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

The honest answer to how to get into DePaul Law School is two numbers. According to DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 158 LSAT median (154 to 160) and a 3.61 GPA median (3.17 to 3.8). Clear both and you are competitive at a Chicago school that forgives a lower GPA.

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. Admissions figures on this page come from DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), employment figures from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and the remaining details from DePaul Law School's own pages.

DePaul Law School is one of the most forgiving schools in this set for an applicant whose GPA lags their LSAT. According to DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the 25th percentile GPA is 3.17 while the median is 3.61, a 0.44 gap that is the widest in this set, against an LSAT band that runs just 154 to 160. In Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures, that spread makes DePaul Law School clearly splitter friendly: a strong LSAT can carry a transcript in the low 3.2s. The degree points at one market above all. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 73.7% of DePaul Law School graduates went to work in Illinois, an almost entirely Chicago pipeline. A high-LSAT applicant with an uneven GPA who wants Chicago should have DePaul Law School on the list.

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

DePaul Law School is a mid-selective Chicago school that forgives a lower GPA and places heavily in Illinois. According to DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class had a 158 LSAT median, a 3.61 GPA median, and a 34.81% acceptance rate. Full-time tuition and fees run $55,628. The table below collects the core DePaul University law numbers for quick reference.

MetricDePaul Law School (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)154 / 158 / 160GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.17 / 3.61 / 3.8Acceptance rate34.81%Applications2,643Offers of admission920Matriculants from the pool186First-year class186 (157 full-time + 29 part-time)Full-time tuition and fees$55,628Living expenses$29,110Share receiving grants99%Median grant$34,950Above-full-tuition awards6Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage76.02% (2024 exam year, Illinois)Ultimate bar passage87.15% (2022 cohort)First-year academic attrition5.0%Employed at ten months88.3% (158 of 179)

Source: DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), DePaul Law School's ABA bar-passage report, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024. 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 state one.

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

You really want a 158 LSAT and a 3.61 GPA to sit at the center of DePaul Law School's class. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 154 to 160 and the GPA middle at 3.17 to 3.8. Below either 25th percentile, the other number has to compensate clearly, though the GPA floor here is unusually low.

DePaul Law School reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 154, 158, and 160, and a GPA spread of 3.17, 3.61, and 3.8, in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. A 158 LSAT paired with a 3.61 GPA places an applicant exactly at both of DePaul Law School's medians, which is a competitive position at a 34.81% acceptance rate. The distinctive feature of the DePaul University law admissions read is the GPA floor: at 3.17, the 25th percentile is well below the medians of most schools in this set, so DePaul Law School genuinely considers applicants whose transcripts would fall outside other bands.

The LSAT band is fairly tight. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the 25th percentile LSAT at 154 and the 75th at 160, a six-point full range with four points between the 154 floor and the 158 median. A 154 sits at the bottom quarter of DePaul Law School's class, so an applicant in the mid 150s is inside the range but should lean on a solid GPA. Because DePaul Law School forgives GPA more than most, the LSAT is the number that does more of the sorting here, and gains on the test move an applicant meaningfully.

The GPA band is where DePaul Law School is genuinely distinctive. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the 25th percentile GPA at 3.17 and the median at 3.61, a 0.44 spread that is the widest in this set. A transcript in the low 3.2s is inside DePaul Law School's reported range, which is not true at most schools with a 158 LSAT median. The honest answer to the DePaul University law GPA question is that a lower GPA is workable here, especially when paired with an LSAT at or above the 158 median.

On the splitter question, DePaul Law School is clearly splitter friendly. In its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, the GPA spread from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.44 and the LSAT spread is four points, so the GPA band forgives far more than the LSAT band does. Splitter friendly means DePaul Law School will accept a lower GPA when the LSAT is strong; a reverse-splitter-friendly school does the opposite. DePaul Law School is one of the better homes in this set for a genuine splitter, so a high-LSAT applicant with a weak transcript should treat it as a realistic target.

