How to Get Into St. Mary's Law School: LSAT, GPA & Admissions (2026)

How to get into St. Mary's Law School comes down to its medians. According to St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted an LSAT median of 153 (151 to 156) and a GPA median of 3.49 (3.14 to 3.69). Hit both and you are competitive at a genuinely selective regional school.

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 St. Mary's University School of 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 St. Mary's University School of Law's own pages.

The single most distinctive fact about St. Mary's University School of Law is how selective it is for its academic band. Among the 51 ABA law schools whose median LSAT sits within two points of St. Mary's University School of Law's 153, ranked by acceptance rate, St. Mary's University School of Law is the 2nd most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Its 25.98% acceptance rate means only 1 of the other 50 schools drawing applicants with the same LSAT range admits a smaller share than St. Mary's Law does. For an applicant that flips the usual assumption: a San Antonio regional school with a 153 median is not a safety, it is one of the choosier admits at its level, and a file built cleanly to the medians is what earns a place.

St. Mary's University School of Law at a glance: LSAT, GPA, acceptance rate and cost

St. Mary's University School of Law is a private Catholic school in San Antonio with a strong Texas placement record. According to St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 153 LSAT median, a 3.49 GPA median, and a 25.98% acceptance rate. Full-time tuition and fees run $46,310. The table collects the core numbers.

MetricSt. Mary's University School of Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)151 / 153 / 156GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.14 / 3.49 / 3.69Acceptance rate25.98%Applications2,906Offers of admission755Matriculants from the pool279First-year class282 (254 full-time plus 28 part-time)Full-time tuition and fees$46,310Living expenses$23,878Share receiving grants81% of studentsMedian grant$12,500Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage65.84%Employed at ten months88.5% (215 of 243)

Source: St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), St. Mary's University School of Law's ABA bar-passage report, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024. The 509 does not print a single cost-of-attendance total, so this page reports tuition and living expenses as separate figures rather than inventing one combined number.

What LSAT and GPA do you really need to get into St. Mary's University School of Law?

You realistically need a 153 LSAT and a 3.49 GPA to sit at the center of the St. Mary's University School of Law class. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 151 to 156 and the GPA middle at 3.14 to 3.69. Below the 151 LSAT or the 3.14 GPA, the other number has to carry a clear compensating strength.

Take the two numbers one at a time. The St. Mary's University School of Law LSAT median is 153, with a 25th percentile of 151 and a 75th percentile of 156, per St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The band leans upward: only two points separate the 151 bottom quartile from the 153 median, but a full three points separate the median from the 156 top quartile. That shape tells you a 156 clearly reaches the top quarter of the St. Mary's Law class, while a 151 sits at the bottom quartile but stays inside the admitted range. An LSAT below 151 puts real pressure on the GPA and the rest of the file to compensate.

The GPA band is workable and forgiving. The St. Mary's University School of Law GPA median is 3.49, with a 25th percentile of 3.14 and a 75th percentile of 3.69, according to the same disclosure. The distance from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.35 of a point, a wide spread that tells you St. Mary's Law will seriously consider a GPA in the low 3.1s when the LSAT is at or above the 153 median. A 3.69 reaches the top quarter of the class, and a 3.14 sits at the bottom quarter without ruling a candidate out.

So what does a realistic St. Mary's Law profile look like? A 153 LSAT paired with a 3.49 GPA lands an applicant squarely at both medians, per St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, a competitive center-of-class position at a school admitting about one applicant in four. On the splitter question, St. Mary's University School of Law is splitter friendly: its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.35 and an LSAT spread of two points, so the GPA band is the more forgiving of the two. A splitter-friendly school forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high, and St. Mary's Law leans that way, so an applicant with a 153-or-better LSAT and a GPA in the low-to-mid 3.1s has a genuinely realistic path.

Is St. Mary's University School of Law harder to get into than its reputation?

