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

The honest answer to how to get into Fordham University Law School is two numbers. According to Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 168 LSAT median (165 to 170) and a 3.79 GPA median (3.6 to 3.88). Clear both and you compete at a selective New York school whose outcomes outrun its admissions.

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

Fordham Law School is the rare school whose graduate outcomes outrun its admissions profile. In Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the acceptance rate is 16.22%, genuinely selective but middle of the pack among schools at its LSAT level. Then look at where the class lands. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 54.9% of Fordham Law School graduates went into large firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 83.7% of the class stayed in New York. That is the strongest large-firm New York result outside the T14, produced by a school you do not have to be a T14 admit to enter. The thesis of this page is that Fordham Law School should be judged on its outcomes, not on its admit rate: the degree buys a New York BigLaw pipeline that its 16.22% selectivity, taken alone, would understate.

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

Fordham Law School is a selective New York school with elite job outcomes. According to Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class had a 168 LSAT median, a 3.79 GPA median, and a 16.22% acceptance rate. Full-time tuition and fees run $79,248. The table below collects the core numbers for quick reference.

MetricFordham Law School (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)165 / 168 / 170GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.6 / 3.79 / 3.88Acceptance rate16.22%Applications8,811Offers of admission1,429Matriculants from the pool433First-year class444 (374 full-time + 70 part-time)Full-time tuition and fees$79,248Living expenses$37,354Share receiving grants87%Median grant$35,000Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage92.98%Employed at ten months95.2% (433 of 455)

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

You really need a 168 LSAT and a 3.79 GPA to sit at the center of Fordham Law School's class. Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 165 to 170 and the GPA middle at 3.6 to 3.88. Below either 25th percentile, the other number has to compensate clearly.

Fordham Law School reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 165, 168, and 170, and a GPA spread of 3.6, 3.79, and 3.88, in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. A 168 LSAT and a 3.79 GPA place an applicant exactly at both of Fordham Law School's medians, which is the center of the admitted class. At a 16.22% acceptance rate, sitting at both medians makes an applicant genuinely competitive but not safe: Fordham Law School turns away many applicants who clear its medians, so the rest of the file matters.

The LSAT band is tight, and the floor is high. Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the 25th percentile LSAT at 165 and the 75th at 170, a five-point full range with only three points between the 165 floor and the 168 median. A 165 already sits at the bottom quarter of Fordham Law School's class, so an applicant needs a fairly strong LSAT just to be in range. There is little room at Fordham Law School for a genuinely low test score, which sets it apart from schools whose LSAT bands drop into the low 160s or high 150s.

The GPA gives a bit more forgiveness. Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the 25th percentile GPA at 3.6 and the median at 3.79, so a transcript in the low-to-mid 3.6s is inside the reported range and not disqualifying. A number below 3.6 starts to need an LSAT at or above the 170 upper quartile to offset it at Fordham Law School.

On the splitter question, Fordham Law School is splitter friendly. In its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, the GPA spread from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.19 and the LSAT spread is three points, so the GPA band forgives more than the LSAT band does. Splitter friendly means Fordham Law School will accept a lower GPA when the LSAT is strong; a reverse-splitter-friendly school does the opposite. The practical caveat at Fordham Law School is that even a splitter needs a real LSAT, because the 165 floor is high: the ideal Fordham Law School splitter has a 169 or 170 LSAT and a GPA in the low 3.6s, not a middling LSAT propped up by a huge transcript.

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

No, it is almost exactly as hard as its reputation, and its outcomes make it a bargain in reputational terms. Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports a 16.22% acceptance rate, which ranks squarely in the middle of the leading national schools clustered at its 168 LSAT median. The admit rate matches the name; the job results exceed it.

To size up Fordham Law School's selectivity fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 28 leading national law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Fordham Law School's 168, that is, a median of 166 to 170, ranked by acceptance rate, Fordham Law School is the 15th most selective of the group, per acceptance rates drawn from each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That places Fordham Law School right in the middle of its band, neither an outlier for difficulty nor a soft touch.

Ranked from most to least selective by acceptance rate, the band runs as follows: Boston College at 8.5%, the University of Southern California at 11.0%, USC (Gould) at 11.2%, the University of North Carolina at 11.2%, Boston University at 12.1%, Texas A&M University at 12.1%, the University of Georgia at 12.7%, Vanderbilt University at 13.3%, UC Berkeley at 14.8%, the University of Florida at 14.9%, UC Irvine at 14.9%, George Mason University (Scalia) at 16.0%, Florida State University at 16.0%, the University of Notre Dame at 16.1%, Fordham University at 16.22%, the University of Florida (Levin) at 16.5%, the University of Wisconsin at 19.0%, William & Mary at 22.0%, Brigham Young University at 22.8%, Washington and Lee University at 23.0%, 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%, the University of Alabama at 26.0%, George Washington University at 27.2%, the University of Illinois at 32.9%, and Emory University at 38.7%.

