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Cornell vs Georgetown law school: on published medians the LSAT gap is 173 against 171, on cost it is $118,364 against $124,600, and on large-firm placement 65.5% against 61.6%. Every figure here is from Cornell's own 2025 ABA 509 report.
Neither in general, and the comparison is not close on every axis, which is what makes it useful. Every figure below comes from each school's own 2025 ABA 509 report: Cornell at https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-CLS-509-Report.pdf and Georgetown at https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdf.
On published medians Cornell sits higher, at 173 against 171. On money and on market the answer can run the other way, which is the whole point of putting them side by side.
Read the table first and the prose second. The table is the evidence; everything after it is us telling you which rows we think should decide it.
FigureCornellGeorgetownAcceptance rate18.2%15.8%LSAT 25th / median / 75th168 / 173 / 175166 / 171 / 173GPA 25th / median / 75th3.75 / 3.92 / 3.973.75 / 3.93 / 3.98Total cost per year$118,364$124,600Median grant$30,000$35,000Share receiving a grant91%61%Firms over 100 lawyers65.5% (129 of 197)61.6% (433 of 703)Federal clerkships5.6% (11 of 197)5.0% (35 of 703)Employed at ten months99.5%96.6%Top marketsNY 122, DC 17, CA 13DC 261, NY 190, CA 47
Cornell publishes the higher LSAT median, and both bands are in the table above.
But acceptance rates are 18.2% at Cornell against 15.8% at Georgetown, and a rate is a ratio over a self-selected pool rather than a difficulty score. The two signals do not always point the same way.
The honest read is to place your own numbers against both bands. A candidate inside one band and below the other is not facing a general question about difficulty; they are facing two different applications.
From the two 509 reports: Cornell shows a median grant of $30,000 reaching 91% of students against a 509 total cost of $118,364, and Georgetown shows $35,000 reaching 61% against a 509 total cost of $124,600.
Reach matters as much as size. A school granting to almost everyone is running a broad discount, which is worth more to a below-median admit than a large median that reaches half the class.
No 509 publishes grant size by admissions band, so neither figure predicts your letter. What they do tell you is which school has shown it will spend to get people like you.
Cornell placed 65.5% (129 of 197) into firms over 100 lawyers with top markets of NY 122, DC 17, CA 13. Georgetown placed 61.6% (433 of 703) with top markets of DC 261, NY 190, CA 47.
Geography usually decides this comparison more cleanly than placement rate does. Both schools are strongest where their networks already sit, and that is much harder to overcome from inside than a grade is.
If you know which market you want, that knowledge outranks every other row in the table.
Pick Cornell if your numbers sit better against its band, if its top markets are where you intend to practice, and if its award reaches you. Those three in that order.
Pick Georgetown on the same test applied to its own column. We are not going to declare a winner in the abstract, because the honest answer changes with your score, your money and your market.
Where the two are genuinely close on all three, take the cheaper one. A comparable outcome at materially less debt is not a close call, whatever the rankings say.
Every number in the table comes from each school's own 2025 ABA 509 report or its own Class of 2025 employment summary. Nothing here is modelled, averaged or inferred.
Where our master admissions file also covers a school, its committee texture appears below. Where it does not, this page says so rather than filling the gap.
That split is deliberate. Published disclosures and committee behavior are different kinds of claim and we do not want them reading as one.
Our master admissions file records committee behavior rather than published policy. The passages below are quoted verbatim from it.
Where it conflicts with the school's own current pages, the school wins and this page says so rather than resolving the conflict silently.
On essays. Cornell wants to know you understand what Ithaca is. Applicants who visibly have not thought about three winters in the Finger Lakes read as flight risks.
On yield protection. Real. Cornell's 18.2% acceptance rate is the most forgiving in the T14 and it waitlists strong candidates it expects to lose.
On interviews. By invitation, conducted by admissions staff, and used more than at most peers.
The one thing to know. The easiest T14 admit by acceptance rate, with the highest large-firm placement rate in the country. That combination is the single best arbitrage in law school admissions.
Put your own numbers beside the bands first. Cornell publishes 168 to 175 on the LSAT and 3.75 to 3.97 on GPA, from its 2025 509 (https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-CLS-509-Report.pdf), and everything else follows from where you land in those.
Then price it against the 509 again: total cost of $118,364 against a median grant of $30,000 reaching 91% 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.
Every Cornell figure on this page was read from Cornell's own 2025 ABA Standard 509 Required Disclosure Report at https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-CLS-509-Report.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 Cornell's own admissions pages at https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/admissions/jd-admissions/jd-faq/. 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.
Neither in general. Cornell publishes the higher LSAT median, but cost, grant reach and market run differently, and every figure is in the table above from each school's own 509.
Cornell publishes the higher LSAT median. Acceptance rates are 18.2% against 15.8%, and a rate is a ratio over a self-selected pool rather than a difficulty score.
Per the two 509 reports, Cornell shows a total cost of $118,364 and Georgetown shows $124,600, before any award. Grant reach is 91% against 61%.
Cornell placed 65.5% (129 of 197) into firms over 100 lawyers against 61.6% (433 of 703) at Georgetown. Top markets are NY 122, DC 17, CA 13 and DC 261, NY 190, CA 47.
Take the one whose market you want, at the price you can carry. Where outcome and market are close, the cheaper offer wins on arithmetic that rankings do not capture.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
August 5, 2026
August 5, 2026