Top Feeders to Law School (JD Programs)

Updated June 2020

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 more than 4700 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	156	UC Berkeley School of Law	Stanford Law School
2	Harvard University	128	Yale Law School	Harvard Law School
3	Yale University	127	Yale Law School	Stanford Law School
4	University of California, Los Angeles	118	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
5	Cornell University	117	Cornell Law School	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
6	University of Pennsylvania	99	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	Stanford Law School
7	University of Michigan	96	University of Michigan Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
8	Duke University	95	Duke University School of Law	Stanford Law School
9	Georgetown University	87	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
10	Columbia University	86	Columbia Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
11	University of Virginia	86	University of Virginia School of Law	Columbia Law School
12	Stanford University	78	Stanford Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
13	Northwestern University	78	Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law	Harvard Law School
14	New York University	75	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	New York University School of Law
15	Princeton University	74	New York University School of Law	Columbia Law School
16	University of Chicago	72	University of Chicago Law School	Columbia Law School
17	University of Southern California	63	University of Chicago Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
18	The University of Texas at Austin	63	UC Berkeley School of Law	Duke University School of Law
19	Washington University in St. Louis	60	University of Michigan Law School	University of Chicago Law School
20	Brown University	50	Harvard Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
21	Vanderbilt University	49	Duke University School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
22	University of Florida	48	New York University School of Law	Cornell Law School
23	George Washington University	46	University of Virginia School of Law	Harvard Law School
24	University of Notre Dame	45	University of Michigan Law School	Harvard Law School
25	Emory University	44	New York University School of Law	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
26	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	43	Duke University School of Law	University of Virginia School of Law
27	Brigham Young University	43	University of Chicago Law School	Harvard Law School
28	University of Maryland	43	University of Virginia School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
29	Dartmouth College	41	Harvard Law School	Stanford Law School
30	University of California, San Diego	38	UC Berkeley School of Law	Cornell Law School

Top Feeder Rankings (adjusted for undergraduate enrollment)

Rank (Adjusted)	Institution	#JD Graduates	Top Law School (#1)	Top Law School (#2)
1	Yale University	127	Yale Law School	Stanford Law School
2	Amherst College	28	UC Berkeley School of Law	Yale Law School
3	Duke University	95	Duke University School of Law	Stanford Law School
4	Princeton University	74	New York University School of Law	Columbia Law School
5	Harvard University	128	Yale Law School	Harvard Law School
6	Georgetown University	87	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
7	Stanford University	78	Stanford Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
8	University of Chicago	72	University of Chicago Law School	Columbia Law School
9	Columbia University	86	Columbia Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
10	Pomona College	16	UC Berkeley School of Law	Stanford Law School
11	Yeshiva University	27	New York University School of Law	Columbia Law School
12	Dartmouth College	41	Harvard Law School	Stanford Law School
13	Claremont McKenna College	12	Stanford Law School	New York University School of Law
14	Northwestern University	78	Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law	Harvard Law School
15	University of Pennsylvania	99	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	Stanford Law School
16	Washington University in St. Louis	60	University of Michigan Law School	University of Chicago Law School
17	Cornell University	117	Cornell Law School	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
18	Bowdoin College	14	Columbia Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
19	Washington and Lee University	14	University of Virginia School of Law	Harvard Law School
20	Wesleyan University	22	New York University School of Law	UC Berkeley School of Law
21	Rice University	29	University of Chicago Law School	Stanford Law School
22	Vanderbilt University	49	Duke University School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
23	Brown University	50	Harvard Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
24	Bates College	13	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	Yale Law School
25	Swarthmore College	11	Yale Law School	Columbia Law School
26	Williams College	14	Yale Law School	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
27	Barnard College	17	New York University School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
28	Middlebury College	16	Harvard Law School	Duke University School of Law
29	Emory University	44	New York University School of Law	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
30	Brandeis University	22	New York University School of Law	Harvard 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 57% graduated from colleges categorized as “Most Selective” or “Extremely Selective.” However, 23% 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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