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. Setting that aside, Fordham Law School sits in a tight cluster right around 16%, a hair behind the University of Notre Dame at 16.1% and just ahead of the University of Florida (Levin) at 16.5%. The real story is not the ranking but the mismatch between it and the outcomes: several schools admit a smaller share of applicants than Fordham Law School yet do not match its New York large-firm placement. Judged on the metric that actually pays back the tuition, Fordham Law School punches above its 15th-of-28 selectivity, which is exactly why this page argues you should weigh it on results rather than on how hard it is to enter.

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

No. Fordham Law School does not offer binding Early Decision. According to Fordham Law School's own admissions pages, it runs a non-binding Early Action round with an October 15 deadline and decisions by December 15, alongside Regular Decision with a March 15 deadline. There is no binding commitment and no early deposit trap to weigh.

Fordham Law School's approach is applicant-friendly in a way that binding Early Decision schools are not. Per Fordham Law School's own admissions pages, an applicant can apply Early Action by October 15 and receive a decision by December 15, and because Early Action at Fordham Law School is non-binding, an admitted applicant is free to compare offers, wait until spring, and enroll elsewhere without penalty. There is no early seat deposit that forecloses other options and no requirement to withdraw other applications on admission, so the only thing an applicant gives up by applying early is nothing.

This matters strategically, and it cuts the opposite way from a binding-Early-Decision school. At Fordham Law School, an applicant with strong numbers can apply Early Action to get an early read and an early admit, then still spend the spring collecting and comparing merit offers from Fordham Law School and its rivals, because nothing about the early admit locks the applicant in. The lesson is that applying early to Fordham Law School carries upside without the usual binding downside, so a confident applicant should generally take the October 15 Early Action date. Applicants who want the maximum time to build the file can use the March 15 Regular Decision deadline instead, with the tradeoff that later applications compete for a shrinking number of seats and scholarship dollars.

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

Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $79,248 and living expenses at $37,354, with no single cost-of-attendance total printed. Fordham Law School awards grants to 87% of students, the median grant is $35,000, and awards include both merit and need money, but it reports no full-tuition scholarships.

Start with the sticker. Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $79,248 (tuition of $78,078 plus $1,170 in fees), the highest sticker of the schools profiled in this set, and separately lists living expenses at $37,354, reflecting the cost of living in New York City. 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 Fordham Law School reports, and this page will not invent one.

Now the aid. According to Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, 87% of students receive grant aid, a high participation rate, with grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $25,000, $35,000, and $43,000. Fordham Law School's grants include both merit and need-based money, so strong numbers do translate into scholarship dollars here. The important limit is the ceiling: Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports zero full-tuition awards and zero awards above full tuition, meaning every grant at Fordham Law School is partial. Even the strongest applicants top out in the low-to-mid $40,000s, not at a free ride.

For a typical grant recipient, the math works out like this. Against the $79,248 sticker for tuition and fees, a student receiving Fordham Law School's median grant of $35,000 nets about $44,248 in tuition and fees before living costs, using figures from Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Even a top-quartile grant of $43,000 leaves a Fordham Law School student paying about $36,248 in tuition and fees, so a Fordham Law School degree is rarely close to free, and the case for it rests on the job outcomes rather than on deep discounting. Fordham Law School does report that its scholarships are not conditional, meaning they cannot be cut or revoked for missing a class-rank or GPA threshold, per the same disclosure, so the grant an admitted student is quoted is the grant they keep for all three years.

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

Moderate, and the math shows why. Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure shows 1,429 offers and 433 matriculants from the pool, an implied yield of 30.3%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, but a yield near a third means Fordham Law School fills much of its class from first-round offers while still leaving room for some waitlist movement.

Here is the reasoning in full. Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 1,429 offers of admission and 433 matriculants drawn from that applicant pool, which is an implied yield of 30.3%. No ABA disclosure, Fordham 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 about 30 of every 100 offers into enrollments, it is filling a solid share of its class from first-round offers but still sends far more offers than it has seats, leaving genuine but limited room to draw from a waitlist.

