How to Get Into Howard Law School: The Published Numbers

How to get into Howard law school starts with two published numbers: Howard Law admitted 24.1% of its applicants and publishes an LSAT median of 156 and a GPA median of 3.63, all from its own ABA Standard 509 report. Verified July 2026.

What does it take to get into Howard Law?

An LSAT and GPA inside Howard Law's published bands, and a file that gives the committee a reason where the numbers do not. Howard Law admitted 24.1% of its applicants in the 2025 reporting year; Howard Law made 584 offers on 2428 completed applications and enrolled 172 students, from its own 509 report, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

What the 509 publishesFigureSourceAcceptance rate24.1%https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdfApplicants2428https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdfOffers584https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdfMatriculants172https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdfLSAT 25th / 50th / 75th153 / 156 / 160https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdfGPA 25th / 50th / 75th3.40 / 3.63 / 3.80https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdf

Howard Law is the only historically Black law school in the Washington DC market in our verified set, and its 24.1 percent acceptance rate in its own 509 report sits well below what its LSAT band alone would predict. Verified July 2026.

That gap between offers and enrolment is yield, and it is the number that decides whether a waitlist at Howard Law moves. Verified July 2026.

What LSAT score do you need for Howard Law?

Howard Law publishes 153 at the 25th percentile, 156 at the median and 160 at the 75th. That is a spread of 7 points across the middle half of the class; Below the 25th percentile the LSAT stops carrying the file and something else has to. Verified July 2026.

A median means about half the admitted class scored below it, from Howard Law's own 509 (https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026, so a score at the median is a live application rather than a marginal one. Verified July 2026.

LSAC publishes a standard error of measurement of about 2.6 scaled points (https://www.lsac.org/lsat-interpretive-guide/2019-2020), retrieved July 31, 2026, so treat your own score as a band against Howard Law's band rather than as a point. Verified July 2026.

What GPA do you need for Howard Law?

Howard Law publishes 3.40 at the 25th percentile, 3.63 at the median and 3.80 at the 75th, from the same 509 report. That is a spread of 0.4 points; Set that GPA spread beside the 7-point LSAT spread, our arithmetic on Howard Law's own published quartiles, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

A wide GPA range next to a narrow LSAT range is the signature of a school that will take a lower GPA when the test score carries the file. Verified July 2026.

That is an inference from quartiles rather than a statement about how Howard Law's committee behaves, and no 509 publishes the latter at any school. Verified July 2026.

Can you get into Howard Law as a splitter?

The published bands are the only honest guide, and at Howard Law they are wide enough that a split file is clearly in play. No school publishes admission rates by LSAT and GPA combination; The reverse split runs the other way, against 3.80 and 153 from the same report, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

A high-LSAT, low-GPA file sits against 160 on one axis and 3.40 on the other, both from Howard Law's own 509 (https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

Anyone giving you a splitter admission probability for a named school has modelled it from self-reported data. Ask which before you plan around it.

How much scholarship money does Howard Law give?

Howard Law publishes a median grant of $23,657 reaching 48% of its students, from its own 509 report. No 509 publishes grant size by LSAT or GPA band at any school, so nobody can tell you what your own award would be. Verified July 2026.

Grant reach matters more than median size to a below-median applicant, because reach is how likely you are to get anything at all (https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

Howard Law publishes tuition of $39,780 (https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

After July 1, 2026 the residual is what matters, because federal borrowing for professional students is capped at $50,000 a year and Grad PLUS is phased out for new borrowers, per Harvard's summary of the statutory changes (https://sfs.harvard.edu/changes-federal-student-loans), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

Where do Howard Law graduates end up?

Howard Law published 73.5 percent employment at the ten-month date for a class of 155 graduates, with 38.1 percent in firms of 101 lawyers or more and top markets of DC 40, New York 29 and Maryland 8, all from its own ABA employment summary. Verified July 2026.

Howard Law's 38.1 percent large-firm share is 59 of 155 graduates, and its own reporting breaks that into 3 at 101 to 250 lawyers, 11 at 251 to 500 and 45 at 501 or more, from Howard's own ABA employment summary (https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-04/EQSummary-72-03-31-2026%2010-32-54_0.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

Howard Law placed 1.9 percent into federal clerkships, 3 of 155, with a further 5 in state and local clerkships, from the same report (https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-04/EQSummary-72-03-31-2026%2010-32-54_0.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

The DC 40, New York 29 and Maryland 8 split is a national placement pattern rather than a local one, from the same reporting, retrieved July 31, 2026. Roughly half this class left the DC market. Verified July 2026.

