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

How to get into SMU Law School begins with outcomes: SMU Dedman Law is, in effect, a Dallas large-firm pipeline. According to SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 entering class posted an LSAT median of 167 (163 to 168) and a GPA median of 3.81 (3.52 to 3.92). Hit both and you are competitive.

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. The admissions figures on this page come from SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), the employment figures from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and the remaining detail from SMU Dedman Law's own pages.

The single most distinctive fact about SMU Dedman Law is where its graduates end up. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 222 of SMU Dedman Law's graduates began their careers in Texas, 89.9% of the class, and 36.8% of the class landed at large firms of 101 or more lawyers. That combination, a heavy Texas concentration paired with a large-firm share above a third of the class, is the thesis this page keeps returning to: SMU Dedman Law is built to feed the Dallas and wider Texas legal market, and its admissions numbers, its scholarships, and its bar results all read most clearly through that lens. This page walks through SMU Dedman Law admissions one figure at a time, so you can judge your own file against the real class.

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

SMU Dedman Law is a selective private school with a strong Texas outcome. According to SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 167 LSAT median, a 3.81 GPA median, and a 24.59% acceptance rate. Full-time tuition and fees run $68,686, with living expenses listed separately at $17,834. The table collects the core numbers.

MetricSMU Dedman Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)163 / 167 / 168GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.52 / 3.81 / 3.92Acceptance rate24.59%Applications3,038Offers of admission747Matriculants from the pool254First-year class254Full-time tuition and fees$68,686Living expenses$17,834Share receiving grants94% of studentsMedian grant$26,000Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage90.2%Employed at ten months97.6% (241 of 247)

Source: SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), SMU Dedman 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, so this page does not quote one.

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

You realistically need a 167 LSAT and a 3.81 GPA to sit at the center of SMU Dedman Law's class. SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 163 to 168 and the GPA middle at 3.52 to 3.92. Below either 25th percentile, the other number has to carry a clear compensating strength.

Take the two numbers one at a time. The SMU Dedman Law LSAT median is 167, with a 25th percentile of 163 and a 75th percentile of 168, per SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That is a tight band at the top: only one point separates the median from the 75th percentile, so a 168 already places an applicant in the top quarter of the class, a 167 sits at the exact middle, and a 163 marks the bottom quarter but stays inside the admitted range. An LSAT below 163 does not end the conversation at SMU Dedman Law, but it puts real pressure on the GPA and the rest of the file to make up the ground.

The GPA band is wider and more forgiving. The SMU Dedman Law GPA median is 3.81, with a 25th percentile of 3.52 and a 75th percentile of 3.92, according to the same disclosure. The distance from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.29 of a point, which is a meaningful spread: it tells you SMU Dedman Law will seriously read a file with a GPA in the mid-3.5s, well below the 3.81 median, provided the LSAT is strong. A 3.92 reaches the top quarter, and a 3.52 sits at the bottom quarter but remains a live number rather than a disqualifier.

So what does a realistic SMU Dedman Law profile look like? A 167 LSAT paired with a 3.81 GPA lands an applicant squarely at both medians, per SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, which is a competitive center-of-class position at a school admitting about a quarter of its applicants. Fall below the 163 LSAT or the 3.52 GPA and you need a clear compensating strength on the other number. A 3.4 GPA applicant realistically wants an LSAT at or above the 168 upper quartile, and a 161 LSAT applicant needs a GPA near the 3.92 top quarter to offset the score in SMU Dedman Law's read.

On the splitter question, SMU Dedman Law is splitter friendly, and that shapes who gets in. SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.29 and an LSAT 25th-to-median spread of 4 points, so the GPA 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. SMU Dedman Law leans splitter friendly, meaning a high-LSAT applicant carrying a GPA in the mid-3.5s has a genuinely realistic path, while a strong GPA cannot fully rescue an LSAT that lands several points under 163.

Is SMU Dedman Law harder to get into than its reputation?

