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Catholic law school acceptance rate: 32.4% (both divisions) for the 2025 reporting year, being 605 offers on 1867 completed applications with 182 (139 full-time, 43 part-time) enrolling, all from the school's own ABA 509 report. The offer-to-enrollment gap is the part worth reading.
32.4% (both divisions) for the 2025 reporting year, from Catholic's own ABA Standard 509 report (https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf), which is 605 offers on 1867 completed applications with 182 (139 full-time, 43 part-time) enrolling.
A rate is a ratio and not a difficulty score. Two schools printing the same percentage can be very different admits if one draws a self-selected pool and the other does not.
The number worth more attention is the gap between offers and enrollment, because that is the school telling you how many admits it expects to lose.
Figure2025 reporting yearSourceApplicants1867https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdfOffers605https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdfAcceptance rate32.4% (both divisions)https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdfLSAT 25th / median / 75th157 (full-time) / 161 (full-time) / 163 (full-time)https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdfGPA 25th / median / 75th3.53 (full-time) / 3.70 (full-time) / 3.85 (full-time)https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdfMedian grant$26,000 (both divisions)https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdfShare receiving a grant99% (369 of 374; both divisions)https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdfTotal cost per year$95,654 full-time off-campus (509-derived: tuition plus fees plus the 509 off-campus living line; $90,448 on-campus). The 509 prints no totalhttps://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf
1867 completed applications in the 2025 cycle, from the same report.
Against that, Catholic enrolled 182 (139 full-time, 43 part-time). Volume is what makes a rate look severe: a school can admit generously in absolute terms and still print a low percentage when enough people apply.
It also explains why the rate moves between cycles without the school changing anything. Applicant volume is national and the class size is local.
We hold one reporting year for this school in our verified sheet, and a trend built from a single point is not a trend, so this page does not draw one.
What is verifiable is this cycle: 32.4% (both divisions) on 1867 applications (https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf). We refresh in December when new 509s land and this page moves with the sheet.
Treat any multi-year table you find elsewhere as only as good as its sourcing. The 509 archives exist school by school, and a page that has not cited them has not read them.
Your position against the bands. Catholic publishes an LSAT median of 161 (full-time) with a 157 (full-time) twenty-fifth percentile, and a GPA median of 3.70 (full-time) with a 3.53 (full-time) twenty-fifth, from the same 509.
A candidate above both medians faces very different odds from the headline rate, and so does one below both. The published figure averages over a pool you are not average in.
No school publishes admit rates by band, so the honest use of the percentage is as context rather than as a personal probability.
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. Catholic is not one of the 31.
So this page makes no claim about how Catholic's committee reads a file. Everything here comes from what Catholic 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: non-binding early admission, no separate application. File complete by Nov 1 for a decision by Dec 31, or by Dec 1 for a decision by Jan 16
Interviews: the sheet records No: the school FAQ states it does not offer applicant interviews, though it offers a meeting with an admissions counselor
Beyond the personal statement, Catholic asks for No required supplemental essay; a brief addendum is permitted An optional prompt you have something concrete for is not optional in practice.
All of the above sits at https://www.law.edu/admissions/overview/apply-now/index.html and moves between cycles, which is why this page dates everything rather than presenting it as permanent.
Catholic runs a full-time day division and a part-time evening division, and its 2025 509 reports some figures by division and others for both together (https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf). Reading a part-time applicant against a full-time percentile is the commonest way to misjudge this school.
So every figure here is labelled. Where the school reports in aggregate we say aggregate rather than quietly presenting it as the full-time number.
That matters most on the LSAT and GPA bands, which are the full-time division only. Catholic does not publish separate part-time percentiles in its 509, so we do not state any.
FigureWhich division it describesApplicants, offers and acceptance rateBoth divisions together. The 509 reports these in aggregate and does not split themLSAT and GPA percentilesFull-time divisionMatriculantsBoth divisions, itemized: 182 total, being 139 full-time and 43 part-timeTuitionReported separately: $61,580 a year full-time plus $1,700 fees, against $2,125 per credit part-time plus $1,130 feesCost of attendanceFull-time, off-campus. Derived from the 509's own tuition, fee and living lines because the report prints no totalGrant median and reachBoth divisions together at 369 of 374 students; the full-time division alone is 271 of 273EmploymentWhole graduating class. The ABA employment summary does not split outcomes by division
Our sheet records Catholic's top markets as DC 41, MD 24, VA 17 (whole class), from its own ABA employment reporting (https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2026-employmentclassof2025.pdf). Read the concentration rather than the list.
Alongside that, 19.5% (22 of 113; bands 101-250 6, 251-500 4, 501+ 12; whole class) of the class went to firms over 100 lawyers and 1.8% (2 of 113; state and local clerkships a separate 23; whole class) 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. Catholic publishes 157 (full-time) to 163 (full-time) on the LSAT and 3.53 (full-time) to 3.85 (full-time) on GPA, from its 2025 509 (https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf), and everything else follows from where you land in those.
Then price it against the 509 again: total cost of $95,654 full-time off-campus (509-derived: tuition plus fees plus the 509 off-campus living line; $90,448 on-campus). The 509 prints no total against a median grant of $26,000 (both divisions) reaching 99% (369 of 374; both divisions) 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.law.edu/admissions/overview/apply-now/index.html 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 (full-time) to 163 (full-time) on the LSAT and 3.53 (full-time) to 3.85 (full-time) on GPA, from the 2025 509 (https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.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 Catholic figure on this page was read from Catholic's own 2025 ABA Standard 509 Required Disclosure Report at https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.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 Catholic's own admissions pages at https://www.law.edu/admissions/overview/apply-now/index.html. 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.
32.4% (both divisions) for the 2025 reporting year: 605 offers on 1867 applications, with 182 (139 full-time, 43 part-time) enrolling, from the school's own 509 report.
1867 completed applications in the 2025 cycle, per the same report.
Our verified sheet holds one reporting year for this school, so we publish no trend line. We refresh each December when new 509s land.
Not personally. It averages over a pool you are not average in. Your position against the 157 (full-time) to 163 (full-time) LSAT band is the more useful read.
Because schools lose cross-admits and over-offer to fill a class. That same gap drives waitlist behavior and scholarship leverage.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
August 5, 2026
August 5, 2026