South Texas College of Law Houston

South Texas College of Law Houston ("STCL Houston") is a private law school in downtown Houston, Texas, and the oldest law school in the city, that enrolled a first-year class of 437 students in Fall 2025 — 343 full-time and 94 part-time — from 2,770 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 155 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.41. It is ranked #128 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News rankings and #54 of 78 for its part-time program, and its advocacy program — ranked #6 nationally in trial advocacy, with 136 national championships and a moot court program that was ranked first in the nation in 2018 — is among the most decorated in American legal education. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that the school pairs that advocacy pedigree, a 91.0% Class of 2025 employment rate with 82.6% in bar-required jobs, and a first-time bar passage rate nine points above the Texas average (91.1% for the 2024 cohort) against the most aggressive conditional-scholarship reduction rate documented in this profile series (94 of 280 awards cut in 2024–25, 38.9% the year before), thin grants ($11,000 median), and the largest student body relative to faculty in the series (24.3:1, #194 of 196), at a 2026–27 cost of attendance of $80,952 full-time.

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STCL Houston at a Glance

Category	Latest information
Founded	1923 (as South Texas School of Law, by the YMCA to offer night classes for working professionals; opened September 24, 1923)
Type	Private, independent
ABA approval or accreditation	ABA accredited (Council of the Section of Legal Education, approved since 1959); member of the Association of American Law Schools
Location	1303 San Jacinto Street, Houston, TX 77002-7006
Latest U.S. News rank	#128 tie (2026 edition); #54 of 78 in Part-time Law; Trial Advocacy #6 (2025–26 edition, school-reported)
Latest completed applications	2,770 (Fall 2025, 2025 509 report)
Latest acceptance rate	33.65% (Fall 2025; 932 offers)
Latest LSAT median	155 (Fall 2025; 25th: 153, 75th: 158)
Latest GPA median	3.41 (Fall 2025; 25th: 3.08, 75th: 3.65)
Latest entering class	437 (Fall 2025; 343 full-time, 94 part-time)
Current tuition	$42,960 full-time, plus $2,000 in fees (2025–26, 509 report); the school's 2026–27 rate is $1,482/credit plus a $1,200 fee — $46,864 all-in tuition and fees (U.S. News reports $44,960 full-time / $30,640 part-time under the new per-credit rate)
Current estimated cost of attendance	$80,952 full-time / $65,374 part-time (2026–27, school's official published budgets)
Latest first-time bar passage	85.6% (Class of 2025, LawHub); 91.1% for the 2024 cohort — +9.7 points over the Texas average (ILRG, #37 of 196)
Latest bar-required employment	82.6% of the Class of 2025 (247 of 299 graduates) in jobs requiring bar admission; 74.5% full-time long-term bar-required, #156 of 196, and 88.2% overall employment, #164 (Class of 2024, ILRG)
Current dean	Reynaldo Anaya Valencia, 13th President and Dean, since July 2026 (a Harvard Law graduate; succeeded interim President and Dean Jeff Rensberger, following Michael F. Barry's seven-year tenure — Barry was named dean of American University Washington College of Law in April 2026)

The admissions figures are drawn from STCL Houston's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (2,770 completed applications, 932 offers, a 33.65% acceptance rate, and 437 students in the first-year class — 343 full-time and 94 part-time — as of October 2025), which also reports total J.D. enrollment of 1,144 and sixteen transfers in against five out. Tuition and cost data are from the 509 report and the school's 2026–27 tuition-and-fees page, which publishes the full budget table. Scholarship and conditional-award data are from the 509 report; the school files a conditional-scholarship retention chart documenting reductions and eliminations for the 2023–24 and 2024–25 cohorts. Employment figures for the Class of 2025 are an independent tabulation of the ABA data (299 graduates); bar figures appear in three vintages that this profile labels separately rather than blending. A note on the living-expense data: the 509 report lists an off-campus living allowance of $56,958, while the school's own published 2026–27 budget prices housing and food at $22,336 with personal and transportation lines alongside — a conflict this profile resolves in favor of the school's itemized budget and flags for verification.

Introduction

South Texas College of Law Houston was established in 1923, when the YMCA decided to create a law school offering night classes for working professionals — prominent Houston business leaders signed the founding papers in mid-April of that year, and the school opened as South Texas School of Law on September 24, 1923. By 1945 it had taken the name South Texas College of Law, and it is the oldest law school in Houston. It has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1959.

