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American law school LSAT and GPA: a published LSAT median of 162 between a 157 twenty-fifth percentile and a 163 seventy-fifth, alongside a GPA median of 3.63 between 3.32 and 3.75, all from the school's own 2025 509 report. Every figure here is from American's own 2025 ABA 509 report.
The published median is 162, between a 157 twenty-fifth percentile and a 163 seventy-fifth, from American's own 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).
A quarter of the admitted class sat at or below 157. That is the number to plan against, because it is the one showing the door is open below the median.
LSAC publishes its percentile table at listed score points only and 162 is not one of them, so this page does not interpolate one (LSAC percentile ranks (https://www.lsac.org/data-research/data/lsat-percentiles)). That is your standing among test takers, which is a different question from your standing in this applicant pool.
PercentileLSATGPA25th1573.32Median1623.6375th1633.75
A median of 3.63, between 3.32 and 3.75, from the same 509 report (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).
The GPA spread runs 0.43 against an LSAT spread of 6 points. The wider of the two is the axis this school has shown it will flex on.
Neither quartile set tells you how the two travel together, because no 509 publishes the joint distribution. That is the hard limit on any claim about a specific pairing.
The published spreads are the only evidence available, and here they are 6 points of LSAT against 0.43 of GPA.
A wide LSAT spread is the signature of a school that will take a lower score when the rest of the file justifies it, which is the splitter path.
That is an inference from quartiles rather than a statement about committee behavior, and this page is not going to dress it up as more than that.
Where you sitAgainst American's published bandWhat the file has to do163 or aboveAt or above the 75thAvoid creating a reason to say no162 to 162Median to 75thCompete on scholarship rather than admission157 to 16125th to medianGive an affirmative reason to say yesBelow 157Below the 25thCarry the file on something the index cannot see
The lowest score admitted. A 25th percentile is a quartile marker, not a floor, and no school publishes a minimum, so any page giving you one is reading a number that does not exist.
How much a high GPA offsets a low LSAT here. The trade is real and unquantified at every ABA school, because the joint distribution is unpublished everywhere.
Whether this cycle resembles the last. The 509 describes the class that enrolled, and applicant volume moves year to year.
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.
The published median is 162, with a 157 twenty-fifth percentile and a 163 seventy-fifth, from the school's own 2025 509 report.
A median of 3.63, between 3.32 and 3.75, from the same report.
The published LSAT spread is 6 points. That is the only public evidence on the question, and it is an inference from quartiles rather than a statement about committee behavior.
Nobody publishes it. The 157 twenty-fifth percentile means a quarter of admits sat at or below it, which is a quartile marker rather than a floor.
It can, and by how much is unpublished. No ABA 509 reports the joint distribution of LSAT and GPA among admits.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
August 5, 2026
August 5, 2026