Home » Law Schools » 3rd and 4th Tier Profiles »

Mercer University School of Law

From TLS wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Last updated: October 12, 2026

Mercer University School of Law

Mercer University School of Law, formally the Walter F. George School of Law, is a private law school in Macon, Georgia, that enrolled 152 first-year students in Fall 2025 from 1,184 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 157 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.62. It is ranked #108 (tie) of 194 in the 2026 U.S. News rankings, and its graduates posted an 88.4% first-time pass rate on the July 2025 Georgia bar exam — the school's highest in years and well above the statewide first-time rate of 82.3%. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that Mercer pairs a small, student-centered program and unusually strong Georgia bar outcomes with a modest national rank and a high price for a regional return, at a 2026–27 cost of attendance of $68,550 for a new borrower.

Forum Links

Mercer Law at a Glance

Category Latest information
Founded 1873 (one of the oldest law schools in the United States and the first in Georgia accredited by the American Bar Association)
Type Private
ABA approval or accreditation Approved by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions of the Bar, American Bar Association
Location Macon, Georgia
Latest U.S. News rank #108 tie of 194 (2026 edition)
Latest completed applications 1,184 (Fall 2025)
Latest acceptance rate 37.8% (Fall 2025)
Latest LSAT median 157 (Fall 2025); 159 (Fall 2026, school-reported)
Latest GPA median 3.62 (Fall 2025); 3.63 (Fall 2026, school-reported)
Latest entering class 152 (Fall 2025); 157 (Fall 2026, school-reported)
Current tuition $45,902 (2026–27), plus $500 in fees
Current estimated cost of attendance $68,550 (new borrower) to $71,020 (prior OB3 borrower, third year), 2026–27
Latest first-time bar passage 88.4% (July 2025 Georgia bar; statewide first-time rate 82.3%)
Latest bar-required employment 95% employed or enrolled in a full-time LLM program within 10 months (Class of 2025); 90.1% employment score and 0% underemployment score (LawHub)
Current dean Karen J. Sneddon (dean since May 31, 2023; interim dean from October 1, 2021)

The admissions figures are drawn from the 2025 ABA Standard 509 data set as reported by aggregators and corroborated by the U.S. News profile (1,184 applicants, 447 admitted, 152 first-year students enrolled, 37.8% acceptance rate, 34.0% yield). Mercer's own viewbook reports the Fall 2026 entering class — 1,332 applications received, 157 students enrolled, a 159 median LSAT, and a 3.63 median GPA — which reflects a later cycle and different reporting date; this profile uses the 509-aligned figures for the At-a-Glance table and shows the school-reported Fall 2026 figures alongside them. Note that the ABA's own 2025 disclosure endpoint returned a different institution's report for the identifier used, so the 509 line items (offers, program counts, faculty counts, grant percentiles, transfers) could not be read directly and are marked unconfirmed where they appear below. Tuition and cost data are from the school's published 2026–27 cost-of-attendance table. Karen J. Sneddon has led the school since being appointed dean effective May 31, 2023, having served as interim dean from October 1, 2021.

Introduction

Mercer1.png


Mercer University School of Law, founded in 1873, is the law school of Mercer University and one of the oldest law schools in the United States and the first in Georgia to be accredited by the American Bar Association. It is housed in a 90,000-square-foot building on Coleman Hill, a well-known landmark on the Macon skyline, modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia. With a J.D. student body of roughly 425 and a first-year class of about 152, Mercer is a small private law school with an explicitly student-centered, skills-oriented identity.

Mercer's identity rests on three pillars: the Woodruff Curriculum, an innovative skills-and-professionalism program funded by a $15 million gift from George W. Woodruff that earned the ABA's Gambrell Professionalism Award for its "depth and excellence"; an unusually strong Georgia bar-passage record relative to its admissions profile; and a small, close-knit program in a mid-sized Georgia city. Its graduates cluster heavily in Georgia practice, and the school's alumni network runs deep through the Georgia bench, bar, and legislature.