The school's modern naming history is genuinely convoluted and worth stating plainly: in June 2016 the school announced it would rename itself "Houston College of Law," whereupon the University of Houston — whose own law school sits within the University of Houston Law Center — filed a federal trademark suit, citing "significant confusion... in the marketplace," and a federal judge barred the new name. On November 7, 2016, the school announced it would instead proceed as South Texas College of Law Houston, the name it carries today [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Texas_College_of_Law_Houston) [ABA Journal](https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/south_texas_college_of_law_announces_its_latest_new_name).

Its identity rests on three pillars. The first is advocacy: the school has won 136 national championships in advocacy, its trial advocacy program is ranked #6 nationally in the 2025–26 U.S. News specialty rankings, and its moot court program was ranked first in the nation in 2018 by the University of Houston Law Center's Blakely Advocacy Institute and has ranked in the top four since. The second is access and affordability: the school markets itself as "consistently ranked among the best values in the country for a private law school," with 85% of students on grants, a part-time division enrolling 94 of the 437 Fall 2025 entrants, and a two-deadline admissions calendar. The third is Houston: one of America's most diverse cities, with the country's largest medical center, a massive energy and corporate bar, and a Harris County justice system that employs more lawyers than most states.

Its alumni network is Texas public life at every level: two former Texas Supreme Court justices (Eva Guzman and David Medina), sitting Justice John Devine, U.S. District Judges Janis Graham Jack and Reed O'Connor, Federal Circuit Judge Phillip Benjamin Baldwin, Congressmen John Culberson, Chris Bell, and Robert Casey, State Senator Joan Huffman, Harris County District Attorneys Kim Ogg and Pat Lykos, former Houston Police Chief Sam Nuchia, journalist Dan Rather, and — the school's most famous graduate — Richard H. Anderson, the former CEO of Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and Amtrak. The school publishes the South Texas Law Review, Corporate Counsel Review, Currents: Journal of International Economic Law, the Texas Journal of Business Law, and the Hispanic Journal of Law and Policy.

Rankings and Reputation

STCL Houston's overall rank sits in the lower-middle of the national table, but the metric-level data are sharply two-sided: bar passage ranks #37 of 196 — the school's best number by a wide margin — while overall employment ranks #164, bar-required employment #156, and the student-faculty ratio #194. The school is, in effect, an access institution that has cracked the licensure problem but not the placement-depth one.

Overall ranking

Source	Rank
U.S. News, 2026 edition	#128 (tie) of 194
U.S. News, 2025 edition (Wikipedia)	#138
LSD.law (2026 cycle)	#120
ILRG, metric-by-metric (December 2025 ABA data)	#89 in selectivity; #164 in overall employment; #156 in bar-required employment

U.S. News is the source used for the At-a-Glance table. The ten-place climb since the 2025 edition (#138 to #128) tracks the school's bar-passage gains (below) and a tightening admissions profile.

ILRG's metric-by-metric report, built on the December 2025 ABA disclosures, places the school as follows: #133 of 196 in LSAT composite (155.3); #171 in GPA composite (3.38); #89 in selectivity (33.7% acceptance rate); tied #194 in student-faculty ratio (24.3:1 — the weakest ratio among the 196 schools tabulated); #164 in overall employment at ten months (88.2%); #156 in bar-required employment (74.5%); #145 in federal clerkship rate (0.5%); #37 in first-time bar passage (91.1%); #355 of 275 distinct rates in highest tuition ($42,960); #78 in minority faculty (20.0%); and tied #152 in female faculty (40.0%). The bar-passage rank is the school's standout — top-twenty nationally — while the student-faculty ratio is the worst in this profile series and the employment ranks sit in the bottom fifth.

U.S. News reports an ultimate bar passage rate of 91.9% (two-year average) and a first-time rate of 91.1% against an average first-time rate among states of 81.4% — figures that reconcile to the ILRG 2024-cohort tabulation. No U.S. News student-faculty ratio figure was retrieved in this review.

