Texas A&M School of Law Among Top

The Texas A&M University School of Law has earned a spot in the top fifty law schools in the nation.

Texas A&M University’s law school in Fort Worth, ranked No.46, joined the University of Texas at Austin as one of the top universities in the country for students pursuing a legal career. The law school of UT is No.17.

“When we acquired the law school, we were hopeful about what the future would hold,” said Texas A&M University System’s Chancellor John Sharp. “In the years since, we have succeeded beyond even my wildest expectations. But we’re still just getting started.” 

Texas A&M University System purchased the School of Law from Texas Wesleyan University for $73.5 million in 2013, making it the first public law school in North Texas.

Since it was acquired, the law school has risen through the ranks of the American Bar Association’s nearly 200 accredited law schools by more than 150 positions.

“We have not seen a law school advance this far this quickly,” Texas A&M’s School of Law Dean Robert Ahdieh said. “In some sense, that is very much a reflection of the mindset of Texas A&M.”

The school at Texas A&M includes roughly 1,200 students and 60 full-time teachers. In 2020, it ranked No.1 in the state for bar test passage, with 92% of students overcoming the final hurdle to become licensed attorneys. In 2021, it came in second with a 93% pass rate.

According to Janson Westmoreland, a third-year law student at the school, its high ranking can be attributed to the faculty’s focus on the students and molding them for their careers. He added that the school’s success “comes as a byproduct of how good [its] professors are and how they are preparing [their students] for the real world as attorneys.”

Texas A&M has other very highly ranked departments as well. Its College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is ranked fourth-best in the nation. Industrial engineering ranks No.12, and aerospace comes in at No.8. 

The nearly 700 students enrolled in the school do not intend to practice law but work in sectors where legal education is beneficial, including health care, banking and finance, energy, human relations, and cybersecurity.

Texas residents pay roughly $32,600 per year in tuition and fees at the Texas A&M School of Law. According to U.S. News’ annual report of full-time law school programs, the national average for in-state students at a public university was around $29,600 during the 2021-22 academic year.