Stanford Law School

Student Rating^? A+ Alumni Rating^? A+ ATL Top 50 Rank #5	Tuition $56,274 Total Investment ^? $322,800	Enrollment 572	Student/Faculty Ratio 7.3/1
LSAT (25/75) 169/174 GPA (25/75) 3.82/3.99	Region S State C	Dean Mary Elizabeth Magill
Applicants who are accepted 8.7 / 100 Admitted students who enroll 4.75 / 10	Top Biglaw Employers ^?	Talking Points Smallest student body of any of the T14 Notable Alumni: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Justice William Rehnquist, Katharine Weymouth (publisher of Washington Post), Anthony Romero (executive director of the ACLU), Ronald Kenneth Noble (Secretary General of Interpol), Fred von Lohmann (Sr. Copyright Counsel, Google), Amanda Brown (author of Legally Blonde)

Ratings & Rankings

Colored bars represent the range of average school ratings. Black line is this school's rating.

Academics

Students
vs. all schools

Minimum: 2.25
Mean: 3.84
Maximum: 4

Alumni
vs. all schools

Minimum: 2.4
Mean: 3.82
Maximum: 4

Practical/Clinical Training

Students
vs. all schools

Minimum: 2.14
Mean: 3.70
Maximum: 3.83

Alumni
vs. all schools

Minimum: 1.86
Mean: 3.45
Maximum: 3.8

Career Counseling

Students
vs. all schools

Minimum: 1.29
Mean: 3.23
Maximum: 3.56

Alumni
vs. all schools

Minimum: 1.17
Mean: 3.05
Maximum: 3.25

Financial Aid Advising

Students
vs. all schools

Minimum: 1.5
Mean: 3.31
Maximum: 3.29

Alumni
vs. all schools

Minimum: 1.25
Mean: 3.02
Maximum: 3.5

Social Life

Students
vs. all schools

Minimum: 1.8
Mean: 3.49
Maximum: 3.67

Alumni
vs. all schools

Minimum: 2.4
Mean: 3.47
Maximum: 3.86

More Ratings*

	Student	Alumni
	A+	A+
	A+	A
	A+	A+
	A+	A+
	A	A

US News Rank

What do these ratings mean?

from Brian Dalton, Breaking Media Director of Research

The ATL School and Firm Insiders Survey asks self-identified current students, alumni, and practicing lawyers to rate major aspects of life at their law school (academics, social life, clinical training, career services, financial aid advising) and/or law firm (compensation, hours, morale, culture, training). We then translate these ratings into letter grades, where the mean score for each particular ratings category is the equivalent of a “B.”

We require a minimum threshold of responses for each institution before we publish any survey-based ratings content. Using a standard formula for statistical validity, we adhere to a threshold that gives us an 85% confidence level and a 10% margin of error. The precise threshold number will of course vary depending on the size of the individual institution. For example, for a law firm of 1,000 attorneys, we would require 50 responses in order to publish ratings for the firm.

Sector	Anticipated	Actual
Source: ATL Insider Survey and the American Bar Association
Work for a firm	69%	53%
Work for government	7%	4%
Work in non-profit/public interest	0%	9%
Go solo	0%	0%

Insider Reviews

from students and alumni of Stanford Law School

Alumni

Seriously intellectual. I mean seriously. Be prepared for lots of jurisprudence and big challenges.
Alumni

SLS has invested a lot of resources in developing a more comprehensive clinical program, something that was in its infancy when I attended. While I didn’t have the benefit of participating in these programs, it appears that they give their students a better understanding of the practice of corporate law in Silicon Valley, among many other disciplines.
Alumni

It is simply the best law school on the west coast
Alumni

If you’re brilliant and not a douchebag, this is a pretty awesome place to go to school.
Alumni

It’s the best law school in the world! Really smart people who know how to have fun. Everyone there is smart and motivated and going to do great things — Stanford thus creates a collaborative environment where we can work together and help each other, rather than compete against each other like at some other schools (*cough cough Harvard*).
Alumni

Students

Amazing; best three years of my life.
3L

Financial aid awards are only given out a year at a time. They will be decreased if you make any money in the summer (i.e. when you get a firm job your 2L summer, plan on essentially receiving no aid for that year). Do not just multiply your initial financial aid grant by 3, it will certainly be lower.
2L

I don’t have a job, and likely won’t have one when I graduate, although I doubt I will be included in the law school’s hiring statistics.
3L

It is the happiest law school in the country. Also the best for joint degrees.
1L

Stanford is on the quarter system, which means the schedule is shifted about a month later than most other law schools. This isn’t a huge downside, but does mean that we have finals three times a year and usually have to start summer jobs a bit late. It also means about a month less time to study for the bar after graduation. Additionally, Stanford is a very small law school (approx. 180 per class) in the middle of Silicon Valley, so there is definitely a law school bubble and you know everyone in your class.
3L

The small class size really makes a difference! I was a transfer student (T-14 to SLS) and my old school, while fantastic, was much less personal. Though this also means fewer choices for free lunch lectures…
2L

We beat the crap out of Harvard and Yale for anything tech-related.
1L

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