Law Schools in Maryland + LSAT Prep (2026 Guide)

Maryland has two ABA accredited law schools: the University of Maryland (Carey) and the University of Baltimore. Their median LSATs span 155 to 164 in the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures, so a score from the high 150s to the mid 160s covers the full in state range, and a lower score still has a real Maryland option rather than none.

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 median, acceptance rate, and full-time tuition figure on this page comes from each Maryland school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure for the fall 2025 entering class, and the bar exam status comes from the NCBE.

What law schools are in Maryland?

Maryland is a small state for legal education, with two ABA accredited law schools. The University of Maryland (Carey) sits at the top of the state on selectivity, and the University of Baltimore is the more accessible of the two. The table below gathers the median LSAT, acceptance rate, and full-time tuition for each Maryland law school, and every figure in it is drawn from that school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure for the fall 2025 entering class.

SchoolMedian LSATAcceptance rateFull-time tuitionUniversity of Maryland (Carey)16426.1%$37,830University of Baltimore15549.5%$33,944

Source: each figure above is from that Maryland school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure for the fall 2025 entering class. Because Maryland has only two law schools, the state gives applicants a clear choice between a more selective public research school and a more accessible public school, rather than a deep menu of options. Both are public institutions, which is why their full-time tuition figures, $37,830 at the University of Maryland (Carey) and $33,944 at the University of Baltimore, sit well below what many private law schools charge. This page treats those two Maryland schools in real depth so that a small state still gives you a full picture.

The two Maryland schools also differ sharply on how many applicants they admit, which is the other half of the access picture. The University of Maryland (Carey) reports a 26.1% acceptance rate in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, admitting roughly one in four applicants, while the University of Baltimore reports 49.5%, admitting close to one in two. That gap, nearly double the admit rate at the University of Baltimore, is what separates a selective flagship-style school from a genuinely accessible one, and it is why a Maryland applicant should read the two schools as different tiers of reach rather than interchangeable options.

What LSAT and GPA do you need for law school in Maryland?

In-state median LSATs in Maryland run from 155 to 164 across the two schools, according to their 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. The University of Maryland (Carey) posts the higher median at 164, which anchors the top of the Maryland range, while the University of Baltimore posts a 155 median and is the most accessible school in the state. That nine point gap is the entire spread of Maryland legal education, so where your LSAT falls inside it maps closely to which Maryland school treats you as competitive.

The rule of thumb is straightforward. A score at or above a school's median is competitive at that school, and a score below it leans on the rest of your file. A 164 or higher makes you competitive at the University of Maryland (Carey), the top-median school in Maryland, per its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. A 155, the University of Baltimore median, puts you at the center of that school's class. Between 155 and 164, you are competitive at the University of Baltimore and in reach at the University of Maryland (Carey) depending on how your GPA and the rest of your application read.

The most important point for Maryland applicants is what a lower score actually opens, because the two-school structure can look discouraging if you only see the 164 median. It should not. The University of Baltimore reports a 49.5% acceptance rate in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, close to admitting one in two applicants, and its 155 median is exactly where an applicant in the mid 150s belongs. A score below 164 does not close off Maryland. It simply points you first at the University of Baltimore, where mid 150s scores are the heart of the entering class, and keeps the University of Maryland (Carey) as a reach worth trying if the rest of your file is strong. The 509 disclosures report LSAT and GPA separately and do not publish a single admissions index, so this page does not invent a combined cutoff for either Maryland school.

The acceptance rates sharpen the same point for Maryland applicants building a list. At the University of Maryland (Carey), a 26.1% admit rate means even applicants at the 164 median face real competition, so a strong GPA and a strong application matter alongside the score. At the University of Baltimore, a 49.5% admit rate paired with a 155 median means a mid 150s applicant is not gambling on a long shot but applying to a school that admits nearly half its pool. A sound Maryland strategy for many applicants is to treat the University of Baltimore as a strong target and the University of Maryland (Carey) as a reach that a high LSAT or a high GPA can bring into range.

Which Maryland law schools are splitter friendly?

