Law Schools in Arkansas + LSAT Prep (2026 Guide)

Arkansas has two ABA-approved law schools: the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen). Their median LSAT scores span 153 to 158 in the 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosures, so a competitive Arkansas applicant is generally aiming for the low-to-mid 150s, with the flagship in Fayetteville setting the higher bar.

By Ali Unar, Georgetown Law, Founder of Lovare Institut. Ali Unar is a Georgetown Law student and the founder of Lovare Institut, an admissions and LSAT-prep practice built on primary-source law school data. Verified August 2026. Every school-level figure on this page comes from each Arkansas school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure for the fall 2025 entering class, with in-state retention from the ABA Class of 2024 employment data and bar-exam status from the NCBE.

Arkansas is a small state for legal education, which is worth saying plainly at the top. Two ABA law schools serve the whole state, both of them public and both part of the University of Arkansas System, one in Fayetteville in the northwest and one in Little Rock in the center. That compact field has an upside for applicants: Arkansas is one of the more affordable states to earn a law degree, and the two schools sit at clearly different points on selectivity, so an applicant can reason cleanly about where a given LSAT lands. This guide covers both schools in depth, explains what a low-to-mid 150s score opens in Arkansas, and works through the state's bar exam, where the NextGen transition has not yet been dated.

What law schools are in Arkansas?

Arkansas has exactly two ABA-approved law schools, and both are public. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville School of Law is the flagship and posts the higher median LSAT at 158 with the more selective 26.6% acceptance rate. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock, William H. Bowen School of Law sits at a 153 median with a much more open 54.9% acceptance rate. There is no third ABA law school in Arkansas, so these two define the in-state field.

SchoolMedian LSATAcceptance rateFull-time tuitionUniversity of Arkansas, Fayetteville15826.6%$18,773University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen)15354.9%$13,770

Source: each figure in the table is drawn from that school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure for the fall 2025 entering class, published through the ABA required disclosures portal. The median LSAT is the fiftieth percentile of each Arkansas school's enrolled class, the acceptance rate is offers divided by applications, and the tuition figure is the full-time annual rate each Arkansas school reports in its 509.

The headline for Arkansas is affordability paired with a clear selectivity split. Both schools are public and both post full-time tuition well under $20,000 in their 2025 ABA 509 disclosures, with Little Rock (Bowen) the lower at $13,770 and Fayetteville at $18,773. That is inexpensive by national standards for an ABA law degree. On selectivity, Fayetteville is the reach-leaning flagship at a 158 median and a 26.6% acceptance rate, while Little Rock (Bowen) is the accessible option at a 153 median and a 54.9% acceptance rate. For an Arkansas applicant, the choice is between a more selective flagship and a more open urban school, both at a low in-state price.

What LSAT and GPA do you need for law school in Arkansas?

In-state median LSATs in Arkansas run 153 to 158, per the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville sits at the top of the state at a 158 median with a 26.6% acceptance rate, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen) is the most accessible at a 153 median with a 54.9% acceptance rate. A mid-150s score is competitive across the state; a low-150s score is squarely in range at Bowen.

Start with what a median means. Fayetteville's 158 median is the fiftieth percentile of its fall 2025 class in the 2025 ABA 509, so half of enrolled Fayetteville students scored above 158 and half below. A median is a target, not a cutoff. A 158 puts you at the center of the admitted class at Fayetteville, a higher score strengthens the file, and a score a few points lower is not an automatic rejection but a file that leans harder on GPA and the rest of the application. The same reading applies at Little Rock (Bowen), where the 153 median marks the middle of the enrolled class rather than a floor.

Now map your own score onto Arkansas. If you carry a 158 or higher, you are competitive at the top of the state and comfortably in range at Bowen, so both Arkansas schools are realistic. If you sit in the mid-150s, you are near or slightly below the Fayetteville median but well within Bowen's range and still a plausible Fayetteville applicant with a strong GPA. If your score is in the low 150s, Little Rock (Bowen) is where applicants at that number are routinely admitted, given its 153 median and 54.9% acceptance rate in the 2025 ABA 509, so a low-150s scorer has a real Arkansas option rather than none.