Not really. SMU Dedman Law is more attainable on acceptance rate than its Dallas prestige suggests. SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a 24.59% acceptance rate, which ranks it 18th most selective of the 27 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 167 median. Its academic profile sits above its admit rate.

To judge the SMU Dedman Law acceptance rate fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 27 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of SMU Dedman Law's 167, that is a median of 165 to 169, ranked by acceptance rate, SMU Dedman Law is the 18th most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. That places SMU Dedman Law in the lower half of its own academic band: roughly two-thirds of the schools sharing its LSAT profile admit a smaller share of applicants than SMU Dedman Law's 24.59%.

The practical reading is encouraging for an applicant. SMU Dedman Law carries a strong regional reputation, especially across Texas, that would lead many candidates to assume a lower admit rate than the 24.59% the 509 actually reports. In fact SMU Dedman Law admits close to one applicant in four, so a file that sits at or near the 167 LSAT and 3.81 GPA medians is not chasing a long shot. The selectivity is real but sits below what the SMU Dedman Law brand implies, which means a well-built application at the medians is genuinely competitive rather than a reach.

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

SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $68,686 and living expenses at $17,834, with no single cost-of-attendance total printed. The aid picture is broad: 94% of SMU Dedman Law students receive a grant, with a median award of $26,000, and the scholarships are not conditional on grades.

Start with the sticker. SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $68,686 and, separately, living expenses at $17,834, a comparatively modest living figure. 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 SMU Dedman Law reports, and this page will not invent one.

Now the aid, which is where SMU Dedman Law is generous. The same disclosure reports that 94% of SMU Dedman Law students receive a grant, with grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $22,000, $26,000, and $33,333. SMU Dedman Law awarded zero full-tuition grants but 23 awards above full tuition, according to the 509, meaning a small group of students receive grants large enough to exceed tuition and reach into other costs. For a typical recipient, a student holding SMU Dedman Law's median grant of $26,000 nets about $42,686 in tuition and fees before living costs, per the same disclosure.

One consumer-protective point works in the applicant's favor at SMU Dedman Law. According to SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, its scholarships are not conditional, so a first-year award cannot be cut for landing in the bottom half of the curve. The grant you are quoted in your offer is the grant you keep for all three years, which removes the renewal risk that some schools attach to first-year merit money. Because 94% of students receive aid, the strategic move is to push your LSAT and GPA as high as possible, since at SMU Dedman Law those two numbers drive both the admission decision and the size of the discount.

What are your real chances off the SMU Dedman Law waitlist?

Modest, and the yield math explains why. SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure records 747 offers and 254 matriculants, an implied yield of 34.0%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so implied yield is the honest proxy: a 34% yield means SMU Dedman Law fills a solid share of its class from first-round offers.

Here is the reasoning in full. SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 747 offers of admission and 254 matriculants drawn from the applicant pool, which is an implied yield of 34.0%. No ABA disclosure, SMU Dedman Law's included, publishes how many applicants are admitted off the waitlist or how many accept, so implied yield is the honest stand-in for waitlist movement. The logic is that when a school converts 34% of its offers into enrollments, it sends roughly three offers for every seat it fills, which leaves a moderate amount of class-building work that can, in a given year, spill onto a waitlist.

For a waitlisted applicant, the practical read is cautious but not hopeless. A 34.0% implied yield at SMU Dedman Law is high enough that the school fills most of its class from direct offers, so a waitlist spot is a genuine but slender lifeline rather than a near-certainty. The honest limit is that SMU Dedman Law, like every school, does not publish year-to-year waitlist admit counts, so movement varies by cycle. If you are on the SMU Dedman Law waitlist, the constructive step is a concise letter of continued interest that reaffirms SMU Dedman Law as a first choice, because yield-conscious schools value applicants who signal they will enroll.

Where do SMU Dedman Law graduates actually work?

