1114 South University Parks Drive, One Bear Place #97288
Waco, TX 76798-7288
Phone: 254.710.2529; Fax: 254.710.2316
E-mail: BaylorLaw@baylor.edu; Website: www.baylor.edu/law
Baylor University School of Law is a private, ABA-approved law school and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Formally organized in 1857, Baylor Law School is the oldest law school in Texas and is located on the campus of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Waco is located in central Texas, has a total area population of over 220,000, and offers a diverse and rich array of cultural and recreational opportunities, as well as very moderate living costs.
Baylor Law School stands at the forefront of practice-oriented law schools nationally. Baylor is clear about its mission—to equip students upon graduation to practice law effectively and ethically. Students are trained and mentored in all facets of law, including theoretical analysis, practical application, legal writing, advocacy, professional responsibility, and negotiation and counseling skills.
Baylor Law School is small by choice, with entering classes of approximately 60 students in the spring, 30 in the summer, and 75 in the fall. Baylor Law School has a target total student population of 420. We keep our program small because we are interested in producing quality, not quantity.
Baylor Law School is deeply committed to enrolling classes that are rich in diversity. Indeed, diversity is an important element of our educational mission. The total minority enrollment in the law school for the fall 2011 term was nearly 20 percent and the total female population was over 50 percent. The student body represents over 35 states among its population. While the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) score and undergraduate grade-point average are strong indicators for academic ability, Baylor is committed to considering carefully all factors of every applicant's application file, including socioeconomic disadvantage, bilingual language skills, work experience, community involvement, leadership roles, and communication skills. These factors enable us to enroll classes that are well qualified and especially distinctive.
Baylor Law School is committed to providing its students with a classroom and courtroom experience that will prepare them fully for practice. Faculty members, committed to the equally important missions of teaching and scholarship, hold degrees from law schools and universities throughout the nation and include former law clerks for various appellate courts throughout the nation.
Faculty members are experts in their areas and have substantial practical experience. They produce a significant amount of legal scholarship, which results in their demand as speakers at legal institutes and civic functions. One of the distinctive features of the faculty is that professors maintain unrestricted hours for student consultation. Every professor is available for lending advice and guidance in all academic, professional, and other matters of concern to students.
The Sheila and Walter Umphrey Law Center, home to Baylor Law School, is one of the finest law school facilities in the nation. At every stage of the design of the Law Center, the most important goal was to put teaching first. The building houses every facility a modern law school requires: classrooms that are unsurpassed as teaching facilities; an advocacy suite, including state-of-the-art courtrooms that provide the optimum environment for advocacy training—Baylor's centerpiece of excellence; a large, two-story appellate advocacy courtroom/classroom; a library with comfortable study and seating space in several impressive reading rooms; a student lounge and patio overlooking the Brazos River; and faculty offices that support faculty mentoring, which is the hallmark of our program.
The Law Center is ready for the twenty-first century, with wireless connectivity throughout, data ports at every seat, access to the library's online database, and full access to LexisNexis and Westlaw databases. The law school uses a sophisticated course-management system that allows the faculty to post assignments, syllabi, and course announcements, and provides discussion boards.
Procedure is the tool of the trial lawyer, and the bedrock of Baylor Law School's nationally ranked advocacy program is Practice Court—an ultra-intensive study of civil procedure. In addition to procedural law, students will learn the art of trial advocacy in a rigorous required six-month program of skills training during the third year of law school. In Practice Court, students try lawsuits from beginning to end. Most importantly, students learn how to be self-assured, poised, and confident in any practice area.
Baylor Law School has a long record of successfully competing at the national and regional levels in both moot court and mock trial interscholastic competitions. In fact, because of its standing as one of the top advocacy programs in the nation, Baylor Law School is consistently invited to the prestigious Tournament of Champions. Baylor Law School is also proud to host its own elite invitational trial advocacy competition, the National Top Gun Mock Trial Competition, which includes the top student advocates from other nationally recognized programs.
The required curriculum is structured to provide a logical progression for legal study from fundamental legal doctrine in first-year courses to increasingly more sophisticated and complex second- and third-year courses. The challenging curriculum, along with providing students the opportunity to perform specialized lawyering tasks under the direct supervision of accomplished lawyers, also prepares them for the rigors of any type of modern legal practice. Additionally, students have the opportunity to complete a more concentrated course of study and training in eight areas of interest: general civil litigation, business litigation, business transactions, criminal practice, estate planning, real estate and natural resources, administrative practice, and intellectual property. There are also three joint degrees: JD/MBA, JD/MTax, and JD/MPPA.
Baylor Law School views the legal profession as a service endeavor. As such, Baylor Law School was honored to receive the 2010 Commitment to Service Award from the Texas Access to Justice Commission in recognition of the school's commitment to service.
