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

Texas Tech University School of Law

From TLS wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Last updated: October 1, 2026

Texas Tech University School of Law

Texas Tech University School of Law is a public law school in Lubbock, Texas, that enrolled a first-year class of 168 students in Fall 2025 from 2,011 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 159 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.69. It is ranked #85 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News rankings, and its graduates posted a 95.97% first-time pass rate on the July 2025 Texas Bar Examination — 13th-highest in the nation. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that Texas Tech pairs a relatively low resident cost with a small, practice-first program whose placement is concentrated in Texas, at a 2026–27 cost of attendance of $48,239 for Texas residents and $59,939 for non-residents.

Forum Links

Texas Tech Law at a Glance

Category Latest information
Founded 1967
Type Public
ABA approval or accreditation ABA approved (Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar); dual-accredited with the new Texas Supreme Court approval process
Location Lubbock, Texas
Latest U.S. News rank #85 tie (2026 edition)
Latest completed applications 2,011 (Fall 2025, 2025 509 report)
Latest acceptance rate 25.6% (Fall 2025)
Latest LSAT median 159 (Fall 2025); 161 for the Fall 2026 entering class
Latest GPA median 3.69 (Fall 2025); 3.73 for the Fall 2026 entering class
Latest entering class 168 (Fall 2025; all full-time)
Current tuition $27,532 Texas resident; $38,782 non-resident, including fees (2026–27)
Current estimated cost of attendance $48,239 resident; $59,939 non-resident (2026–27)
Latest first-time bar passage 95.97% (July 2025 Texas Bar); 86.3% all jurisdictions (2024 graduates, ABA bar passage report)
Latest bar-required employment 91.9% of the Class of 2025 employed full-time, long-term in bar-required positions; 93.4% employed overall
Current dean Jack Wade Nowlin (Dean and W. Frank Newton Professor of Law, since July 2017)

The admissions and cost figures are drawn from Texas Tech Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (2,011 completed applications, 515 offers, 168 enrolled — all full-time — total J.D. enrollment 459, transfers in 3) and its published 2026–27 cost-of-attendance schedule. Texas Tech Law's own admissions page reports a Fall 2026 entering class median LSAT of 161 and median GPA of 3.73, an increase of two LSAT points and 0.04 GPA over the Fall 2025 class; the school reports a 44%/55% male-to-female split and 25% first-generation college students in that class. Jack Wade Nowlin, a constitutional law scholar, has served as dean since July 2017 and is the longest-serving dean in the school's recent history (9.2 years as of 2026).

Introduction

Texas tech .png

Texas Tech University School of Law, founded in 1967, is the law school of Texas Tech University and is located at 3311 18th Street on the university's campus in Lubbock, Texas. The school occupies a 137,000-square-foot law building equipped with two fully functional practice courtrooms; the newer of the two, the Hunt Courtroom, is housed in the $13.6 million Mark and Becky Lanier Center for Professional Development addition that opened in 2008. Texas Tech Law is approved by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association and, as of 2026, is also participating in the Texas Supreme Court approval process, making it dual-accredited while retaining full ABA accreditation.

Texas Tech Law's identity rests on three pillars: a deliberately small program (459 J.D. students, roughly 168 per entering class) that the school markets as a "family" culture with close faculty contact; a nationally competitive advocacy and legal writing program, including 45 national and international championship titles; and a practical, practice-first curriculum built around eight clinics, externships, and a growing energy law program in one of the country's oil-and-gas capitals. Its placement is heavily Texas-centered: of the employed members of the Class of 2025, 111 took positions in Texas, followed by Colorado (3) and Utah (3), with none employed in foreign countries.

Rankings and Reputation

Texas Tech Law is ranked #85 (tie) of 194 in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report Best Law Schools rankings. Its strongest distinguishing features are price and practice training rather than national rank: the school holds an "A−" reputation for value in the Texas market, was ranked the #1 Best Value Law School in Texas by the National Jurist, and reports that more of its graduates pass the bar within two years of graduation than graduates of any other public Texas law school.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition Texas Tech Law rank
2026 85 (tie) of 194
2024 82 (tie) (as reported in school profiles)

Applicants should treat movement of a few positions within this band as immaterial to Texas Tech Law's practical outcomes, which are driven by bar passage, cost, and Texas placement rather than rank position.

