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

The honest answer to how to get into Emory University Law School is two numbers. According to Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 166 LSAT median (162 to 168) and a 3.82 GPA median (3.68 to 3.87). Clear both and you are competitive at one of the most winnable admits anywhere.

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 Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and Emory Law School's own admissions pages.

Emory Law School is one of the most winnable admits among the country's well-known law schools, and the numbers explain why. In Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the acceptance rate is 38.68%, and among the leading national law schools whose median LSAT sits within two points of Emory Law School's 166, only two admit a larger share of applicants. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 45.1% of Emory Law School graduates went to large firms of 101 or more lawyers, a BigLaw share that outruns the school's easy-to-clear admissions bar. The thesis of this page is simple: Emory Law School is a numbers school that rewards applying early and applying with conviction. Its binding Early Decision program guarantees a minimum $50,000-per-year scholarship, and 98% of its students receive grant aid, so an applicant who clears the medians has unusually strong odds of both an admission and real money.

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

Emory Law School is one of the most winnable admits at its academic level. According to Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 166 LSAT median, a 3.82 GPA median, and a 38.68% acceptance rate. Full-time tuition and fees run $70,472. The table below collects the core numbers for quick reference.

MetricEmory Law School (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)162 / 166 / 168GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.68 / 3.82 / 3.87Acceptance rate38.68%Applications3,891Offers of admission1,505Matriculants from the pool391First-year class391Full-time tuition and fees$70,472Living expenses$38,990Share receiving grants98%Median grant$36,000Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage88.36%Employed at ten months92.4% (266 of 288)

Source: Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), Emory 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.

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

You really need a 166 LSAT and a 3.82 GPA to sit at the center of Emory Law School's class. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 162 to 168 and the GPA middle at 3.68 to 3.87. Below either 25th percentile, the other number has to compensate.

Emory Law School reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 162, 166, and 168, and a GPA spread of 3.68, 3.82, and 3.87, in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Read those two rows together and the shape of the class is clear. A 166 LSAT and a 3.82 GPA place an applicant exactly at both of Emory Law School's medians, which is the true center of the admitted class rather than a stretch. Because Emory Law School admits close to two in every five applicants, an applicant sitting at both medians is not just competitive but comfortably positioned, a very different situation from the single-digit-admit schools where the median is only a starting point.

The GPA band is tight. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the 25th percentile GPA at 3.68 and the 75th at 3.87, a spread of only 0.19 across the middle half of the class. In practical terms, most admitted students at Emory Law School cluster in the high 3.6s to high 3.8s, and a GPA below 3.68 starts to look like an outlier that the rest of the file has to explain. A number in the 3.5s is not disqualifying at Emory Law School, but it needs an LSAT at or above the 168 upper quartile to sit comfortably.

The LSAT gives more room. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the 25th percentile at 162 and the 75th at 168, a six-point full range, with four points of space between the 162 floor and the 166 median. That downward room is where an applicant with a strong GPA can survive a softer test score. A 162 sits at the bottom quarter of Emory Law School's class and is still inside the reported range; below 162, an applicant needs a genuinely high GPA and a strong overall file to offset the gap.

On the splitter question, Emory Law School reads as reverse-splitter friendly. In its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, the GPA spread from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.14 and the LSAT spread is four points. Reverse-splitter friendly means Emory Law School is more willing to forgive a lower LSAT when the GPA is high than to forgive a lower GPA when the LSAT is high. A splitter-friendly school does the opposite, forgiving a weak GPA for a big LSAT. The four points of room below Emory Law School's LSAT median are the practical space a high-GPA, softer-LSAT applicant can live in, so a reverse splitter with a 3.85-plus GPA and a low-160s LSAT has a better path at Emory Law School than a strong-LSAT applicant dragging a sub-3.6 GPA.

