How to Get Into Cardozo Law School: LSAT, GPA & Admissions (2026)

The short answer to how to get into Cardozo Law School is to clear the medians in Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure: a 165 LSAT and a 3.78 GPA. The middle 50 percent of the fall 2025 class scored 162 to 167 on the LSAT and held a 3.56 to 3.87 GPA. Clear both and you are competitive.

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. The admissions figures on this page come from Cardozo Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for the fall 2025 entering class, the employment figures from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and the bar-passage figures from Cardozo Law's ABA bar-passage report, alongside the school's own published admissions pages.

The single most distinctive fact about Cardozo Law School is where its graduates land. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Cardozo Law placed 253 of its 311 graduates in New York, a top-market share of 81.4% that ranks among the most concentrated in American legal education. Nearly all of that class was working: 96.8% held jobs at ten months, and 26.7% went to large firms of 101 or more lawyers. Cardozo Law School is, in plain terms, a New York City law school that funnels its class into the New York market with unusual force. If your target is New York practice, that concentration is the reason to read on. If it is not, the same concentration is the honest reason to think twice.

Cardozo Law School at a glance: LSAT, GPA, acceptance rate and cost

Cardozo Law School posts a 165 LSAT median, a 3.78 GPA median, and a 29.56% acceptance rate in Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Full-time tuition and fees run $76,458, with living expenses of $34,114 listed separately. The table below collects the headline admissions, cost, and outcome numbers in one place.

MetricCardozo Law School (fall 2025 entering class unless noted)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)162 / 165 / 167GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.56 / 3.78 / 3.87Acceptance rate29.56%Applications3,833Offers of admission1,133Matriculants from the applicant pool319First-year class326Full-time tuition and fees$76,458Living expenses$34,114Share receiving grants98%Grant amount (25th / 50th / 75th)$30,000 / $40,000 / $50,000Full-tuition awards23 full-tuition, plus 1 above full tuitionConditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage (2024, New York)88.47%Ultimate bar passage (2022 cohort)91.2%First-year academic attrition0.0%Employed at ten months (Class of 2024)96.8% (301 of 311)Top market (Class of 2024)New York, 81.4% of graduatesLarge firms, 101 or more lawyers (Class of 2024)26.7% of graduatesFederal clerkships (Class of 2024)2.6% of graduates

Source: Cardozo Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for the fall 2025 entering class, with employment from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 and bar passage from Cardozo Law's ABA bar-passage report. The 509 prints tuition and living expenses separately and does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so this page does not sum them into an all-in figure.

What LSAT and GPA do you really need to get into Cardozo Law School?

Cardozo Law School reports an LSAT spread of 162 to 167 and a GPA spread of 3.56 to 3.87 in its 2025 ABA 509. A 165 LSAT and a 3.78 GPA sit at both medians and make you competitive. Below the 162 LSAT or the 3.56 GPA, you need a clear compensating strength on the other number.

Cardozo Law School reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 162, 165, and 167, and a GPA 25th, 50th, and 75th of 3.56, 3.78, and 3.87 for the fall 2025 entering class, per Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The median is the fiftieth percentile: half of the enrolled class scored above 165 on the LSAT and above 3.78 in GPA, and half below. A median is a target rather than a cutoff, but at Cardozo Law School both medians anchor the center of the class, so treat them as the numbers to reach.

The LSAT band at Cardozo Law School is tight. From the 25th percentile of 162 to the median of 165 is a three-point gap, and from the median to the 75th of 167 is a further two points. That compact five-point interquartile range means Cardozo Law admits few students far below a 162 and expects most of its class to cluster in the low-to-mid 160s. A 162, the bottom quartile, is a genuine admit range at Cardozo Law School, but a score at that level leans on a strong GPA to carry the file.

The GPA band runs from 3.56 at the 25th percentile to 3.87 at the 75th, a spread of 0.31. A 3.56 is a solid college record that nonetheless sits in the bottom quarter of the Cardozo Law School class, so an applicant at that GPA wants LSAT support at or above the 165 median. Read the two bands together and they describe a class with strong, tightly grouped LSATs and a somewhat wider GPA range, which is exactly the shape that tells you how Cardozo Law treats an imbalanced file.

That shape makes Cardozo Law School splitter friendly. Lovare's read of the 509 spreads shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.22 against an LSAT 25th-to-median spread of three points, so the GPA band gives more on the low side than the LSAT band does. A splitter-friendly school forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high; a reverse-splitter-friendly school forgives a lower LSAT when the GPA is high. Cardozo Law School leans splitter friendly, so a high LSAT paired with a GPA in the mid-3.5s has a real path, while a high GPA with an LSAT well under 162 is the tougher sell. If your transcript lags but your LSAT is strong, Cardozo Law School is a school worth targeting.

