Top Feeders to Law School (JD Programs)

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. This is why you should be aware of the top feeders to law school.

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 85,000 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.

Updated December 2022

Rank (Total)	Institution	#JD Graduates	Top Law School (#1)	Top Law School (#2)
1	Harvard University	3651	Harvard Law School	Yale Law School
2	University of California, Berkeley	3570	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
3	Yale University	3079	Harvard Law School	Yale Law School
4	University of Michigan	2528	University of Michigan Law School	Harvard Law School
5	Stanford University	2336	UC Berkeley School of Law	Stanford Law School
6	New York University	2244	New York University School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
7	Columbia University	2241	Columbia Law School	Harvard Law School
8	Cornell University	2220	Cornell Law School	Harvard Law School
9	University of Pennsylvania	2054	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
10	University of California, Los Angeles	1944	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
11	Princeton University	1918	Harvard Law School	University of Virginia School of Law
12	Duke University	1889	Duke University School of Law	Harvard Law School
13	University of Virginia	1866	University of Virginia School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
14	Georgetown University	1805	Georgetown University Law Center	Harvard Law School
15	Brown University	1480	Harvard Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
16	Dartmouth College	1398	Harvard Law School	University of Virginia School of Law
17	Northwestern University	1320	Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law	University of Michigan Law School
18	University of Notre Dame	968	Georgetown University Law Center	University of Michigan Law School
19	University of Chicago	965	University of Chicago Law School	University of Michigan Law School
20	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	767	Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law	University of Chicago Law School
21	University of Southern California	763	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
22	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	758	University of Virginia School of Law	Duke University School of Law
23	University of Texas at Austin	685	Harvard Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
23	Amherst College	685	Harvard Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
25	University of Florida	643	Georgetown University Law Center	Duke University School of Law
26	University of Wisconsin-Madison	641	Georgetown University Law Center	Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
27	Bringham Young University	624	University of Virginia School of Law	Harvard Law School
28	Williams College	611	Harvard Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
29	University of California, San Diego	600	UC Berkeley School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
30	Boston College	595	Georgetown University Law Center	Harvard Law School

Top Feeder Rankings (adjusted for undergraduate enrollment)

Rank (Total)	Institution	#JD Graduates	Top Law School (#1)	Top Law School (#2)
1	Yale University	3079	Harvard Law School	Yale Law School
2	Amherst College	685	Harvard Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
3	Harvard University	3651	Harvard Law School	Yale Law School
4	Princeton University	1918	Harvard Law School	University of Virginia School of Law
5	Stanford University	2336	UC Berkeley School of Law	Stanford Law School
6	Dartmouth College	1398	Harvard Law School	University of Virginia School of Law
7	Williams College	611	Harvard Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
8	Duke University	1889	Duke University School of Law	Harvard Law School
9	Columbia University	2241	Columbia Law School	Harvard Law School
10	Georgetown University	1805	Georgetown University Law Center	Harvard Law School
11	Swarthmore College	352	Harvard Law School	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
12	Haverford College	295	Harvard Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
13	Brown University	1480	Harvard Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
14	Pomona College	320	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
15	St. John's College	63	Harvard Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
16	University of Pennsylvania	2054	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
17	Claremont McKenna College	227	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
18	Wesleyan University	507	Georgetown University Law Center	UC Berkeley School of Law
19	Wellesley College	414	Harvard Law School	UC Berkeley School of Law
20	Northwestern University	1320	Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law	University of Michigan Law School
21	Cornell University	2220	Cornell Law School	Harvard Law School
22	University of Chicago	965	University of Chicago Law School	University of Michigan Law School
23	Brandeis University	480	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School	Georgetown University Law Center
24	Carleton College	273	Georgetown University Law Center	Harvard Law School
25	University of California, Berkeley	3570	UC Berkeley School of Law	Harvard Law School
26	Vassar College	279	Georgetown University Law Center	UC Berkeley School of Law
27	University of Notre Dame	968	Georgetown University Law Center	University of Michigan Law School
28	Colgate University	332	Georgetown University Law Center	University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
29	University of Virginia	1866	University of Virginia School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center
30	Washington and Lee University	198	University of Virginia School of Law	Georgetown University Law Center

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, 21% of elite law school students in our sample did graduate from schools indicated as less 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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