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

No. Emory Law School is markedly easier to get into than its national reputation suggests. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports a 38.68% acceptance rate, and among the leading national schools at its 166 LSAT median, only the University of Richmond and the University of Iowa admit a larger share. The reputation runs ahead of the math.

To size up Emory Law School's selectivity fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 33 leading national law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Emory Law School's 166, that is, a median of 164 to 168, ranked by acceptance rate, Emory Law School is the 31st most selective of the group. Only two of the 33 admit a larger share of their applicants than Emory Law School does, per the acceptance rates gathered from each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. In plain terms, at its LSAT level Emory Law School sits near the very bottom of the pack for selectivity, which is exactly what makes it one of the most winnable admits in this comparison set.

Ranked from most to least selective by acceptance rate, the band runs as follows: Boston College at 8.5%, the University of North Carolina at 11.2%, Florida State University at 16.0%, UC Davis at 16.0%, Fordham University at 16.2%, the University of Wisconsin at 19.0%, the University of Washington at 19.6%, Arizona State University (O'Connor) at 19.8%, Baylor University at 20.6%, William & Mary at 22.0%, Washington and Lee University at 23.0%, Pepperdine University (Caruso) at 23.0%, St. John's University at 23.1%, Temple University at 24.0%, Northeastern University at 24.0%, the University of Miami at 24.7%, the University of Tennessee at 24.8%, Wayne State University at 24.8%, Ohio State University (Moritz) at 25.0%, Southern Methodist University at 25.0%, the University of Utah at 25.0%, Wake Forest University at 25.0%, Villanova University at 25.9%, the University of Alabama at 26.0%, the University of Maryland at 26.1%, George Washington University at 27.2%, the University of Colorado at 28.0%, Cardozo (Yeshiva) at 30.0%, the University of Illinois at 32.9%, Indiana University Bloomington (Maurer) at 35.8%, Emory University at 38.68%, the University of Richmond at 39.6%, and the University of Iowa at 44.3%.

One entry needs an asterisk. Boston College reports an 8.5% acceptance rate that would top this band, but Boston College reports its offers on a narrower basis than the other schools, so it is not a true selectivity peer and should not be read as the benchmark for how hard the band really is. Setting that aside, the ranking tells a clean story about Emory Law School. Schools that share its 166 LSAT profile, from Fordham University at 16.2% to George Washington University at 27.2%, admit a far smaller slice of their applicants than Emory Law School's 38.68%. A student who assumes Emory Law School is as hard to enter as its peers at the same test level is overestimating it, and that gap is the single most useful piece of strategic information on this page: at Emory Law School, a solid-but-not-spectacular file that would be a reach elsewhere in the band is a realistic admit.

Does Emory Law School have Early Decision, and is it binding?

Yes. Emory Law School runs a binding Early Decision program with a November 15 deadline. According to Emory Law School's own early-decision page, an admitted ED applicant must withdraw all other applications, apply nowhere else, and pay a nonrefundable $500 deposit within 14 days, in exchange for a guaranteed minimum $50,000-per-year scholarship.

Emory Law School's binding Early Decision is the most aggressive early-commitment offer in this comparison set, and it is built to reward applicants who are certain Emory Law School is their first choice. Per Emory Law School's own early-decision page, the deadline is November 15, and an applicant admitted under this plan agrees to enroll, to withdraw every other pending application, and to submit no new applications elsewhere. The commitment is sealed with a nonrefundable $500 seat deposit due within 14 days of the admission decision. This is a true binding contract, not a soft preference, so an applicant should only choose it when Emory Law School is unambiguously the top choice.

What makes Emory Law School's version unusual is the money attached. Emory Law School's own early-decision page states that Early Decision admits receive a guaranteed minimum scholarship of $50,000 per year. Against full-time tuition and fees of $70,472 in Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, a guaranteed $50,000 award covers the large majority of tuition and fees before any additional aid is layered on. That combination, a high base admit rate plus a guaranteed floor on merit money, is why the binding round is the centerpiece of the case for applying to Emory Law School early and with conviction. The one honest caveat is that the commitment is real: an applicant who might want to compare offers from other schools in the spring should apply in the regular round instead, because binding Early Decision at Emory Law School forecloses that comparison.