Baylor Law School has an extraordinarily generous scholarship program. Scholarships are awarded to entering students based primarily on undergraduate GPA and LSAT scores. These scholarships are automatically awarded to students who qualify. Scholarship awards generally range from partial to full tuition. The law school also participates in all nationally recognized financial aid programs.
Baylor Law School has three entering classes—spring (February), summer (May), and fall (August)—with completely separate application processes. Each class has far more applications than seats available; however, admission to the spring or summer classes is slightly less competitive than admission to the fall class.
The admissions process considers each application in its entirety and considers many factors beyond test scores and undergraduate GPA. Such factors include employment experience, demonstrated leadership potential, cocurricular and extracurricular activities, ethnicity, academic performance trends, undergraduate major, caliber of undergraduate school, life experience, circumstances of particular disadvantage, and any other relevant information submitted by the applicant. Any factors the applicant would like to be taken into consideration should be addressed in a personal statement.
Students will find a stimulating variety of enjoyable student activities and organizations that will enhance their legal education. Students can compete interscholastically on Baylor Law School's nationally recognized mock trial and moot court teams. Students can hone their writing and legal scholarship abilities by being a member of the Baylor Law Review, which is a legal periodical published quarterly by the students under the supervision of faculty. Baylor Law School also offers a wide array of special-interest student organizations focused on particular areas of law.
The Career Development Office is committed year-round to providing students with the support and resources they need in pursuing their chosen career paths. Shortly after graduation, approximately 90 percent of our 2011 graduates seeking employment were employed or enrolled in graduate-degree programs. Baylor Law School graduates find positions throughout the nation in private practice in large and small firms, government agencies, judicial clerkships, public interest organizations, and public and private corporations.
The Career Development Office provides extensive one-on-one training on job-search techniques, interview skills, job strategies, and résumé- and cover-letter-writing techniques. The office coordinates an on-campus interview program and posts job listings from employers around the country. The office also hosts regular seminars to foster professional development for students.
Our record of success on the Texas Bar exam is unsurpassed by any other Texas law school. Fourteen out of the last twenty-two times, Baylor Law School has had the highest bar passage rate on the Texas Bar exam. In July 2011, 95.88 percent of Baylor graduates passed the Texas Bar exam the first time. The overall state pass rate was 88.36 percent. Graduates taking other state bar exams have been exceptionally successful as well.
This grid includes only fall 2011 applicants who earned 120–180 LSAT scores under standard administrations.
| GPA | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LSAT Score |
3.75+ Apps |
3.75+ Adm |
3.50– 3.74 Apps |
3.50– 3.74 Adm |
3.25– 3.49 Apps |
3.25– 3.49 Adm |
3.00– 3.24 Apps |
3.00– 3.24 Adm |
2.75– 2.99 Apps |
2.75– 2.99 Adm |
2.50– 2.74 Apps |
2.50– 2.74 Adm |
2.25– 2.49 Apps |
2.25– 2.49 Adm |
2.00– 2.24 Apps |
2.00– 2.24 Adm |
Below 2.00 Apps |
Below 2.00 Adm |
No GPA Apps |
No GPA Adm |
Total Apps |
Total Adm |
| LSAT score 175–180 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 3 |
| LSAT score 170–174 | 17 | 17 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 17 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 65 | 38 |
| LSAT score 165–169 | 62 | 62 | 75 | 72 | 57 | 49 | 55 | 10 | 27 | 3 | 14 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 300 | 196 |
| LSAT score 160–164 | 142 | 97 | 171 | 90 | 150 | 67 | 114 | 27 | 53 | 8 | 30 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 686 | 290 |
| LSAT score 155–159 | 173 | 6 | 246 | 4 | 252 | 0 | 184 | 0 | 126 | 0 | 49 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 1070 | 10 |
| LSAT score 150–154 | 59 | 0 | 93 | 0 | 118 | 0 | 110 | 0 | 68 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 519 | 0 |
| LSAT score 145–149 | 14 | 0 | 54 | 0 | 44 | 0 | 47 | 0 | 42 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 246 | 0 |
| LSAT score 140–144 | 7 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 156 | 0 |
| LSAT score 135–139 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 48 | 0 |
| LSAT score 130–134 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| LSAT score 125–129 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| LSAT score 120–124 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 478 | 183 | 671 | 175 | 659 | 125 | 579 | 41 | 368 | 11 | 186 | 0 | 94 | 0 | 40 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 45 | 2 | 3129 | 537 |
Apps = Number of Applicants
Adm = Number Admitted
Reflects 100% of the total applicant pool; highest LSAT data reported.