Specialty rankings

Specialty	U.S. News rank
Trial Advocacy	#6 (2025–26 edition, per the school's news announcement)
Part-time Law	#54 of 78 (2026 edition)

Trial advocacy is the school's franchise asset and its best marketing claim, and unlike most specialty claims in this series it is verifiable in results: 136 national advocacy championships, a moot court program ranked first nationally in 2018 (Blakely Advocacy Institute tabulation) and top-four since, and an advocacy-driven curriculum that the school credits — alongside rising first-time and ultimate bar passage — for its ranking trajectory. The school's news announcement of the #6 advocacy rank notes that the school demonstrated "significant strength in ultimate bar passage rate (up 30% in rankings)" and first-time bar passage (up 18%) in the same cycle [STCL Houston News](https://www.stcl.edu/news/stcl-advocacy-program-ranks-6th-in-nation/). U.S. News also lists dispute resolution, environmental law, health care law, intellectual property law, international law, business/corporate law, constitutional law, contracts/commercial law, and criminal law among the school's program areas.

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric	Fall 2025
Completed applications	2,770
Offers of admission	932
Acceptance rate	33.65%
Enrollees from applicant pool	437
Total in first-year class	437 (343 full-time / 94 part-time)
Yield (enrollees / offers)	46.57%
Enrollment rate from completed applications	15.67%
Total J.D. enrollment	1,144
Transfers in / out	16 in / 5 out

The 46.57% yield is the strongest in this profile series — nearly half of every offer converts — and reflects the school's grip on the Houston market: applicants committed to Harris County practice have a clear local private choice, and the sixteen-transfer intake (among the highest in the series) signals the school's standing as a destination for students leaving other programs. The 21.5% part-time share carries the school's founding night-school mission.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic	25th percentile	Median	75th percentile
LSAT (all enrollees)	153	155	158
Undergraduate GPA (all enrollees)	3.08	3.41	3.65
LSAT, full-time only	153	155	157
GPA, full-time only	3.08	3.41	3.66
LSAT, part-time only	152	155	158
GPA, part-time only	2.99	3.39	3.64

Interpreting the numbers

The six-year improvement is among the steepest in this profile series, and it has three components. First, selectivity: the acceptance rate fell from 60.7% in 2019 to 33.7% — a 27-point collapse that moved the school from an open-door profile to a genuinely selective one (#89 of 196). Second, credentials: the median LSAT rose four points (151 to 155, with the 25th percentile moving from 148 to 153) and the median GPA jumped thirty-one hundredths (3.10 to 3.41), with the 25th-percentile GPA climbing from 2.84 to 3.08. Third, the bar results that followed (below). A school that admits one in three applicants with a 3.41 median GPA and passes nine in ten first-time takers is executing a coherent access-plus-rigor model.

Two cautions temper the picture. The part-time cohort's 25th-percentile GPA of 2.99 sits below a 3.0 — the widest access band of any division in this series — and the school's 24.3:1 student-faculty ratio (#194 of 196, tied) means large classes regardless of division. The credential gains are real; the teaching-load constraints are equally real.

Application timing

Application fee: $55 (2025 ABA 509 report)
Application deadlines: November 24, 2025 and May 8, 2026 (2025 ABA 509 report) — a two-deadline calendar; applicants should confirm which deadline applies to their entry term with the admissions office
Financial aid application deadline: May 1, 2026 (2025 ABA 509 report; U.S. News lists May 1); the financial aid office is at (713) 646-1772
No binding Early Decision program is reported in the sources reviewed
The J.D. requires 90 credit hours; full-time (30-credit year) and part-time divisions are offered, billed at $1,482 per credit hour plus a $1,200 fee (2026–27)
Financial aid is accepted in the form of Direct Loans, the Texas Tuition Equalization Grant, federal work-study, institutional scholarships, and veterans benefits [STCL Houston Financial Aid](https://www.stcl.edu/admissions/funding-your-education/)

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Year	Full-time tuition	Fees	Total
2025–26 (2025 ABA 509)	$42,960	$2,000	$44,960
2026–27 (school, per-credit basis)	$44,460 ($1,482 × 30 credits)	$2,404 (incl. $1,200 registration fee)	$46,864
Part-time, 2026–27 (school)	$30,120 at the per-credit rate	$1,920	$32,040
2019 full-time tuition (for comparison)	$32,400	—	—

The school's U.S. News-reported tuition figures of $44,960 full-time and $30,640 part-time reconcile exactly to the 2025–26 509 lines ($42,960 plus $2,000 in fees). The 2026–27 structure shifts to $1,482 per credit hour plus a $1,200 registration fee, producing the published $46,864 full-time and $32,040 part-time totals. Tuition has risen 33% since 2019 — faster than most schools in this series. ILRG ranks the tuition #355 of 275 distinct national rates, among the cheapest private schools in the country, and the school markets itself as "consistently ranked among the best values... for a private law school" — a claim the tuition table supports and the aid table (below) complicates.