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

Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $70,472 and living expenses at $38,990, with no single cost-of-attendance total printed. Emory Law School is unusually generous with aid: 98% of students receive grants, the median grant is $36,000, and awards include both merit and need money.

Start with the sticker. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $70,472 (tuition of $69,510 plus $962 in fees) and separately lists living expenses at $38,990. 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 Emory Law School reports, and this page will not invent one.

Now the aid, which is where Emory Law School genuinely stands out. According to Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, 98% of students receive grant aid, one of the highest grant-participation rates you will find at any national law school. Grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles are $28,000, $36,000, and $45,000, and Emory Law School's grants include both merit and need-based money, so strong numbers translate directly into scholarship dollars here rather than only into an admission letter.

The shape of the awards is worth reading carefully. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports zero full-tuition awards and ten awards above full tuition. That is not a contradiction: it means no student receives an award pegged exactly to the tuition line, while ten students hold grants that exceed tuition entirely, likely sized to reach into living costs. The vast majority of Emory Law School's recipients therefore hold partial grants below full tuition, distributed across the $28,000 to $45,000 middle range, with a smaller number at the extremes.

For a typical grant recipient, the math works out like this. Against the $70,472 sticker for tuition and fees, a student receiving Emory Law School's median grant of $36,000 nets about $34,472 in tuition and fees before living costs, using figures from Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Emory Law School also reports that its scholarships are not conditional, meaning they cannot be reduced or revoked for missing a class-rank or GPA threshold, per the same disclosure. That protection matters: at some schools a first-year scholarship shrinks if a student lands in the bottom half of the curve, but at Emory Law School the grant an admitted student is quoted is the grant they keep for all three years.

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

Modest but real, and the math shows why. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure shows 1,505 offers and 391 matriculants from the pool, an implied yield of 26.0%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, but a yield near a quarter means Emory Law School leans on its waitlist more than a high-yield school does.

Here is the reasoning in full. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 1,505 offers of admission and 391 matriculants drawn from that applicant pool, which is an implied yield of 26.0%. No ABA disclosure, Emory Law School's included, publishes how many applicants are offered spots off 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 a quarter of its offers into enrollments, it has to extend a large number of offers relative to its seats, and it more often turns to a waitlist to shape and finish the class as deposits come and go.

Put in context, a 26.0% yield is on the lower side, and that is good news for a waitlisted applicant to Emory Law School. Contrast a school that yields 70 percent or more: that school fills nearly its whole class from first-round offers and rarely reaches its waitlist. Emory Law School is the opposite case. It sends 1,505 offers against 3,891 applications per its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure and keeps roughly one in four of the students it admits, so there is more natural churn in its class and more reason to believe a strong waitlisted candidate can be pulled up. A waitlist spot at Emory Law School is not a guarantee, and no school promises movement, but the yield math makes Emory Law School a more hopeful waitlist than the high-yield elites.

Where do Emory Law School graduates actually work?

Concentrated in Georgia, with a strong BigLaw pull. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Georgia took 42.7% of Emory Law School graduates and the top three markets took 62.5%. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 45.1%, and 3.8% took federal clerkships.

The single most useful fact about Emory Law School's employment outcomes is where the class lands geographically. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Emory Law School placed 123 graduates in Georgia, 43 in New York, and 14 in Texas, its three largest markets. Georgia alone absorbed 42.7% of the class, and the top three markets together took 62.5%, per the same ABA Employment Summary. An Emory Law School degree is, in practice, a powerful credential in Atlanta and the wider Southeast first, with New York as the clear secondary market for graduates who want to leave the region.

