11 Best California Law Schools

There are 18 ABA-accredited law schools in California, and 11 schools were ranked in top 100 U.S. law school ranking with academic excellence.

21 state accredited law schools (non-ABA) are excluded from the best law school selection. You can compare all law schools including state accredited law schools at California law school comparison page.

The below list compares important statistics between the 11 best law schools and all law schools in California.

The average LSAT Score of the best law schools is 165.5, which is 4.4 points higher than average score of all California law schools.
The average GPA of the best law schools is 3.79, which is 0.16 points higher than average GPA of all California law schools.
The average acceptance rate is 23.27%, which is 9.94% lower than average rate of all California law schools.
The average yield is 27.80%, while all California law schools's yield is 26.76%
In average, 986 students enrolled in ech best law school, which is larger than California' average (834).
The students to faculty ratio of the best law schools is 5.5 to 1, which means that a faculty need to teach and care larger number of students than other California law schools (5.4 to 1).
The average bar exam pass rate of the best law schools is 83.52%, which is higher than California' average (75.63%).

California Best Law Schools Comparison

The following table compares the 11 best California law schools with important statistics.

California Best Law Schools Overview
School	U.S. Law School Ranking	Founded	Tuition & Fees	LSAT	GPA	Population	Students to Faculty
Stanford Law SchoolPrivateStanford, CA	3	1893	$73,713	173	3.95	682	4 to 1
Berkeley School of LawPublicBerkeley, CA	11	1894	$74,995	170	3.87	1,302	4 to 1
Los Angeles School of LawPublicLos Angeles, CA	14	1949	$71,430	170	3.92	1,376	5 to 1
Gould School of LawPrivateLos Angeles, CA	20	1896	$78,038	169	3.88	1,436	8 to 1
Irvine School of LawPublicIrvine, CA	33	2009	$68,190	167	3.72	510	4 to 1
Davis School of Law PublicDavis, CA	45	1965	$67,164	165	3.69	718	7 to 1
Loyola Law SchoolPrivateLos Angeles, CA	59	1920	$68,512	161	3.71	1,132	6 to 1
University of San Diego School of LawPrivateSan Diego, CA	71	1954	$62,981	161	3.80	974	6 to 1
Pepperdine University School of LawPrivateMalibu, CA	72	1971	$68,046	164	3.86	1,114	8 to 1
University of California College of the Law, San FranciscoPublicSan Francisco, CA	76	1878	$55,207	160	3.59	1,185	4 to 1
Chapman University School of LawPrivateOrange, CA	91	1995	$63,126	161	3.67	422	4 to 1

California Best Law Schools Statistics over the Past 5 Years

The tables below compare tuition, admission statistics, bar exam pass over the past 5 years. The data used is from 2020 to 2024, except bar exam pass rate from 2019 to 2023.

Tuition Comparison over Past 5 Years
School	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Stanford Law School	$62,847	$65,046	$65,046	$67,647	$73,713
Berkeley School of Law	$55,316	$57,540	$62,113	$67,785	$74,995
Los Angeles School of Law	$53,152	$55,324	$59,839	$63,517	$68,700
Gould School of Law	$67,191	$69,593	$70,948	$73,998	$78,038
Irvine School of Law	$53,548	$55,649	$60,131	$64,218	$68,190
Davis School of Law	$58,591	$60,543	$62,623	$65,121	$67,164
Loyola Law School	$59,340	$60,860	$60,860	$63,412	$65,912
University of San Diego School of Law	$56,711	$58,911	$58,821	$60,861	$62,981
Pepperdine University School of Law	$57,560	$59,340	$61,270	$64,220	$68,046
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco	$55,538	$49,758	$55,930	$57,693	$55,207
Chapman University School of Law	$55,099	$56,602	$57,985	$59,568	$61,286

LSAT Score Comparison over Past 5 Years
School	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Stanford Law School	171	171	172	173	173
Berkeley School of Law	168	168	169	170	170
Los Angeles School of Law	168	169	170	171	170
Gould School of Law	166	167	168	168	169
Irvine School of Law	165	166	167	167	167
Davis School of Law	162	163	165	165	165
Loyola Law School	160	160	161	161	161
University of San Diego School of Law	159	159	161	161	161
Pepperdine University School of Law	161	162	164	164	164
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco	158	158	160	160	160
Chapman University School of Law	158	159	160	161	161

Undergraduate GPA Comparison over Past 5 Years
School	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Stanford Law School	3.91	3.89	3.91	3.92	3.95
Berkeley School of Law	3.81	3.81	3.83	3.83	3.87
Los Angeles School of Law	3.79	3.79	3.82	3.9	3.92
Gould School of Law	3.8	3.83	3.82	3.87	3.88
Irvine School of Law	3.59	3.61	3.69	3.72	3.72
Davis School of Law	3.61	3.72	3.7	3.7	3.69
Loyola Law School	3.57	3.59	3.64	3.69	3.71
University of San Diego School of Law	3.57	3.65	3.7	3.74	3.8
Pepperdine University School of Law	3.66	3.68	3.8	3.85	3.86
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco	3.45	3.42	3.52	3.59	3.59
Chapman University School of Law	3.49	3.52	3.6	3.63	3.67

Undergraduate Bar Exam Pass Rate Comparison over Past 5 Years
School	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Stanford Law School	96.59%	95.32%	98.22%	97.08%	94.41%
Berkeley School of Law	91.19%	90.37%	96.67%	94.95%	93.35%
Los Angeles School of Law	87.24%	89.46%	96.55%	93.84%	92.47%
Gould School of Law	88.84%	87.73%	92.13%	95.16%	89%
Irvine School of Law	80%	81.49%	86.36%	88.72%	84.4%
Davis School of Law	77.02%	84.46%	88.15%	79.79%	81.78%
Loyola Law School	74.32%	77.74%	88.16%	87.94%	79.94%
University of San Diego School of Law	77.36%	76.31%	85.97%	81.78%	76.33%
Pepperdine University School of Law	66.22%	82.42%	78.57%	86.87%	79.5%
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco	60.59%	79.74%	85.02%	81.72%	70.92%
Chapman University School of Law	63.88%	59.26%	80.69%	78.32%	74.29%