The honest framing for a lower scorer matters. Because Arkansas has only two ABA schools, it can look like a score below the Fayetteville median closes the state. It does not. Little Rock (Bowen) sits exactly in that band, and its open 54.9% acceptance rate is where low-150s applicants land. GPA is the other lever: both Arkansas schools report GPA ranges in their 509 disclosures, and a transcript at or above a school's median can offset an LSAT that sits under it, a dynamic that is especially strong at Bowen, as the next section explains.

Which Arkansas law schools are splitter friendly?

Both Arkansas law schools read as splitter friendly in the 2025 ABA 509 spreads, and Little Rock (Bowen) is strongly so. Bowen shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.40, one of the wider GPA bands you will find, while the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville shows a narrower 0.17. In plain terms, a high LSAT paired with a lower GPA has a genuine path at both Arkansas schools, and Bowen is markedly more forgiving on GPA.

A quick definition. A splitter is an applicant with a high LSAT and a lower GPA, and a splitter-friendly school forgives the weaker GPA because the LSAT is carrying the file. A reverse splitter is the mirror image, a high GPA with a lower LSAT. The width of a school's GPA band from its 25th percentile up to its median is a good tell: a wider spread means the school is comfortable enrolling students whose transcripts sit well under the middle of the class.

By that measure Little Rock (Bowen) is one of the more splitter-friendly law schools around, with a 0.40 GPA 25th-to-median spread in the 2025 ABA 509. That width says a Bowen applicant with an LSAT at or above the 153 median and a GPA meaningfully below the class midpoint is a familiar, admissible profile in Little Rock. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville is splitter friendly as well, but more mildly, with a 0.17 GPA spread: a high-LSAT, lower-GPA file works there, but the tighter band means Fayetteville enrolls fewer students far under its GPA median than Bowen does.

What Arkansas does not clearly offer, on this data, is a reverse-splitter haven. The 2025 ABA 509 spreads flag both schools as GPA-forgiving rather than LSAT-forgiving, so an applicant whose strength is a high GPA and whose weakness is a lower LSAT should not assume either Arkansas school will wave the LSAT through. If your LSAT is your strength, Arkansas is friendly territory, and Bowen especially so; if your GPA is your strength and your LSAT lags, plan to lift the LSAT before applying.

What is the legal job market like in Arkansas?

Both Arkansas schools are strongly in-state, per the ABA Class of 2024 employment data. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen) keeps 62% of its class in Arkansas, and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville keeps 60%, so roughly three in five graduates of each school stay to practice in the state. Little Rock is the dominant legal market in Arkansas, home to state government, the courts, and the largest concentration of private firms.

Read those retention numbers as a signal of where each Arkansas degree does its work. Little Rock (Bowen)'s 62% in-state share in the ABA Class of 2024 data reflects an urban school embedded in the state capital's legal market, which includes state agencies, the judiciary, and the private bar clustered in Little Rock. Fayetteville's 60% share reflects a flagship whose graduates spread across the state, with a strong pull toward the fast-growing Northwest Arkansas region around Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, an area whose corporate presence has expanded the legal work available there.

For an applicant, the two schools are geographically complementary within Arkansas. Little Rock (Bowen) sits closest to the state's largest legal market and its government and court employers, while Fayetteville anchors the Northwest Arkansas corridor and the flagship's statewide network. Both keep about 60% of their graduates in Arkansas, so either is a sound choice for a career in the state, and the decision often comes down to which Arkansas region you want to build in. This page does not publish salary figures for Arkansas, because the packet behind it does not include verified salary data, and inventing one would defeat the purpose of a primary-source guide.

One honest note on scope. The retention figures here come specifically from the ABA Class of 2024 employment data for each school and measure where graduates took their first jobs, not lifetime career location. They are the best available in-state signal, but an applicant weighing Arkansas should still read each school's full ABA Employment Summary for the detail behind the headline share, including firm size, government, and public-interest breakdowns that a single retention percentage cannot capture.

Does Arkansas use the NextGen bar exam?

Arkansas currently administers the Uniform Bar Exam, and its adoption of the NextGen bar exam has not yet been announced by the NCBE. So for now an Arkansas bar-taker sits for the UBE, a portable score that transfers within UBE jurisdictions, and there is no confirmed NextGen start date for Arkansas. The legacy UBE and Multistate Bar Exam end nationally after the February 2028 administration.

