Why Should I Choose ABA-Accredited Law Schools?

As the law school application cycle progresses, you may receive a few promotional emails and flyers from law schools you’ve never heard of. These schools might promise things that seem too good to be true—application fee waivers, scholarships, maybe even admission without having to take the LSAT.

This all might sound great to you—especially at some of the anxiety-riddled low points of application season, like when you’re knee-deep in LSAT prep or waiting to hear whether other law schools will allow you to pay a princely sum to attend them. But, in law school admissions as in life, we should have a healthy skepticism towards things that seem too good to be true.

So, before you heed these schools’ siren calls, do some research. At the very least, figure out whether the school is ABA-accredited. Many schools that aren’t ABA-accredited use aggressive promotional tactics. So, there’s a good chance that these promos are sent by institutions that are not ABA-accredited law schools.

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Should You Consider Law Schools That Are Not ABA-Accredited?

Before you even consider applying to unaccredited schools, take a minute to go through this handy flowchart we’ve made.

Why Does ABA Accreditation Matter?

Looks like all signs point to sticking with ABA-accredited law schools. The American Bar Association (ABA) is an association of attorneys in the U.S. One of its main jobs is maintaining the standards for legal education in the country.

This accreditation will ensure your law school:

Maintains high educational standards
Employs full-time professors with experience shaping young legal minds
Pumps out graduates who pass the bar and go on to work at prestigious clerkships, high-paying Big Law firms, and socially minded nonprofits

This gives you the best chance of actually getting a return on your investment of time, money, and trust in the law school.

Unaccredited Law Schools Are Risky

Those unaccredited schools giving you the hard sell through promotional emails and flyers? They can’t promise that return on your investment. Many of these schools couldn’t get the ABA’s stamp of approval or lost their accreditation because their educational standards weren’t up to snuff and their students paid the price.

In all but one state, students at unaccredited schools can’t even take their state’s bar exam after graduation. That means these students won’t be able to practice law after spending three years learning how to practice law. California is the one state that lets graduates from unaccredited schools take its bar exam. However, less than 10% of graduates from unaccredited schools pass the bar exam.

Beware of Law Schools That Are on the Fence

The ABA publishes a list of ABA-accredited law schools that are currently in violation of the ABA’s standards. These schools are at risk of losing their accreditation.

There are plenty of horror stories from law students who attended schools that lost their accreditation mid-education. These students were placed in a particularly unenviable position. They’ve already invested plenty of time and money into these schools. However, now their degrees won’t be worth much more than the parchment paper they’re printed on. (And, no, such students don’t get their student loans discharged, either.) So, it is best to avoid the schools that are on notice, as well.

Final Thoughts

So, if you want the best chance of graduating, passing the bar exam, and securing a job post-graduation, you should avoid unaccredited schools at all costs. Stick to the 200-ish ABA-accredited law schools and stick through any low points of the application cycle to get there.

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