TLS law school profile data methodology

TLS Law School Profile Data Methodology

Methodology reviewed August 30, 2026. Prepared by the TLS Editorial Team. This page explains how TLS collects, dates, calculates, and presents law-school profile information.

TLS profiles are designed to help applicants compare schools without hiding differences in reporting periods, definitions, or source quality. The central rule is simple: use the best source available for the exact claim, identify the cohort or academic year, preserve the underlying count, and disclose material limitations.

Separate Data Periods

A profile does not have one universal “data year.” A current article may properly combine Fall 2025 entering-class data, 2026–2027 tuition, Class of 2025 employment, and calendar-year 2025 first-time bar passage. Each figure is labeled with its own period.

TLS records separately:

• entering-class admissions;
• current tuition and mandatory fees;
• current published cost of attendance;
• the latest scholarship disclosures;
• the latest graduating-class employment report;
• the latest first-time and ultimate bar-passage reports;
• current deadlines, programs, leadership, and institutional status; and
• the edition and publication date of any ranking mentioned.

Older figures are not relabeled as current. A “last updated” date changes only after a meaningful factual or editorial review.

Source Hierarchy

TLS normally uses sources in this order:

1. Primary regulatory and institutional sources: ABA Standard 509 reports, ABA Employment Summary Reports, ABA Bar Admission Reports, Council accreditation records, state bar authorities, official school and university pages, LSAC school profiles, NCBE materials, government records, and official announcements.
2. High-quality secondary sources: established news organizations, reputable legal publications, AccessLex, Law School Transparency, publicly accessible ranking profiles, and archived official pages.
3. Anecdotal sources: TLS forums, student or alumni discussions, Reddit, and blogs. These may support a clearly labeled description of subjective experiences but never establish a material admissions, cost, scholarship, employment, bar, or accreditation fact.

A search-result snippet is a discovery aid, not evidence. Generic directories, copied databases, lead-generation pages, and AI-generated summaries do not replace direct sources.

The ABA explains that its required-disclosure system includes individual 509 reports, employment data collected through the Employment Questionnaire, and bar reports collected through the Bar Admission Questionnaire.

Evidence Record

For each material source, TLS stores the school record, claim supported, title, publisher, direct URL, source type, reporting period, publication date when available, access date, archive status, confidence, and limitations.

Confidence labels are:

• Confirmed;
• Confirmed by multiple sources;
• Probable;
• Unresolved;
• Conflicting; and
• Historical only.

If authoritative sources conflict, TLS checks whether they cover different cohorts, dates, or definitions. The profile explains a material discrepancy and flags an unresolved conflict rather than silently choosing the more convenient number.

Calculations

TLS calculates a rate only when the required numerator and denominator are available.

Measure	TLS calculation	Important limitation
Acceptance rate	Offers of admission ÷ completed applications	Not the percentage of started or incomplete applications admitted
Yield	Matriculants from the same applicant pool ÷ offers of admission	Prior-cycle deferrals are not added to the numerator
Employment percentage	Category count ÷ total graduating class, unless another denominator is explicitly named	“Employed graduates” is a different denominator and must be labeled
First-time bar-passage rate	First-time passers ÷ first-time takers	The calendar year and the number of takers must be shown
Ultimate bar-passage rate	Passers within the applicable ultimate period ÷ exam takers in that cohort	Graduates who did not sit or whose status is unknown require separate context
Net direct cost estimate	Tuition + mandatory fees − renewable grant amount	Not a full cost-of-attendance or debt estimate

Every original calculation is labeled, and the profile preserves the source counts. Rounding is normally to one decimal place for percentages unless the source or comparison requires two.

Admissions Rules

LSAT, GRE, JD-Next, and undergraduate-GPA values are class percentiles, not cutoffs or predictions. TLS does not combine medians from different entering classes. See Law school admissions data definitions.

Cost and Scholarship Rules

Profiles distinguish tuition, mandatory fees, health-insurance assumptions, living expenses, books, transportation, loan fees, and total published cost of attendance. Resident and nonresident costs, and full-time and part-time costs, remain separate.

“Sticker price” is the amount before grants. “Net price” requires an individual award and its renewal terms. Debt estimates are scenarios, not promises, and must state whether they include future tuition increases, lost scholarship amounts, borrowing fees, and interest.

Scholarship recipient counts and conditional-scholarship retention use the exact ABA reporting period. See Law school scholarships and conditional scholarships.

Employment Rules

TLS uses the total graduating class as the standard denominator. Bar-admission-required/anticipated, J.D.-advantage, professional, other, unemployed, further-study, and unknown categories remain separate. Full-time/part-time, long-term/short-term, employer type, firm size, school funding, geography, and salary response are disclosed when relevant.

If TLS uses “large-firm employment,” it states the threshold, such as 251 or more attorneys. Federal clerkships are reported separately and are not silently added to firm jobs to create a “BigLaw” rate. See Law school employment data definitions.

Bar-Passage Rules

Profiles distinguish first-time results, the Council-weighted jurisdiction comparator, the difference from that comparator, and ultimate outcomes. The latest report may cover more than one graduating cohort. Alternative pathways to licensure are not mixed into exam-only rates unless the label and report explicitly include them. See Law school bar passage data definitions.

Accreditation and Institutional Status

The current Council-approved-school list and public accreditation notices control ABA-status descriptions. State-accredited or unaccredited programs are labeled separately. A former ABA program in teach-out is not evidence that a new program is ABA-approved.

Renames, mergers, closures, and teach-outs receive a status-first explanation. Former-name URLs redirect only when the current page is a true continuation or consolidated successor. Historically useful closed-school pages may remain independently indexable.

Rankings

Rankings are dated, attributed, and used sparingly. TLS does not reproduce a proprietary ranking table or treat rank movement as proof that educational quality changed. Outcomes, geography, price, and program fit remain the primary comparison fields. See Law school rankings: methodology and limitations.

Missing and Unverifiable Information

A blank or disclosed “not independently verified” field is preferable to a guessed value. TLS does not fabricate or infer a current dean, program, deadline, scholarship, salary, address, contact detail, or institutional status.

Editorial Analysis

TLS may calculate ratios or explain trade-offs, but analysis must follow from cited facts. It is labeled as analysis, avoids promises, and does not repeat school marketing claims as objective conclusions.

Updating and Corrections

See the source and update policy for monitoring intervals and the corrections policy for submitting evidence. Material corrections retain an internal change record.