Top Schools of Law in West Virginia

By | January 6, 2023

We have created a 2019 ranking of the best colleges in West Virginia that offer Law degrees to help you find a school that fits your needs. Each school’s ranking is based on the compilation of our data from reliable government sources, student surveys, college graduate interviews, and editorial review. In addition, you can view our entire list of all law schools located within West Virginia. We also provide reviews, facts, and questions and answers for schools on our site and offer you access to get valuable information from colleges and universities today.

  • Countryaah.com: Comprehensive list of all airports in West Virginia including airport names, abbreviations and acronyms for each airport, city location and airport size, as well as official map of West Virginia.
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West Virginia University College of Law Morgantown, West Virginia
Score 43
Peer assessment score (5.0 highest) 2.1
Assessment score by lawyers/judges (5.0 highest) 2.8
25th-75th percentile GPA scores for all students 3.12-3.7
25th-75th percentile LSAT scores for all students 151-156
Overall acceptance rate 50.5%
Student/faculty ratio 12.9
Graduates employed at graduation 70.4%
Graduates known to be employed nine months after graduation 98.1%
School’s bar passage rate for first-time test takers 76.1%
State where the greatest number of first-time test takers took the bar WV
Statewide bar passage rate for first-time test takers 78.9%

West Virginia University College of Law

About West Virginia

West Virginia is also known as the Mountain State. The state motto is “miners are always free”. The famous singer John Denver sang this beautiful mountain world in his world-famous song “Country Roads”. This song says that the skies are always blue and the rivers in this mountain world are always clear.

West Virginia: facts

  • Area: 62,755 sq km
  • Population: 1,831,102
  • Abbreviation: WV
  • Capital: Charleston
  • Local time: UTC -5
  • Nickname: The Mountain State

Geographical location: a state characterized by mountains and forests

More than 65 percent of the country is forested. To the east is the low vegetation highlands of the Dolly Sods Wilderness, to the north the popular Blackwater Falls, to the south the wooded Canaan Valley.

West Virginia is bordered by the Appalachian Mountains in the west, and the Ohio River forms the natural border in the east. Neighboring states include Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Although West Virginia is referred to as a mountain state, there are certainly states with higher mountain elevations, because here the highest point, the Spruce Knob in the Allegheny Mountains, is just 1,481 meters high. The source of the Potomac River is located in this mountain range.

Large parts of West Virginia are protected and so you can find the largest protected areas near the east coast, because this is not that far away with a few hours’ drive. Charleston is the capital with 51,000 residents. However, this should not be confused with the large port city of the same name in South Carolina.

Since West Virginia is rather small in area but largely forested, there are only a few major cities of importance such as Pakersburg, Wheeling, Morgantown and Huntington. However, this fact does not mean that West Virginia has nothing to offer. On the contrary, this region is particularly attractive because it is not as crowded as other holiday destinations in some other states that are attractive to holidaymakers.

In West Virginia, visitors have the opportunity to spend an active vacation in a diverse landscape far from any tourist hustle and bustle. Outdoor activities such as fishing, golfing, mountain biking, white water rafting, canoeing, climbing and camping are just a few of the many opportunities for leisure and holiday activities.

If you can, you should visit this state in September, because at that time is Indian Summer, which lets the leaves shine in the most beautiful colors.

An extraordinary historical development

Until the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-1865), which was waged between the northern and southern states due to the unsettled slave question, West Virginia belonged to Virginia. While the southern states vigorously defended slave husbandry, the northern states under President Abraham Lincoln wanted to abolish them.

In contrast to the modern and industrialized northern states, the aristocratic southern states were comparatively backward, because they mainly relied on agriculture and in this area, in turn, preferred to plant and export cotton.

In order to maintain their profit margins, the plantation owners had to rely on the cheap work of the slaves. With the abolition of this system, this business model and thus an entire society would be questioned and probably no longer work. Why change a profitable and long- established system ? However, the residents of Virginia were far from unanimous on this issue.

While the poorer farmers could not afford to keep slaves and therefore held back on this political question, the wealthy plantation and slave owners naturally had a keen interest in maintaining this system.

Shortly after the outbreak of civil war, Virginia separated from the State Union. On April 27, 1861, the western counties of Virginia separated from their mother state and founded the new state of West Virginia in the city of Alexandria. Because of this defection, the state of West Virginia now had two parliaments. The Virginia Parliament decided to join the Confederacy, and the West Virginia Parliament joined the Northern Union.

Actually, the American Constitution does not allow such a denial of a particular part of the country from the respective mother state, unless the respective state gives its consent. This affirmative statement was made on May 13, 1862. President Lincoln also had his doubts about the constitutionality of this defection, but for reasons of war strategy he did not pay any further attention to these concerns, since an ally was now available.

The area of ​​West Virginia was correspondingly frequented during the Civil War, because several battles between the supporters of the southern and northern states took place here. In 1870, the Supreme Court upheld West Virginia’s defection and recognized this part of the country as an independent state.

However, this small federal state did not enjoy great economic success because it was always dependent on mining. Even then, the government imported coal from abroad at cheaper prices. As a result, mining stagnated and many residents who could no longer find work in this once successful branch of the economy moved away.

The residents who have stayed despite this negative development describe their state with a lot of self-irony as Ireland of the USA. This statement alludes to Ireland’s wave of emigration to the United States in the mid-19th century, when this green island experienced the same adverse development as West Virginia in the wake of a major economic crisis and starvation wave.

In the south, the principle of company town developed, with which the workers were paid, but had to pay for accommodation and meals themselves, which claimed a large part of the wages.

Employers were less socially inclined and cut wages, so workers had to spend an even larger percentage on food and accommodation, becoming indebted until they were soon only able to work to pay their debts.

This desperate situation contained social explosiveness and violent industrial disputes, known as Mine Wars, soon developed. These degenerated so far that soldiers had to intervene to fight the uprisings. Because of this adverse development, West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the United States.