Specialty and independent rankings

Specialty / independent ranking Position
Legal Writing (2026 U.S. News) #57
Clinical Training (2026 U.S. News) #102
Business/Corporate Law (2026 U.S. News) #124 (tie)
ILRG acceptance-rate selectivity rank #58 (25.6% acceptance rate)
ILRG bar passage rank (first-time takers) #68 (86.3%, +4.8 points above Texas's 81.5%)
ILRG overall employment at 10 months #69 (94.4%)
ILRG student-faculty ratio #72 (10.7:1)
ILRG bar-required employment #98 (81.9%)
ILRG federal clerkship rate #137 (0.6%)

Texas Tech's news release on the 2026 rankings also lists its Dispute Resolution and Tax Law programs among its ranked specialties, and the school's own materials note that its legal writing program was ranked #20 nationally in an earlier U.S. News edition — described at the time as the highest of any Texas law school. The current-year ranks for the remaining specialties were not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed.

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric Fall 2025
Completed applications 2,011
Offers of admission 515
Acceptance rate 25.6%
Enrollees 168
First-year class size 168 (full-time 168; part-time 0)
Total J.D. enrollment 459
Transfers in 3

Texas Tech Law's Fall 2026 entering class (the school's own profile) reports a median LSAT of 161 and a median GPA of 3.73, with 25% of the class the first generation in their families to attend college. For comparison, the school's posted 2024 class profile showed a median LSAT of 157 and a median GPA of 3.56, with 54% women, 36% students of color, 19% first-generation students, and 60 undergraduate institutions represented — so the entering-class credentials have risen sharply across three cycles.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic 25th percentile Median 75th percentile
LSAT (Fall 2025) 157 159 160
Undergraduate GPA (Fall 2025) 3.41 3.69 3.85

The school reports that it accepts the LSAT as its admissions test under ABA Standard 503 and that its entering-class credentials have climbed substantially: ILRG's comparison of the 2025 and 2019 entering classes shows the acceptance rate falling from 44.0% to 25.6%, the median LSAT rising from 155 to 159, and the median GPA rising from 3.44 to 3.69. No score guarantees admission.

Interpreting the numbers

Texas Tech Law sits in the selective middle of the national applicant pool — a 25.6% acceptance rate is tighter than most schools ranked near it — but its credential profile (159 median LSAT, 3.69 median GPA) is roughly a dozen points of LSAT below the Texas flagship at Austin. The practical reading is that Texas Tech competes for Texas applicants who want a lower sticker price and smaller classes rather than for applicants targeting the national market. Because roughly nine in ten graduates practice in Texas, the admissions profile should be read alongside the school's Texas bar and employment record rather than in isolation.

Application timing

The application fee is $0. Texas Tech Law's application deadline is May 1, with a financial aid application deadline of the same date, and admissions operates on a rolling basis. The school does not publish a binding early-decision program in the sources reviewed. Financial aid contact: Director Beatrice Moreno, (806) 834-0692.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Tuition and required fees for the 2026–27 academic year are $27,532 for Texas residents and $38,782 for non-residents, per U.S. News, while Texas Tech Law's published 2026–27 cost-of-attendance schedule separates tuition and fees into $27,532 (resident) and $39,232 (non-resident) — a $450 difference on the non-resident line that reflects different reporting snapshots of the fee schedule. The 2025–26 509 report itemizes the underlying figures as $22,590 tuition plus $4,942 in fees for residents, and $33,840 tuition plus $4,942 in fees for non-residents.

Cost of attendance

Expense Texas resident Non-resident
Tuition and fees $27,532 $39,232
Housing $10,276 $10,276
Meals $4,500 $4,500
Books and supplies $1,200 $1,200
Transportation $2,731 $2,731
Miscellaneous $2,000 $2,000
Total (nine months, fall through spring) $48,239 $59,939

Texas Tech Law describes the figures as a reasonable estimated average for a nine-month period of enrollment. The school also publishes displacement and refund policies and a tuition refund schedule through Student Business Services.

Financial aid

Per the 2025 Standard 509 report, 386 students received grants — approximately 84% of the 459-student J.D. population — with a median grant of $12,000, a 25th percentile of $5,869, and a 75th percentile of $17,850. Texas Tech Law awards merit-based scholarships to incoming students, and all scholarships awarded by the law school are unconditional: the only requirement for keeping an award is maintaining good academic standing, and the school therefore does not publish an ABA conditional scholarship retention worksheet. That is a materially applicant-friendly policy compared with schools where a substantial share of awards carries academic-performance conditions. Third-party compilations report that roughly 88% of students receive grant or scholarship funding, with about 55% of recipients receiving less than half tuition and about 28% receiving half to full tuition.

