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For law schools and prospective students, the admissions process can be a little like online dating.
There’s yearning and rejection, yes. But every so often the stars align and both parties choose each other.
A few schools have a particularly good record of extending offers to students who are likely to take them.
Explore the [2016 Best Law Schools infographic.]
At the University of Puerto Rico, for example, 92.1 percent of accepted first-year J.D. students enrolled in the fall of 2014. The Caribbean school had the highest yield, or the percentage of accepted students who enrolled, according to data reported by 197 ranked institutions to U.S. News in an annual survey.
The 10 schools with the highest yields had rates ranging from 48.1 percent to 92.1 percent for first-year, full-time and part-time entering J.D. students in fall 2014. On average, 63.5 percent of accepted students enrolled at these institutions.
Looking across a broader group of schools, that number drops significantly. The average yield rate was 27.6 percent, for example, among all schools that reported the data to U.S. News.
See photos of the [2016 Best Law Schools.]
Below is a list of the 10 law schools with the highest yield rates. The list includes three schools in Puerto Rico, which were not previously ranked by U.S. News. U.S. News decided to incorporate schools from the U.S. territory in this year’s ranking.
Unranked law schools, which do not submit enough data for U.S. News to calculate a rank, were not considered for this report. RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of its ranking category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.
| School (name) (state) | Students accepted | Students enrolled | Yield | U.S. News rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Puerto Rico | 215 | 198 | 92.1% | RNP |
| Yale University (CT) | 255 | 200 | 78.4% | 1 |
| Inter-American University (PR) | 343 | 241 | 70.3% | RNP |
| Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico | 215 | 148 | 68.8% | RNP |
| Brigham Young University (Clark) (UT) | 190 | 126 | 66.3% | 34 (tie) |
| Harvard University (MA) | 918 | 563 | 61.3% | 2 (tie) |
| University of Hawaii–Manoa (Richardson) | 235 | 120 | 51.1% | 82 (tie) |
| Indiana University–Indianapolis (McKinney) | 563 | 281 | 49.9% | 102 (tie) |
| Southern University Law Center (LA) | 406 | 196 | 48.3% | RNP |
| University of Missouri–Kansas City | 310 | 149 | 48.1% | 127 (tie) |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Law School Compass to find enrollment data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 201 ABA-accredited law schools for our 2014 survey of law programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Law Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The enrollment data above are correct as of March 12, 2015.
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