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

The short answer to how to get into CUNY School of Law is to reach the medians in CUNY Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure: a 155 LSAT and a 3.54 GPA. The middle 50 percent of the fall 2025 entering class scored 152 to 161 on the LSAT and held a 3.26 to 3.77 GPA. Clear both numbers and you are a competitive applicant.

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 figure on this page comes from CUNY School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for the fall 2025 entering class, employment from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and CUNY School of Law's own published pages.

The most distinctive fact about CUNY School of Law is that it is far more selective than its numbers first suggest, and far cheaper than almost any private peer. According to CUNY Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, CUNY School of Law admitted 28.7% of applicants, and when Lovare ranks the 60 ABA law schools whose median LSAT sits within two points of CUNY's 155, CUNY School of Law comes in 5th most selective of 60, near the very top of its band. It pairs that selectivity with a public-university price: full-time tuition and fees of $15,450 for residents and $25,640 for nonresidents. CUNY School of Law is a public-interest school by design, which shows in its outcomes: in the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, only 4.2% of graduates went to large firms, and its first-time bar passage rate for exam year 2024 was 65.67%. The thesis of this page is that CUNY School of Law is a genuinely selective, low-cost, mission-driven school where a public-interest career is the point, and where the honest caveats are a lower first-time bar rate and a lower ten-month employment rate that you should plan around, not past.

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

CUNY School of Law posts a 155 LSAT median, a 3.54 GPA median, and a 28.7% acceptance rate in CUNY Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Full-time tuition and fees run $15,450 a year for residents and $25,640 for nonresidents. The table below gathers the headline numbers for CUNY School of Law in one place.

MetricCUNY School of Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)152 / 155 / 161GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.26 / 3.54 / 3.77Acceptance rate28.7%Applications2,300Offers of admission659Matriculants219First-year class219 (161 full-time and 58 part-time)Full-time tuition and fees$15,450 a year resident, $25,640 nonresidentLiving expenses$30,805Share receiving grants17%Median grant$8,000Conditional scholarshipsNo (awards are not tied to a first-year grade threshold)First-time bar passage65.67% (exam year 2024, largest jurisdiction New York)Employed at ten months80.3% (171 of 213 graduates, Class of 2024)

Source: CUNY School of Law'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 CUNY School of Law's ABA bar-passage report. Tuition and living expenses are printed separately in the 509, which does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so this page does not sum them into an invented all-in figure for CUNY School of Law.

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

CUNY School of Law reports an LSAT spread of 152 to 161 and a GPA spread of 3.26 to 3.77 in its 2025 ABA 509. A 155 LSAT and a 3.54 GPA sit at both medians. Below the 152 LSAT or the 3.26 GPA, you need a clear compensating strength on the other number.

CUNY School of Law reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 152, 155, and 161, and a GPA 25th, 50th, and 75th of 3.26, 3.54, and 3.77 for the fall 2025 entering class, according to CUNY Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The median is the fiftieth percentile: half of the enrolled class scored above 155 on the LSAT and above 3.54 in GPA, and half scored below. A 155 and a 3.54 sit at the center of the admitted class, so they make you a competitive applicant at CUNY School of Law rather than a reach.

One feature of the CUNY School of Law bands is worth calling out: the LSAT band is unusually wide at the top. The LSAT runs nine points from the 152 bottom quartile to the 161 top quartile, while the GPA runs 0.51 across the same range. That wide LSAT band tells you CUNY School of Law admits a real mix of scores in service of its mission, so a 152, the LSAT bottom quartile, is a genuine admit range if the rest of the file, especially a demonstrated commitment to public-interest work, is strong. A 3.26, the GPA bottom quartile, is likewise inside the class but leans on an LSAT at or above 155. If you sit below both the 152 LSAT and the 3.26 GPA at once, CUNY School of Law becomes a reach unless something outside the numbers is unusually strong.

That shape makes CUNY School of Law splitter friendly. Lovare's read of the 509 spreads shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.28 and an LSAT 25th-to-median spread of three points, so the GPA band is proportionally the more forgiving of the two. 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. CUNY School of Law leans splitter friendly, so a high LSAT paired with a GPA in the low-3.2s has a genuine path, while a strong GPA does not rescue an LSAT far below the band as easily. If your transcript lags but your LSAT is strong, CUNY School of Law is a school worth targeting, particularly if your record shows a real commitment to its public-interest mission.