Debt perspective

The average indebtedness of 2025 J.D. graduates who incurred law school debt is $79,734, with 75.7% of graduates borrowing. Texas Tech Law does not offer a loan repayment assistance program for its graduates. Because resident tuition and West Texas living costs are low by national standards, total borrowing at Texas Tech is well below the levels typical of private schools, and the school markets itself on that basis — it was ranked the #1 Best Value Law School in Texas by the National Jurist — but the absence of an LRAP means public-interest and government careers carry more financing risk than at schools that offer one.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

Texas Tech Law's Class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary reports 136 graduates, of whom 126 held positions requiring bar admission, including 125 full-time long-term positions in that category. Independently tabulated from the same ABA data, the school's full-time long-term bar-required rate is 91.91% of graduates, and total employment reaches 93.38%.

Employment metric Class of 2025
Total graduates 136
Employed — bar admission required or anticipated 126 (125 full-time long-term; 1 part-time short-term)
Employed — J.D. advantage 1
Total employed 127 (93.4%)
Full-time long-term bar-required rate (ABA tabulation) 91.91%
Enrolled in graduate studies 1
Employed with a start date after March 16, 2026 1
Unemployed — seeking 4 (2.9%)
Unemployed — not seeking 3
Employment status unknown 0
Employed in law school-funded positions 2

Employer type (all employed graduates):

Employer type Number
Law firms — total 97
— Solo 3
— 1 to 10 attorneys 31
— 11 to 25 attorneys 24
— 26 to 50 attorneys 17
— 51 to 100 attorneys 8
— 101 to 250 attorneys 6
— 251 to 500 attorneys 2
— 501+ attorneys 6
Government 20
Public interest 5
Business and industry 1
Federal judicial clerkships 1
State, local, and territorial clerkships 2
Education 1

The Class of 2025 was overwhelmingly placed in Texas: 111 of the employed graduates took positions in Texas, followed by Colorado (3) and Utah (3), with zero employed in foreign countries.

What these numbers mean

Texas Tech Law's employment profile is strong on volume and small-firm-heavy in composition. Roughly nine in ten graduates hold a full-time, long-term position requiring bar admission, and only about three percent of the class was still seeking work ten months out — a good outcome. At the same time, only 8 of 97 law-firm placements were at firms of more than 100 attorneys, and only one graduate entered a federal clerkship, which places the school outside the national large-firm and appellate-clerkship pipelines. ILRG's separate tabulation of the prior class reports the same pattern from a different angle: 94.4% overall employment at 10 months, ranked #69 nationally, against a bar-required rate of 81.9% and a federal clerkship rate of 0.6%. Salary medians by sector were not retrieved in machine-readable form for this profile and remain unconfirmed; applicants should consult the school's NALP-reported salary data.

Bar passage

Bar statistic Value
July 2025 Texas Bar, first-time takers 95.97% (13th-highest in the nation; Reuters lists Texas Tech at 95.52%)
Texas statewide first-time pass rate, July 2025 87.6% (Texas Tech +8.4 points)
First-time passage, all jurisdictions (2024 graduates) 86.3%, against Texas's 81.5% (+4.8 points)
Two-year ultimate bar passage (school-reported) 94.4%, against a national rate of 88.7% — 50th in the nation
Overall bar passage (2023, school profile) 92.14%

Texas Tech Law's July 2025 result placed it in the top five Texas law schools for first-time bar passage and among the top 15 nationally, trailing SMU (98.52%), Baylor (96.59%), the University of Texas (96.00%), and Texas A&M. The school reports that more of its graduates pass the bar within two years of graduation than graduates of any other public Texas law school. The differing first-time figures reflect differing methodologies (state-specific results versus all-jurisdiction ABA reporting for an earlier graduating cohort).

Where graduates go

Texas, decisively: 111 of the employed Class of 2025 remained in the state, with Colorado and Utah the only other jurisdictions placing more than one or two graduates. The school reports that a Juris Doctor from Texas Tech Law meets the educational requirement for licensure in all 50 states and U.S. territories, and comparisons of Texas school bar results are published by the Texas Board of Law Examiners.