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

Roughly as hard as its reputation, sitting in the upper middle of its band. In Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures, DePaul Law School ranks 5th most selective of the 12 schools at its 158 LSAT median. Its 34.81% acceptance rate places DePaul Law School just above the midpoint of that group, neither a reach beyond its name nor a soft touch.

To size up DePaul Law School's selectivity fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 12 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of DePaul Law School's 158, that is a median of 156 to 160, ranked by acceptance rate, DePaul Law School is the 5th most selective of the group, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Being 5th of 12 puts DePaul Law School in the upper half for difficulty among its true peers, so its admit rate is a touch tighter than the middle of its band rather than looser.

The practical takeaway is that DePaul Law School's reputation and its selectivity line up. It is a well-established Chicago school, and its 34.81% admit rate reflects steady demand for a Chicago-market degree without pushing it into reach territory. An applicant with numbers near both medians should treat DePaul Law School as a competitive but attainable target. The more useful angle for many applicants is not the ranking but the GPA forgiveness described above: DePaul Law School is a school where a strong LSAT and a lower GPA can still add up to an offer, which its middle-of-band admit rate alone would not reveal.

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

DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $55,628, with living expenses of $29,110 and no single cost-of-attendance total printed. Aid is nearly universal: 99% of students receive a grant, and the median grant of $34,950 covers a healthy share of tuition.

Start with the sticker. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $55,628 and separately lists living expenses at $29,110, reflecting the cost of living in Chicago. That 509 does not print a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so any all-in annual figure quoted elsewhere is someone's arithmetic rather than a number DePaul Law School reports, and this page will not invent one.

Now the aid, which is a genuine strength. According to DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, 99% of students receive grant aid, effectively the whole class, with grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $20,000, $34,950, and $35,000. DePaul Law School also reports one full-tuition award and six awards above full tuition in the same disclosure. The tight clustering of the median and 75th percentile grants, at $34,950 and $35,000, shows that DePaul Law School concentrates its awards around a strong single tier, so most grant recipients land near that $35,000 mark.

For a typical grant recipient, the math works out like this. Against the $55,628 sticker for tuition and fees, a student receiving DePaul Law School's median grant of $34,950 nets about $20,678 in tuition and fees before living costs, using figures from DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Because the median and top-quartile awards sit so close together at DePaul Law School, the typical grant recipient and a strong one net roughly the same tuition, which makes the value here fairly predictable rather than steeply tiered.

One reassuring detail rounds out the cost picture. DePaul Law School reports that its scholarships are not conditional, per the same 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, meaning a first-year award cannot be cut or revoked for missing a class-rank or GPA threshold. The grant an admitted DePaul Law School student is quoted is the grant they keep for all three years, which removes the renewal gamble that some schools attach to their awards. That certainty matters more at a school with meaningful first-year attrition, discussed below.

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

Better than at a high-yield school, because DePaul Law School extends many offers. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure shows 920 offers and 186 matriculants, an implied yield of 20.2%, the lowest in this set. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so implied yield is the honest proxy, and a low yield means the class fills from a broad offer pool.

Here is the reasoning in full. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 920 offers of admission and 186 matriculants, which is an implied yield of 20.2%, per Lovare's analysis of that disclosure. No ABA disclosure, DePaul Law School's included, publishes how many applicants are admitted from the waitlist or how many accept, so implied yield is the honest proxy for waitlist movement. The logic runs like this: when a school converts only about 20 of every 100 offers into enrollments, it is extending far more offers than it has seats and building its class from a wide first-round admit pool, which is consistent with active use of a waitlist when the yield comes in under target.

Put in context, a 20.2% yield is low, which reflects that many DePaul Law School admits also hold offers from other Chicago-area schools and shop among them. For a waitlisted applicant, that cuts two ways. On one hand, DePaul Law School relies on a large offer pool, so a waitlist spot is meaningful. On the other hand, the school already sends many offers up front, so the waitlist is a backstop rather than the main channel. The practical move is the same: stay in contact with DePaul Law School, submit a concise letter of continued interest, and keep other options live.