A splitter is an applicant with a high LSAT and a lower GPA, and a reverse splitter is the opposite: a strong GPA carrying a lower LSAT. A school is splitter friendly when it forgives a lower GPA for a high LSAT, and reverse-splitter friendly when it forgives a lower LSAT for a strong GPA. Maryland has one school of each type, computed from the 2025 ABA 509 percentile spreads, so both kinds of unbalanced applicant have a natural target in the state.

The University of Baltimore reads as splitter friendly in Maryland. Its GPA runs a wide 0.33 from the 25th percentile up to the median in its 2025 ABA 509 spread, which tells you the school admits a meaningful share of students whose GPA sits well below its median when the LSAT holds up. If your transcript lags but your LSAT is at or above the University of Baltimore 155 median, that school is the more forgiving of the two Maryland options for your profile. A high LSAT does real work at the University of Baltimore.

The University of Maryland (Carey) reads as reverse-splitter friendly in Maryland. Its LSAT runs a wide eight points from the 25th percentile up to the 164 median in the same 2025 ABA 509 spread, which means the school reaches lower on the LSAT for applicants whose GPA is strong. If you carry a high GPA but your LSAT sits a few points under 164, the University of Maryland (Carey) is the Maryland school whose numbers say your transcript can help carry the file. Between them, the two Maryland schools cover both classic unbalanced profiles, so a splitter and a reverse splitter each have a school in the state that leans their way.

For application strategy, the split between the two Maryland schools is genuinely useful. If your LSAT outruns your GPA, the University of Baltimore, the splitter-friendly school in Maryland, is the more natural fit, because its wide 0.33 GPA spread shows it will look past a softer transcript for a strong test score. If your GPA outruns your LSAT, the University of Maryland (Carey), the reverse-splitter-friendly school with its eight point LSAT spread, is the one whose numbers reward the transcript. Knowing which way your file leans tells you which Maryland school to prioritize and where a scholarship-worthy application is most likely to land.

What is the legal job market like in Maryland?

The dominant legal market in Maryland is Baltimore, with a substantial second center in the Maryland suburbs of the Washington metropolitan area, and the two Maryland law schools both place heavily inside the state. The clearest way to see how local each school is comes from the ABA Class of 2024 employment data, which reports how much of each graduating class stays in Maryland.

The University of Baltimore is the more Maryland-rooted of the two: it keeps 77% of its class in Maryland, according to the ABA Class of 2024 employment data. That is a strongly local placement profile, which makes the University of Baltimore a natural choice if your goal is to practice in Baltimore or elsewhere in Maryland, because most of its graduates build their careers inside the state. The University of Maryland (Carey) keeps 59% of its class in Maryland in the same ABA Class of 2024 data, still a majority in state but with a larger share leaving Maryland, consistent with a public research school whose reach extends into the neighboring Washington market and beyond.

Read together, the two numbers tell a consistent Maryland story. Both schools send most of their graduates into the Maryland market, which is centered on Baltimore and the state's share of the Washington metro, but the University of Baltimore is the more local of the pair while the University of Maryland (Carey) spreads a bit wider. This page does not quote salary figures for Maryland, because the packet behind it does not include salary data, and inventing one would break the integrity standard this page holds to.

For a Maryland applicant weighing the two schools on career grounds, the retention numbers carry a practical message. If you are certain you want to build a career inside Maryland, especially in the Baltimore market, the University of Baltimore's 77% in-state retention signals the deepest local network of the two. If you want to keep the door open to the neighboring Washington market or to practice outside Maryland, the University of Maryland (Carey), which keeps a smaller 59% of its class in state, reflects a graduate base that disperses somewhat more widely. Neither number is a ceiling, but both are honest signals from the ABA Class of 2024 data about where each Maryland school's alumni tend to build their careers.

Does Maryland use the NextGen bar exam?

Yes. Maryland has adopted the NextGen bar exam and administered its first NextGen exam in July 2026, according to the NCBE. Maryland is a former Uniform Bar Exam state that no longer gives the legacy UBE, so a Maryland applicant planning for the bar today should plan around the NextGen exam rather than the older format.

The timing matters for anyone starting law school in Maryland now. Because Maryland moved to NextGen with its July 2026 administration, students entering a Maryland law school in the next few cycles will sit the NextGen exam as a matter of course. The NCBE has also set a national end date for the older tests: the legacy Uniform Bar Exam and the Multistate Bar Exam end after the February 2028 administration. Maryland has already crossed that bridge, so the practical planning point is simply that the NextGen exam is the Maryland bar exam you should prepare for.

