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Catholic law school LSAT and GPA: a published LSAT median of 161 between a 157 twenty-fifth percentile and a 163 seventy-fifth, alongside a GPA median of 3.70 (full-time) between 3.53 (full-time) and 3.85 (full-time), all from the school's own 2025 509 report.
The published median is 161, between a 157 twenty-fifth percentile and a 163 seventy-fifth, from Catholic's own 2025 509 (https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.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 161 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.
Those LSAT and GPA figures are the full-time division. It is the only division Catholic breaks out in its 2025 509, which publishes no separate part-time percentiles.
PercentileLSATGPA25th157 (full-time)3.53 (full-time)Median161 (full-time)3.70 (full-time)75th163 (full-time)3.85 (full-time)
A median of 3.70 (full-time), between 3.53 (full-time) and 3.85 (full-time), from the same 509 report (https://www.law.edu/_media/aba-info/2025-CatholicLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf).
The GPA spread runs 0.32 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 0.32 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 Catholic's published bandWhat the file has to do163 or aboveAt or above the 75thAvoid creating a reason to say no161 to 162Median to 75thCompete on scholarship rather than admission157 to 16025th to medianGive an affirmative reason to say yesBelow 157Below the 25thCarry the file on something the index cannot see
Those LSAT and GPA figures are the full-time division. It is the only division Catholic breaks out in its 2025 509, which publishes no separate part-time percentiles.
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. 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.
The published median is 161, with a 157 twenty-fifth percentile and a 163 seventy-fifth, from the school's own 2025 509 report.
A median of 3.70 (full-time), between 3.53 (full-time) and 3.85 (full-time), 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