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For the keyword 'depaul law ranking', the school in question is DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Illinois. Its U.S. News 2026-27 position is 131st (tie), with a reported median LSAT of 158 and a 34.81% acceptance rate in the latest 2025 ABA Standard 509 report.
By Ali Unar, JD candidate at Georgetown Law and founder of Lovare Institut. Last updated August 2026. Every figure on this page was verified in August 2026 against the sources listed below.
DePaul University College of Law is an ABA-approved law school in Chicago, Illinois. Its current position in the U.S. News rankings, along with the admissions and outcome figures that matter most, is summarized below.
MetricValue (2026 cycle)U.S. News rank131st (tie)Median LSAT158Median GPASee the school's ABA 509 reportAcceptance rate34.81%First-time bar passageSee the school's ABA 509 reportEmployment (JD-required, 10 months)See the school's ABA 509 report
The rank comes from the U.S. News 2026-27 Best Law Schools ranking; the median LSAT of 158 and the 34.81% acceptance rate come from DePaul University College of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report; its median GPA, first-time bar passage, and 10-month employment are published in that report and the school's ABA required disclosures.
A U.S. News rank reflects a weighted blend of reputation surveys, selectivity (median LSAT, median GPA, and acceptance rate), and graduate outcomes (first-time bar passage and employment). Because U.S. News revises those weights periodically and publishes them in its annual methodology, DePaul Law can shift a few spots between editions without any real change in its program.
Applicants weighing DePaul Law usually compare it with Loyola University Chicago, Chicago-Kent (IIT), and UIC School of Law. In the U.S. News 2026-27 ranking, Loyola University Chicago is 77th (tie), Chicago-Kent (Illinois Tech) 105th (tie), and UIC School of Law 167th; Loyola University Chicago reports a median LSAT of 161 in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 report, and you can compare each school's medians there.
Whether DePaul Law is a reach, target, or likely school depends entirely on your numbers. If your LSAT and GPA are at or above its medians, DePaul Law is a realistic target and a possible scholarship source; if they sit below both, treat it as a reach. Build a balanced list around it, and if you are close to its median LSAT, a focused prep plan can move you from reach to target.
T14 means the fourteen highest-ranked law schools in U.S. News, a tier whose members rarely move: Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Penn, Virginia, Michigan, Berkeley, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, and Georgetown. The term persists because employment outcomes step down noticeably once you look past this group, making the cutoff meaningful.
The schools most often called best are the T14, led by Stanford, Chicago, and Yale at the top of U.S. News. Beyond raw rank, the best law school for any applicant is the one whose employment outcomes, cost after scholarships, and location match that person's goals. Current leaders are Stanford (1st), Chicago and Yale (tied 2nd), and Penn and Virginia (tied 4th) in the U.S. News 2026-27 ranking.
Most rankings weight three things: what peers think of a school, how selective it is on LSAT and GPA, and what happens to graduates in bar passage and employment. U.S. News sets the standard, but its weights shift over time, so small rank changes rarely reflect real quality differences.
There is no fixed cutoff, but the practical target is DePaul Law's published medians. DePaul University College of Law reports a median LSAT of 158 in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 report, along with its median GPA and 25th and 75th percentiles; being at or above the medians makes you competitive, and clearing the 75th percentile strengthens your case for merit aid.
Verified August 2026.
August 21, 2026
August 21, 2026