.png)
American law school interview: No: school states it does not conduct admissions interviews. No school publishes interview rates or how much an interview moves a decision. Every figure here is from American's own 2025 ABA 509 report, each cited to the document it came from rather than to this page.
Our sheet records: No: school states it does not conduct admissions interviews, from https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/requirements.cfm ; https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/early-decision.cfm ; https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/faq.cfm.
Where a school states it does not interview, take that at face value and put the effort into the written file, which is then carrying the entire application.
Either way, no school publishes what share of applicants it interviews or how much the interview moves a decision, so anyone quoting you a figure has invented it.
The same four almost everywhere, because they are the ones that separate candidates: why law, why this school, tell me about your record, and what you would do instead.
No school publishes its question set, so anyone handing you a school-specific list has assembled it from applicant reports rather than from the school. Treat it as a rumour with a useful shape.
Prepare the four. They cover most of what any interviewer can usefully ask in twenty minutes.
Assume it is evaluative until told otherwise. A conversation described as informational still produces a note in your file, and the note is written by someone who will be in the room when your application is discussed.
Prepare three things and nothing else: why law, why this school specifically, and one story from your own record you can tell in ninety seconds without notes.
For the second of those, use what the school actually reaches. Our sheet records American's top markets as DC (134), MD (51), NY (30) and its published class profile as an LSAT median of 162 against a 3.63 GPA median.
Why law, and why now. The weakest answers are the ones that could have been given at any point in the last five years.
Why this school. Same test as the why-essay: if the answer would fit another school, it is not an answer.
Tell me about your record. Pick one thing, tell it as a story with a decision in it, and stop before the interviewer's attention does.
What would you do if you did not go to law school. A refusal to answer reads as evasion; a real answer reads as someone who chose this.
Do not treat an informational conversation as a formality. Do not recite the website back. Do not ask a question you could have answered in thirty seconds on the school's own pages, because that is the one moment the interviewer is assessing your judgment rather than your record.
Do not oversell. A candidate who describes everything as a passion reads as someone with no priorities, which is the opposite of the impression a professional school wants.
And do not let it distort the rest of the application. The written file is what a committee reads first and longest.
Figure2025 reporting yearSourceApplicants5,952https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdfOffers1,981https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdfAcceptance rate33.3%https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdfLSAT 25th / median / 75th157 / 162 / 163https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdfGPA 25th / median / 75th3.32 / 3.63 / 3.75https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdfMedian grant$40,000 (2024-25 aid year, 509; 25th, 50th and 75th all print $40,000)https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdfShare receiving a grant59%https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdfTotal cost per yearnot published as a single figurehttps://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdf
Our master admissions file carries detailed committee texture for 31 schools: what the essay has to do, how hard the school protects yield, how it uses interviews, and how it behaves on scholarship. American is not one of the 31.
So this page makes no claim about how American's committee reads a file. Everything here comes from what American itself publishes: its ABA Standard 509 report and its own admissions pages.
A page that filled that gap with plausible-sounding advice would be indistinguishable from one that knew something, which is exactly why we would rather leave the hole visible. If you want committee-level read on this school, the honest source is the admissions office.
Early decision, from the school's own admissions pages: Yes: binding ED, two rounds (R1 Dec 12, R2 Feb 10 for fall 2026 cycle as posted); $900 nonrefundable deposit
Interviews: the sheet records No: school states it does not conduct admissions interviews
Beyond the personal statement, American asks for Optional Community Impact Statement (~1 page); addendum (1 page or less) An optional prompt you have something concrete for is not optional in practice.
All of the above sits at https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/requirements.cfm ; https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/early-decision.cfm ; https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/faq.cfm and moves between cycles, which is why this page dates everything rather than presenting it as permanent.
Our sheet records American's top markets as DC (134), MD (51), NY (30), from its own ABA employment reporting (https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdf). Read the concentration rather than the list.
Alongside that, 17.3% (69/399, Class of 2025 ABA Emp Summary) of the class went to firms over 100 lawyers and 1.0% (4/399; state/local 13.8%) took federal clerkships, from the same reporting.
In the Washington market specifically, those two numbers pull in different directions. Federal agencies, the Hill and the public interest sector employ heavily and appear in neither the large-firm column nor the clerkship column, so a modest large-firm rate here does not mean what it would mean in New York.
That is the honest way to read a DC school's outcomes: the large-firm figure describes one route out of several, and the geography column tells you which city's version of all of them you are buying into.
Put your own numbers beside the bands first. American publishes 157 to 163 on the LSAT and 3.32 to 3.75 on GPA, from its 2025 509 (https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdf), and everything else follows from where you land in those.
Then price it against the 509 again, noting that American posts no single total cost of attendance figure in its 509 against a median grant of $40,000 (2024-25 aid year, 509; 25th, 50th and 75th all print $40,000) reaching 59% of students. Three years of the gap is the number that will still matter in a decade.
Then decide what you would do with the degree, because a school's value is mostly a statement about a market rather than about a ranking, and the market is the part you cannot change from inside.
If any of those three is unresolved, that is the work to do next, and it is more useful than reading another page about this school.
Open https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/requirements.cfm ; https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/early-decision.cfm ; https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/faq.cfm and confirm every deadline, prompt and requirement against the live application, because everything on this page carries a date for a reason.
Place yourself against the published bands rather than the acceptance rate: 157 to 163 on the LSAT and 3.32 to 3.75 on GPA, from the 2025 509 (https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdf). Your position there decides what the rest of the application has to do.
Decide what this school is to you before drafting anything: a reach where the file must argue, a match where it must not get in the way, or a safety where the real question is how much money you can extract. Those are three different applications.
Every American figure on this page was read from American's own 2025 ABA Standard 509 Required Disclosure Report at https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/2025-standard-509-information-report-12-16-25-2.pdf ; Emp Summary: https://www.american.edu/wcl/academics/academicservices/registrar/aba-required-disclosure/upload/aba-employment-summary-2025.pdf, and recorded in our data sheet with that URL against each individual field rather than as a single citation at the bottom.
Application mechanics come from American's own admissions pages at https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/requirements.cfm ; https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/early-decision.cfm ; https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/faq.cfm. Where our sheet holds a field as unverified, this page says so instead of presenting it as settled.
The 509 refiles every December, so every number here has a known expiry date. We would rather you knew that date than trusted the page indefinitely.
Every LSAC figure on this page was taken from LSAC's own pages and last checked on July 26, 2026. Prices, dates and policies move without notice, so the source link sits next to each number rather than in a bibliography at the bottom.
Where LSAC has not published something, this page says so in those words rather than filling the hole with a plausible number. That is the difference between a gap and a guess, and only one of them is safe to plan around.
Our sheet records: No: school states it does not conduct admissions interviews
No school publishes its question set. The four that recur are why law, why this school, tell me about your record, and what you would do instead.
Assume it is evaluative. Prepare why law, why this school specifically, and one story from your record you can tell in ninety seconds without notes.
Not published, at this school or any other. No ABA disclosure covers interview rates, so any figure you find is somebody's estimate.
Unknown and unpublished. The written file is what a committee reads first and longest, and no school discloses how much an interview moves a decision.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
August 5, 2026
August 5, 2026