Put in context, a 30.3% yield is higher than the yields at George Washington Law School or many public flagships, but well below the 70-percent-plus yields of the T14 elites, so Fordham Law School sits in the middle for waitlist hope. A waitlisted applicant to Fordham Law School should neither count on movement nor write it off. The higher yield, relative to less selective schools, reflects how many admitted students genuinely want the New York outcome Fordham Law School offers and enroll rather than shopping the offer, which in turn means Fordham Law School reaches into its waitlist less than a lower-yield school would. Treat a Fordham Law School waitlist spot as a real but uncertain lifeline.

One honest note on the class figures. Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure lists 433 matriculants from the applicant pool but a first-year class of 444, which includes 374 full-time and 70 part-time students. The gap reflects students who arrive through paths other than this single cycle's pool, along with the structure of the part-time division. The 30.3% implied yield is computed from the 433 pool matriculants against the 1,429 offers, which is the right comparison for reasoning about this cycle's waitlist odds at Fordham Law School.

Where do Fordham Law School graduates actually work?

In New York, and increasingly at its biggest firms. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, New York took 83.7% of Fordham Law School graduates and the top three markets took 87.9%. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 54.9%, and 42.2% landed at firms of 501 or more lawyers. This is the school's defining strength.

The single most important fact about Fordham Law School is the one that justifies the whole page. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Fordham Law School placed 381 graduates in New York, 10 in the District of Columbia, and 9 in New Jersey, its three largest markets. New York alone absorbed 83.7% of the class, and the top three markets together took 87.9%, per the same ABA Employment Summary. There is no ambiguity about what a Fordham Law School degree is for: it is a New York City legal credential, and it concentrates its graduates in that single market more tightly than almost any school in the country.

The employer mix is where Fordham Law School genuinely competes with the T14. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 250 Fordham Law School graduates, or 54.9%, taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 192 of those, 42.2% of the class, at the very largest firms of 501 or more lawyers. More than half of a Fordham Law School class goes into large-firm practice, and more than four in ten go to the biggest firms in the market, the ones that set the market pay scale. For a school that is not in the T14, that is an exceptional large-firm result, and it is the core of the argument that Fordham Law School's outcomes outrun its 16.22% admit rate.

Federal clerkships are a smaller channel. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 15 Fordham Law School graduates, 3.3% of the class, took federal clerkships, a modest share that confirms Fordham Law School is a large-firm feeder rather than a clerkship pipeline. Overall placement is strong: the same summary shows 433 of 455 Fordham Law School graduates employed at the ten-month mark, a 95.2% employment rate, and Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0%, meaning essentially no one who starts washes out academically. The reason to weigh Fordham Law School on concentration rather than the headline rate is that its answer to where a degree leads is the clearest in this set: New York, and the largest firms in it.

When are Fordham Law School's application deadlines?

Fordham Law School publishes two rounds. According to Fordham Law School's own admissions pages, non-binding Early Action closes October 15 with decisions by December 15, and Regular Decision closes March 15. Both are non-binding. Cycle dates shift from year to year, so confirm the current calendar on Fordham Law School's site before relying on these.

Fordham Law School gives applicants a clear two-track calendar, and both tracks keep the applicant in control. Per Fordham Law School's own admissions pages, the non-binding Early Action deadline is October 15, with decisions released by December 15, which is an unusually fast and low-risk way to secure an early admit without any binding commitment. The Regular Decision deadline is March 15, giving applicants who need more time to strengthen the file a genuine second window. Because neither round at Fordham Law School binds the applicant, the main strategic choice is simply how early to apply, and earlier is generally better for both admission odds and scholarship dollars in a rolling-style pool.

One caveat applies to every deadline on this page. Application cycle dates shift from year to year, and a date that is correct for one cycle can move in the next. The October 15 Early Action and March 15 Regular Decision deadlines stated here reflect Fordham Law School's own admissions pages as verified in August 2026. Before relying on them, confirm the current deadlines on Fordham 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 Fordham Law School

Is a 168 LSAT good enough for Fordham Law School?

Yes. A 168 is exactly Fordham Law School's LSAT median, per Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, which puts the middle range at 165 to 170. At a 16.22% acceptance rate, a median LSAT paired with a GPA at or above the 3.6 floor makes an applicant genuinely competitive, though not safe, since Fordham Law School turns away many median-numbers applicants. A 168 is solidly in range at Fordham Law School.

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

Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.79, with a 25th percentile of 3.6 and a 75th percentile of 3.88. The middle half of Fordham Law School's class sits between 3.6 and 3.88. Realistically you want a GPA of at least 3.6, and anything below it needs an LSAT near the 170 upper quartile to offset at Fordham Law School.

What is Fordham Law School's acceptance rate?