Rankings and Reputation

Mercer is ranked #108 (tie) of 194 in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, and its specialty placements include #124 (tie) in Business/Corporate Law and #147 in Clinical Training. Its reputation rests less on aggregate rank than on three things: the Woodruff Curriculum's national standing as a model for skills education, its Georgia bar-passage performance, and a historical claim to one of the country's leading legal writing programs.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition Mercer rank
2026 108 (tie) of 194
2025 107 (tie) (prior-edition figure reported by an aggregator; unconfirmed against the U.S. News archive)

Movement of a single place between the 2025 and 2026 editions is immaterial to Mercer's practical career outcomes, which are driven by its Georgia bar results, employment data, and Macon/Atlanta placement rather than by rank position. The school's own materials emphasize its trajectory within the top 100 band historically rather than its current placement.

Specialty rankings

  • Business/Corporate Law: #124 (tie) nationally (2026 U.S. News).
  • Clinical Training: #147 nationally (2026 U.S. News).
  • Legal Writing: Mercer has historically claimed one of the strongest legal writing programs in the country, and at one point publicized a #1 national ranking in that specialty; the current edition's specific legal writing placement was not retrievable and should not be stated without verification.
  • Woodruff Curriculum: Awarded the American Bar Association's Gambrell Professionalism Award for "depth and excellence of the Woodruff Curriculum and its commitment to professionalism," plus additional awards for service and professional skills proficiency.
  • Bar passage standing: #88 nationally among first-time bar takers on the ABA 509-aligned measure used by one aggregator, with a +4.7-point margin over the Georgia statewide rate.

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric Fall 2025
Completed applications 1,184
Offers of admission 447
Acceptance rate 37.8%
Total in first-year class 152
Yield (enrollees / offers) 34.0%

The Fall 2026 entering class, as reported by the school's own viewbook and consumer information pages, drew 1,332 applications and enrolled 157 students, with a 53%/47% men-to-women split, an average age of 24 (range 20 to 46), 49 undergraduate majors represented, and 50 undergraduate schools represented. Total J.D. enrollment is reported at 425 students. Whether Mercer enrolls a part-time division was not determinable from the sources reviewed: U.S. News lists only a full-time program and full-time tuition, and the school's cost table describes a nine-month academic year for all students, but the 509 line items that would settle the question could not be read.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic 25th percentile Median 75th percentile
LSAT (Fall 2026, school-reported) 156 159 161
Undergraduate GPA (Fall 2026, school-reported) 3.36 3.63 3.80
LSAT (Fall 2025, 509-aligned) — (not retrieved) 157 — (not retrieved)
Undergraduate GPA (Fall 2025, 509-aligned) — (not retrieved) 3.62 — (not retrieved)

The Fall 2026 medians (159 LSAT, 3.63 GPA) represent a two-point LSAT improvement over the Fall 2025 median of 157 and are the most complete percentile data available for the school. The 25th/75th percentiles for Fall 2025 were not retrievable; applicants should consult the school's current class profile for those figures.

Interpreting the numbers

Mercer's admissions profile is moderately selective and improving. At a 37.8% acceptance rate and a 34.0% yield, the school admits a broad band of applicants and converts a healthy share of them — a yield that high at a school of this rank reflects Mercer's regional value proposition as much as its price. The trend matters more than the static number: the median LSAT has moved from 157 to 159 between the Fall 2025 and Fall 2026 cycles, on a larger applicant pool (1,332 versus 1,184 applications), which indicates real demand growth. A 156-to-161 LSAT interquartile range is narrow, so the school's entering class is unusually homogeneous in tested credentials for a school at this rank; a 154 or a 165 both stand out. Note that the school reports a higher median LSAT (157 to 159) than its own prior viewbook cycle (155), so applicants comparing cycles should rely on the most recent profile. No LSAT or GPA guarantees admission.