Is Cardozo Law School harder to get into than its reputation?

Not really, and the numbers say so plainly. Cardozo Law School carries a strong reputation, especially in New York and in intellectual property, but by raw admit rate it sits toward the more forgiving end of its LSAT band. Among the 33 schools clustered at its 165 median, Cardozo Law ranks 28th most selective. Its reputation runs ahead of its admit rate.

Reputation places Cardozo Law School among the well-regarded private schools of the New York market, with particular strength in intellectual property, entertainment, and dispute resolution. Its 165 LSAT median fits comfortably in that tier. The admit rate, though, tells a more accessible story than the reputation implies, and that gap is useful information for an applicant. Lovare built a peer band of the 33 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Cardozo Law's 165, that is, a median of 163 to 167, then ranked them by acceptance rate from the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. By that ranking, Cardozo Law School is 28th most selective of the 33.

Here is what that placement means in practice. A 28th-of-33 position tells you that most schools sitting at the same 165 LSAT median admit a smaller share of their applicants than Cardozo Law School does. Cardozo Law's 29.56% acceptance rate is real and is drawn directly from its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, and it is higher than the rate at most of its band peers. For an applicant, that is good news read correctly: a file that matches the Cardozo Law School medians has a better statistical shot here than at a similarly ranked school with a lower admit rate.

The honest verdict is that Cardozo Law School is a strong school that is easier to be admitted to than its brand suggests. That is not a knock on the degree, which carries real weight in New York. It is a planning fact: an applicant at or near the 162/165/167 LSAT and 3.56/3.78/3.87 GPA figures should treat Cardozo Law School as a target rather than a reach, and should weigh it against band peers that are harder to enter but not obviously stronger in the New York market that Cardozo Law feeds.

How much does Cardozo Law School cost, and how much scholarship money will you get?

Cardozo Law School charges $76,458 in full-time tuition and fees, per Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA 509, plus $34,114 in living expenses. Ninety-eight percent of students receive grants, with a median award of $40,000. A median-grant recipient nets about $36,458 in tuition and fees before living costs, which reshapes the sticker considerably.

Cardozo Law School is a full-freight private school, and the sticker reflects that. Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $76,458 and living expenses at $34,114. The 509 prints those two figures separately and does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so any all-in annual number quoted elsewhere is someone's arithmetic rather than a figure Cardozo Law School reports, and this page will not invent one. Read tuition and living as the two distinct costs the school actually discloses.

The aid picture is where Cardozo Law School gets more affordable than the sticker suggests. According to the same 509, 98% of Cardozo Law students receive grant aid, with awards at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $30,000, $40,000, and $50,000. Cardozo Law School reports 23 full-tuition awards and 1 award above full tuition. A 98% grant reach is unusually broad: nearly every enrolled student receives some discount, so the published tuition is close to a starting point for negotiation rather than the price most students actually pay.

For a typical recipient, the math is concrete. Against the $76,458 sticker, a student receiving Cardozo Law School's median grant of $40,000 nets about $36,458 in tuition and fees before living costs, using figures from Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Just as important, the aid is stable. Cardozo Law School does not use conditional scholarships, so an award is not tied to a first-year class-rank or GPA threshold and cannot be cut if your grades slip. The grant Cardozo Law School quotes at admission is the grant you keep for all three years, which removes a common and painful surprise that hits students at schools that do renew aid on performance.

What are your real chances off the Cardozo Law School waitlist?

Cardozo Law School does not disclose waitlist offers or admits, and no ABA report does. The honest proxy is implied yield: 319 matriculants against 1,133 offers is a 28.2% yield. That is a moderate-to-low yield, which means Cardozo Law fills a good part of its class from first-round offers while leaving genuine room for waitlist movement.

Here is the reasoning in full. Cardozo Law School enrolled 319 matriculants from 1,133 offers in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, an implied yield of 28.2%. No ABA disclosure, Cardozo Law's included, publishes how many applicants are admitted from the waitlist or how many accept, so implied yield is the honest proxy for how much a waitlist moves. When a little over a quarter of admitted students enroll, a school extends more offers than seats and refreshes the pool as admits decline, which is the mechanism that keeps a waitlist alive.

A 28.2% yield is moderate-to-low, which is actually encouraging for a waitlisted applicant to Cardozo Law School. It is lower than a school that yields close to half of its offers and barely touches its list, so Cardozo Law is more likely than a high-yield school to return to the waitlist in a given cycle. That is not a promise, since yields shift year to year and a strong cycle can shrink movement, but it does mean a Cardozo Law School waitlist spot carries real rather than token hope.