Cost of attendance

Expense (2026–27, full-time)	Amount
Tuition and fees	$46,864
Books	$3,023
Housing and food	$22,336
Miscellaneous and personal	$3,462
Transportation	$3,618
Loan fees	$1,650
Total	$80,952

The part-time total is $65,374, with the same housing, food, personal, and transportation lines. These are the school's own published figures. Summer attendance (2027) is budgeted separately — $7,445 in housing and food for a 3–5-credit session plus a per-credit tuition rate — and matters because the school's academic calendar includes summer terms.

Two data conflicts in this section deserve flagging. First, the 509 report's off-campus living allowance of $56,958 is irreconcilable with the school's own $22,336 housing-and-food budget — a difference of $34,622. The school's itemized, published budget governs this profile, and applicants should treat the 509 line as a possible data error pending confirmation. Second, the 509 lists no on-campus or military-base living category at all (marked N/A) — the school has no dormitory, and its at-home allowance of $26,998 is among the highest at-home figures in this series, meaning the budget does not reward the commuting student. An independent three-year tabulation puts the estimated net cost at $277,000 after average aid; the school's published budget implies roughly $243,000 over three years at current rates before any scholarship.

Financial aid

Metric	Value
Students receiving grants	985 (85%)
25th percentile grant	$3,399
Median grant	$11,000
75th percentile grant	$18,000
Conditional scholarships entered, 2024–25	280
Conditional scholarships reduced or eliminated, 2024–25	94 (33.6%)
Conditional scholarships entered, 2023–24	247
Conditional scholarships reduced or eliminated, 2023–24	96 (38.9%)

This is the most troubling aid profile in this series, and both halves of it matter. On breadth: 85% of the 1,144 J.D. students receive grants — solid coverage for a private school. On depth and durability, the numbers are severe. The median grant of $11,000 covers barely a quarter of tuition, the 25th percentile of $3,399 is functionally nominal, and the conditional-scholarship table documents the largest reduction-and-elimination program reviewed here: 94 of 280 conditional awards (33.6%) cut in 2024–25, following 96 of 247 (38.9%) in 2023–24 — 190 of 527 awards, or 36.1%, across two documented years. The school's retention chart was not extracted for earlier cohorts, so whether this rate is improving or worsening cannot be determined from the sources reviewed.

The practical implication for an applicant is stark: at STCL Houston, the difference between the grant you are offered in March and the grant you hold in October of 2L is, on the documented evidence, likely to be a third or more of the award. Applicants should read the school's conditional-scholarship disclosure in full, ask the financial aid office (713-646-1772) for three years of retention figures and the exact GPA or class-rank trigger, and price any conditional award at its post-reduction value — the modeled net cost of $277,000 over three years already reflects average aid attrition and should be treated as the honest planning number.

Debt perspective

Average indebtedness and borrowing rates for 2025 J.D. graduates were not retrieved in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed, and no LRAP status for the 2025 cohort is confirmed; both should be read directly from the U.S. News profile and requested from the Office of Student Services. The financial aid catalog lists federal loans, the Tuition Equalization Grant, work-study, scholarships, and veterans benefits, but no school-funded loan repayment assistance program appears in the sources reviewed.

The structural arithmetic is the reason this gap matters. A full-time student at the median grant pays roughly $35,900 a year in tuition ($46,864 minus $11,000) plus $30,889 in non-tuition costs — about $67,000 annually, or $200,000 across three years at current rates before any conditional-award loss. Against a modeled Class of 2025 salary of $102,323 and Houston's moderate cost of living, that is serviceable — but only if the bar is passed on schedule and the award holds. The school's bar-passage strength (below) mitigates the first risk; the conditional-scholarship table is the second risk's documentation; and the missing LRAP leaves the school's public-interest graduates (2.3% of the Class of 2025) without institutional backstop entirely.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

Employment status (Class of 2025, 299 graduates, ten months out)	Share of class
Law firms — 501+ attorneys (Big Law)	5.3%
Law firms — other sizes	59.2%
Judicial clerkships — all courts	2.3%
Public interest	2.3%
Government	13.7%
Business and academic	8.0%
Start date deferred	1.0%
Pursuing further study	3.3%
Unemployed — seeking	4.0%
Unemployed — not seeking	0.7%
In jobs requiring bar admission	82.6% (247 of 299)
Overall employment (any job type)	91.0% (272 of 299)

The modeled salary across covered categories is $102,323, with 83% of the class reporting. The LawHub employment score for the same cohort is 81.6%, with a 0% underemployment score. The detailed ABA category table — the school's official line items for bar-required versus J.D.-advantage positions, firm-size distribution, and employer detail — is available through the ABA Employment Summary Reports portal and was not machine-readable in this review; applicants should read it directly.