Where do DePaul Law School graduates actually work?

In Chicago, almost entirely. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Illinois took 73.7% of DePaul Law School graduates and the top three markets took 78.8%. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 12.3%, and federal clerkships took 0.0% of the class. This is a Chicago-market degree with a lower headline employment rate that deserves an honest look.

Start with concentration. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, DePaul Law School placed 132 graduates in Illinois, 5 in Indiana, and 4 in Michigan, its three largest markets. Illinois alone absorbed 73.7% of the class, and the top three markets together took 78.8%, per the same ABA Employment Summary. A DePaul Law School degree is a Chicago credential in practice: the overwhelming majority of graduates stay in Illinois, with only a thin spillover into neighboring states. An applicant who wants Chicago is buying the right network, while an applicant aiming elsewhere should weigh how concentrated this pipeline is.

On employer type, DePaul Law School places a meaningful minority into large firms. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 12.3% of DePaul Law School graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, alongside a broad mix of smaller-firm, government, public-interest, and business roles that make up most of the class. Federal clerkships are absent in this class: the same summary shows 0.0% of DePaul Law School graduates in federal clerkships, so an applicant with clerkship ambitions should not choose DePaul Law School for that path.

Now the honest disclosures, which are part of this page's value. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 158 of 179 DePaul Law School graduates employed at the ten-month mark, an 88.3% employment rate, the lowest in this set. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 5.0%, the highest in this set, so a real share of each entering class does not continue for academic reasons. DePaul Law School's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 76.02% for the 2024 exam year in Illinois, also the lowest in this set, though the ultimate rate rises to 87.15% for the 2022 cohort. None of these figures should scare off a well-prepared applicant who wants Chicago, but all three belong in an honest decision.

When are DePaul Law School's application deadlines?

DePaul Law School's specific application deadlines and Early Decision terms are not confirmed here for the current cycle, so the dates and any binding terms should be confirmed directly on DePaul Law School's admissions site. The guidance here is verified as of August 2026 and is meant as a planning aid, not as the registrar of record.

Because the exact calendar is not confirmed here, this page will not state a DePaul Law School deadline or claim that the school does or does not offer a binding Early Decision round. What holds across law school admissions generally is that applying earlier in a cycle usually helps, since seats and scholarship dollars are more plentiful before a class fills, and at a low-yield school like DePaul Law School that sends many offers, an early, complete file stands out. Treat that as general strategy rather than a DePaul Law School specific rule.

The concrete step for a DePaul Law School applicant is to open the school's admissions page, note the current regular deadline and any early-application or Early Decision option along with its binding terms, and build a timeline backward from there, leaving room for the LSAT score and letters to arrive. Everything stated on this page was verified in August 2026, and application dates shift from cycle to cycle, so confirm the current DePaul Law School calendar before relying on any date.

Frequently asked questions about getting into DePaul Law School

Is a 158 LSAT good enough for DePaul Law School?

Yes. A 158 is exactly DePaul Law School's LSAT median, per DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, which puts the middle range at 154 to 160. Paired with a GPA at or above the low 3.17 floor, a median LSAT makes an applicant competitive at a 34.81% acceptance rate. Because DePaul Law School forgives GPA, a 158 paired with a lower transcript still has a real path.

What GPA do you need for DePaul Law School?

DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.61, with a 25th percentile of 3.17 and a 75th percentile of 3.8. That 3.17 floor is unusually low for a school at this LSAT level, so a transcript in the low 3.2s is inside DePaul Law School's range. Below 3.17, an LSAT near the 160 upper quartile helps offset at DePaul Law School.

What is DePaul Law School's acceptance rate?

DePaul Law School's acceptance rate is 34.81%, computed as 920 offers against 2,643 applications in DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That ranks 5th most selective of the 12 schools at its LSAT level, so about one in three applicants receives an offer from DePaul Law School. Median numbers make an applicant a competitive but not guaranteed candidate.