Yes, and by a wide margin. St. Mary's University School of Law is far more selective than a regional Texas reputation would suggest. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a 25.98% acceptance rate, which ranks it 2nd most selective among the 51 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 153 median. Its admit rate sits near the very top of its academic band.

To judge the St. Mary's Law acceptance rate fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 51 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of St. Mary's University School of Law's 153, that is a median of 151 to 155, ranked by acceptance rate, St. Mary's University School of Law is the 2nd most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. That places St. Mary's Law at the top of a very large band: 49 of the 50 other schools sharing its LSAT profile admit a larger share of applicants than St. Mary's Law's 25.98%.

The practical reading matters for how you plan. St. Mary's University School of Law is often filed mentally as a regional fallback, but the numbers say otherwise: at 25.98%, St. Mary's Law admits roughly one applicant in four, a rate more selective than nearly every school with the same 153 LSAT median. One driver is demand against class size. St. Mary's Law drew 2,906 applications for fall 2025 and extended 755 offers to build a first-year class of 282, of which 254 are full-time and 28 part-time, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The strong application volume relative to seats lets the school hold its admit rate down while filling a sizable class. The takeaway for an applicant is to treat St. Mary's Law as a genuine target rather than a safety, and to apply early with a file built to the medians.

How much does St. Mary's University School of Law cost, and how much scholarship money will you get?

St. Mary's University School of Law is a full-price private school by sticker: its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports full-time tuition and fees of $46,310, with living expenses of $23,878. The aid softens that but does not erase it: 81% of St. Mary's Law students receive a grant, the median award is $12,500, and the scholarships are not conditional on grades.

Start with the sticker. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports full-time tuition and fees of $46,310 for the year, with living expenses of $23,878. The 509 does not print a single cost-of-attendance total, so this page keeps those figures separate rather than adding them into a combined number the disclosure does not report. At a private school with no residency discount, that $46,310 tuition is the number every scholarship is measured against.

The aid picture is broad but moderate in size. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 81% of students receive a grant, so most of the class receives some discount, with grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $8,500, $12,500, and $17,605. St. Mary's Law made no full-tuition awards and 2 awards above full tuition, per the same disclosure, so the very large awards are rare here and the typical grant is partial. On the packet's own arithmetic, against the $46,310 sticker a median-grant recipient nets about $33,810 in tuition and fees before living costs, which is a real but limited discount: the median grant covers roughly a quarter of tuition, leaving the majority to be financed. An applicant should budget on the honest expectation of a partial award rather than a full ride.

One consumer-protective point works in the applicant's favor at St. Mary's Law. According to St. Mary's University School of 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. This matters more than usual here, because St. Mary's Law also reports first-year academic attrition of 12.0% in the same disclosure, so a demanding first year does not carry the added risk of losing your grant on top of it. The grant quoted in your offer is the grant you keep, and with 81% of students receiving aid, the strategic move is to push your LSAT and GPA above the medians, since those numbers drive the size of the discount at St. Mary's Law.

What are your real chances off the St. Mary's University School of Law waitlist?

More limited, because the St. Mary's University School of Law yield is on the higher side. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure records 755 offers and 279 matriculants, an implied yield of 37.0%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so implied yield is the honest proxy: a 37.0% yield means the class fills largely from first-round offers, so the waitlist moves less.

Here is the reasoning in full. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 755 offers of admission and 279 matriculants drawn from the applicant pool, which is an implied yield of 37.0%. No ABA disclosure, St. Mary's University School of 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 37.0% of its offers into enrollments, it sends fewer than three offers for every seat it fills, a relatively efficient class-building process that leans less on a waitlist than a low-yield school does.