This is the part of the Arkansas picture with genuine uncertainty, so it deserves a careful, honest reading. According to the NCBE, Arkansas is a current UBE jurisdiction, which means today's candidates take the Uniform Bar Exam and earn a score portable to other UBE states within their rules. What the NCBE has not yet announced is when Arkansas will move to NextGen, so this page will not invent a date. That matters because the national timeline is fixed at the other end: the NCBE has said the legacy UBE and MBE end after the February 2028 administration, which means Arkansas will eventually need a NextGen transition even though the specific first-administration date is not yet set.

For a student mapping a study plan, the practical guidance is twofold. If you will sit for the Arkansas bar in the near term, prepare for the UBE that Arkansas currently administers. If your graduation lands later, treat the NextGen transition as coming but undated for Arkansas, and confirm the exact exam you will face with the Arkansas Board of Law Examiners rather than assuming a date the NCBE has not published. Because exam-format transitions are administered at the state level, the Arkansas board is the authoritative source for when the state switches.

Where can you take the LSAT in Arkansas?

LSAT test centers are available in Arkansas's major metros, including the Little Rock area and the Northwest Arkansas region around Fayetteville, with the test also offered as a remotely proctored exam. Specific test-center locations and the mix of in-person and remote seats change every testing cycle, so the reliable step is to check LSAC's official test-center list on lsac.org rather than rely on a fixed address that can go out of date between Arkansas test dates.

A few practical notes for Arkansas test-takers. Because the LSAT is offered both at physical centers and as a remotely proctored exam from home, an Arkansas applicant outside the two main metros is not locked out by distance. Little Rock, as the state's largest metro, is the most reliable place to find in-person Arkansas seats, and the Fayetteville area serves the northwest near the flagship. Since seats fill as each registration deadline nears, registering early for an Arkansas test date is the best way to secure the location and format you prefer.

Whichever format you choose in Arkansas, the score is the same instrument that the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and Little Rock (Bowen) report as their medians in the 2025 ABA 509, so there is no in-state versus out-of-state version of the test. Plan your Arkansas test date around your application timeline, leave room for a possible retake, and treat LSAC's official list as the single source of truth for where and how you can sit in Arkansas this cycle.

Which Arkansas universities feed law school?

Arkansas's flagship undergraduate feeder into law school is the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, the state flagship, which also houses one of the two law schools. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock, home of the Bowen School of Law, is a natural pipeline in central Arkansas, and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, and Hendrix College in Conway round out the universities that commonly send pre-law students forward in Arkansas.

Those institutions are named here as common pre-law feeders based on their size and standing in Arkansas, not on a specific placement statistic, because the packet behind this guide does not attribute a verified feeder-to-law-school number and this page will not invent one. In practice, strong pre-law preparation in Arkansas is less about the specific undergraduate name and more about a rigorous major, a high GPA, and disciplined LSAT preparation, since both Arkansas law schools admit primarily on the LSAT and GPA numbers they report in their 2025 ABA 509 disclosures.

If you are an Arkansas undergraduate aiming at either in-state law school, the useful mindset is that your major and your LSAT do more work than your college's brand. A political science, history, philosophy, or economics track builds the reading and reasoning the LSAT rewards, but so does any demanding program, and Arkansas admissions offices are reading for the numbers and the writing far more than for the name of the feeder school.

Frequently asked questions about law school in Arkansas

How many law schools are in Arkansas?

Arkansas has two ABA-approved law schools, both public and both in the University of Arkansas System: the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville School of Law and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen). That makes Arkansas a small state for legal education, with one flagship in the northwest and one urban school in the capital, per the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures.

What is the easiest law school to get into in Arkansas?

By the numbers, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen) is the more accessible of the two Arkansas schools. Bowen reports a 54.9% acceptance rate and a 153 median LSAT in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, compared with Fayetteville's 26.6% acceptance rate and 158 median. Bowen is where a low-150s Arkansas applicant is most likely to be admitted.

What is the best law school in Arkansas?

On admissions selectivity, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville leads the state, with the highest median LSAT in Arkansas at 158 and a 26.6% acceptance rate in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Best depends on your goal, though: both Arkansas schools keep about 60% of graduates in state, so Little Rock (Bowen) is an equally sound choice for a central-Arkansas career despite its more open admissions.

What LSAT score do you need for law school in Arkansas?

Arkansas's in-state medians run 153 to 158 in the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. A mid-150s LSAT is competitive across the state, including Fayetteville at its 158 median. A low-150s score is squarely in range at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen), which posts a 153 median, so an Arkansas applicant does not need a 158 to have a real in-state option.