How many people apply to DePaul Law School?

DePaul Law School received 2,643 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, a large pool for a regional school. From that pool, DePaul Law School extended 920 offers of admission and enrolled 186 matriculants, building a first-year class of 186, which includes 157 full-time and 29 part-time students.

How much does DePaul Law School cost?

DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $55,628 and living expenses at $29,110, the latter reflecting Chicago costs. DePaul Law School does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total in that 509, so this page will not quote one. A student receiving DePaul Law School's median grant of $34,950 nets about $20,678 in tuition and fees before living costs.

Does DePaul Law School give scholarships?

Yes, nearly universally. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 99% of students receive a grant, with amounts of $20,000, $34,950, and $35,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. DePaul Law School reports one full-tuition award and six above-full-tuition awards, and its scholarships are not conditional, so an award cannot be cut for grades.

What is DePaul Law School's bar passage rate?

DePaul Law School's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 76.02% for the 2024 exam year in Illinois, the lowest in this set, with an ultimate pass rate of 87.15% for the 2022 cohort. The gap between the two means many DePaul Law School graduates who do not pass on the first attempt pass later, but the first-time figure is an honest point to weigh.

Where do DePaul Law School graduates work?

Almost entirely in Chicago. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Illinois taking 132 DePaul Law School graduates (73.7%), Indiana taking 5, and Michigan taking 4, so the top three markets account for 78.8% of the class. A DePaul Law School degree is a Chicago credential, with only a thin spillover into neighboring states.

Can a splitter get into DePaul Law School?

Yes, and it is one of the better homes for one. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.44, the widest in this set, and an LSAT spread of four points, which makes DePaul Law School clearly splitter friendly. A high-LSAT applicant with a transcript in the low 3.2s should treat DePaul Law School as a realistic target.

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

DePaul Law School is upper-middle for selectivity in its band. Among the 12 schools with a median LSAT within two points of DePaul Law School's 158, ranked by acceptance rate, its 34.81% ranks 5th most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. So DePaul Law School is a touch harder to enter than the middle of its band, roughly matching its reputation as an established Chicago school.

Is DePaul Law School worth it?

For a Chicago-focused applicant, the aid helps the case. Against a $55,628 sticker in DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 99% of students receive a grant and the median award of $34,950 nets a recipient to about $20,678 in tuition and fees. The honest counterweights are an 88.3% employment rate and a 76.02% first-time bar rate, so weigh the Chicago network against those figures.

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

Numbers above DePaul Law School's medians give the best shot: a 160 LSAT at the 75th percentile paired with a GPA near 3.8 positions an applicant for the top of the grant range, which reaches $35,000 at the 75th percentile per DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Because the median and top awards cluster near $35,000, strong numbers reliably reach that tier at DePaul Law School.

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

DePaul Law School reports first-year academic attrition of 5.0%, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the highest in this set. That means a real share of each entering class does not continue for academic reasons, so an admitted DePaul Law School student should treat the first year as academically serious from the start. It is an honest disclosure worth weighing alongside the strong grant reach.

Does DePaul Law School have Early Decision?

DePaul Law School's Early Decision terms are not confirmed here for the current cycle, so this page will not state whether the school runs a binding early round or what its terms are. An applicant considering an early application should confirm the current Early Decision or early-application options, and any binding commitment, directly on DePaul Law School's admissions site. The guidance here was verified in August 2026 and is a planning aid only.

Does DePaul Law School have a part-time program?

Yes. DePaul Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a first-year class of 186 made up of 157 full-time and 29 part-time students, so roughly one in six first-years enrolls part-time. That part-time division is a real option for a DePaul Law School applicant who needs to keep working while studying, and the same admissions medians and Chicago-market outcomes described on this page apply to the school as a whole.

Sources

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

DePaul Law School 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=46&year=2025

DePaul Law School ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=46&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=46&year=2024

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