For a waitlisted applicant, that higher yield is a realistic caution rather than a closed door. A 37.0% implied yield means St. Mary's University School of Law fills much of its class from first-round commitments, so its waitlist may move less than at a school sending five offers per seat. The honest limit is that St. Mary's Law, like every school, does not publish year-to-year waitlist admit counts, so movement varies by cycle and a strong year for deposits can freeze a waitlist entirely. If you are on the St. Mary's Law waitlist, a concise letter reaffirming St. Mary's University School of Law as a first choice is still worth sending, because the applicants a high-yield school pulls off its waitlist are the ones who signal they will enroll.

Where do St. Mary's University School of Law graduates actually work?

Overwhelmingly in Texas. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Texas took 80.7% of St. Mary's University School of Law graduates and the top three markets took 82.7%. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 7.0% of the class, while federal clerkships took 3.3%. Deep concentration in the Texas market, not the raw employment rate, defines the fit.

The most useful fact about St. Mary's Law's outcomes is how firmly they stay in state. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, St. Mary's University School of Law placed 196 graduates in Texas, 3 in Colorado, and 2 in California, its three largest markets, out of 243 graduates. Texas alone absorbed 80.7% of the class, and the top three markets together took 82.7%, per the same summary. In practice a St. Mary's Law degree is a Texas degree, feeding the San Antonio and broader Texas legal markets above all, with only a thin scattering of graduates starting outside the state.

By employer type, St. Mary's Law places into government, public-interest, and smaller-firm roles more than into the largest firms. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 7.0% of St. Mary's University School of Law graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, a modest large-firm share, and 3.3% entering federal clerkships, a solid clerkship share for a regional school. The honest read is that St. Mary's Law is a Texas-market school whose graduates spread across the courts, government offices, and small and midsize firms of the state rather than concentrating in BigLaw.

The overall placement rate is solid. The same ABA Employment Summary shows 215 of 243 St. Mary's University School of Law graduates employed at ten months, an 88.5% rate, and St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 12.0%. The reason to weigh St. Mary's Law on concentration and employer type rather than that 88.5% headline is that the number sits a little below the strongest regional schools, so an applicant should plan for a Texas job search and value the school's deep in-state network accordingly.

When are St. Mary's University School of Law's application deadlines?

St. Mary's University School of Law admits new students on its own 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 St. Mary's Law's current deadlines, and any early-decision terms, directly on the school's admissions site. This guidance is dated August 2026.

On early decision specifically, St. Mary's University School of 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 St. Mary's Law, confirm whether St. Mary's University School of 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. Because the packet behind this page did not pull St. Mary's Law's specific deadline dates or entry-term structure, checking the school's official admissions page is especially important before you plan around a target date. Application cycle dates shift from year to year, so treat St. Mary's University School of Law's official site as the registrar of record. What this page can say with confidence, verified in August 2026, is that a strong St. Mary's Law application benefits from being complete early, because seats and scholarship dollars are more plentiful earlier in a cycle at a school this selective within its band.

Frequently asked questions about getting into St. Mary's University School of Law

Is a 153 LSAT good enough for St. Mary's University School of Law?

A 153 is exactly St. Mary's University School of Law's LSAT median, per its 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 153 and half below, inside a 151 to 156 middle range. Paired with a GPA near the 3.49 median, a 153 puts a St. Mary's Law applicant squarely at the center of the admitted class.

What GPA do you need for St. Mary's University School of Law?

St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.49, with a 25th percentile of 3.14 and a 75th percentile of 3.69. Realistically you want a GPA of at least 3.14 to stay inside the St. Mary's Law admitted band, and because the school is splitter friendly, an LSAT at or above 153 can offset a GPA in the low 3.1s in its read of the file.

What is St. Mary's University School of Law's acceptance rate?

The St. Mary's University School of Law acceptance rate is 25.98%, computed from 755 offers against 2,906 applications in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That ranks St. Mary's Law 2nd most selective among the 51 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 153 median, near the top of its academic band. About one applicant in four receives an offer from St. Mary's Law in a given cycle.

How many people apply to St. Mary's University School of Law?

