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

The honest answer to how to get into Georgetown Law School starts with two numbers. According to Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 entering class posted an LSAT median of 171 (166 to 173) and a GPA median of 3.93 (3.75 to 3.98). Hit both and you are competitive, not admitted.

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

Georgetown Law stands apart from its T14 peers in two concrete ways, and both shape how you should approach the Georgetown University law admissions process. First, Georgetown Law draws the largest applicant pool in American legal education: Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure records 13,924 applications, more than any other law school in the country, which is why its acceptance rate can look modest while its class stays large. Second, Georgetown Law is the only T14 school with a part-time evening division, and its fall 2025 first-year class of 672 includes 78 part-time students alongside 594 full-time students, per the same disclosure. On the jobs side, Georgetown Law owns Washington hiring and then feeds New York: the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 placed 255 graduates in the District of Columbia and 163 in New York, 418 of the 661-graduate class between those two markets alone. The thesis of this page is that Georgetown Law is more attainable on acceptance rate than its brand implies, yet its medians remain elite and its value is highest for applicants aiming at Washington and New York.

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

Georgetown Law is a top-tier school that admits a larger share of applicants than most schools at its level. According to Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 171 LSAT median, a 3.93 GPA median, and a 15.75% acceptance rate. Full-time tuition and fees run $83,576. The table below collects the core numbers.

MetricGeorgetown Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)166 / 171 / 173GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.75 / 3.93 / 3.98Acceptance rate15.75%Applications13,924Offers of admission2,193Matriculants from the pool672First-year class672 (594 full-time, 78 part-time)Full-time tuition and fees$83,576Living expenses$33,905Share receiving grants61% (1,348 students)Median grant$35,000Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage94.55%Employed at ten months97.0% (641 of 661)

Source: Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), Georgetown Law'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. The share-receiving-grants row lists the recipient count because the 509 as compiled here does not print a clean enrollment denominator for that percentage.

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

You realistically need a 171 LSAT and a 3.93 GPA to sit at the center of Georgetown Law's class. Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 166 to 173 and the GPA middle at 3.75 to 3.98. Below either 25th percentile, the other number must compensate.

Take the two rows one at a time. The Georgetown University law LSAT median is 171, with a 25th percentile of 166 and a 75th percentile of 173, per Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That is a seven-point full range, wider than most of its T14 peers, which tells you Georgetown Law will read a 166 in context rather than discard it out of hand. A 173 puts an applicant in the top quarter of the class, a 171 is the exact middle, and a 166 sits at the bottom quarter but still inside the admitted band.

The GPA picture is tighter. The Georgetown University law GPA median is 3.93, with a 25th percentile of 3.75 and a 75th percentile of 3.98, according to the same disclosure. The distance from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.18 of a point, and the top quarter sits at a near-perfect 3.98. In plain terms, Georgetown Law's admitted students cluster high on the undergraduate scale, but the GPA band is forgiving enough that a 3.75 is a live number rather than a disqualifier.

So what is a realistic Georgetown Law profile? A 171 LSAT paired with a 3.93 GPA lands an applicant squarely at both medians, per Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, which is the center of the class and a genuinely competitive position at a school that admits about 16 in every hundred applicants. Fall below the 166 LSAT or the 3.75 GPA and you need a clear compensating strength on the other number. A 3.6 GPA applicant realistically wants an LSAT at or above the 173 upper quartile to keep the file in contention, and a 164 LSAT applicant needs a GPA pressed up against the 3.98 top quartile to offset it in Georgetown Law's read.

On the splitter question, Georgetown Law is reverse-splitter friendly, which is the more unusual profile and worth understanding precisely. Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.18 and an LSAT 25th-to-median spread of 5 points, so the LSAT 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. Georgetown Law leans reverse-splitter, meaning an applicant with a strong 3.93-and-up GPA and an LSAT a few points under the 171 median has a more realistic path than the opposite combination. The high-GPA, slightly-lower-LSAT candidate is the profile Georgetown Law absorbs most readily.

Is Georgetown Law harder to get into than its reputation?