Application timing

The application fee is $0 per the U.S. News profile (the school's own admissions materials direct applicants to [email protected] and 478-301-2605 with questions). The application deadline is June 1 per U.S. News, while the financial aid application deadline is April 1 per the same source and the financial aid office is listed with director Stacey Stone, (478) 301-5001. A separate line of Mercer's own materials advises internal pre-law students to complete the law school application process through the Law School Admissions Council no later than January 15 of the year for which they are applying, which appears to be a recommended (not required) internal timeline for Mercer undergraduates. Because the school's own admissions page did not yield a machine-readable deadline table, applicants should confirm the current cycle's dates directly.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Tuition and fees for the 2026–27 academic year total $46,402:

Item 2026–27
Tuition $45,902
Fees $500
Tuition and fees total $46,402

U.S. News reports full-time tuition of $45,082 and an aggregator reports $44,782, both reflecting a prior cycle; the school's published 2026–27 figure of $45,902 is used here. One cost-tracking source reports tuition escalating at about 1.29% per year and notes a $64,894 annual figure that combines tuition with estimated living costs rather than representing tuition alone. Mercer charges the same tuition to residents and non-residents because it is private.

Cost of attendance

Expense 2026–27 (9-month academic year)
Tuition and fees $46,402
Housing ($1,102/month) $9,918
Utilities ($248/month) $2,232
Food ($550/month) $4,950
Transportation ($275/month) $2,475
Personal expenses ($116/month) $1,044
Books $1,321
Bar exam fee (third-year students only) $1,291
Loan fees (prior OB3 borrower / new borrower) $1,387 / $208
Total cost of attendance $69,729 to $71,020 (prior OB3 borrower) / $68,550 to $69,841 (new borrower)

The school publishes its budget in four variants, and the distinctions matter: prior OB3 borrowers (students who borrowed as undergraduates under the older origination-fee structure) carry higher average loan fees and therefore a higher total, while new borrowers carry lower loan fees. The published totals are $68,550 for a first-time borrower's first year, $69,729 for a prior-OB3 borrower's second year, $69,841 for a new borrower's third year, and $71,020 for a prior-OB3 borrower's third year. The third-year totals include the $1,291 bar exam fee, which the Department of Education now permits students to borrow upfront in their third year. Three-year totals at current rates therefore run roughly $207,000 to $213,000 before any scholarship — a figure that should be read alongside Mercer's $131,125 average graduate indebtedness.

Financial aid

Roughly 86.5% to 87% of Mercer students receive grant aid, and the median award among recipients is $20,000 per year — equivalent to about 44% of tuition. The distribution of awards across the reported student population is instructive: about 13% pay full sticker price, 50% receive a grant covering less than half of tuition, 37% receive half tuition or more, and roughly 3% receive more than full tuition. On a whole-class basis, the average annual tuition discount is approximately $23,289, against a listed sticker tuition of $45,082. The practical implication is that the median Mercer student pays roughly $25,900 in tuition after aid, and that the school's named scholarship programs — including the Woodruff Scholarship, which one student describes as removing the fear of being bound by student debt — are the route to a materially better outcome than the median. Applicants should treat the quoted sticker price as an opening position rather than a likely result.

Debt perspective

One feature of Mercer's aid program is unambiguous and unusually favorable: the school does not award conditional scholarships. As its consumer information page states plainly, "Mercer Law School does not provide conditional scholarships therefore we do not post an ABA 'conditional scholarship retention worksheet'" — meaning no merit award can be reduced or eliminated based on law school academic performance other than failure to maintain good academic standing. That removes the single largest financial risk facing students at comparably ranked schools in this profile series. The offsetting facts are harder. U.S. News reports average indebtedness of $131,125 among 2025 J.D. graduates who incurred law school debt, with 75.4% of graduates borrowing — one of the highest average debt figures and highest borrowing rates in this profile series, and substantially above the $103,964 to $114,064 range at peer schools. U.S. News also states that Mercer does not offer a loan repayment assistance program for 2025 graduates, which means public-interest graduates have no institutional backstop on repayment. The combination — near-full-price cost, high borrowing, high average debt, median grants covering well under half of tuition, no conditional-award risk, and no LRAP — means the scholarship negotiation is not optional at Mercer; it is the single largest determinant of whether the degree pays.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

Mercer reports that 95% of the Class of 2025 were employed or enrolled in a full-time LLM program within 10 months of graduation. Independent tabulations of the same federal data show:

Employment metric Class of 2025
Employed or enrolled in a full-time LLM program (10 months) 95% (school-reported)
Employment score (full-time, long-term, bar-required or JD-advantage, all graduates) 90.1% (LawHub)
Underemployment score 0% (LawHub)
Total graduates in class Not retrieved (the school's ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2025 PDF was not machine-readable)

The detailed ABA category table — firm-size distribution, clerkship counts, government and public interest counts, and the count of graduates not seeking employment — is published by the school as an ABA Employment Summary Report for the Class of 2025, with summaries posted for every class from 2013 through 2025, but the Class of 2025 PDF was not machine-readable in the sources reviewed. Reported sector salary figures are a private-sector median of $80,000 and a public-sector median of $65,000.

