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Duke Students Reach Rare Air: 100 Percent Pass the California Bar

By William Vogeler, Esq. on January 07, 2019 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Duke Law School really is No. 1.

Of all 8,071 applicants who took the California bar exam last July, Duke had a perfect score. That's 25 out of 25 students -- 100 percent -- who passed.

It was a breathtaking achievement because the California bar is notoriously dangerous to your ego. Not to mention, the summer of 2018 had the worst overall pass rate in nearly 70 years.

Rare Air Achievement

Duke out-scored all other law schools. Harvard, Yale, and Stanford may rank higher in general, but when it comes to the California bar exam, Duke is No. 1.

Generally, out-of-state law schools perform worse than in-state schools. American, for example, took down the average for out-of-state schools with a pass rate of 18.8 percent last July.

But it was the lowest overall bar passage rate since 1951, when only 37.6 passed. Only 40.7 percent of all applicants passed the summer bar.

Duke, of course, was in a league of its own. However, it also marked an upward trend for out-of-state law schools.

Raising the Roof

In 2017, out-of-state law students took it up a notch over the previous year. The first-time test-takers improved the out-of-towners pass rate by 7 percent.

Any comparison to in-state students could be misleading because California's overall pass rate included schools not accredited by the American Bar Association. But bottom line, it's good to go to another state for legal education.

Apparently, it's really good to go to Duke!

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