July 2019 Michigan Bar Exam Statistics by School – Released!

July 2019 Michigan Bar Exam Statistics by School – Released!

July 2019 Michigan bar exam statistics by school have been released. Which school performed the best? Which school performed the worst? Here, we show you the official Michigan bar exam statistics by school, recently released by the Michigan Board of Law Examiners.

Law School Rankings
Michigan Bar Exam Statistics by School 

The law schools are ranked in the following order:

• University of Michigan Law School (U of M): U of M had a 96% pass rate overall (keep in mind only 23 examinees took the bar in Michigan) with a 100% first-time taker pass rate and a 0% repeat taker pass rate (in other words, one repeat taker did not pass)
• Wayne State University Law School (WSU): WSU is in second with a 76% pass rate overall (81% first-time taker pass rate, 27% repeat taker pass rate)
• Michigan State University Law School (MSU): MSU is close behind WSU, with a 75% pass rate overall (80% first-time taker pass rate, 13% repeat taker pass rate)
• University of Detroit Mercy (UDM): UDM has a 53% pass rate overall (59% first-time taker pass rate, 20% repeat taker pass rate)
• Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley (WMU): WMU has a 28% pass rate overall (31% first-time taker pass rate, 25% repeat taker pass rate)

You can see the detailed statistics below.

What do these Michigan Bar Exam statistics tell us? 

The number of total takers has dropped.

First of all, the number of bar exam takers in Michigan has dropped quite a bit. Only 641 examinees took the bar exam this July. By contrast, in July 2015, 811 examinees took the exam.

The repeat taker pass rate has declined.

The repeat taker pass rate has dropped from recent years. Only 24% of the repeat examinees passed the bar exam. (Wayne Law had the highest repeat taker pass rate among the Michigan schools, with a 27% repeat taker pass rate.) In July 2018, the repeat taker pass rate was 33%. In July 2017, it was 55%.  The February repeat taker pass rate tends to be higher than the July repeat taker pass rate. Michigan’s repeat taker pass rate is consistent with many other states.

The school rankings have changed slightly.

Wayne State University Law School has changed places with Michigan State University Law School in terms of the overall pass rate. (In the last five years, the schools have historically been pretty close but Michigan State has generally had a higher pass rate than Wayne State.)

WMU Cooley’s pass rate dropped most significantly.

Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley saw the biggest decrease in pass rate. (In July 2018, it had a 38% pass rate with a 46% overall pass rate. Both numbers have decreased by 10% or more.) This is the lowest WMU Cooley’s pass rate has ever been. With the new ABA accreditation standards, these numbers are unsettling in terms of the future for WMU Cooley Law School.

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