If you land on the Cardozo Law School waitlist, the play is standard: send a concise letter of continued interest naming Cardozo Law School as a top choice, add any new LSAT score or improved grades, and keep another acceptance in hand as your floor. Do not build your plan around a Cardozo Law School waitlist spot, but do not write it off either, because the moderate-to-low yield keeps the door genuinely open.

One honest note on the class figures. Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure lists 319 matriculants from the applicant pool but a first-year class of 326. The small gap reflects students who arrive through paths other than this single cycle's pool, such as admitted students who deferred from a prior year. The 28.2% implied yield is computed from the 319 pool matriculants against the 1,133 offers, which is the correct comparison for reasoning about this cycle's waitlist odds at Cardozo Law School.

Where do Cardozo Law School graduates actually work?

In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Cardozo Law School placed 81.4% of graduates in New York and 87.1% across its top three markets. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers took 26.7%, and 2.6% won federal clerkships. Cardozo Law is a concentrated New York City feeder with a solid large-firm share.

Cardozo Law School is a New York school in the most literal sense the data allows. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Cardozo Law placed 253 of its graduates in New York, 10 in New Jersey, and 8 in California. That is an 81.4% top-market share and an 87.1% top-three share, one of the most concentrated placement profiles in the country. More than eight in ten Cardozo Law School graduates begin their careers in New York, and the New York, New Jersey, and California trio absorbs the large majority of the class.

Concentration matters more than the raw employment rate because the rate barely separates strong schools. Cardozo Law School reported 301 of 311 graduates employed at ten months, or 96.8%, in the same ABA Employment Summary, which is excellent but similar to figures across the top of the market. What actually distinguishes one school from another is where those jobs are. If you want New York practice, Cardozo Law School aims almost its entire network there, which is a genuine advantage. If your target is Chicago, Texas, the Southeast, or the West Coast, the 87.1% top-three concentration is an honest warning that Cardozo Law's reach outside the Northeast corridor is thin.

On firm outcomes, Cardozo Law School posts a solid share for its band. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 26.7% of Cardozo Law graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers. In the New York market, where the largest firms concentrate, that share reflects real access to big-firm practice for the quarter or so of the class that targets it, even if it does not reach the elite-feeder levels of the national top tier.

Federal clerkships round out the picture. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 2.6% of Cardozo Law School graduates entering federal clerkships. That is a modest share, in line with a school whose center of gravity is private practice in New York rather than the judicial and academic pipeline. Taken together, the outcome data describes Cardozo Law School as a school that does one thing very well: it places its graduates into the New York legal market, with a meaningful minority reaching large firms.

When are Cardozo Law School's application deadlines?

Cardozo Law School's specific application deadlines and Early Decision terms were not part of the primary disclosures behind this page, and the ABA 509 does not publish them. Rather than state a date this page cannot verify, the honest guidance is to confirm the current deadlines and any Early Decision terms directly on Cardozo Law School's admissions site.

The ABA Standard 509 Information Report that anchors the admissions figures on this page reports class-level data such as LSAT and GPA percentiles, offers, and matriculants, but it does not publish an application deadline calendar. Cardozo Law School's Early Decision terms are not confirmed here for the current cycle, so this page will not state whether an Early Decision round is binding, when it closes, or what deposit it carries. Those are exactly the details an applicant must get from the source of record rather than a secondary page.

The practical advice for Cardozo Law School applicants is the advice that holds at almost every school with a rolling-style cycle: apply early, because reading files as they arrive tends to reward applicants who complete early over equally qualified applicants who complete late. The specific dates that govern that timing shift from year to year, so confirm the current Cardozo Law School deadlines and Early Decision terms on the school's admissions page. The statements on this page are dated and were verified in August 2026.

Frequently asked questions about getting into Cardozo Law School

Is a 165 LSAT good enough for Cardozo Law?

A 165 is exactly the LSAT median at Cardozo Law School, per Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, where the middle 50 percent scored 162 to 167. A 165 puts you at the fiftieth percentile, competitive but not a lock. Pair it with a GPA at or above the 3.78 median and you are a strong candidate at Cardozo Law School.

What GPA do you need for Cardozo Law?

Cardozo Law School reports a GPA median of 3.78, with a 25th-to-75th range of 3.56 to 3.87, in its 2025 ABA 509. Aim for 3.78 or higher to sit at the center of the class. A GPA as low as 3.56 is still within the admitted range at Cardozo Law School, but at that level it wants LSAT support at or above the 165 median to carry the file.