By employer type, the story is stronger than the admit rate would lead you to expect. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 130 Emory Law School graduates, or 45.1%, taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 97 of those, 33.7% of the class, at the very largest firms of 501 or more lawyers. So large-firm practice, what applicants usually mean by BigLaw, is the single most common destination for an Emory Law School graduate, and it skews heavily toward the biggest firms in the market. For a school that admits close to 39% of its applicants, a 45.1% BigLaw placement rate is the real headline: the outcome is markedly harder to achieve than the admission.

Federal clerkships are a smaller channel. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 11 Emory Law School graduates, 3.8% of the class, took federal clerkships. That is a respectable but modest number, well below the clerkship-heavy elite schools, and it tells an applicant that Emory Law School is a large-firm feeder far more than a clerkship pipeline. Overall placement is healthy: the same summary shows 266 of 288 Emory Law School graduates employed at the ten-month mark, a 92.4% employment rate, and Emory Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of just 1.0%, so almost no one who starts washes out. The reason to weigh Emory Law School on concentration rather than the headline rate is that fit is decided by where a degree actually leads, and Emory Law School's answer is specific: Atlanta and the Southeast, big firms, and a New York escape hatch.

When are Emory Law School's application deadlines?

Emory Law School's one firm published date is its binding Early Decision deadline of November 15, per Emory Law School's own early-decision page. The sources on this page do not fix Emory Law School's regular decision deadline, and cycle dates shift from year to year, so confirm the current calendar directly on Emory Law School's site.

Emory Law School publishes a clear early date and a binding path to go with it. According to Emory Law School's own early-decision page, the binding Early Decision deadline is November 15, and an applicant who chooses that route commits to enroll if admitted. That is the one deadline this page can state from Emory Law School's own sources, and it is the date a committed applicant should build a fall timeline around, because the guaranteed $50,000-per-year scholarship attached to Emory Law School's Early Decision makes the early round the strategic centerpiece for a first-choice applicant.

Beyond the Early Decision deadline, the sources gathered for this page do not specify Emory Law School's regular decision deadline, so this page will not quote one rather than invent it. Application cycle dates also shift from year to year, and a date that is correct in one cycle can move in the next. The November 15 Early Decision deadline stated here reflects Emory Law School's own early-decision page as verified in August 2026. Before relying on it or on any regular-round date, confirm the current calendar directly on Emory Law School's site, because a page like this one is a planning aid, not the registrar of record.

Frequently asked questions about getting into Emory Law School

Is a 166 LSAT good enough for Emory Law School?

Yes. A 166 is exactly Emory Law School's LSAT median, per Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, which puts the middle range at 162 to 168. At a school that admits 38.68% of applicants, a median LSAT paired with a GPA at or above the 3.68 floor makes an applicant a genuine admit rather than a long shot. A 166 at Emory Law School is a comfortable place to be, not a reach.

What GPA do you need to get into Emory Law School?

Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.82, with a 25th percentile of 3.68 and a 75th percentile of 3.87. The middle half of Emory Law School's class sits in a fairly tight high-3.6s to high-3.8s band. Realistically you want a GPA of at least 3.68, and anything below it needs an LSAT near the 168 upper quartile to offset at Emory Law School.

What is Emory Law School's acceptance rate?

Emory Law School's acceptance rate is 38.68%, computed as 1,505 offers against 3,891 applications in Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That is one of the highest acceptance rates among the country's well-known law schools and one of the most winnable admits at its LSAT level. Close to two in every five applicants receive an offer from Emory Law School in a given cycle.

How many people apply to Emory Law School each year?

Emory Law School received 3,891 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. From that pool, Emory Law School extended 1,505 offers of admission and enrolled 391 matriculants, which is also its first-year class size. The distance between 3,891 applications and 1,505 offers is what produces the 38.68% acceptance rate.

Does Emory Law School have binding Early Decision?