How much does law school cost in Arkansas?

Arkansas is inexpensive for an ABA law degree. Full-time tuition runs $13,770 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen) and $18,773 at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, per each school's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Both are public schools with tuition well under $20,000, which makes Arkansas one of the more affordable states in which to study law.

Does Arkansas use the NextGen bar exam?

Not yet. Arkansas currently administers the Uniform Bar Exam, and its NextGen adoption has not been announced by the NCBE, so there is no confirmed Arkansas start date. The legacy UBE and MBE end nationally after the February 2028 administration, which means Arkansas will need a NextGen transition eventually, but the date is not yet set. Confirm with the Arkansas Board of Law Examiners.

Can you take the bar in Arkansas with an out-of-state degree?

Yes. A graduate of any ABA-approved law school may sit for the Arkansas bar, not only graduates of the University of Arkansas schools. Arkansas currently administers the Uniform Bar Exam, per the NCBE, so an out-of-state graduate takes the same Arkansas exam as an in-state one. Confirm eligibility details with the Arkansas Board of Law Examiners before planning to sit.

Which Arkansas law school has the best bar passage?

The packet behind this guide does not include school-level bar-passage rates for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville or Little Rock (Bowen), so this page will not state one it cannot verify. Each Arkansas school's ABA bar-passage report is the authoritative source for its first-time and ultimate pass rates, and an applicant comparing the two schools should read those reports directly.

Are there part-time or evening law programs in Arkansas?

The packet behind this guide does not confirm part-time or evening program formats at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville or Little Rock (Bowen), so this page will not assert one. Program formats are best verified on each Arkansas school's admissions pages, which state whether a part-time, evening, or flexible track is offered for the current cycle.

Where can you take the LSAT in Arkansas?

LSAT test centers are available in Arkansas's major metros, including Little Rock and the Northwest Arkansas region around Fayetteville, and the test is also offered as a remotely proctored exam. Because specific center locations change each cycle, check LSAC's official test-center list on lsac.org for the current Arkansas options rather than relying on a fixed address.

Which Arkansas law schools are splitter friendly?

Both Arkansas schools read as splitter friendly in the 2025 ABA 509 spreads, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen) strongly so, with a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.40. Fayetteville follows at 0.17. That means a high LSAT can offset a lower GPA at both Arkansas schools, with Bowen the far more comfortable home for a GPA below the class median.

Do you have to go to law school in Arkansas to practice there?

No. To practice in Arkansas you must be admitted to the Arkansas bar, which requires an ABA-approved law degree and a passing bar score, but that degree can come from any ABA-approved school in any state. Arkansas currently uses the Uniform Bar Exam, per the NCBE, so out-of-state graduates can and do qualify for Arkansas practice.

Is Fayetteville or Little Rock (Bowen) better for staying in Arkansas?

Both are strongly in-state. The ABA Class of 2024 employment data show Little Rock (Bowen) keeping 62% of its class in Arkansas and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville keeping 60%, so the two are nearly even on retention. Bowen leans toward the Little Rock capital market and Fayetteville toward the Northwest Arkansas corridor, so the choice is more about region than raw in-state placement.

Is the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville hard to get into?

It is the more selective of the two Arkansas schools. Fayetteville reports a 26.6% acceptance rate and a 158 median LSAT in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, so roughly a quarter of applicants are admitted and a competitive file sits at or above the 158 median. Applicants below that median often turn to Little Rock (Bowen), the state's more accessible option.

Is law school in Arkansas a good value?

On price, yes. Both Arkansas schools are public and post full-time tuition under $20,000 in their 2025 ABA 509 disclosures, $13,770 at Little Rock (Bowen) and $18,773 at Fayetteville, among the lower in-state figures nationally. Paired with roughly 60% in-state retention at each school from the ABA Class of 2024 employment data, Arkansas is a low-cost path into the state's legal market.

Sources

Every figure on this page is drawn from primary disclosures, listed here so Arkansas readers can verify each one directly.

ABA required disclosures portal, 2025 Standard 509 Information Reports for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Bowen) (fall 2025 entering class): https://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/

National Conference of Bar Examiners, UBE status and NextGen bar exam adoption timeline for Arkansas: https://www.ncbex.org/

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