About
South Texas College of Law Houston is a private law school in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 1923 when the YMCA made the decision to establish a law school with a focus on offering night classes for working professionals. It is accredited by the American Bar Association. South Texas College of Law Houston is the oldest law school in the city of Houston.
Program outcomes
Federal Program Performance Data: how each program's graduate earnings and debt measure up under Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment.
Of 1 Title IV programs, 1 pass the federal Gainful Employment test and 0 fail.
Pass / fail distribution
- Passing1 · 100.0%
- No Data0 · 0.0%
- Failing0 · 0.0%
Severity spectrum
Tiers band programs by how far graduate earnings sit above or below the benchmark, from Critical (below −15%) through Safe (above +25%). No data means earnings were privacy-suppressed.
Earnings premium gap
Graduate earnings versus the federal benchmark, worst gaps first.
Debt vs earnings
Median completer debt against median graduate earnings, highest burden first.
Accreditation status & history
Who accredits the institution, current standing, and any past actions.
Middle States Commission on Higher Education
American Bar Association, Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar
Action history · 1
- Oct 2018Renewal of AccreditationAmerican Bar Association, Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar
Federal aid volume & trends
Pell grants and federal Direct Loan volume disbursed to students, and how they've trended.
In AY 2024–25, students received in Pell grants, alongside $41.7M in federal Direct Loans.
Pell recipients · 5-year trend
Loan volume by type · AY 2024–25
Loan awards count each loan type a student holds, not unique borrowers; one student may carry several (e.g. subsidized and unsubsidized), so the per-type figures are the reliable detail.
Student loan default rate
The share of student borrowers who default on federal loans within three years, against the national benchmark.
Of 285 borrowers who entered repayment, 1 (0.3%) defaulted within three years — below the 2.3% national rate.
Default rate vs national, by cohort
* Cohorts 2020 and later read near 0% because the federal COVID-19 payment pause (CARES Act) suspended defaults nationwide. These years reflect a national policy, not institutional performance; the 2019 cohort is the last measured under normal repayment.
Academic programs at STCL
Top program areas ranked by completions.
Top program families by completions
Enrollment trends & demographics
Fall headcount, 12-month unduplicated enrollment, and student body composition.
Gender split
Campus safety & crime statistics
Reported on-campus crimes over the last three years, including violence and hate crimes.
3-year trend
Criminal offenses by type
By location
- Public property3
VAWA offenses
Hate crimes by bias
No hate crimes reported.
Arrests vs disciplinary referrals
Residence-hall fires
STCL vs Peer comparison
The peer institutions STCL selected for federal comparison reporting.
A larger shape on any axis means this institution outperforms its peers on that dimension. For acceptance rate and net price, lower raw values are inverted so "more selective" and "more affordable" appear larger.
| Carnegie | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SubjectSouth Texas College of Law Houston | — | — | 1,089 | — | — |
Appalachian School of Law | — | — | 154 | — | — |
Atlanta's John Marshall Law School | — | — | 379 | — | — |
Ave Maria School of Law | — | — | 299 | — | — |
Brooklyn Law School | — | — | 1,125 | — | — |
California Western School of Law | — | — | 650 | — | — |
Mitchell Hamline School of Law | — | — | 1,163 | — | — |
New England Law-Boston | — | — | 1,131 | — | — |
New York Law School | — | — | 1,062 | — | — |
Southwestern Law School | — | — | 1,006 | — | — |
Thomas Jefferson School of Law | — | — | 262 | — | — |
Thomas M Cooley Law School | — | — | 420 | — | — |
University of New Hampshire-Franklin Pierce School of Law | — | — | 718 | — | — |
Vermont Law and Graduate School | — | — | 722 | — | — |
| Peer group median | — | — | 720 | — |
STCL Institutional Research office
The IR team responsible for the institution's federal reporting.
The OAR at STCL Houston collects data, analyzes information and conducts research to support strategic planning and institutional research and planning. STCL Houston uses its assessment program to evaluate all aspects of institutional effectiveness.
Visit IR office pageReports & documents (1)
Dashboards, factbooks, data dictionaries, and other reference material published by the IR office.
Frequently asked questions about South Texas College of Law Houston
Quick answers to the questions most often asked about STCL.
How many students attend South Texas College of Law Houston?
Where is South Texas College of Law Houston located?
Who runs Institutional Research at South Texas College of Law Houston?
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