What these numbers mean

Mercer's headline outcomes are strong for its rank: a 95% employment-or-LLM rate and a 0% underemployment score mean essentially every graduate finds full-time professional work or continues studying, and the 90.1% employment score is high in absolute terms. The reported salary structure tells the more important story. A private-sector median of $80,000 is well below the $100,000 median reported at the Indiana school profiled alongside it and roughly a third of large-firm starting salaries nationally, which reflects a market dominated by small and mid-size Georgia firms, state and local government, and solo practice rather than Big Law. A public-sector median of $65,000 is comparatively healthy and reflects a functioning state-government and public-defender market. Combined with $131,125 in average graduate debt, an $80,000 median starting salary produces a debt-to-income ratio near 1.6:1 — manageable but not comfortable, and the reason the scholarship negotiation and the absence of an LRAP both matter so much here.

Bar passage

Bar statistic Recent graduates
First-time pass rate, July 2025 Georgia bar 88.4% (school-reported; the school describes this as its highest since a prior benchmark)
Georgia statewide first-time pass rate, July 2025 82.3% (Georgia Office of Bar Admissions)
Margin against the Georgia statewide rate (July 2025) +6.1 points
First-time pass rate (2025 graduates, all jurisdictions) 86.5% (LawHub)
First-time pass rate (2024 administrations, ABA 509-aligned) 84.0% (ILRG, #88 nationally; +4.7 points over the Georgia rate)
Ultimate bar passage (2-year average) Not retrieved

Bar passage is Mercer's strongest verified outcome and the clearest source of its value proposition. The school's 88.4% first-time rate on the July 2025 Georgia bar came against an 82.3% statewide first-time rate — a six-point margin — and independent tabulations corroborate the pattern with 86.5% (2025 graduates, all jurisdictions) and 84.0% for the 2024 administrations with a 4.7-point margin over the state. Mercer graduates were reported to have earned the second-highest bar exam pass rate in the state. That performance is notable given a median LSAT of 157, and it is the strongest evidence that the Woodruff Curriculum's skills-and-professionalism emphasis translates into licensure outcomes. The one gap in the record is the two-year ultimate passage rate, which was not retrievable and should be added from the school's bar passage report before publishing.

Where graduates go

Mercer's graduates concentrate in Georgia, with the largest share entering small and mid-size private practice across the state, followed by state and local government, public interest organizations, and corporate and business roles. Reported salaries — $80,000 private-sector median and $65,000 public-sector median — indicate a market without a large-firm premium: Mercer's placement is regional and its salary distribution is compressed. Mercer's location in Macon, roughly 85 miles south of Atlanta, places the school within reach of the state's largest legal market without being inside it, and its alumni network runs through the Georgia bench, bar, district attorneys' offices, and legislature. State-by-state placement counts and full salary percentiles for the Class of 2025 were not retrievable in machine-readable form.

Academics and Programs

The J.D. is a three-year, full-time program delivered in a nine-month academic year, alongside the school's curricular concentrations and dual-degree offerings. U.S. News reports a student-to-faculty ratio of 11.2:1. Complete faculty-count figures (full-time, non-full-time, and librarians) come from the 509 report and were not retrievable for this profile.

Curriculum and special strengths

Mercer's curriculum is defined by the Woodruff Curriculum, funded by a $15 million gift from George W. Woodruff and described by the school as reinforcing its commitment to small classes and a professional-skills-oriented approach to legal education. The ABA recognized the program with the Gambrell Professionalism Award for the "depth and excellence of the Woodruff Curriculum and its commitment to professionalism," and the school describes the curriculum as having become a national model. Practical consequences of the Woodruff design include small section sizes and an early, sustained emphasis on writing, client interaction, and professional responsibility rather than a purely doctrinal first year. The school offers upper-level curricular concentrations and programs across the standard range of fields, and its specialty placement in Business/Corporate Law (#124 tie) and Clinical Training (#147) reflects the breadth of its elective catalogue. Legal writing has historically been Mercer's most publicized academic strength.