Fordham Law School's acceptance rate is 16.22%, computed as 1,429 offers against 8,811 applications in Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That is genuinely selective and sits in the middle of Fordham Law School's LSAT band. About one in every six applicants receives an offer from Fordham Law School, a rate its elite New York job outcomes more than justify.

How many people apply to Fordham Law School each year?

Fordham Law School received 8,811 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, a large pool reflecting strong demand for its New York outcome. From that pool, Fordham Law School extended 1,429 offers of admission and enrolled 433 matriculants, building a first-year class of 444, including a part-time division of 70 students.

Does Fordham Law School have binding Early Decision?

No. Fordham Law School does not offer binding Early Decision, according to Fordham Law School's own admissions pages. Instead it runs a non-binding Early Action round, with an October 15 deadline and decisions by December 15, plus Regular Decision with a March 15 deadline. Because Early Action at Fordham Law School is non-binding, an admitted applicant keeps full freedom to compare offers and enroll elsewhere.

How much does Fordham Law School cost per year?

Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $79,248 and living expenses at $37,354 for the year, the latter reflecting New York City costs. Fordham 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 Fordham Law School's median grant of $35,000 nets about $44,248 in tuition and fees before living costs.

Does Fordham Law School give merit scholarships?

Yes, but no full rides. Fordham Law School's grants include both merit and need-based aid, and 87% of students receive a grant, per Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, with amounts of $25,000, $35,000, and $43,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. Notably, Fordham Law School reports zero full-tuition and zero above-full-tuition awards, so every scholarship is partial and tops out in the low-to-mid $40,000s.

What is Fordham Law School's bar passage rate?

Fordham Law School's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 92.98% for the 2024 exam year, with a 93.49% rate in its largest jurisdiction, New York. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, is 96.39%, per the same report. Nearly all Fordham Law School graduates who sit for the bar pass, and the New York first-time rate is strong.

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

Yes, at a rate that rivals the T14 for New York. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 250 Fordham Law School graduates (54.9%) took jobs at firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 192 of those (42.2% of the class) landed at firms of 501 or more lawyers. Large-firm practice is the single most common outcome for Fordham Law School graduates, and it skews toward the biggest firms.

Where do most Fordham Law School graduates work?

Almost all Fordham Law School graduates work in New York. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows New York taking 381 graduates (83.7%), the District of Columbia taking 10, and New Jersey taking 9, so the top three markets account for 87.9% of the class. A Fordham Law School degree is a New York City credential first and foremost, with very little spillover to other markets.

Can a splitter get into Fordham Law School?

Yes, with a real LSAT. Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.19 and an LSAT spread of three points, which makes Fordham Law School splitter friendly: it forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high. The catch is the high 165 LSAT floor, so the ideal Fordham Law School splitter has a 169 or 170 LSAT paired with a GPA in the low 3.6s.

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

Fordham Law School is middle of the pack for selectivity in its LSAT band. Among the 28 leading national schools with a median LSAT within two points of Fordham Law School's 168, ranked by acceptance rate, its 16.22% ranks 15th most selective, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. It sits just behind the University of Notre Dame at 16.1% and ahead of the University of Florida (Levin) at 16.5%, in a tight cluster around 16%.

Is Fordham Law School worth the cost?

For a student who wants New York BigLaw, yes. Against a $79,248 tuition and fees sticker in Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, only partial grants are available, but the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 54.9% of Fordham Law School graduates in large firms and 42.2% at firms of 501 or more lawyers. That New York large-firm pipeline is what makes the cost of Fordham Law School defensible.

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

Numbers above Fordham Law School's medians give the best shot: a 170 LSAT at the 75th percentile paired with a GPA near 3.88 positions an applicant for the top of the grant range, which reaches $43,000 at the 75th percentile per Fordham Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Because Fordham Law School awards no full-tuition scholarships, even top numbers earn a partial grant, so applying early also helps.

Does Fordham Law School have Early Action, and is it worth using?

Yes, and usually yes. Fordham Law School offers non-binding Early Action with an October 15 deadline and decisions by December 15, per Fordham Law School's own admissions pages. Because it is non-binding, an early admit locks in nothing, so a prepared applicant gains an early decision and stronger scholarship positioning while keeping full freedom to compare offers. For most confident applicants to Fordham Law School, Early Action is the smart choice.

Sources

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

Fordham Law School 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=102&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=102&year=2024

Fordham Law School ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=102&year=2025

Fordham Law School J.D. admissions application page: https://www.fordham.edu/school-of-law/admissions/jd-admissions/apply-to-fordham-law/

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