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The short answer on is Minnesota law school worth it: pick it if you want the upper Midwest. Skip it if you want a coastal market or a high Big Law rate. It costs $82,558 a year and places 28.8 percent into large firms. The argument follows.
A serious, quietly excellent, deeply Midwestern law school with the highest acceptance rate in this group and a student body better than that number suggests.
The verified position: a 26.7 percent acceptance rate, a 171 LSAT and 3.88 GPA median, $82,558 a year with a $35,000 median grant reaching 94 percent of students, and 28.8 percent into firms of 101 or more attorneys.
Verified figureValueAcceptance rate26.7% (909 offers on 3,405 applications)LSAT 25/50/75166 / 171 / 173GPA 25/50/753.62 / 3.88 / 3.95Annual cost of attendance$82,558Median grant / share receiving$35,000 to 94% of studentsClass of 2025 graduates222Firms of 101+ attorneys28.8% (64 graduates)Federal clerkships3.2% (7 graduates)Employed at 10 months96.0%Top marketsMN 122, IL 21, CA 10CityMinneapolis, MNCar neededNoJanuary average low / July average high8.8F / 83.4F
Sources: Minnesota's 2025 ABA 509 report (https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=81&year=2025), its class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary (https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=81&year=2025), and its admissions pages (https://law.umn.edu/admissions/jd/how-apply). Climate from NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals. Verified July 26, 2026.
The admissions side of this school, percentiles, splitter treatment and scholarship posture, sits on our Minnesota law school acceptance rate page.
You want the upper Midwest, or you are a splitter who wants a 171-median school that will actually admit you.
Anyone targeting Minneapolis or the upper Midwest, and splitters who want a 171-median school that will actually admit them.
The disclosed numbers behind that: 28.8 percent large-firm placement, 3.2 percent federal clerkships, 96.0 percent employed at ten months, and a placement pattern of MN 122, IL 21, CA 10.
You want a coastal market or a high Big Law rate.
Someone who needs a coastal market or a high Big Law rate.
The complaint current students actually make, which is the fairest warning available: A 26.7% acceptance rate reads as unselective and depresses the school's perceived prestige, even though the 171 LSAT median is higher than Duke's, Michigan's, or UCLA's.
Minnesota's 171 LSAT median is higher than Duke's, Michigan's, UCLA's, Berkeley's, Georgetown's, or Notre Dame's, and its acceptance rate is 26.7%. That is the single largest gap between class quality and admissions difficulty in these three volumes.
It is checkable. Every number we have used is in Minnesota's own filings, linked above, and we would rather you verify it than trust us.
A 28.8% large-firm rate and a private median well below the coastal scale mean this is a regional outcome. It is a good one, but it is not a Cravath-scale one.
Price it rather than dismissing it. The three-year net cost at the median grant is roughly $142,674, our arithmetic before interest, and that is the sum you are putting against the risk.
Since July 1, 2026 federal borrowing is capped at $50,000 a year and $200,000 in aggregate with Grad PLUS eliminated, under the Reimagining and Improving Student Education final rule, which attributes the change to the Working Families Tax Cuts Act (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/01/2026-08556/reimagining-and-improving-student-education-federal-student-loan-program-final-regulations). Any gap above that cap here has to be closed privately, which sharpens every risk on this page.
You accept winter and a regional market in exchange for a high quality of life and low costs.
Run the comparison on net cost after your actual offer rather than on sticker, because the median grant is a midpoint and half of recipients received less. Then weigh the outcome columns against the market you actually intend to practice in.
For the daily texture rather than the verdict, see what Minnesota Law is really like. For where it sits against every other school on outcomes and cost, our value table ranks all 31.
Our verified data layer for Minnesota is missing the matriculant count. Everything else on this page is sourced; that one item is not, so we have written around it rather than guessing. Confirm it with the admissions office before you rely on it.
You want the upper Midwest, or you are a splitter who wants a 171-median school that will actually admit you. You want a coastal market or a high Big Law rate.
Anyone targeting Minneapolis or the upper Midwest, and splitters who want a 171-median school that will actually admit them. The verified case is 28.8 percent large-firm placement, 3.2 percent federal clerkships and 96.0 percent employed at ten months.
Someone who needs a coastal market or a high Big Law rate. A 26.7% acceptance rate reads as unselective and depresses the school's perceived prestige, even though the 171 LSAT median is higher than Duke's, Michigan's, or UCLA's.
A 28.8% large-firm rate and a private median well below the coastal scale mean this is a regional outcome. It is a good one, but it is not a Cravath-scale one. Against a three-year net cost of roughly $142,674 at the median grant, that risk deserves an explicit price.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
July 30, 2026
July 30, 2026