Academics and Programs

Curriculum and special strengths

Texas Tech Law offers the standard Juris Doctor along with ten dual-degree programs spanning business, science and engineering, sports management, and government and public administration. Dual degrees listed by the school and U.S. News include:

  • J.D./Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)
  • J.D./Master of Science in Accounting (M.S.A.)
  • J.D./Master of Science in Personal Financial Planning (P.F.P.)
  • J.D./Master of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics
  • J.D./Master of Science in Biotechnology
  • J.D./Master of Science in Environmental Toxicology
  • J.D./Master of Science in Sport Management
  • J.D./Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.)
  • J.D./M.D.

With the exception of the J.D./M.D., the dual degrees offered with the Texas Tech Graduate School allow students to count a limited number of approved law credits toward the companion degree and to complete both degrees faster than pursuing them separately. Students may also pursue academic concentrations in Business Law, Criminal Law and Innocence, and Law and Science.

The school is home to a nationally recognized legal writing program and an advocacy program that has earned 45 national and international championships, 101 state and regional championships, and 72 individual Best Advocate and Best Brief awards, and that was ranked #1 in the nation by the American Bar Association's Competitions Championship Ranking. Its growing Energy Law Program emphasizes practice skills and exposure to the oil-and-gas industry, a natural fit for a Lubbock campus in the Permian Basin orbit.

Clinics and experiential learning

Texas Tech Law's third-year students may participate in one of eight clinical programs, which provide free legal representation to low-income individuals while giving students real client experience:

  • Capital Punishment Clinic
  • Caprock Regional Public Defender Office
  • Civil Practice Clinic
  • Criminal Defense Clinic
  • Family Law and Housing Clinic
  • Tax Clinic
  • Innocence Clinic
  • Advanced Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic

The school also operates externships and energy law field experiences, and reports that its students provided 19,742 hours of pro bono and public service in a single recent academic year. Three academic centers anchor research and policy work: the Center for Biodefense, Law, and Public Policy, the Center for Military Law and Policy, and the Center for Water Law and Policy — a portfolio that reflects Lubbock's proximity to agricultural, water-rights, and defense-related legal markets.

Student Life and Location

Living in Lubbock

Texas Tech Law sits on the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock, a West Texas city of roughly 260,000 with one of the lowest costs of living of any legal market in the country — a fact reflected directly in the school's budget lines, where housing is $10,276, meals $4,500, and transportation $2,731 for the academic year. The trade-off is geography: Lubbock is a five-hour drive from Dallas and roughly six from Austin, so students recruiting to major Texas markets travel for interviews and summer programs, and the local legal market is small. The upside is that the school's market position is genuine in the region: it is the only law school in West Texas, and its alumni network is dense across the Texas Panhandle and South Plains.

Student body

With 459 J.D. students and an entering class of 168, Texas Tech Law is a small-to-mid-sized school by national standards and is effectively a full-time, residential program — the school enrolled zero part-time first-year students in Fall 2025 and lists no part-time J.D. ILRG reports a student-faculty ratio of 10.7:1, while U.S. News reports 7.8:1. Faculty total 84 by ILRG's count (the 509 report lists 43 full-time and 41 non-full-time faculty, plus 7 full-time professional librarians), with 35.7% women and 16.7% minority faculty reported. The school hosts more than 30 community-oriented, student-driven organizations, and its "smaller by design" class model is the basis for the close faculty relationships it markets to applicants.

How Texas Tech Law Compares

Choose Texas Tech Law if

  • You want to practice in Texas at a low cost: $27,532 in annual tuition and fees for residents and a $48,239 total cost of attendance, the #1 Best Value Law School in Texas by the National Jurist's assessment.
  • You are targeting Texas bar passage — 95.97% of first-time takers passed the July 2025 exam, 13th-highest nationally, and the school reports the best two-year bar outcomes among public Texas law schools.
  • You are scholarship-sensitive and want an unconditional award: every Texas Tech Law scholarship requires only good academic standing.
  • You want clinic-heavy, practice-first training with strong advocacy and legal writing programs and small classes.

