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American law school scholarships: a median grant of $40,000 (2024-25 aid year, 509; 25th, 50th and 75th all print $40,000) reaching 59% of students, from the school's own 2025 509 report, against published tuition of $66,990 FT + $2,182 fees (2025-26, 509); PT $2,481/credit. A median is not an average and not what a typical admit receives.
The 2025 509 reports a median grant of $40,000 (2024-25 aid year, 509; 25th, 50th and 75th all print $40,000) reaching 59% of students (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).
Those two numbers say more together than either alone. A high median reaching a small share means concentrated awards at the top of the class; a modest median reaching almost everyone is a broad discount, which is often the better proposition below the median.
Set both against published tuition of $66,990 FT + $2,182 fees (2025-26, 509); PT $2,481/credit and no single total cost of attendance figure, which American does not publish in its 509, from the same report.
Money figure2025 reporting yearSourceMedian 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.pdfTuition$66,990 FT + $2,182 fees (2025-26, 509); PT $2,481/credithttps://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
The 509 reports a median rather than an average, and that median is $40,000 (2024-25 aid year, 509; 25th, 50th and 75th all print $40,000). Half of grant recipients received less than it.
It is also not what a typical admit receives, because 59% of students receive anything at all. Multiply the median across three years before treating any award as decisive.
No 509 publishes grant size by admissions band, so the figure describes the class rather than predicting your letter.
No ABA 509 report publishes grant size by LSAT or GPA band, at any school. The median grant therefore describes the whole entering class rather than predicting your letter.
Money follows the numbers, and the further above a median you sit the more of it follows. That direction is reliable; the magnitude is not published anywhere.
Renewal conditions are the other unpublished variable. Some awards carry a GPA condition and 509 reports do not disclose them, so ask in writing before comparing two offers.
Schools do not publish negotiation policies, so nobody can promise an outcome, and this page is not going to invent one for a school we hold no committee record on.
The mechanics that work are the same everywhere: a competing written offer from a peer school, a short unentitled letter, and a clear statement that you would attend if the gap closed. Without a competing offer there is usually nothing to move.
Ask once, in writing, early rather than in August. Aid budgets are finite and commit as the class fills, which is why timing beats wording.
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.
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 2025 509 reports a median grant of $40,000 (2024-25 aid year, 509; 25th, 50th and 75th all print $40,000) reaching 59% of students.
The 509 publishes a median rather than an average: $40,000 (2024-25 aid year, 509; 25th, 50th and 75th all print $40,000), with 59% of students receiving anything at all.
No school publishes a negotiation policy. What works generally is a competing written offer from a peer school, asked once, in writing, early.
Per year, as reported on the 509. Multiply across three years and set it against the total cost line before treating an award as decisive.
Sometimes and generally less. No 509 publishes grant size by admissions band, so the honest answer is that money follows the numbers without a published schedule.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
August 5, 2026
August 5, 2026