Is CUNY School of Law harder to get into than its reputation?

Yes, considerably. Among the 60 ABA law schools whose median LSAT is within two points of CUNY School of Law's 155, that is 153 to 157, CUNY School of Law ranks 5th most selective of 60 by acceptance rate, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. That places it near the very top of a large band, much tighter than its 155 median alone would suggest.

Reputation often files CUNY School of Law as an accessible public school, but its admit math is strict. Lovare built a peer band of the 60 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of CUNY's 155, a median of 153 to 157, then ranked them by acceptance rate from the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. By that ranking, CUNY School of Law comes in 5th most selective of 60, near the top of the band. In plain terms, at the same LSAT level, CUNY School of Law admits a smaller share of applicants than almost all of its peers, largely because its low public-university price and public-interest mission draw far more applicants than it has seats.

According to CUNY Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, CUNY School of Law received 2,300 applications, made 659 offers, and enrolled 219 students, for a 28.7% acceptance rate. Admitting fewer than three in ten applicants is genuinely selective for a school at this scoring level, and the modest offer count against a large applicant pool is what drives the number. The honest verdict is that CUNY School of Law is harder to get into than its reputation implies, so applicants at or near its medians should treat it as a target that requires a strong, mission-aligned application rather than a safety.

One reassuring note belongs here. CUNY School of Law reports a first-year academic attrition rate of just 1.0% in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, so once admitted, very few first-year students leave for academic reasons. That low attrition is a sign that CUNY School of Law admits students it expects to carry through, and it stands in useful contrast to the bar-passage caution discussed below.

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

CUNY School of Law charges $15,450 a year in full-time tuition and fees for residents and $25,640 for nonresidents, per CUNY Law's 2025 ABA 509, plus $30,805 in living expenses. Only 17% of students receive grants, with a median award of $8,000. A nonresident median-grant recipient nets about $17,640 in tuition and fees before living costs.

Cost is where CUNY School of Law separates itself from every private peer on this list. CUNY Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $15,450 a year for New York residents and $25,640 for nonresidents, plus $30,805 in living expenses. Those tuition figures are a fraction of the $70,000-range private stickers common among New York law schools, so even before any scholarship, a CUNY School of Law resident pays a comparatively small tuition bill. The 509 prints tuition and living 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 CUNY School of Law reports, and this page will not invent one.

Because the sticker is already low, CUNY School of Law gives far less merit aid than a private school does. According to the same 509, only 17% of CUNY School of Law students receive grant aid, and the award is $8,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles alike, with 0 full-tuition awards and 1 award above full tuition. In other words, most CUNY School of Law students pay the posted tuition rather than a discounted rate, and the flat $8,000 grant is the exception rather than the norm. For a nonresident median-grant recipient, an $8,000 award against the $25,640 nonresident sticker nets about $17,640 in tuition and fees before living costs, using figures from CUNY Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. A resident who receives the same $8,000 award against the $15,450 resident sticker would pay $7,450 in tuition and fees before living costs, which is among the lowest net prices at any ABA law school.

There is one clear piece of good news in the aid terms. CUNY School of Law does not use conditional scholarships, per its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, so an award is not tied to a first-year grade threshold and cannot be cut simply because your grades land below a cutoff. That matters: at schools with conditional aid, a curved first year can quietly erase a scholarship, but a CUNY School of Law student who wins a grant keeps it on the terms it was offered. Combined with the low public tuition, that makes CUNY School of Law one of the most financially predictable options in the New York market.

What are your real chances off the CUNY School of Law waitlist?

CUNY School of Law does not disclose waitlist offers or admits, and no ABA report does. The honest proxy is implied yield: 219 matriculants against 659 offers is a 33.2% yield in CUNY Law's 2025 ABA 509. That is a moderate yield, so CUNY School of Law fills much of its class from first-round offers while leaving some waitlist room.

Here is the reasoning in full. CUNY School of Law enrolled 219 matriculants from 659 offers in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, an implied yield of 33.2%. No ABA disclosure, CUNY School of Law's included, publishes how many applicants are admitted off the waitlist or how many accept, so implied yield is the honest proxy for waitlist movement. When about a third of admitted students enroll, a school extends a fair number of offers to fill its seats and typically keeps a waitlist active to close the gap between offers and deposits.