St. Mary's University School of Law received 2,906 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. From that pool, St. Mary's Law extended 755 offers of admission and enrolled 279 matriculants, building a first-year class of 282, of which 254 are full-time and 28 part-time. The gap between offers and enrollments reflects a 37.0% yield.

How much does St. Mary's University School of Law cost?

St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports full-time tuition and fees of $46,310, with living expenses of $23,878. As a private school St. Mary's Law charges the same tuition regardless of residency. The 509 prints no single cost-of-attendance total, so this page does not combine tuition and living costs into one number the disclosure does not state.

Does St. Mary's University School of Law give scholarships?

Yes, broadly. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 81% of students receive a grant, with a median award of $12,500 and grants reaching a $17,605 upper quartile. St. Mary's Law made no full-tuition awards and 2 above full tuition, so most awards are partial, and the scholarships are not conditional, so a first-year grant cannot be cut for grades.

What is St. Mary's University School of Law's bar passage rate?

St. Mary's University School of Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 65.84% for the 2024 exam year, with Texas as the largest jurisdiction, which is well below the Texas norms and a genuine point of caution. Encouragingly, the ultimate pass rate two years out for the 2022 cohort rises to 86.67%, per the same report, so most St. Mary's Law graduates who do not pass first time eventually do.

Where do St. Mary's University School of Law graduates work?

Overwhelmingly in Texas. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Texas taking 196 St. Mary's University School of Law graduates (80.7%), Colorado 3, and California 2, so the top three markets account for 82.7% of the class. St. Mary's Law sends 7.0% of graduates to large firms of 101 or more lawyers and 3.3% into federal clerkships, with 88.5% employed at ten months.

Can a splitter get into St. Mary's University School of Law?

Yes, and the high-LSAT splitter has the edge. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.35 and an LSAT spread of two points, so the GPA band is the more forgiving one. That makes St. Mary's Law splitter friendly: an applicant with a 153-or-better LSAT and a GPA in the low-to-mid 3.1s fits the profile the school admits.

How selective is St. Mary's University School of Law compared with schools at the same LSAT?

At the very top of its band. Among the 51 leading schools with a median LSAT within two points of St. Mary's University School of Law's 153, ranked by acceptance rate, St. Mary's Law is 2nd most selective at 25.98%, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Forty-nine band peers admit a larger share of applicants, so its admit rate runs well below its academic profile.

Is St. Mary's University School of Law worth it?

The case rests on Texas placement, weighed against cost and bar performance. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows an $46,310 sticker with a modest $12,500 median grant, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 88.5% employed at ten months, mostly in Texas. The honest counterweight is a 65.84% first-time bar rate, so St. Mary's Law rewards students committed to the Texas market and to serious bar preparation.

What LSAT and GPA give the best shot at a St. Mary's University School of Law scholarship?

Scores above the medians. Per St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, grants reach a $17,605 upper quartile, with no full-tuition awards and 2 above full tuition, so large awards are scarce. An LSAT at or above the 156 upper quartile paired with a GPA near the 3.69 top quarter gives the strongest shot at the largest St. Mary's Law awards, since higher numbers drive the size of the discount.

Does St. Mary's University School of Law have high first-year attrition?

It is on the higher side. St. Mary's University School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 12.0%, so roughly one first-year student in eight leaves for academic reasons. The reassuring counterpoint is that St. Mary's Law scholarships are not conditional, so a demanding first year does not also threaten your grant, but the academic challenge itself is real and worth planning for.

How large is St. Mary's University School of Law's entering class?

St. Mary's University School of Law enrolled a first-year class of 282 for fall 2025, made up of 254 full-time and 28 part-time students drawn from 279 matriculants, according to its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That class was built from 755 offers against 2,906 applications. The sizable class and strong demand together explain the selective 25.98% St. Mary's Law acceptance rate.

Sources

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

St. Mary's University School of Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=148&year=2025

St. Mary's University School of Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=148&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=148&year=2024

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