Clinics and experiential learning

Mercer operates a clinical and experiential program consistent with its skills-first identity, and Clinical Training appears among its ranked specialty areas. The school's location in Macon — the seat of Bibb County's courts, the Georgia district attorney and public defender offices, and a range of legal-services organizations — supports externships and clinic placements during the academic year, and the Woodruff Curriculum's professional-skills components are embedded in the required program rather than offered only as electives. The school has received awards for service and professional skills proficiency in addition to the Gambrell Professionalism Award. The complete clinic roster was not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed and is described generically here.

Student Life and Location

Living in Macon

Mercer Law is housed in a 90,000-square-foot building on Coleman Hill, a landmark on the Macon skyline, modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia — a deliberately collegial architectural statement about the school's self-image. Macon is a mid-sized central Georgia city roughly 85 miles south of Atlanta, with a cost of living well below coastal markets: the school's own 2026–27 budget assumes $1,102 per month in housing, $248 in utilities, and $550 in food, totaling roughly $18,600 in living costs for the nine-month year, or about $23,300 once books, transportation, personal expenses, and loan fees are added. The budget is realistic for Macon and is a genuine advantage over urban private schools. The trade-off is market size and geography: Macon's legal market is small, Atlanta is a commute or a move away, and students targeting Atlanta Big Law or out-of-state practice should plan an active cross-market search. The building's location next to Macon's courts supports externships during the academic year.

Student body

With roughly 425 J.D. students and a first-year class of about 152, Mercer is one of the smaller private law schools in this profile series, which is the foundation of its student-centered reputation. The Fall 2026 entering class was 53% men and 47% women, averaged 24 years of age with a range of 20 to 46, and arrived from 50 undergraduate schools with 49 majors represented. The narrow LSAT interquartile range (156 to 161) and moderate class size combine to produce a cohort with relatively similar academic preparation — a feature that supports the Woodruff Curriculum's collaborative, small-section design and that students consistently cite as a reason for choosing the school. University policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, disability, veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, age, or religion.

How Mercer Compares

Choose Mercer if

  • Georgia bar outcomes are your priority: an 88.4% first-time pass rate on the July 2025 Georgia bar against an 82.3% statewide rate is the strongest verified result in this profile.
  • You want a genuinely small, student-centered program — about 425 students and a 152-student entering class — with the skills-and-professionalism Woodruff Curriculum embedded in the required course of study.
  • You want an aid award you cannot lose: Mercer awards no conditional scholarships.
  • You want central Georgia cost of living: roughly $18,600 in housing, utilities, and food for the nine-month year.
  • You intend to practice in Georgia, where Mercer's alumni network runs through the bench, the bar, district attorneys' offices, and the legislature.

Consider alternatives if

  • Salary matters more than bar passage: at an $80,000 private-sector median and $65,000 public-sector median, Mercer's outcomes cluster well below the $100,000 private-sector median at peer schools, and average graduate debt of $131,125 with 75.4% borrowing pushes the debt-to-income ratio near 1.6:1.
  • You need a loan repayment assistance program: U.S. News reports Mercer does not offer one for 2025 graduates, so public-interest graduates have no institutional repayment support.
  • You want a national or Big Law footprint: Mercer's rank (#108 tie) and salary distribution reflect a regional market, and Atlanta large-firm recruiting is competitive with Georgia's other schools.
  • You want full-tuition funding: only about 3% of the reported student population holds an award above full tuition, and 13% pay full sticker price, so the median grant ($20,000) covers about 44% of tuition.
  • You are comparing on aggregate rank alone against schools in the 60s and 70s — though note that Mercer's bar results beat several of them.