Employment metric	Value
Overall employment at 10 months (Class of 2024, ILRG)	88.2% (#164 of 196)
Bar-required employment, full-time long-term (Class of 2024, ILRG)	74.5% (#156 of 196)
Federal clerkship rate (Class of 2024, ILRG)	0.5% (#145 of 196)
Underemployment score (LawHub, Class of 2025)	0%

What these numbers mean

The employment picture is a study in contrast between cohort and rank. The Class of 2025's 91.0% overall employment rate with 82.6% in bar-required jobs is strong for a school at #128 — and the 0% underemployment score means graduates who land jobs land real ones. But the Class of 2024 cohort, tabulated independently, produced an 88.2% overall rate ranked #164 of 196 and a 74.5% bar-required rate ranked #156 — both in the bottom fifth of the national table. Whether the newest cohort's improvement reflects a genuine upward move or a one-year swing cannot be determined from a single comparison, and the school's own Employment Summary should be the deciding document.

The composition is unmistakably Houston's mass market. At 59.2% of the class in firms of other sizes — the small and mid-size practices of Harris County and the surrounding counties — plus 13.7% in government (the district attorney's and county attorney's offices, city and state agencies), the school's graduates enter exactly the market its founding mission serves: working Houstonians staffing working Houston's courts and firms. The 5.3% Big Law share is respectable for the rank, and the modeled salary of $102,323 reflects Houston's mid-tier compensation structure — a genuinely strong number against the region's cost of living. The constraints are the familiar ones: a 2.3% all-court clerkship rate, 2.3% public interest, and 0.5% federal clerkships define hard ceilings on the appellate, academic, and public-service paths.

Bar passage

Bar statistic	Value
First-time bar passage, 2024 cohort (ILRG; U.S. News profile)	91.1% vs. Texas 81.4% (+9.7 points, #37 of 196)
First-time bar passage, Class of 2025 (LawHub; Hey Future Lawyer)	85.6%
School-reported July 2024 administration	91.63% — fourth among Texas law schools (school social media)
Ultimate bar passage (2-year average, U.S. News profile)	91.9%
First-time rate and Texas comparison (2019, ILRG)	67.9% vs. 74.5% (−6.6 points)

Bar passage is the school's signature achievement and the clearest improvement trend in this profile series. In 2019, STCL Houston graduates passed the Texas bar at 67.9% — nearly seven points under the state average and a genuine institutional weakness. By the 2024 cohort the rate had reached 91.1%, nearly ten points above the Texas average and ranked #37 of 196 nationally — a 23-point swing in the school's favor in five years. The Class of 2025 figure of 85.6% (LawHub) remains well above the Texas average, and the U.S. News two-year ultimate rate of 91.9% means licensure risk for a STCL Houston graduate is, on the evidence, modest.

The school's own advocacy announcement attributes the improvement to the same institutional investments driving its advocacy ranking, noting the ultimate-bar-passage metric rose 30% in the rankings and first-time passage 18% [STCL Houston News](https://www.stcl.edu/news/stcl-advocacy-program-ranks-6th-in-nation/). The school's social-media tabulation of the July 2024 administration — 91.63%, fourth among Texas law schools — corroborates the aggregate. For an applicant, this is the strongest single fact on the page: a school whose selectivity ranks #89, whose employment ranks #164, and whose bar passage ranks #37 has solved the licensure problem most schools at this tier struggle with — and it has done so while admitting a class whose 25th-percentile GPA sits at 3.08.

Where graduates go

State-by-state employment counts for the Class of 2025 were not published in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed. The market is Houston and the Gulf Coast: the Harris County justice system (district attorney, county attorney, courts), the city's small and mid-size firms, the energy and healthcare corporate bars, and the state agencies of the largest Texas metro. The school's downtown location at 1303 San Jacinto Street puts students blocks from the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, the civil courts, and the central business district. The advocacy program's national reputation gives graduates a portable credential for litigation practice in Texas and beyond; the modeled salary of $102,323 and the 59.2% small-firm share define a regional professional-middle profile. Graduates targeting other regions should expect the degree to function as a Texas credential — portable within the state and its neighbors, less so elsewhere.

