Top Feeders to Law School (JD Programs)

Updated July 2021

Aspiring lawyers know that excellent undergraduate grades and superb LSAT scores are the primary keys to getting into an elite law school. However, the undergraduate school that you attend can also play a role in the law school admissions process. Attending an elite law school can be particularly important because many of the best clerkships and post-graduation offers of employment will go to alumni with a prestigious academic resume.

The two lists that follow showcase the top 30 “feeder” schools into the most highly-ranked JD programs. On the first list, for each school, we look at the raw number of students who go on to attend elite JD programs, as well as the two JD programs enrolling the most graduates from that undergraduate school. The second list looks at the top 30 producers when adjusted for a school’s undergraduate enrollment, which allows us to highlight schools that may be smaller in size, but that still send a consistent flow of graduates to the world’s premier law schools.

In order to identify "top feeder” colleges, we relied on publicly available data from LinkedIn, a professional networking site featuring profiles of approximately 170 million workers across the United States. Specifically, we identified and analyzed the undergraduate backgrounds of nearly 8,000 individuals who enrolled at 14 of America’s most reputable JD programs, including those at Yale University, Stanford University, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, Northwestern University, University of California Berkeley, University of Michigan, Duke University, Cornell University, and Georgetown University.

Top Feeder Rankings (by total graduates enrolled)

Rank (Total)	Institution	#JD Graduates	Top Law School (#1)	Top Law School (#2)
1	University of California, Berkeley	236	UC Berkeley School of Law	Stanford Law School
2	Cornell University	222	Cornell Law School	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
3	Harvard University	216	Yale Law School	Harvard Law School
4	Yale University	215	Yale Law School	Stanford Law School
5	University of Michigan	180	University of Michigan Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
6	University of Pennsylvania	175	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	Stanford Law School
7	University of California, Los Angeles	173	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
8	Columbia University	166	Columbia Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
9	Georgetown University	147	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
10	University of Chicago	143	University of Chicago Law School	Columbia Law School
10	Duke University	143	Duke University School of Law	Stanford Law School
12	Princeton University	136	New York University School of Law	Columbia Law School
13	University of Virginia	135	University of Virginia School of Law	Columbia Law School
14	New York University	130	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	New York University School of Law
15	Stanford University	129	Stanford Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
16	Northwestern University	126	Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law	Harvard Law School
17	University of Southern California	112	University of Chicago Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
18	Washington University in St. Louis	104	University of Michigan Law School	University of Chicago Law School
19	University of Florida	99	New York University School of Law	Cornell Law School
20	Brown University	92	Harvard Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
21	University of Texas at Austin	90	UC Berkeley School of Law	Duke University School of Law
22	Vanderbilt University	85	Duke University School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
23	University of Maryland, College Park	75	University of Virginia School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
24	Emory University	70	New York University School of Law	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
24	University of Notre Dame	70	University of Michigan Law School	Harvard Law School
24	Boston College	70	Duke University School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
27	Dartmouth College	67	Harvard Law School	Stanford Law School
27	George Washington University	67	University of Virginia School of Law	Harvard Law School
29	University of California, San Diego	66	UC Berkeley School of Law	Cornell Law School
29	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	66	Duke University School of Law	University of Virginia School of Law

Top Feeder Rankings (adjusted for undergraduate enrollment)

Rank (Adjusted)	Institution	#JD Graduates	Top Law School (#1)	Top Law School (#2)
1	Yale University	215	Yale Law School	Stanford Law School
2	Princeton University	136	New York University School of Law	Columbia Law School
3	Amherst College	41	UC Berkeley School of Law	Yale Law School
4	Harvard University	216	Yale Law School	Harvard Law School
5	University of Chicago	143	University of Chicago Law School	Columbia Law School
6	Duke University	143	Duke University School of Law	Stanford Law School
7	Columbia University	166	Columbia Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
8	Georgetown University	147	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
9	Pomona College	31	UC Berkeley School of Law	Stanford Law School
10	Yeshiva University	50	New York University School of Law	Columbia Law School
11	Stanford University	129	Stanford Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
12	Claremont McKenna College	24	Stanford Law School	New York University School of Law
13	Swarthmore College	26	Yale Law School	Columbia Law School
14	Barnard College	40	New York University School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
15	Dartmouth College	67	Harvard Law School	Stanford Law School
16	University of Pennsylvania	175	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	Stanford Law School
17	Cornell University	222	Cornell Law School	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
18	Northwestern University	126	Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law	Harvard Law School
19	Williams College	30	Yale Law School	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
20	Wesleyan University	43	New York University School of Law	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
21	Rice University	56	University of Chicago Law School	Stanford Law School
22	Washington University in St. Louis	104	University of Michigan Law School	University of Chicago Law School
23	Brown University	92	Harvard Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
24	Vanderbilt University	85	Duke University School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
25	Bowdoin College	22	Columbia Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
26	Washington and Lee University	22	University of Virginia School of Law	Harvard Law School
27	Tufts University	64	Georgetown University Law Center	Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
28	Brandeis University	40	New York University School of Law	Harvard Law School
29	Colgate University	31	New York University School of Law	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
30	Bryn Mawr College	14	New York University School of Law	Columbia Law School

Does institutional selectivity matter?

When applying to law school, yes, it appears that institutional selectivity does in fact play a role. In our sample, of the students who went on to enroll at America’s best JD programs, approximately 56% graduated from colleges categorized as “Most Selective” or “Extremely Selective.” However, 24% of elite law school students in our sample did graduate from schools indicated as minimally selective or non-selective, suggesting that attendance at a highly selective undergraduate college or university isn’t a prerequisite to earning a top-flight JD. Click here to see how we group colleges by selectivity.

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