-graduation employment
Upon graduation, half join law firms while approximately a third of the class clerks for a judge.
According to the 2014 official Stanford Law School’s ABA-required disclosures, 90.4% of the Class of 2014 got full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. This excludes solo practitioners. 3.2% is the Transparency Stanford’s Law School under-employment score, which shows the percentage of the Class of 2014 pursuing an additional degree, unemployed, or working in a short-term, non-professional, or part-time job nine months after graduation.
According to the American Bar Association, 90.9% of Stanford Law graduates of 2014 were employed in a position that needs the graduate to pass the bar exam; 2.7% are employed in a position whereby the employer required an individual with a J.D.; 2.7% are employed in other professional jobs; 1.1% are pursuing full-time graduate work; 1.1% have an employment starting date deferred; while 1.6% are unemployed.
Despite Stanford’s small size, it has the third-highest (per capita) placement rate for law professors in the US’s 43 leading law schools. A 2011 study reports that the school has achieved the second-highest placement rate for U.S. Supreme Court clerkships. For the past 40 years, Alumni of Stanford Law alumni have clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court every year. Between 2012 to 2014 average, Stanford Law achieved the second-highest placement rate for federal judicial clerkships. The class of 2014 also had one of the highest placement rates at 30.5% for federal judicial clerkships.
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Admission Requirements
When it comes to Stanford Law College admission requirements, the important requirement is:
- GPA requirements
- SAT and ACT requirements, and/or testing requirements
- Application requirements
Keep reading to know the admission requirements based on Stanford Law School’s acceptance rate.
The Stanford Law acceptance rate tells you how competitive the University is and the requirements you must meet.
Stanford Law School Acceptance rate
The Stanford Law School acceptance rate is 4.3%. For every 100 applicants, only 4 are admitted, hence Spelman is extremely selective.
You must meet the university requirements for GPA and SAT/ACT scores to make your application stronger and get past the first application stage. If your scores don’t meet the expectations, then you won’t stand a chance of getting in easily.
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Stanford Law School GPA Requirements
Stanford Law School‘s average GPA is 3.96. An extremely competitive score for GPAs.
If you get a GPA of 3.76, you are expected to have almost straight A’s in all your high school transcripts. You should also have taken hard AP or IB courses to boost your weighted GPA.
SAT and ACT Requirements
Stanford Law School’s requirements for standardizing tests include the SAT or ACT.
You must take the SAT or ACT and perform well on the test before you apply to Spelman.
The average SAT score composite is 1505 on the 1600 SAT scale. Therefore, Stanford Law is quite competitive in SAT scores.
The New SAT 25th percentile score is 1440, while the New SAT 75th percentile score is 1550. What this means is that a New SAT score of 1440 places you below average, while 1550 places you up above average.
Below is the section breakdown of new SAT scores:
| Section | Average | 25th Percentile | 75th Percentile |
| Math | 770 | 740 | 800 |
| Reading + Writing | 735 | 700 | 770 |
| Composite | 1505 | 1440 | 1550 |
Stanford Law School Requirements
Just like for the SAT, there’s no known hard ACT cutoff mark based on the Stanford Law school acceptance rate. However, if your score is low, you won’t be accepted.
The average ACT score at Stanford Law is 34. The university is strongly competitive for ACT scores. The 25th percentile ACT score is 32, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 35.
Take the ACT as many times as you can and aim for an ACT score of 32 and above. When you have the best score that reaches or exceeds the minimum requirement, you can then send only that score to Stanford Law school.
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SAT/ACT Writing Section Requirements
Stanford Law has an optional essay section for SAT and ACTs. Take the SAT Essay/ACT Writing section. If you do well, it will help make your application stronger.
SAT Subject Test Requirements
Every school requires an SAT subject test score and this varies with different schools. Whether every school requires the SAT subject tests is unknown, but you should check 6 months before applying. This will help you have enough time to take the test.
With a strong academic performance and an SAT score of 1550 or a 35 ACT or above, you can increase your chance of getting into Stanford Law school.
Conclusion
That’s all on Stanford Law School acceptance rate and how to get in easily. Stanford Law School (Stanford Law) is a private research university and the law school of Stanford University. The school enrolls over 550 students studying for their Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) degree. There are four advanced legal degrees conferred by Stanford: a Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of the Science of Law (J.S.M.), and a Doctor of the Science of Law (J.S.D.).
Stanford Law School’s student-to-faculty ratio is (7.3 to 1), which is one of the lowest in the country. The 180 students in the first-year class are divided into six smaller sections. Each section consists of 30 students.
FAQs on Stanford Law School Acceptance Rate and How to Get in Easily
Stanford Law School‘s average GPA is 3.96. An extremely competitive score for GPAs.
If you get a GPA of 3.76, you are expected to have almost straight A’s in all your high school transcripts. You should also have taken hard AP or IB courses to boost your weighted GPA.
The Stanford Law School acceptance rate is 4.3%.
Stanford’s 4.3% acceptance rate means that for every 100 applicants, only 4 are admitted, hence Spelman is extremely selective.
Since 1992, Stanford has been ranked among the top law schools in the US. Its approach to legal education can be described as immersive, collaborative, interdisciplinary, and future-focused.
The average ACT score at Stanford Law is 34. The university is strongly competitive for ACT scores. The 25th percentile ACT score is 32, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 35.
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