No. Georgetown Law is easier to get into than its T14 reputation implies. Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a 15.75% acceptance rate, which ranks 20th most selective among the 26 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 171 median. Its brand runs ahead of its admit rate.

To judge Georgetown University law acceptance rate fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 26 leading national law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Georgetown Law's 171, that is a median of 169 to 173, ranked by acceptance rate, Georgetown Law is the 20th most selective, not the first or second its brand might suggest. Its 15.75% rate, from Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, sits deep in the back third of its own academic band.

Ranked from most to least selective by acceptance rate, that band opens with Stanford University at 6.1%, the University of Pennsylvania (Carey) at 8.1%, the University of Michigan at 8.6%, and the University of Virginia at 10.2%. It continues through the University of Southern California's Gould School, which the underlying data lists twice at 11.0% and 11.2%, then Columbia University at 11.8%, a tight 12.1% cluster of UCLA, Boston University, and Texas A&M University, Northwestern University (Pritzker) at 12.3%, the University of Georgia at 12.7%, Duke University at 12.9%, Vanderbilt University at 13.3%, and New York University at 13.4%. The University of Texas at Austin follows at 14.0%, UC Berkeley at 14.8%, and the University of Florida and UC Irvine at 14.9%, and then comes Georgetown University at 15.75%. Behind Georgetown Law sit George Mason University (Scalia) at 16.0%, the University of Notre Dame at 16.1%, the University of Florida's Levin listing at 16.5%, Cornell University at 18.2%, Brigham Young University (BYU) at 22.8%, and the University of Minnesota at 26.7%.

One school needs an asterisk. Boston College reports an 8.5% acceptance rate that would place it high in this band, but Boston College reports its offers on a narrower basis than the others, so it is not a true selectivity peer and is left out of the ranking above. With that caveat set aside, the pattern is unambiguous. Georgetown Law is a genuine member of the national elite by academic profile, since its 171 LSAT median sits with the strongest schools in the country, but by the single metric that measures how hard it is to secure an offer, it is one of the least selective schools in its own band. Nineteen schools in the band are more selective than Georgetown Law by acceptance rate, and only six are less selective. An applicant who treats Georgetown Law as a reach on the order of Michigan or Virginia is misreading it: on acceptance rate it is meaningfully more attainable, even as its median numbers stay daunting. The reason is arithmetic. Georgetown Law's 13,924 applications are the most in the country, and against 2,193 offers that still produces a mid-teens rate, so a large, self-selected pool coexists with a class big enough to keep the admit rate above most of its peers.

Does Georgetown Law have Early Decision, and is it binding?

Yes. Georgetown Law offers a binding Early Decision program, and it is genuinely binding. According to Georgetown Law's own early-decision page, it is a single late-cycle round with a March 2 deadline, and you may not hold a binding application at any other law school. The commitment lifts only if you are deferred or waitlisted.

The mechanics matter, so read them closely. Georgetown Law's own early-decision page describes one binding Early Decision round with a March 2 deadline, which is unusually late in the cycle, since most binding law-school Early Decision deadlines fall in November. That late timing changes the strategy. Rather than a signal you send at the very start of the cycle, Georgetown Law's Early Decision is a late-cycle commitment device, useful for an applicant who has decided Georgetown Law is the clear first choice and wants to make that unambiguous before final decisions are made.

The binding terms are strict but fair. Under Georgetown Law's own early-decision page, an Early Decision applicant may not hold a binding application at any other law school at the same time, and the binding commitment to Georgetown Law lifts only if the applicant is deferred or waitlisted rather than admitted. If Georgetown Law admits you through this round, you are expected to enroll. Crucially, Georgetown Law states that Early Decision applicants are considered for merit and need-based aid on the same terms and the same timeline as all other admitted students, so committing early does not cost you scholarship consideration at Georgetown Law. That is a meaningful reassurance, because at some schools a binding early commitment can weaken an applicant's leverage for aid, and Georgetown Law's policy explicitly does not.