Yes. Emory Law School offers a binding Early Decision program with a November 15 deadline, according to Emory Law School's own early-decision page. An admitted applicant must enroll, withdraw all other applications, apply nowhere else, and pay a nonrefundable $500 deposit within 14 days. In return, Emory Law School guarantees a minimum scholarship of $50,000 per year, which is why the binding round rewards a first-choice applicant.

How much does Emory Law School cost per year?

Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $70,472 and living expenses at $38,990 for the year. Emory 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 Emory Law School's median grant of $36,000 nets about $34,472 in tuition and fees before living costs are added.

Does Emory Law School give merit scholarships?

Yes. Emory Law School's grants include both merit and need-based aid, and 98% of students receive a grant, per Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Grant amounts run $28,000, $36,000, and $45,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. Emory Law School's binding Early Decision plan also guarantees a minimum $50,000-per-year merit scholarship, so strong numbers translate into real money here.

What is Emory Law School's bar passage rate?

Emory Law School's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 88.36% for the 2024 exam year, with an 86.15% rate in its largest jurisdiction, Georgia. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, is 95.4%, per the same report. In short, the large majority of Emory Law School graduates who sit for a bar exam pass, and nearly all pass eventually.

Do Emory Law School graduates get large-firm (BigLaw) jobs?

Yes, and it is the single most common outcome. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 130 Emory Law School graduates (45.1%) took jobs at firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 97 of those (33.7% of the class) landed at firms of 501 or more lawyers. For a school that admits close to 39% of applicants, that large-firm placement rate is unusually strong and outruns the admissions bar.

Where do most Emory Law School graduates work?

Most Emory Law School graduates stay in Georgia. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Georgia taking 123 graduates (42.7%), New York taking 43, and Texas taking 14, so the top three markets alone account for 62.5% of the class. An Emory Law School degree points strongly toward Atlanta and the Southeast, with New York as the leading out-of-region destination.

Can a splitter get into Emory Law School?

Yes, especially a reverse splitter. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.14 and an LSAT spread of four points, which makes Emory Law School reverse-splitter friendly: it forgives a lower LSAT for a high GPA more readily than the reverse. A strong-GPA applicant with a low-160s LSAT has a real path at Emory Law School, while a weak GPA is harder to offset.

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

Emory Law School is one of the least selective schools in its LSAT band. Among the 33 leading national schools with a median LSAT within two points of Emory Law School's 166, ranked by acceptance rate, Emory Law School's 38.68% ranks 31st most selective, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Only the University of Richmond (39.6%) and the University of Iowa (44.3%) admit a larger share of applicants at that LSAT level.

Is Emory Law School worth the cost?

For most admitted students, yes. Against a $70,472 tuition and fees sticker in Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 98% of students receive grants with a median of $36,000, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 92.4% of Emory Law School graduates employed at ten months, with 45.1% in large firms. Generous aid plus a strong BigLaw rate make the cost of Emory Law School defensible.

What LSAT and GPA give the best shot at an Emory Law School scholarship?

Numbers above Emory Law School's medians give the best shot: an LSAT at or above the 168 upper quartile and a GPA at or above 3.87 position an applicant for the top of the grant range, which reaches $45,000 at the 75th percentile per Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Applying binding Early Decision also guarantees a minimum $50,000-per-year scholarship, the single most reliable way to lock in Emory Law School money.

Are Emory Law School scholarships conditional on grades?

No. Emory Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that its scholarships are not conditional, meaning a grant cannot be cut or revoked for missing a class-rank or GPA threshold after the first year. The award an admitted student is quoted at Emory Law School is the award they keep for all three years, which removes the hidden risk that some schools attach to first-year merit money.

Sources

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

Emory Law School 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=39&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=39&year=2024

Emory Law School ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=39&year=2025

Emory Law School J.D. Early Decision page: https://law.emory.edu/admission/juris-doctor-jd/jd-early-decision.html

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