Consider alternatives if

  • You want national large-firm practice — only 8 of 97 law-firm placements in the Class of 2025 were at firms of more than 100 attorneys.
  • You want a federal clerkship — the Class of 2025 produced one, and ILRG puts the federal clerkship rate at 0.6%.
  • You need a part-time or evening J.D. — Texas Tech Law is full-time only.
  • You want public-interest financial support — there is no loan repayment assistance program, against $79,734 in average graduate indebtedness.
  • You are a non-resident comparing cost — the $59,939 non-resident cost of attendance erases much of the school's value advantage relative to Texas flagships.

The TLS Verdict

Texas Tech Law is a value-and-practice school with a genuinely strong record on the metric that matters most to Texas employers: 95.97% of first-time takers passed the July 2025 Texas bar, 13th-best in the country; 91.9% of the Class of 2025 held full-time, long-term bar-required jobs; and every scholarship the school awards is unconditional. It is also one of the least expensive ways to become a lawyer in a major state — $48,239 all-in for Texas residents, with a median grant of $12,000. The trade-offs are geographic and structural: 111 of the employed Class of 2025 stayed in Texas, only eight law-firm placements exceeded 100 attorneys, federal clerkship placement was a single graduate, no part-time program exists, and there is no LRAP to soften $79,734 in average debt. For applicants who intend to practice in Texas and want to graduate with low debt and real client experience, Texas Tech Law is one of the better values in the country; for applicants targeting the national market, the placement data argue for comparison with schools that feed it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard is it to get into Texas Tech Law?

Selective: for Fall 2025, the school received 2,011 completed applications and made 515 offers, a 25.6% acceptance rate, with 168 enrolling.

What LSAT score is competitive for Texas Tech Law?

The median LSAT for the Fall 2025 entering class was 159, with a middle-50% range of 157 to 160; the Fall 2026 entering class median rose to 161. Scores at or above 159 are competitive, and selectivity has tightened sharply — the acceptance rate was 44.0% as recently as the 2019 cycle.

What GPA do Texas Tech Law applicants typically have?

The median undergraduate GPA for the Fall 2025 entering class was 3.69, with a middle-50% range of 3.41 to 3.85; the Fall 2026 median was 3.73.

Does Texas Tech Law give scholarships?

Yes. Per the 2025 ABA 509 report, 386 students received grants — about 84% of the J.D. population — with a median grant of $12,000 (25th percentile $5,869; 75th percentile $17,850). All law school scholarships are unconditional and require only good academic standing.

Are Texas Tech Law scholarships conditional?

No. The school states that it does not award scholarships that may be reduced or eliminated based on law school academic performance, other than failure to maintain good academic standing, and therefore does not publish a conditional scholarship retention worksheet.

What is Texas Tech Law's bar passage rate?

For the July 2025 Texas Bar, 95.97% of first-time takers passed — 13th-highest nationally and among the top five Texas law schools. Across all jurisdictions, 86.3% of 2024 graduates passed on their first attempt, against Texas's 81.5% average. The school reports a two-year ultimate bar passage rate of 94.4% versus a national 88.7%.

Is Texas Tech Law good for BigLaw?

Not as a national pipeline. Of the 97 law-firm placements in the Class of 2025, only 8 were at firms of more than 100 attorneys, only 1 federal clerkship was recorded, and 111 of the employed graduates took Texas positions. The school's strength is mid-sized and small Texas firms, government, and public interest.

Does Texas Tech Law offer a part-time J.D.?

No. The J.D. is full-time; the school enrolled zero part-time first-year students in Fall 2025.

What is Texas Tech Law best known for?

Texas Tech Law is best known for value (ranked the #1 Best Value Law School in Texas by the National Jurist), for bar passage (95.97% first-time on the July 2025 Texas Bar), for its advocacy and legal writing programs and eight clinics, and for its small, close-knit class culture in Lubbock.

Is Texas Tech Law's accreditation changing?

The school states that it will continue to maintain full ABA accreditation while also participating in the new Texas Supreme Court approval process, making it dual-accredited, with no effect on employment opportunities or bar eligibility.

Contact and Key Links

Texas Tech University School of Law
3311 18th Street
Lubbock, Texas 79409

Main Phone: 806-742-3793

Dean's Office / Dean Jack Wade Nowlin: [email protected], (806) 834-1504

Financial Aid: Director Beatrice Moreno, (806) 834-0692

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

Retrieved from "https://www.top-law-schools.com/w/index.php?title=Texas_Tech_University_School_of_Law&oldid=7385"