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Bar Exam Pass Rates by State & Law School
First-time and ultimate bar passage for all ABA-accredited law schools, grouped by state and ranked by school. Figures are the schools' own ABA 509 filings for the most recent cycle.
Two measures, different questions
First-time passage excludes retakers; ultimate passage includes them. For choosing a school, ultimate is the more useful figure — nobody actually takes the bar once and stops. First-time passage is what state bar associations publish, which makes it the right number for comparing schools within one jurisdiction. Where a school reports only one, that figure is shown and the other marked n/a.
Bar passage by state
States ordered by median ultimate passage. Each state links to its full list of schools, where the per-school bar figures appear alongside admissions, tuition and aid.
| State | Schools | Median first-time | Median ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin | 1 | 75.0% | 100.0% |
| Utah | 2 | 96.8% | 99.0% |
| Massachusetts | 8 | 90.5% | 96.7% |
| Connecticut | 3 | 82.8% | 96.5% |
| Kansas | 2 | 94.2% | 96.4% |
| Missouri | 4 | 89.1% | 96.4% |
| North Carolina | 6 | 93.5% | 95.3% |
| Tennessee | 5 | 85.6% | 95.2% |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | 89.7% | 95.0% |
| Maine | 1 | 85.1% | 95.0% |
| Texas | 10 | 93.7% | 94.9% |
| California | 17 | 86.3% | 94.6% |
| Virginia | 8 | 91.3% | 94.6% |
| Arizona | 2 | 91.9% | 94.3% |
| New York | 15 | 86.7% | 94.0% |
| Georgia | 5 | 86.5% | 94.0% |
| Nebraska | 2 | 84.9% | 93.9% |
| Washington | 3 | 85.8% | 93.6% |
| Montana | 1 | 82.5% | 93.5% |
| Colorado | 2 | 89.7% | 93.5% |
| District of Columbia | 6 | 87.7% | 92.8% |
| New Jersey | 2 | 87.1% | 92.8% |
| Alabama | 3 | 90.4% | 92.7% |
| Iowa | 2 | 91.4% | 92.4% |
| Indiana | 3 | 84.6% | 92.2% |
| South Dakota | 1 | 69.2% | 91.6% |
| Illinois | 9 | 83.8% | 90.8% |
| South Carolina | 2 | 90.0% | 90.3% |
| Oregon | 3 | 79.2% | 90.1% |
| Florida | 11 | 85.3% | 90.0% |
| Nevada | 1 | 83.5% | 89.6% |
| Kentucky | 3 | 79.8% | 89.4% |
| Oklahoma | 3 | 75.9% | 89.3% |
| Arkansas | 2 | 80.0% | 89.1% |
| New Hampshire | 1 | 73.8% | 88.8% |
| West Virginia | 1 | 78.7% | 87.6% |
| Ohio | 9 | 77.4% | 87.5% |
| Michigan | 5 | 73.8% | 87.3% |
| Maryland | 2 | 81.7% | 86.8% |
| Minnesota | 3 | 85.1% | 86.5% |
| New Mexico | 1 | 77.0% | 86.4% |
| Hawaii | 1 | 77.1% | 85.9% |
| Louisiana | 4 | 76.1% | 84.2% |
| Mississippi | 2 | 81.6% | 83.9% |
| Wyoming | 1 | 83.0% | 83.1% |
| Idaho | 1 | 75.2% | 79.6% |
| Puerto Rico | 3 | 56.0% | 79.2% |
| North Dakota | 1 | 72.3% | 79.1% |
| Delaware | 1 | 75.9% | 75.9% |
| Rhode Island | 1 | 65.2% | 72.3% |
| Vermont | 1 | 67.9% | 72.1% |
Bar passage by law school
194 schools with a reported first-time figure, ranked by ultimate passage (schools without an ultimate figure fall to the bottom, ordered by first-time rate). Link each school to its outcomes page.
What these numbers do not tell you
- Passage rate is not school quality. It reflects who each school admits, how much students prepare, and the difficulty of the bar where they sit. A school in a harder-exam state can post a lower rate while providing an equally strong education.
- One cohort, no trend. The figures describe a single graduating class. Movements of several points at small schools are usually cohort variation rather than a change in programme quality.
- Jurisdiction matters most in some ranges. Comparing a California school to a rural-state school on passage rate alone compares two bar exams, not two schools.
Common questions about bar exam pass rates
What is the average law school bar pass rate?
Across the 194 ABA schools reporting a first-time figure, the median first-time passage rate is 84.8%, and the median ultimate rate is 92.1%. Ultimate counts graduates who retook the exam, so it sits above first-time everywhere.
Should I look at first-time or ultimate passage?
Ultimate passage is the better guide for choosing a school, because it reflects whether graduates eventually get licensed — which is the point of the degree. First-time passage is what state bar associations publish, so it is the right number for comparing schools within the same jurisdiction, but it excludes retakers and understates outcomes for schools whose students need more than one attempt.
Why does bar passage vary so much by state?
Because each state administers its own exam with its own difficulty. California and New York are harder than most, so schools there post lower rates without being weaker. Compare a school against others in the same state before reading anything into the number.
Source: ABA Standard 509 Required Disclosures, 2025 reporting cycle. First-time passage describes the most recent cohort; ultimate passage is reported for 2024 as filed. State bar associations publish their own figures, which may differ from a school's self-reported numbers because of jurisdiction differences. Neither rate predicts an individual outcome.