What this means for your study plan in Maryland is continuity, not disruption. The NextGen exam still tests core legal doctrine and lawyering skills, and a Maryland law school curriculum is built to prepare you for it. The single most useful thing to know as a Maryland applicant is that the question of whether Maryland would keep the UBE is already settled: Maryland uses NextGen, per the NCBE, and the legacy exams are being retired nationally after February 2028. Confirm the current administration details with the Maryland board when you register, since exam logistics are set by the state.

Where can you take the LSAT in Maryland?

LSAT test centers are available in Maryland's major metros, so most Maryland applicants can test reasonably close to home. The state's population and its law-related activity cluster around Baltimore, the largest city in Maryland, and the Maryland side of the Washington metropolitan area, including the Montgomery County and Prince George's County suburbs, with additional population centers around Columbia, the state capital of Annapolis, and Frederick.

The important caveat is that specific test-center locations and their available seats change from one testing cycle to the next, and a fair share of LSAT administrations are now offered in a remote-proctored format that you take from home. For that reason this page does not print individual Maryland test-center addresses, which would go stale quickly and could send you to a site that is no longer active. Instead, check LSAC's official test-center list when you register, filter it to Maryland, and pick the location or the remote option that fits your schedule.

The practical Maryland takeaway is that geography should not be an obstacle to sitting the LSAT in this state. Between the in-person centers that appear in the Baltimore and Washington-adjacent parts of Maryland each cycle and the remote-proctored option, an applicant anywhere in Maryland has a workable way to test. Lock your date early, because seats at the most convenient Maryland locations fill first, and confirm the current list on LSAC's site rather than relying on last year's centers.

Which Maryland universities feed law school?

Maryland's flagship public university, the University of Maryland, College Park, is the state's largest single source of pre-law undergraduates, and its students are common applicants to law schools in Maryland and beyond. College Park's size, its strong programs in political science, history, economics, and criminal justice, and its proximity to Washington make it a natural pipeline into legal education for Maryland residents.

Beyond the flagship, several other Maryland institutions regularly send graduates to law school. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is a major private research university whose graduates pursue law among other advanced degrees. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Towson University, Salisbury University on the Eastern Shore, Morgan State University in Baltimore, and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis all contribute Maryland applicants to law programs as well. This section names these Maryland universities as common feeders based on their size and prominence in the state, and it deliberately does not attribute a specific placement statistic to any of them, because the packet behind this page does not include per-university placement data for Maryland.

Frequently asked questions about law school in Maryland

How many law schools are in Maryland?

Maryland has two ABA accredited law schools: the University of Maryland (Carey) and the University of Baltimore. Their median LSATs are 164 and 155 in the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. That makes Maryland a small state for legal education, but the two schools cover distinct roles, one more selective and public research oriented, the other more accessible and locally focused.

What is the easiest law school to get into in Maryland?

By the 2025 ABA 509 numbers, the University of Baltimore is the most accessible law school in Maryland, with a 49.5% acceptance rate and a 155 median LSAT. It admits close to half of its applicants, so a Maryland applicant in the mid 150s belongs squarely in its entering class rather than reaching for it.

What is the best law school in Maryland?

"Best" depends on your goal, but by selectivity the University of Maryland (Carey) leads Maryland, with a 164 median LSAT and a 26.1% acceptance rate in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. The University of Baltimore counters with the strongest in-state footprint, keeping 77% of its class in Maryland, so the better Maryland school is the one that matches your plan.

What LSAT score do you need for law school in Maryland?

Median LSATs in Maryland run 155 to 164, per the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. A 164 or higher is competitive at the University of Maryland (Carey), and a 155 sits at the University of Baltimore median. A score anywhere in the mid to high 150s gives you a real Maryland option, so a lower scorer is not shut out of the state.

How much does law school cost in Maryland?

Full-time tuition in Maryland is $37,830 at the University of Maryland (Carey) and $33,944 at the University of Baltimore, according to their 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Both are public schools, which keeps their tuition well below many private law schools. The 509 disclosures report tuition separately from living costs, so this page does not sum them into a single Maryland cost-of-attendance figure.

