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There is no fixed GPA required for law school. Instead, each ABA-approved school publishes 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile undergraduate GPA figures, and your goal is to meet or beat a target school's median. As of the 2026 cycle, medians span a wide range across schools, with median undergraduate GPA running from about 3.35 at the most accessible ABA schools to 3.97 at the most selective, based on the 2025 ABA Standard 509 reports. A strong LSAT can partly offset a GPA below a school's median.
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.
There is no fixed minimum GPA to apply to law school, and ABA-approved schools do not publish hard cutoffs. Instead, each school reports the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile undergraduate GPA of its entering class in its Standard 509 report, and your competitiveness depends on where your GPA falls against those figures. As of the 2026 cycle, GPA medians span a wide range across schools, from about 3.35 at the most accessible ABA schools to 3.97 at the most selective, based on the 2025 ABA Standard 509 reports.
Law schools use the GPA that LSAC calculates through the Credential Assembly Service, which recomputes your undergraduate record on a standard scale and counts every graded course from every institution you attended. This CAS GPA can differ from your degree GPA, because some schools forgive repeated grades that LSAC still counts. Check your CAS GPA early, since that is the number schools compare against their medians.
GPA and LSAT are the two dominant admissions factors, and a strong LSAT can partly offset a GPA below a school's median. Applicants with a high LSAT and lower GPA, or the reverse, are called splitters, and schools weigh the pair together rather than requiring both to clear the median. The table shows how GPA medians typically sit alongside LSAT medians by tier.
Selectivity tierMedian GPAMedian LSATT14 schools3.92 to 3.97170 to 174Other top-50 schoolsSee each school's 2025 ABA 509 report162 to 175Most accessible ABA schools3.35 to 3.68153 to 156
T14 and ranks 15 to 50 ranges are derived from the 2025 ABA Standard 509 reports; the most accessible figures are the medians of the six most accessible schools in that verified set. Many schools ranked 15 to 50 report GPA as not available, so no single GPA range is published for that tier.
If your GPA sits below a target school's median, the most effective response is to raise your LSAT score as high as you can, since that can rebalance your file. A concise GPA addendum helps when a clear, documented circumstance depressed your grades. Running your GPA and LSAT through Lovare's free admissions calculator shows which schools your numbers actually reach.
No single GPA or LSAT is required for law school. Each ABA-approved school publishes 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile figures, and your goal is to meet or beat a target school's medians. Because schools read GPA and LSAT together, a high score on one can partly offset a lower figure on the other rather than acting as a hard cutoff.
Your admission chances depend mostly on how your undergraduate GPA and LSAT score compare to each school's published medians. Applicants at or above both a school's median GPA and median LSAT are admitted at high rates, while those below both face long odds. Compare your two numbers to each target school's ABA 509 figures to estimate your odds.
Most applicants apply to roughly 6 to 12 law schools, split across reach, target, and safety tiers based on how their GPA and LSAT compare to each school's medians. That range keeps your options open and gives you a safety net without spreading your time and application fees too thin across poor-fit schools.
Verified August 2026.
August 21, 2026
August 21, 2026