A 33.2% yield is moderate, which puts CUNY School of Law in the middle of the range for waitlist behavior. It is not so high that the class fills entirely from first-round deposits, and not so low that the school leans heavily on its list. For a waitlisted applicant to CUNY School of Law, that means real but limited hope: some cycles will see movement, others little. If you land on the CUNY School of Law waitlist, send a concise letter of continued interest that names CUNY School of Law as a top choice and speaks directly to your public-interest commitment, add any new LSAT score or improved grades, and keep another acceptance in hand as your anchor. Do not build your plan around a CUNY School of Law waitlist spot, but do not write it off either.

Where do CUNY School of Law graduates actually work?

In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, CUNY School of Law placed 150 of 213 graduates in New York, a 70.4% top-market share, and 74.6% across its top three markets. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers took 4.2% of the class, and 0.5% won federal clerkships. CUNY School of Law is a New York, public-interest-oriented school.

Market concentration is the first thing to understand about a CUNY School of Law degree. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, CUNY School of Law placed 150 graduates in New York, 5 in New Jersey, and 4 in California. That is a 70.4% top-market share and a 74.6% top-three share, so about seven in ten graduates work in New York. If your target is the New York metro, that concentration is a strength, because CUNY School of Law's alumni network and employer relationships cluster there, especially across legal-services organizations, public defenders, and government offices. If your goal is another region, the same concentration is a clear warning that the network is heavily local.

On firm outcomes, CUNY School of Law looks unlike a private regional school, and that is by design. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows just 4.2% of CUNY School of Law graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers. That low number is not a weakness so much as a reflection of the school's public-interest mission: CUNY School of Law is built to send graduates into government, nonprofit, and public-service law, not into large private firms. If a big-firm salary is your primary goal, CUNY School of Law is not the natural fit, and you should weigh that honestly. If public-interest work is your goal, the same profile is exactly what you want.

Two honest cautions round out the picture. First, CUNY School of Law reported 171 of 213 graduates employed at ten months, or 80.3%, in the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, which is lower than the private schools on this list and a number you should plan around. Second, CUNY School of Law's first-time bar passage rate for exam year 2024 was 65.67%, with New York as its largest jurisdiction, per CUNY School of Law's ABA bar-passage report. The ultimate pass rate for the 2022 cohort was much higher at 89.01%, so most CUNY School of Law graduates who miss on the first attempt eventually pass, but first-time bar preparation is a real task and federal clerkships, at 0.5% of the class, are rare.

When are CUNY School of Law's application deadlines?

The sources behind this page do not include CUNY School of Law's application deadlines or the terms of any Early Decision program, so both should be confirmed directly on CUNY School of Law's admissions site. What this page can date is the data: the admissions, cost, and outcome figures here were verified in August 2026 against CUNY School of Law's primary disclosures.

Application cycles reward early, complete files, so even without a published deadline in front of you, the practical advice for CUNY School of Law is to apply as early in the cycle as your strongest LSAT allows. Law school admissions at schools like CUNY School of Law are typically rolling, which means seats are more plentiful earlier and thinner later, and this matters more at CUNY School of Law than at most schools because it is genuinely selective within its band. Because this page's sources do not specify CUNY School of Law's exact deadlines or whether it offers a binding Early Decision round, confirm the current dates and any binding terms on CUNY School of Law's own admissions pages before you build your timeline around them.

Frequently asked questions about getting into CUNY School of Law

Is a 155 LSAT good enough for CUNY School of Law?

A 155 is exactly the LSAT median at CUNY School of Law, per CUNY Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, where the middle 50 percent scored 152 to 161. A 155 puts you at the fiftieth percentile, competitive rather than a lock, especially since CUNY School of Law is selective within its band. Pair it with a GPA at or above the 3.54 median and a strong mission fit.

What GPA do you need for CUNY School of Law?

CUNY School of Law reports a GPA median of 3.54, with a 25th to 75th range of 3.26 to 3.77, in its 2025 ABA 509. Aim for 3.54 or higher to sit at the center of the class. Because CUNY School of Law is splitter friendly, a GPA in the low-3.2s can still work if your LSAT is at or above the 155 median.

What is CUNY School of Law's acceptance rate?

CUNY School of Law admitted 28.7% of applicants for the fall 2025 class, extending 659 offers against 2,300 applications, according to CUNY Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That makes CUNY School of Law genuinely selective: Lovare ranks it 5th most selective of 60 schools in its LSAT band, so treat it as a real target rather than a safety.