Academics and Programs

The J.D. requires 90 credit hours and is offered full-time (30-credit year) and part-time, billed at $1,482 per credit hour plus a $1,200 fee for 2026–27. The school also offers the MLS and joint programs referenced in its LSAC profile; the specific joint-degree pairings were not itemized in the sources reviewed and should be confirmed with the registrar.

Curriculum and special strengths

Advocacy is the school's curricular center of gravity and its verified national distinction: the #6 U.S. News trial advocacy rank, 136 national championships, and a moot court program ranked first in the nation in 2018 (Blakely Advocacy Institute) and top-four since. The advocacy program is not a competition team bolted onto the curriculum — it is the reason for the school's litigation-first identity, and it recruits and trains students for the Texas bar's heavy trial practice.

The second strength is the school's practice-market integration: the Direct Representation Clinics provide actual legal services — family law, probate, estate planning, and guardianship — to low-income residents of Harris County, making the clinic program simultaneously a public-service asset and a live-client training ground [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Texas_College_of_Law_Houston). The five journals (South Texas Law Review, Corporate Counsel Review, Currents, Texas Journal of Business Law, Hispanic Journal of Law and Policy) map onto the school's placement profile: corporate practice, international economic law, business law, and the Houston community's Hispanic legal profession.

Academic profile per the 2025 ABA 509 report: 47 full-time faculty, 83 non-full-time faculty, and five librarians — 130 total against 1,144 students, a 24.3:1 ratio by ILRG's method (tied #194 of 196, the worst in the series). The large practitioner roster reflects the school's practice-taught model; the ratio is the constraint. Faculty diversity is solid: 20.0% minority faculty (#78 of 196) and 40.0% female faculty (tied #152).

Clinics and experiential learning

The Direct Representation Clinics are the experiential centerpiece: live-client legal services to low-income Harris County residents in family law, probate, estate planning, and guardianship, staffed by students under faculty supervision [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Texas_College_of_Law_Houston). The clinic's areas map onto the school's small-firm placement market — family and probate practice is the core of neighborhood Houston lawyering — and the clinic-plus-advocacy combination is the school's practical formula: students leave having tried cases, argued motions, and served clients. Applicants should request the current clinic roster, seat counts, and selection process, since experiential capacity at a school of 1,144 students with a 24.3:1 ratio is genuinely constrained.

Student Life and Location

Living in Houston

STCL Houston occupies 1303 San Jacinto Street in downtown Houston, blocks from the Harris County courthouses, the criminal justice center, and the central business district — a location that converts directly into externships, clerkship interviews, and a walkable professional day. Houston is the country's fourth-largest city and its most demographically diverse: the school's own framing is "one of America's most diverse law schools in America's most diverse city," and the student body (57.2% women, 42.7% men, 0.2% non-binary per ILRG) reflects it. The cost of living is the major metro advantage: the school's $22,336 housing-and-food allowance prices shared Houston housing realistically — dramatically below the $35,000-plus figures at coastal schools — and the school's total non-tuition budget of $34,088 is among the lowest for any large-metro law school. Houston's summers are brutally hot, the city is car-dependent, and the trade-offs are those of any Sun Belt metro: sprawl, heat, and a legal market concentrated in a single county. Students who want big-city legal work at a low cost of living will find the combination here as good as anywhere in the country.

Student body

Total J.D. enrollment was 1,144 as of October 5, 2025 — among the largest J.D. programs in the country. The entering class of 437 (343 full-time, 94 part-time) drew from a 2,770-application pool at a 33.65% acceptance rate and converted at a 46.57% yield, with sixteen transfers arriving. The class's part-time share (21.5%) carries the school's founding night-school mission, and the Fall 2025 part-time division runs 152–158 on the LSAT with a 2.99–3.64 GPA band — a genuinely wide access profile. The culture follows the school's position: a large, urban, practice-oriented professional school whose students are overwhelmingly Houston-bound, with an advocacy program that gives the community its competitive identity. Applicants seeking a small, selective, cohort-driven experience will not find it at 437 per class and a 24.3:1 ratio; applicants seeking scale, diversity, and a direct pipeline into the Harris County bar will find few better fits.