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

Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $83,576 and living expenses at $33,905, with no single cost-of-attendance total printed. Georgetown Law awards both merit and need-based grants: 61% of students receive them, with a median grant of $35,000. Scholarships are not conditional on grades.

Start with the sticker. Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $83,576 and separately lists living expenses at $33,905. That 509 does not print a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so any all-in annual number quoted elsewhere is someone's arithmetic rather than a figure Georgetown Law itself reports, and this page will not invent one.

Now the aid. Unlike the handful of schools at the very top that award no merit scholarships, Georgetown Law's grant pool blends merit and need-based money, so your numbers can genuinely earn you a discount here. According to Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 61% of students receive grant aid, a total of 1,348 students, with grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $25,000, $35,000, and $47,500. Georgetown Law also reports 43 full-tuition awards and 16 awards above full tuition, meaning a small group of students receive grants large enough to cover tuition entirely and, in 16 cases, to exceed it and reach into living costs.

For a typical recipient, the math is straightforward. Against the $83,576 sticker for tuition and fees, a student holding Georgetown Law's median grant of $35,000 nets about $48,576 in tuition and fees before living costs, using figures from Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That is a real discount, but it still leaves a substantial bill, and it applies to only a bit more than half the class, since 39% of Georgetown Law students receive no grant at all. Two features soften the picture. Georgetown Law's scholarships are not conditional, per the same disclosure, so a first-year award cannot be cut for landing in the bottom half of the curve; the grant you are quoted is the grant you keep. And because 61% of a very large class receives aid, the odds of some discount are better than at several smaller, stingier peers.

The strategic read is simple. Because Georgetown Law awards merit aid, a strong LSAT and GPA do more than win admission here; they move you up the grant scale, and a competing merit offer from a peer school can sometimes be leveraged into a larger Georgetown Law award. Applicants chasing scholarship dollars should push their LSAT as high as possible, because at Georgetown Law the same number that clears the admissions bar also drives the size of the discount.

What are your real chances off the Georgetown Law waitlist?

Modest, and the math shows why. Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure records 2,193 offers and 672 matriculants from the pool, an implied yield of 30.6%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, but a yield near 31% means Georgetown Law leans on its waitlist more than the highest-yield schools do.

Here is the reasoning in full. Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 2,193 offers of admission and 672 matriculants drawn from the applicant pool, which is an implied yield of 30.6%. No ABA disclosure, Georgetown Law's included, publishes how many applicants receive offers 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 31% of its offers into enrollments, it is sending out roughly three offers for every seat it fills, which leaves room to return to a waitlist when the yield in a given cycle comes in soft.

Compared with the very top of the market, that is a waitlist-active profile. A school that yields 70% or more fills nearly its entire class from first-round offers and rarely reaches its waitlist; Georgetown Law, yielding 30.6%, is structurally the opposite kind of school, one that plans for most admits to enroll elsewhere and therefore keeps a working waitlist. For an applicant, that is qualified good news. A Georgetown Law waitlist spot is not a polite rejection; it is a real position in a class that historically needs waitlist movement to finish. The honest caveat is that no one, including Georgetown Law, publishes year-to-year waitlist admit counts, so the size of that movement swings with each cycle's yield and cannot be promised. What the 30.6% implied yield does tell you is that Georgetown Law is more likely to work its waitlist than a school converting two-thirds of its offers, and a waitlisted candidate should keep the file warm rather than walk away.

Where do Georgetown Law graduates actually work?

Overwhelmingly in Washington, then New York. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, the District of Columbia took 38.6% of Georgetown Law graduates and the top three markets took 71.9%. Large firms of 101-plus lawyers hired 61.6%, and 5.0% took federal clerkships. Concentration, not the raw rate, decides fit.

The most useful fact about Georgetown Law's employment outcomes is where its graduates land, not simply how many are employed. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Georgetown Law placed 255 graduates in the District of Columbia, 163 in New York, and 57 in California, its three largest markets. Washington alone absorbed 38.6% of the class, the top market share, and the top three markets together took 71.9%, per the same ABA Employment Summary. In practice a Georgetown Law degree points first and hardest at Washington, then at New York, with the two capitals of American law and policy accounting for 418 of the 661-graduate class between them.