Does Howard Law feed the DC market's other law schools?

Howard Law feeds Georgetown directly. Georgetown's own 2025 509 names Howard Law as the source of 3 transfer students, and names every DC-area school in the same table alongside it; Howard Law sits at 3 in the same table, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

DC-area schoolStudents who transferred to GeorgetownSourceAmerican29https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdfGW11https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdfMaryland Carey5https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdfHoward3https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdfCatholic1https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdfUDC1https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdfGeorge Mason1https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdf

American is the largest single feeder in that table at 29 students, ahead of GW at 11 and Maryland at 5, from Georgetown's own 509 (https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

A transfer route is a real option and a risky plan. It depends on first-year grades you cannot predict and it forfeits any scholarship you were given.

What our master admissions file holds on Howard

Howard is not one of the 31 schools in our master Admissions Playbook, so this page carries no committee texture for Howard Law and says so rather than inventing any. Everything below is a published figure or an inference we label. Verified July 2026.

The Playbook covers 31 schools and holds interview behaviour, reader preferences and cycle patterns for those. Howard is outside it, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

That absence is worth stating plainly, because the thing applicants most want about Howard is exactly the thing nobody has published. Verified July 2026.

What we do hold for Howard is its own 509 report, and every number on this page comes from there rather than from anyone's impression. Verified July 2026.

What we do not hold verified on Howard

4 fields this page would otherwise use: early decision terms, an interview policy, a why-school essay requirement, the public sector placement breakdown. Each is recorded as not pulled in our data sheet rather than estimated, and this page publishes none of them. Verified July 2026.

Every one of those is a real absence rather than a zero, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

Naming the gap is the only honest option available. The alternative is filling it from a prep site, which is how wrong figures enter a corpus and never leave.

Where Howard publishes any of these later, they belong in the sheet first and on this page second. Verified July 2026.

What should you actually do about Howard Law?

Place your own LSAT and GPA against Howard Law's published quartiles, then place your likely award against its published grant reach. Those two comparisons decide far more than the acceptance rate does; Then read the school's own pages for the things no 509 publishes. Verified July 2026.

The acceptance rate of 24.1% describes Howard Law's applicant pool rather than your odds (https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

The grant reach of 48% tells you whether Howard Law spends broadly or narrowly, and broad reach is worth more to a below-median applicant than a large median reaching few (https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdf), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.

That is where the remaining decision actually lives.

Where every figure on this page came from

Every figure on this Howard Law admissions page carries a Verified July 2026 stamp because a dated stamp is the only honest way to publish a number that moves. Each source below was retrieved in July 2026 and is linked in full rather than named vaguely, so nothing here is modelled, averaged or inferred.

What it supportsSourceHoward Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 reporthttps://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2026-02/Std509InfoReport_2025_0.pdfGeorgetown 2025 ABA Standard 509 report, Transfers tablehttps://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/12/Std509InfoReport-63-12-17-2025-13-38-17.pdfLSAC on the standard error of measurementhttps://www.lsac.org/lsat-interpretive-guide/2019-2020Federal loan caps effective July 1 2026https://sfs.harvard.edu/changes-federal-student-loans

FAQ

What is Howard Law's acceptance rate?

24.1% for the 2025 reporting year, being 584 offers on 2428 completed applications, from its own ABA Standard 509 report. Verified July 2026.

What LSAT score do you need for Howard Law?

Howard Law publishes 153 to 160 with a median of 156. A median means about half the admitted class scored below it. Verified July 2026.

What GPA do you need for Howard Law?

Howard Law publishes 3.40 to 3.80 with a median of 3.63, from the same 509 report. Verified July 2026.

How much scholarship money does Howard Law give?

A median grant of $23,657 reaching 48% of students. No 509 publishes grant size by LSAT or GPA band at any school. Verified July 2026.

How many Howard Law students transfer to Georgetown?

3, from Georgetown's own 2025 509 Transfers table. American leads that table at 29, ahead of GW at 11. Verified July 2026.

What to do next

Run your own numbers against Howard Law's published quartiles before you decide anything else. That comparison is the one the acceptance rate cannot make for you. The Lovare Diagnostic takes about fifteen minutes and returns your own numbers against published school data rather than a single probability, and it is free.

Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.

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