How STCL Houston Compares

Choose STCL Houston if

You want maximum licensure certainty at an accessible school: a 91.1% first-time passage rate for the 2024 cohort (+9.7 over Texas, #37 of 196), a 91.9% two-year ultimate rate, and an 85.6% Class of 2025 figure — the strongest bar profile in this series relative to rank.
You want advocacy training from a verified top-ten program: #6 nationally in trial advocacy, 136 national championships, and a moot court program ranked first in the country in 2018.
You want to practice in Houston or the Gulf Coast: 91.0% of the Class of 2025 employed, 82.6% in bar-required jobs, a $102,323 modeled salary, and a downtown campus blocks from the courts that hire.
You need a part-time track: 94 of the 437 Fall 2025 entrants were part-time, at $32,040 in annual tuition and fees.
You want the Houston cost-of-living advantage: a $22,336 housing-and-food allowance and an $80,952 total budget are among the lowest for any major-metro law school.
You want a diverse, large-scale professional community in America's most diverse city.

Consider alternatives if

You are counting on a scholarship holding its value. The conditional-scholarship table documents 94 of 280 awards (33.6%) reduced or eliminated in 2024–25, following 96 of 247 (38.9%) in 2023–24 — 36.1% across two documented years, the worst rate in this profile series.
You are grant-sensitive. The $11,000 median and $3,399 25th-percentile awards cover a quarter or less of tuition, and the school's published non-tuition budget still runs $34,088 a year.
You want small classes or faculty access: 24.3:1 (tied #194 of 196) is the worst student-faculty ratio among all 196 tabulated schools.
You are targeting federal clerkships, public interest, or the appellate path: 0.5% federal clerkships, 2.3% public interest, and 2.3% all-court clerkships define hard ceilings.
You want a school whose overall employment rank matches its bar-passage rank: at #164 against #37, the placement outcome trails the licensure outcome by more than a hundred places.
You want verified debt data: average indebtedness and borrowing rates for the Class of 2025 were not retrievable in this review, and no LRAP is confirmed — both must be obtained directly.

The TLS Verdict

South Texas College of Law Houston is the most instructive paradox in this profile series: the school has built the country's best bar-passage story relative to its rank (#37 of 196, +9.7 over Texas, 91.9% ultimate) and one of its most decorated advocacy programs (#6 in trial advocacy, 136 championships), while its employment rank (#164 of 196), its student-faculty ratio (#194, the worst in the country), and its scholarship structure (a 36.1% documented conditional-award cut rate, an $11,000 median grant) sit at the bottom of everything this page measures. The school's founding mission — night classes for working professionals, 1923 — remains legible in its part-time division, its Harris County clinic, and its 1,144-student scale. Its ten-place U.S. News climb and its admissions collapse from 60.7% to 33.65% acceptance show the market responding to the bar results.

The honest caution is the financial structure. A $46,864 annual budget with a $11,000 median grant leaves a typical student paying roughly $67,000 a year — $200,000 across three years — against a modeled salary of $102,323, with a documented one-in-three chance that any conditional award will not survive 1L. That arithmetic works only if the bar is passed on schedule (the school's best metric), the Houston market absorbs the graduate (91% employment says it does), and the student's specific award holds (the documented risk). The 24.3:1 ratio means the teaching load per faculty member is the heaviest in American legal education; the 0.5% federal clerkship rate and 2.3% public-interest share mean the paths beyond regional practice are closed.

The verdict is a straight scholarship test. An applicant who receives a substantial, non-conditional award from STCL Houston is getting one of the best value propositions in Texas legal education: a top-ten advocacy program, near-certain licensure, a $102,000 salary outcome in an affordable metro, and a 91% employment rate. An applicant holding a conditional award at the $11,000 median should price the award at its post-attrition value, read the school's retention disclosure carefully, and compare directly against UH Law Center and every other Texas offer — because at a 36.1% documented cut rate, the school's affordability claim depends entirely on which letter arrives in March.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is STCL Houston's acceptance rate?

33.65% for Fall 2025, with 932 offers extended to 2,770 completed applications and 437 students in the first-year class — a yield of 46.57%. Source: the 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report. The rate has fallen from 60.7% in 2019.

What LSAT and GPA do I need?

The Fall 2025 medians were 155 LSAT and 3.41 GPA, with middle-50% ranges of 153–158 and 3.08–3.65. The median GPA has risen from 3.10 in 2019, and the part-time division runs slightly wider (2.99–3.64).

How much does STCL Houston cost?