Does Maryland use the NextGen bar exam?

Yes. Maryland adopted the NextGen bar exam and gave its first NextGen administration in July 2026, according to the NCBE. Maryland is a former Uniform Bar Exam state that no longer offers the legacy UBE. Nationally, the legacy UBE and Multistate Bar Exam end after the February 2028 administration, so Maryland applicants today should prepare for the NextGen exam.

Can you take the bar in Maryland with an out-of-state degree?

Graduating from an ABA accredited law school in any state is the standard threshold to sit for a state bar, so an out-of-state ABA degree generally lets you take the Maryland bar. Maryland now administers the NextGen exam, per the NCBE. Because each jurisdiction sets its own admission details, confirm the current requirements directly with the Maryland board before you plan around them.

Which Maryland law school has the best bar passage?

The disclosures behind this page cover median LSAT, acceptance rate, and tuition for the University of Maryland (Carey) and the University of Baltimore, but they do not include each Maryland school's first-time bar passage rate, so this page does not rank the two on bar passage. First-time bar results by school are published in each school's ABA bar-passage report, which is the right place to compare them for Maryland.

Are there part-time or evening law programs in Maryland?

The figures on this page report full-time medians and full-time tuition for the University of Maryland (Carey) and the University of Baltimore and do not itemize part-time or evening divisions, so this page cannot confirm those programs from its sources. If a part-time or evening schedule is essential to your Maryland plan, confirm the current offerings directly with each school's admissions office.

Where can you take the LSAT in Maryland?

LSAT test centers appear in Maryland's major metros, chiefly Baltimore and the Maryland suburbs of the Washington metropolitan area, and a remote-proctored option is available from home. Because specific Maryland centers and seats change each cycle, check LSAC's official test-center list when you register rather than relying on a fixed address, and book early to secure the most convenient location.

Which Maryland law schools are splitter friendly?

The University of Baltimore is the splitter-friendly Maryland school, with a wide 0.33 GPA spread from its 25th percentile to its median in the 2025 ABA 509 data, so a high LSAT can carry a lower GPA there. The University of Maryland (Carey) is reverse-splitter friendly, with an eight point LSAT spread, so a strong GPA helps carry a lower LSAT.

Do you have to go to law school in Maryland to practice there?

No. You do not have to attend a Maryland law school to practice in Maryland. An ABA accredited J.D. from any state generally qualifies you to sit for the Maryland bar, which now uses the NextGen exam, per the NCBE. That said, the two in-state schools place heavily in Maryland, so studying in the state can help build local connections. Confirm admission rules with the Maryland board.

Is a 160 LSAT good for law school in Maryland?

A 160 is a strong score for Maryland. It sits above the University of Baltimore 155 median, making you a strong candidate there, and within striking distance of the University of Maryland (Carey) 164 median, per the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Paired with a solid GPA, a 160 gives a Maryland applicant a competitive file at one school and a live reach at the other.

What GPA do you need for law school in Maryland?

The 2025 ABA 509 disclosures report LSAT and GPA separately for the University of Maryland (Carey) and the University of Baltimore and do not publish a single GPA cutoff, so this page will not invent one for Maryland. The spreads show that both schools admit applicants below their GPA medians when the LSAT is strong, especially the splitter-friendly University of Baltimore, so a softer GPA is workable with a high score.

Do Maryland law schools offer scholarships?

The disclosures behind this page cover median LSAT, acceptance rate, and full-time tuition for the two Maryland schools, but they do not include grant or scholarship data, so this page cannot quote scholarship figures for the University of Maryland (Carey) or the University of Baltimore. Both are public schools with relatively low tuition, but confirm current aid directly with each Maryland school.

Sources

Every figure on this page is drawn from primary disclosures for Maryland, listed here so readers can verify each one directly. School-level median LSAT, acceptance rate, and full-time tuition are from each Maryland school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure for the fall 2025 entering class, available through the ABA disclosure portal.

ABA Required Disclosures portal (2025 Standard 509 reports): https://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/

NCBE, for Maryland's NextGen bar exam status and the national retirement of the legacy UBE and MBE after February 2028: https://www.ncbex.org/

LSAC, for the official and current Maryland LSAT test-center list: https://www.lsac.org/

Get your free Maryland law school profile evaluation