What is Cardozo Law's acceptance rate?

Cardozo Law School admitted 29.56% of applicants for the fall 2025 class, extending 1,133 offers against 3,833 applications, according to Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Among the 33 schools sharing its 165 LSAT median, that rate ranks Cardozo Law School 28th most selective, meaning it is more accessible than most peers at the same score level.

How many people apply to Cardozo Law?

Cardozo Law School received 3,833 applications for the fall 2025 entering class, made 1,133 offers, and enrolled 319 matriculants from the pool for a first-year class of 326, per Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA 509. That pool-to-offer ratio is what produces the 29.56% acceptance rate and the 28.2% implied yield that shape a Cardozo Law School applicant's odds.

How much does Cardozo Law cost?

Cardozo Law School lists full-time tuition and fees of $76,458, plus $34,114 in living expenses, in its 2025 ABA 509. Cardozo Law School does not publish a single cost-of-attendance total in the 509, so tuition and living are best read as two separate costs rather than summed into an invented all-in figure. Most students pay well below sticker because of broad grant aid.

Does Cardozo Law give scholarships?

Yes, and very broadly. Cardozo Law School reports that 98% of students receive grant aid, with awards of $30,000, $40,000, and $50,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles, plus 23 full-tuition awards and 1 above full tuition, per Cardozo Law's 2025 ABA 509. The awards are not conditional, so an award at Cardozo Law School cannot be cut if your grades slip.

What is Cardozo Law's bar passage rate?

Cardozo Law School posted an 88.47% first-time bar passage rate for exam year 2024 in its largest jurisdiction, New York, according to Cardozo Law's ABA bar-passage report. Its ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, was 91.2%. Both figures are strong, and they mean the large majority of Cardozo Law School graduates who sit for the bar pass it.

Where do Cardozo Law graduates work?

Most work in New York. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Cardozo Law School placed 253 graduates in New York, 10 in New Jersey, and 8 in California, an 81.4% top-market share and 87.1% across the top three. Cardozo Law School has one of the most concentrated New York placement profiles of any school at its level.

Can a splitter get into Cardozo Law?

A splitter has a real path. Lovare reads Cardozo Law School as splitter friendly, with a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.22 against a narrower LSAT spread of three points in the 2025 ABA 509. That means Cardozo Law School forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high, so a strong-LSAT applicant with a GPA in the mid-3.5s is more viable at Cardozo Law School than the reverse profile.

How selective is Cardozo Law compared with schools at the same LSAT?

Cardozo Law School is on the accessible end of its band. Among the 33 ABA schools whose median LSAT is within two points of its 165, ranked by acceptance rate in the 2025 ABA 509, Cardozo Law ranks 28th most selective of 33. In plain terms, most schools at the same LSAT median admit a smaller share of applicants, so Cardozo Law School is easier to enter than its reputation suggests.

Is Cardozo Law worth it?

For a New York legal career, the case is strong. Cardozo Law School pairs a $76,458 sticker with 98% grant reach, and in the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 it placed 96.8% of graduates in jobs and 26.7% at large firms, with 81.4% landing in New York. Add an 88.47% first-time bar pass rate, and Cardozo Law School delivers for applicants aimed at the New York market.

What LSAT and GPA give the best shot at a Cardozo Law scholarship?

Scores above the medians. Because Cardozo Law School spreads grant aid to 98% of students and reports a median award of $40,000 in its 2025 ABA 509, an LSAT above 165 and a GPA above 3.78, toward the 167 and 3.87 upper quartiles, position you for the larger awards. The 23 full-tuition awards at Cardozo Law School go to the strongest files in the pool.

Does Cardozo Law use conditional scholarships?

No. Cardozo Law School reports in its 2025 ABA 509 that it does not award conditional scholarships, which are awards tied to a first-year GPA or class-rank threshold. That means a grant at Cardozo Law School is not at risk if your first-year grades fall below a cutoff, so the award you are offered at admission is the award you keep across all three years of study.

What is Cardozo Law's first-year attrition rate?

Cardozo Law School reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0% in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, meaning no students were dismissed for academic reasons from the tracked first-year cohort. A 0.0% academic attrition figure signals that once you are admitted and enrolled at Cardozo Law School, the school expects you to complete the year, which is a reassuring sign of institutional stability for an incoming student.

Sources

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

Cardozo Law School 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report, fall 2025 entering class: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=168&year=2025

Cardozo Law School ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=168&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=168&year=2024

Get your free Cardozo Law admissions profile evaluation