By employer type, the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 407 Georgetown Law graduates, or 61.6%, taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 361 of them, 54.6% of the class, at the very largest firms of 501 or more lawyers. So large-firm practice, what applicants usually call BigLaw, is the single most common destination for a Georgetown Law graduate, and it skews heavily toward the biggest firms rather than mid-sized ones. That is a strong BigLaw placement rate for a class this large, and it reflects Georgetown Law's deep pipeline into the Washington and New York offices of national firms.

Federal clerkships are a smaller but meaningful slice. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 33 Georgetown Law graduates, 5.0% of the class, went into federal clerkships. That is a solid clerkship share, though not the outsized figure some smaller, clerkship-heavy schools post; Georgetown Law's identity is a large-firm and government-hiring engine, not primarily a clerkship feeder. Overall placement is strong: the same summary shows 641 of 661 graduates employed at ten months, a 97.0% rate, and Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0%, so essentially no one who starts washes out academically. The reason to weigh Georgetown Law on concentration rather than the 97.0% headline is that near-total employment is standard across the top of the national market; what distinguishes Georgetown Law is the specific shape of that employment, which is Washington-first, New York-second, and heavily large-firm.

When are Georgetown Law's application deadlines?

Georgetown Law runs a binding Early Decision round and a regular cycle. According to Georgetown Law's own early-decision page, the binding Early Decision deadline is March 2, an unusually late date. Cycle dates shift from year to year, so confirm the current deadlines on Georgetown Law's site. This reflects the 2025 to 2026 cycle.

Georgetown Law's published calendar gives one firm date to anchor on. According to Georgetown Law's own early-decision page, the binding Early Decision deadline is March 2, a single late-cycle round rather than the November date most schools use. Beyond that Early Decision deadline, the sources compiled for this page do not state a separate regular-cycle deadline for Georgetown Law, so rather than invent one, this page notes the absence honestly: confirm Georgetown Law's current regular J.D. deadline directly on the school's admissions site before you plan around it.

One caveat applies to every deadline here. Application cycle dates shift from year to year, and a date that holds for one cycle can move in the next. The March 2 Early Decision deadline stated on this page reflects the 2025 to 2026 cycle as published on Georgetown Law's own early-decision page and verified in August 2026. Before relying on it, confirm the current dates on Georgetown Law's site, because a profile like this one is a planning aid, not the registrar of record.

Frequently asked questions about getting into Georgetown Law

Is a 171 LSAT good enough for Georgetown Law?

A 171 is exactly Georgetown Law's LSAT median, per Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, so it is good enough to be competitive rather than safe. Half of the fall 2025 class scored at or above 171 and half below, inside a 166 to 173 middle range. Paired with a GPA at or near the 3.93 median, a 171 puts a Georgetown Law applicant at the center of the admitted class.

What GPA do you need to get into Georgetown Law?

Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.93, with a 25th percentile of 3.75 and a 75th percentile of 3.98. Realistically you want a GPA of at least 3.75 to stay inside the admitted band, and because Georgetown Law is reverse-splitter friendly, a GPA at or above the 3.93 median can offset an LSAT a few points under 171 in Georgetown Law's read of the file.

What is Georgetown Law's acceptance rate?

Georgetown Law's acceptance rate is 15.75%, computed as 2,193 offers against 13,924 applications in Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That is a mid-teens rate, which ranks Georgetown Law 20th most selective among the 26 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 171 median. About 16 applicants in every hundred receive an offer from Georgetown Law in a given cycle.

How many people apply to Georgetown Law each year?

Georgetown Law received 13,924 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the largest applicant pool of any law school in the United States. From that pool, Georgetown Law extended 2,193 offers and enrolled 672 matriculants, building a first-year class of 672 that includes 594 full-time and 78 part-time students. The size of the pool is what keeps Georgetown Law's acceptance rate above most of its academic peers.

Does Georgetown Law have binding Early Decision?