In Texas, and heavily in large firms. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Texas took 89.9% of SMU Dedman Law graduates and the top three markets took 91.9%. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 36.8% of the class, while federal clerkships took 2.4%. Concentration, not the raw employment rate, decides fit here.

The most useful fact about SMU Dedman Law's outcomes is how firmly they stay in state. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, SMU Dedman Law placed 222 graduates in Texas, 3 in Colorado, and 2 in California, its three largest markets. Texas alone absorbed 89.9% of the class, and the top three markets together took 91.9%, per the same summary. In practice a SMU Dedman Law degree is a Texas degree, feeding the Dallas-Fort Worth market above all, with only a thin scattering of graduates starting outside the state.

By employer type, the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 36.8% of SMU Dedman Law graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, a large-firm share reaching well above a third of the class. That is the number that defines SMU Dedman Law's market position: more than a third of the class steps directly into large-firm practice, overwhelmingly in Texas, which is exactly the outcome a Dallas-anchored school is built to deliver. Federal clerkships are a smaller path, taking 2.4% of the class, per the same summary, so the SMU Dedman Law story is a large-firm story rather than a clerkship one.

The overall placement rate is strong. The same ABA Employment Summary shows 241 of 247 SMU Dedman Law graduates employed at ten months, a 97.6% rate, and SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0%, so essentially no one who starts at SMU Dedman Law washes out academically. The reason to weigh SMU Dedman Law on concentration rather than that 97.6% headline is that near-total employment is common among well-regarded schools; what distinguishes SMU Dedman Law is the specific shape of its outcomes, which is Texas-first and large-firm heavy.

When are SMU Dedman Law's application deadlines?

SMU Dedman Law runs a rolling J.D. admissions cycle, but this page does not print a specific deadline date because the packet behind it did not pull one. The honest instruction is to confirm SMU Dedman Law's current deadlines, and any early-decision terms, directly on the school's admissions site. The guidance here is dated August 2026.

On early decision specifically, SMU Dedman Law's ED terms are not confirmed here for the current cycle, so rather than state a binding-or-not rule or a date that might be wrong, this page notes the absence plainly: if you are weighing an early application to SMU Dedman Law, confirm whether SMU Dedman Law offers an Early Decision round, whether it is binding, and what its deadline is, on the school's own admissions page before you rely on it. Application cycle dates shift from year to year, and a date that holds for one cycle can move in the next, so treat SMU Dedman Law's official site as the registrar of record. What this page can say with confidence, verified in August 2026, is that a strong SMU Dedman Law application benefits from being complete early in a rolling cycle, because seats and scholarship dollars are more plentiful earlier in the year.

Frequently asked questions about getting into SMU Dedman Law

Is a 167 LSAT good enough for SMU Dedman Law?

A 167 is exactly SMU Dedman Law's LSAT median, per SMU Dedman 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 167 and half below, inside a 163 to 168 middle range. Paired with a GPA at or near the 3.81 median, a 167 puts a SMU Dedman Law applicant squarely at the center of the admitted class.

What GPA do you need for SMU Dedman Law?

SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.81, with a 25th percentile of 3.52 and a 75th percentile of 3.92. Realistically you want a GPA of at least 3.52 to stay inside SMU Dedman Law's admitted band, and because SMU Dedman Law is splitter friendly, a strong LSAT at or above 167 can offset a GPA in the mid-3.5s in the school's read of the file.

What is SMU Dedman Law's acceptance rate?

SMU Dedman Law's acceptance rate is 24.59%, computed as 747 offers against 3,038 applications in SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That ranks SMU Dedman Law 18th most selective among the 27 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 167 median, in the lower half of its academic band. About one applicant in four receives an offer from SMU Dedman Law in a given cycle.

How many people apply to SMU Dedman Law?

SMU Dedman Law received 3,038 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. From that pool, SMU Dedman Law extended 747 offers of admission and enrolled 254 matriculants, building a first-year class of 254. The offers-to-matriculants gap reflects the many admitted applicants who ultimately enroll elsewhere, which is normal at a school admitting about a quarter of its pool.