How many people apply to CUNY School of Law each year?

CUNY School of Law received 2,300 applications for the fall 2025 entering class, made 659 offers, and enrolled 219 students, split into 161 full-time and 58 part-time, per CUNY Law's 2025 ABA 509. That large applicant pool against a modest offer count is what produces CUNY School of Law's selective 28.7% acceptance rate.

How much does CUNY School of Law cost per year?

CUNY School of Law lists full-time tuition and fees of $15,450 a year for residents and $25,640 for nonresidents, plus $30,805 in living expenses, in its 2025 ABA 509. Those tuition figures are a fraction of private New York peers. CUNY School of Law does not publish a single cost-of-attendance total, so tuition and living are best read separately.

Does CUNY School of Law give scholarships?

Sparingly. CUNY School of Law reports that only 17% of students receive grant aid, with a flat $8,000 award at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles, per CUNY Law's 2025 ABA 509. Most CUNY School of Law students pay the posted tuition rather than a discounted rate, but the low public sticker keeps the net price down even without a grant.

Are CUNY School of Law scholarships conditional?

No. CUNY School of Law does not use conditional scholarships, per its 2025 ABA 509, so an award is not tied to a first-year grade threshold and cannot be cut simply because your grades fall below a cutoff. That makes a CUNY School of Law grant more predictable than a conditional award at a private school, where a curved first year can quietly reduce the money.

What is CUNY School of Law's bar passage rate?

CUNY School of Law posted a 65.67% first-time bar passage rate for exam year 2024, with New York as its largest jurisdiction, according to CUNY School of Law's ABA bar-passage report. That is below its New York peers and a real caution. Its ultimate pass rate for the 2022 cohort was 89.01%, so most CUNY School of Law graduates who miss the first attempt eventually pass, but bar preparation is a serious task.

What is CUNY School of Law's first-year attrition rate?

CUNY School of Law reports a very low first-year academic attrition rate of 1.0% in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, so almost no first-year students leave for academic reasons. That low figure suggests CUNY School of Law admits students it expects to carry through the program, which is reassuring even alongside its lower first-time bar rate.

Where do CUNY School of Law graduates work?

Mostly in New York, and mostly in public-interest law. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows CUNY School of Law placed 150 graduates in New York, 5 in New Jersey, and 4 in California, a 70.4% top-market share. CUNY School of Law channels graduates into government, nonprofit, and public-service roles rather than large private firms.

Do CUNY School of Law graduates get large-firm jobs?

Rarely, and by design. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, only 4.2% of CUNY School of Law graduates took jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers. That low share reflects the school's public-interest mission rather than a failing, so if a large-firm career is your goal, CUNY School of Law is not the natural fit and you should weigh that honestly.

Can a splitter get into CUNY School of Law?

A splitter has a real path. Lovare reads CUNY School of Law as splitter friendly, with a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.28 against an LSAT spread of three points in the 2025 ABA 509. That means CUNY School of Law forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high, so a strong-LSAT applicant with a GPA in the low-3.2s and a clear mission fit is more viable than the reverse.

How selective is CUNY School of Law compared with schools at the same LSAT?

Among the most selective in its band. Among the 60 ABA law schools within two points of CUNY School of Law's 155 median, that is 153 to 157, CUNY School of Law ranks 5th most selective of 60 by acceptance rate in Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. So CUNY School of Law admits a smaller share of applicants than nearly all peers at its scoring level.

Is CUNY School of Law worth it?

For the right applicant, very much so. CUNY School of Law pairs a low public tuition of $15,450 resident and $25,640 nonresident with non-conditional aid and a public-interest mission, though its 65.67% first-time bar rate and 80.3% ten-month employment rate are real caveats. CUNY School of Law is worth it for a public-interest-focused applicant who prepares seriously for the bar.

What LSAT and GPA give the best shot at admission to CUNY School of Law?

Numbers at or above the medians plus a strong mission fit. Because CUNY School of Law is selective within its band, an LSAT above the 155 median and a GPA above 3.54, toward the 161 and 3.77 upper quartiles in CUNY Law's 2025 ABA 509, strengthen your file. Just as important at CUNY School of Law is a demonstrated commitment to public-interest and social-justice work.

Sources

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

CUNY School of Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=176&year=2025

CUNY School of Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=176&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=176&year=2024

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