TL;DR: Every ABA accredited law school publishes its entering class GPA and LSAT quartiles each December in a Standard 509 Information Report. In the fall 2025 cycle, T14 median LSAT scores ran from roughly 168 to 174, median GPAs clustered between about 3.86 and 3.94, and medians rose sharply across the market, with the average LSAT median up nearly two points year over year. Yale led the tier at a 174 median LSAT and a 6.28 percent acceptance rate.
Sources: ABA Standard 509 Information Reports, fall 2025 entering class cycle; figures as disclosed at abarequireddisclosures.org.
Where Law School Medians Actually Come From
The only primary source for law school admissions numbers is the Standard 509 Information Report that the American Bar Association requires every accredited school to file each December. The report discloses the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile undergraduate GPA and LSAT of the entering class, plus applicant, offer, and matriculant counts. Every median you see quoted anywhere descends from these filings, and the live report for any school is always available at the ABA Required Disclosures portal. When a number on a blog disagrees with the 509, the 509 wins.
T14 Acceptance Rates and Medians: Verified Figures, Fall 2025 Cycle
The figures below are the cells we can verify against the fall 2025 disclosure cycle. Where a cell is not shown, pull the current report from the ABA portal rather than trusting a stale grid; medians moved sharply this cycle, with the average LSAT median across all accredited schools rising nearly two points, and any table more than a year old is wrong somewhere.
| School | Acceptance Rate (Fall 2025) | Verified Medians | Our Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yale | 6.28 percent | LSAT 174, GPA 3.93 | Yale |
| Stanford | Roughly 6.8 percent | LSAT 173 | Stanford |
| Harvard | 12 percent | See current 509 | Harvard |
| Chicago | See current 509 | See current 509 | Chicago |
| Columbia | 11.8 percent | See current 509 | Columbia |
| NYU | 13.4 percent | See current 509 | NYU |
| Penn Carey | See current 509 | See current 509 | Penn |
| Virginia | 10.2 percent | See current 509 | UVA |
| Michigan | 17.5 percent | See current 509 | Michigan |
| Berkeley | See current 509 | See current 509 | Berkeley |
| Duke | 14.5 percent | LSAT median around 170 | Duke |
| Northwestern | 14 percent | LSAT median around 170 | Northwestern |
| UCLA | 18 percent | See current 509 | UCLA |
| Cornell | 16.5 percent | See current 509 | Cornell |
| Georgetown | 16 percent | See current 509 | Georgetown |
How to Read a 509 Report Like an Admissions Officer
Three habits turn the raw quartiles into strategy. First, read the spread, not just the median: the gap between the 25th and 75th percentiles tells you how much room a school leaves for files that win on something other than numbers, and a tight spread means numbers rule. Second, place yourself in the right quadrant: above both medians you are a presumptive admit competing on softs, above one and below the other you are a splitter or reverse splitter whose strategy is choosing schools that favor your strong number, and below both you are asking for an exception that the essays must justify. Third, track direction: a school whose medians jumped this cycle is harder than its published numbers suggest, because the next class is being built against the new bar.
Two technical details trip up self assessment every year. The GPA that matters is the LSAC calculated GPA on your Credential Assembly Service report, which counts every undergraduate grade including retakes and can differ from the number on your transcript. And medians describe matriculants, not admits, so scholarship driven yield effects can push a school published class profile above or below what its offer pool looked like.
The Fall 2025 Shift: Why Old Tables Are Wrong
The fall 2025 cycle produced one of the sharpest median jumps on record: the average LSAT median across all accredited schools rose by nearly two points, dozens of schools crossed the 3.75 GPA median line, and only a handful of schools saw medians fall. For applicants that has a concrete meaning: a school where you sat comfortably above the median last year may now sit level with you, and target and safety labels assigned from a stale table are quietly miscalibrated. Recheck every school on your list against its newest report before finalizing strategy, and treat the T14 tier overview as the map rather than the measurement.
Frequently Asked Questions About Law School GPA and LSAT Medians
Standard 509 Information Reports are the annual filings every ABA accredited law school must publish each December, disclosing entering class GPA and LSAT quartiles, applicant and offer counts, and more. They are the primary source behind every law school statistic in circulation.
In the fall 2025 cycle, T14 median LSAT scores ran from roughly 168 to 174, with Yale at 174 and Stanford at 173. Competitive applicants aim at or above the median of each target school in its newest 509 report.
T14 median GPAs clustered between roughly 3.86 and 3.94 in the most recent cycle. The number that counts is the LSAC calculated GPA on your CAS report, which includes every undergraduate grade and can differ from your transcript.
An applicant above one median and below the other, most commonly a high LSAT with a lower GPA. Splitter strategy means targeting schools whose reads favor your strong number, because schools differ meaningfully in which side of the index they weight.
Yes, and sometimes sharply. The fall 2025 cycle raised the average LSAT median across all accredited schools by nearly two points, which is why any table more than a cycle old misclassifies at least some schools on your list.
At the ABA Required Disclosures portal, which hosts the current Standard 509 report for every accredited school, and on each school class profile page. Blog tables are only as good as their last refresh.
Enrolled students. The 509 quartiles describe the class that matriculated, so scholarship competition and yield can make a school offer pool look different from its published class profile.
Not by itself. A below median GPA paired with an above median LSAT is a standard splitter file that succeeds every cycle at schools that weight the test, while both numbers below median makes any T14 school a long shot.
Sources: ABA Required Disclosures (Standard 509), Law School Admission Council, NCES College Navigator, IPEDS, AccessLex Institute, US News Law School Rankings.
About Oriel Admissions
Oriel Admissions is a Princeton-based college admissions consulting firm advising families nationwide on elite university admissions strategy. Our strength is a deeply experienced team and a distinctive 360 approach that treats every part of the application – academics, testing, activities, essays, and interviews – as one connected strategy. To discuss your strategy, schedule a consultation.