Yes. Georgetown Law offers a single binding Early Decision round with a March 2 deadline, according to Georgetown Law's own early-decision page. An Early Decision applicant may not hold a binding application at any other law school, and the commitment lifts only if Georgetown Law defers or waitlists the file. Early Decision applicants are considered for merit and need-based aid on the same terms as all other Georgetown Law admits.

How much does Georgetown Law cost per year?

Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $83,576 and living expenses at $33,905 for the year. Georgetown Law does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total in that 509, so this page will not quote one. A student receiving Georgetown Law's median grant of $35,000 nets about $48,576 in tuition and fees before living costs are added.

Does Georgetown Law give merit scholarships?

Yes. Unlike the few schools at the very top that award need-based aid only, Georgetown Law's grants blend merit and need. Per Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 61% of students receive grants, a total of 1,348 students, with a median of $35,000, plus 43 full-tuition awards and 16 awards above full tuition. A strong LSAT and GPA can therefore earn both admission and a larger discount at Georgetown Law.

What is Georgetown Law's bar passage rate?

Georgetown Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 94.55% for the 2025 exam year, with a 95.69% rate in its largest jurisdiction, the District of Columbia. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2023 cohort, is 95.07%, per the same report. In short, the large majority of Georgetown Law graduates who sit for a bar exam pass it, and nearly all pass eventually.

Do Georgetown Law 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, 407 Georgetown Law graduates (61.6%) took jobs at firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 361 of those (54.6% of the class) landed at firms of 501 or more lawyers. Large-firm practice is the largest destination for Georgetown Law graduates by head count, concentrated in the biggest national firms.

Where do most Georgetown Law graduates work?

Most Georgetown Law graduates work in Washington, then New York. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows the District of Columbia taking 255 graduates (38.6%), New York 163, and California 57, so the top three markets account for 71.9% of the class. A Georgetown Law degree, in practice, points hardest at the Washington legal and policy market and secondarily at New York.

Can a splitter get into Georgetown Law?

Yes, and the reverse-splitter has the better odds. Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.18 and an LSAT spread of 5 points, so the LSAT band is proportionally more forgiving. A high-GPA, lower-LSAT applicant fits Georgetown Law's reverse-splitter profile more comfortably than a high-LSAT, low-GPA candidate, though the off-median number still needs to stay inside the admitted band.

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

Less selective than most of them. Among the 26 leading schools with a median LSAT within two points of Georgetown Law's 171, ranked by acceptance rate, Georgetown Law is 20th most selective at 15.75%, per Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Nineteen band peers, including Michigan at 8.6% and Virginia at 10.2%, admit a smaller share of applicants than Georgetown Law does. Its academic profile outranks its admit rate.

Is Georgetown Law worth the cost?

For applicants targeting Washington or New York, yes. Against a $83,576 tuition and fees sticker in Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 61% of students receive merit or need-based grants, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 97.0% of Georgetown Law graduates employed at ten months, with 61.6% in large firms. That BigLaw placement and Georgetown Law's grip on Washington hiring make the cost defensible for market-aligned applicants.

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

The highest numbers you can post, because Georgetown Law awards merit aid. Per Georgetown Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, grants run to a $47,500 upper quartile, with 43 full-tuition and 16 above-full-tuition awards. An LSAT above the 173 upper quartile and a GPA near the 3.98 top quarter give the strongest shot at the larger awards, and a competing offer from a peer can sometimes be leveraged at Georgetown Law.

Does Georgetown Law have a part-time or evening program?

Yes, and it is distinctive. Georgetown Law is the only T14 school with a part-time evening division, and its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows the fall 2025 first-year class of 672 splitting into 594 full-time and 78 part-time students. The evening division lets working applicants pursue a Georgetown Law J.D. on a reduced course load, an option no other top-14 law school offers.

Sources

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

Georgetown Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=30&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/04/EQSummary-63-04-03-2025-6-26-25.pdf

Georgetown Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=30&year=2025

Georgetown Law Early Decision page: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/jd-admissions/first-year-applicants/apply-early-decision/

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