How much does SMU Dedman Law cost?

SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $68,686 and living expenses at $17,834 for the year. SMU Dedman Law does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total in that 509, so this page will not quote one. A student holding SMU Dedman Law's median grant of $26,000 nets about $42,686 in tuition and fees before living costs.

Does SMU Dedman Law give scholarships?

Yes, and broadly. SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 94% of students receive a grant, with a median award of $26,000 and grants reaching a $33,333 upper quartile. SMU Dedman Law made zero full-tuition awards but 23 awards above full tuition, and its scholarships are not conditional, so a first-year grant at SMU Dedman Law cannot be cut for grades.

What is SMU Dedman Law's bar passage rate?

SMU Dedman Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 90.2% for the 2024 exam year, with Texas as the largest jurisdiction. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, is 94.4%, per the same report. In short, roughly nine in ten SMU Dedman Law graduates who sit for a bar exam pass on the first try, and nearly all pass eventually.

Where do SMU Dedman Law graduates work?

Overwhelmingly in Texas. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Texas taking 222 SMU Dedman Law graduates (89.9%), Colorado 3, and California 2, so the top three markets account for 91.9% of the class. A SMU Dedman Law degree points hardest at the Dallas-Fort Worth market, with large firms of 101 or more lawyers hiring 36.8% of the class.

Can a splitter get into SMU Dedman Law?

Yes, and the high-LSAT splitter has the edge. SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.29 and an LSAT spread of 4 points, so the GPA band is the more forgiving one. That makes SMU Dedman Law splitter friendly: an applicant with a 167-or-better LSAT and a GPA in the mid-3.5s fits the profile the school admits readily.

Is it easier to get into SMU Dedman Law with a high LSAT or a high GPA?

At SMU Dedman Law, a strong LSAT carries more weight. Its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows an LSAT 25th-to-median spread of 4 points against a wider GPA spread of 0.29, so the GPA band is the more forgiving of the two. That splitter-friendly shape means a 168 LSAT offsets a GPA in the mid-3.5s more readily than a high GPA offsets an LSAT well below the 163 bottom quartile at SMU Dedman Law.

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

Lower-middle of its band. Among the 27 leading schools with a median LSAT within two points of SMU Dedman Law's 167, ranked by acceptance rate, SMU Dedman Law is 18th most selective at 24.59%, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Seventeen band peers admit a smaller share of applicants than SMU Dedman Law does, so its academic profile outranks its admit rate.

Is SMU Dedman Law worth it?

For a Texas career, the case is strong. Against a $68,686 sticker in SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 94% of students receive grants with a $26,000 median, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 97.6% of graduates employed at ten months, with 36.8% at large firms. That Dallas large-firm pipeline is what makes SMU Dedman Law worth its cost for Texas-bound students.

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

The highest you can post, because SMU Dedman Law awards merit aid to nearly everyone. Per SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, grants reach a $33,333 upper quartile, with 23 awards above full tuition. An LSAT at or above the 168 upper quartile paired with a GPA near the 3.92 top quarter gives the strongest shot at the larger awards, since those two numbers drive scholarship size at SMU Dedman Law.

Does SMU Dedman Law have high first-year attrition?

No. SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0%, meaning essentially no member of the entering class was dismissed for grades in the first year. For an applicant, that is a reassuring signal: once you are admitted to SMU Dedman Law and enroll, the school is not using the first-year curve to force students out, and your scholarship is not conditional either.

How many students enroll at SMU Dedman Law each year?

SMU Dedman Law enrolled a first-year class of 254 for fall 2025, drawn from 254 matriculants, according to SMU Dedman Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That class was built from 747 offers against 3,038 applications, an implied yield of 34.0%. The relatively contained class size is one reason SMU Dedman Law can keep its outcomes concentrated in the Texas large-firm market it serves.

Sources

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

SMU Dedman Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=143&year=2025

SMU Dedman Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=143&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=143&year=2024

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