$42,960 in tuition plus $2,000 in fees for 2025–26 ($44,960 all-in, matching U.S. News); for 2026–27, the rate is $1,482 per credit plus a $1,200 fee, producing published totals of $46,864 full-time and $32,040 part-time. The school's full cost of attendance is $80,952 full-time and $65,374 part-time for 2026–27, including a $22,336 housing-and-food allowance.

Does STCL Houston have a part-time program?

Yes — 94 of the 437 Fall 2025 entrants (21.5%) are part-time, at $32,040 in annual tuition and fees for 2026–27, and the program ranks #54 of 78 nationally. The school was founded in 1923 specifically as a night school for working professionals.

What percentage of students receive scholarships?

985 students, or 85%, received grants in the most recently reported year, with a median of $11,000 and a 25th-to-75th range of $3,399 to $18,000. But read the conditional-scholarship data before counting on any award: 94 of 280 conditional awards (33.6%) were reduced or eliminated in 2024–25, following 96 of 247 (38.9%) in 2023–24 — the highest documented attrition rate in this profile series.

What is STCL Houston's bar passage rate?

85.6% for first-time takers among the Class of 2025 (LawHub); 91.1% for the 2024 cohort against a Texas average of 81.4% (+9.7 points, #37 of 196) — a 23-point improvement over the school's 2019 rate of 67.9%. The two-year ultimate bar passage rate is 91.9% per the U.S. News profile, and the school's own tabulation of the July 2024 administration shows 91.63%, fourth among Texas law schools.

Where do graduates work?

Primarily in Houston and the Gulf Coast: of the Class of 2025, 59.2% joined law firms (5.3% at firms of 501+ attorneys), 13.7% entered government, 8.0% went to business and academia, 2.3% took judicial clerkships, and 2.3% went to public interest, with 4.0% unemployed and seeking. Overall employment was 91.0% (272 of 299 graduates), with 82.6% in jobs requiring bar admission and a modeled salary of $102,323. State-by-state counts were not published in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed.

Is STCL Houston good for BigLaw?

Marginally: 5.3% of the Class of 2025 entered firms of 501+ attorneys. The school's strength is Houston's small and mid-size firms and the Harris County justice system — 59.2% of the class in firms of other sizes and 13.7% in government — with federal clerkships (0.5%) and public interest (2.3%) marginal.

Does STCL Houston offer an LRAP?

No loan repayment assistance program appears in the sources reviewed, and average indebtedness and borrowing rates for the Class of 2025 were not retrievable; both should be requested from the Office of Student Services. The school's financial aid catalog lists federal loans, the Tuition Equalization Grant, work-study, scholarships, and veterans benefits.

Who is the dean?

Reynaldo Anaya Valencia, a Harvard Law graduate, was named STCL Houston's 13th President and Dean, beginning in July 2026, following interim leadership by Jeff Rensberger. He succeeded Michael F. Barry, who served seven years as president and dean before being named dean of American University Washington College of Law in April 2026.

Why did the school change its name twice in 2016?

In June 2016 the school announced it would rename itself "Houston College of Law"; the University of Houston filed a federal trademark suit citing marketplace confusion, and a federal judge barred the name. On November 7, 2016, the school announced it would proceed as South Texas College of Law Houston — its current name. It was founded as South Texas School of Law in 1923 and was known as South Texas College of Law from 1945 until 2016.

What is STCL Houston best known for?

Its advocacy program — #6 nationally in trial advocacy, 136 national championships, and a moot court program ranked first in the nation in 2018 — its bar-passage turnaround (#37 of 196, +9.7 over Texas, 91.9% ultimate), its Houston cost-of-living advantage, and an alumni network spanning Texas public life: former Texas Supreme Court Justices Eva Guzman and David Medina, U.S. District Judges Janis Graham Jack and Reed O'Connor, Congressmen John Culberson and Chris Bell, Harris County DAs Kim Ogg and Pat Lykos, Dan Rather, and former Delta CEO Richard H. Anderson.

Contact and Key Links

South Texas College of Law Houston
1303 San Jacinto Street
Houston, TX 77002-7006

Main Phone: (713) 659-8040

Accounting Services: 713-646-1750 (Suite 823T)

Financial Aid Office: (713) 646-1772

Financial Aid Deadline: May 1

Application Fee: $55

Application Deadlines: November 24, 2025; May 8, 2026 (2025 509 report)

Official links

Key documents

TLS Forum Links

Sources

South Texas College of Law

Contents