The TLS Verdict

Mercer is a bar-passage school with a debt problem, and both halves of that description are load-bearing. On the positive side, the evidence is unusually strong: an 88.4% first-time pass rate on the July 2025 Georgia bar against an 82.3% statewide rate, corroborated by 86.5% (2025 graduates, all jurisdictions) and by a 4.7-point margin over Georgia for the 2024 administrations. A 95% employment-or-LLM rate and a 0% underemployment score mean graduates land on their feet, and a 0% conditional-scholarship policy means no merit award can be stripped for academic performance — a genuinely rare protection in this tier. The Woodruff Curriculum, funded by a $15 million gift and recognized by the ABA's Gambrell Professionalism Award, is real and is plausibly the mechanism behind the bar results. On the negative side, the arithmetic is demanding and the school's own numbers make the case: average graduate debt of $131,125, 75.4% of graduates borrowing, a private-sector median salary of $80,000, a median grant of only $20,000 against $45,902 in tuition, roughly $207,000 to $213,000 in three-year gross cost, and no loan repayment assistance program for public-interest graduates. Mercer also sits in a small market: Macon is not Atlanta, and the school's salary distribution carries none of the large-firm premium that makes high debt manageable elsewhere. The honest summary: for a Georgia-committed applicant who negotiates a scholarship above the median, Mercer is one of the best bar-outcome bets in the country relative to its admissions profile, and a defensible choice; for an applicant paying near sticker price toward a regional market at an $80,000 median salary with no LRAP backstop, the debt load is the deciding fact against it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard is it to get into Mercer Law?

Moderately selective: for Fall 2025, Mercer accepted 37.8% of applicants (447 offers from 1,184 completed applications), enrolling 152 first-year students at a 34.0% yield. The Fall 2026 cycle drew 1,332 applications and enrolled 157 students.

What LSAT score is competitive for Mercer?

The most recent school-reported class (Fall 2026) has a median LSAT of 159, with a middle-50% range of 156 to 161; the Fall 2025 median was 157. Because the interquartile range is narrow, a 156 is meaningfully below the class and a 161 is in the top quarter — there is little room in between.

What GPA do Mercer applicants typically have?

The Fall 2026 entering class has a median undergraduate GPA of 3.63, with a middle-50% range of 3.36 to 3.80. The Fall 2025 median was 3.62.

Does Mercer give scholarships?

Yes, broadly but moderately: roughly 86.5% to 87% of students receive grant aid, and the median award among recipients is $20,000 per year, about 44% of tuition. About 13% of students pay full sticker price, 50% receive less than half tuition, and 37% receive half tuition or more.

Does Mercer award conditional scholarships?

No. The school states on its consumer information page that it does not provide conditional scholarships and therefore does not file an ABA conditional scholarship retention worksheet. No merit award can be reduced or eliminated based on academic performance beyond maintaining good academic standing.

What is Mercer's bar passage rate?

For the July 2025 Georgia bar, 88.4% of Mercer first-time takers passed, against an 82.3% statewide first-time rate. Independent tabulations report 86.5% for 2025 graduates across all jurisdictions and 84.0% for the 2024 administrations, with a 4.7-point margin over Georgia.

What percentage of Mercer graduates get jobs?

95% of the Class of 2025 were employed or enrolled in a full-time LLM program within 10 months of graduation. Independent tabulations report a 90.1% employment score and a 0% underemployment score. Reported medians were $80,000 in the private sector and $65,000 in the public sector.

Does Mercer offer loan repayment assistance?

U.S. News reports that Mercer does not offer a loan repayment assistance program for 2025 J.D. graduates.

How much debt do Mercer graduates carry?

Average indebtedness among 2025 J.D. graduates who incurred law school debt is $131,125, with 75.4% of graduates borrowing.

What is Mercer Law best known for?

The Woodruff Curriculum and its ABA Gambrell Professionalism Award, its small student-centered program on Coleman Hill in Macon, its legal writing tradition, and an unusually strong Georgia bar-passage record relative to its admissions profile.

Contact and Key Links

Mercer University School of Law
1501 Mercer University Drive
Macon, Georgia 31207

Admissions Phone: 478-301-2605

Admissions Email: [email protected]

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

Retrieved from "https://www.top-law-schools.com/w/index.php?title=Mercer_University_School_of_Law&oldid=7434"