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

How to get into Texas Southern Law School starts with its medians. According to Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted an LSAT median of 150 (148 to 152) and a GPA median of 3.33 (2.99 to 3.62). A 150 is genuinely competitive here, not a long shot.

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 Thurgood Marshall 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 Thurgood Marshall School of Law's own pages.

The single most distinctive fact about Thurgood Marshall School of Law is that it is more selective than its headline admit rate suggests when you compare it to schools at the same academic level. Among the 23 ABA law schools whose median LSAT sits within two points of Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 150, ranked by acceptance rate, Thurgood Marshall School of Law is the 2nd most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. A 33.12% acceptance rate reads as accessible in absolute terms, and it is, but 21 of the 23 schools drawing applicants with the same LSAT range admit a larger share than Texas Southern Law does. The honest, constructive takeaway is the one an applicant most needs: a 150 is exactly the score this school is built to consider, so a mid-150s or high-140s candidate belongs in this pool, while still treating Texas Southern Law as a real application rather than a certainty.

Thurgood Marshall School of Law at a glance: LSAT, GPA, acceptance rate and cost

Thurgood Marshall School of Law is an access-oriented public school in Houston with among the lowest resident tuition of any ABA program. According to Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 150 LSAT median, a 3.33 GPA median, and a 33.12% acceptance rate. Resident tuition and fees run $21,038. The table collects the core numbers.

MetricThurgood Marshall School of Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)148 / 150 / 152GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)2.99 / 3.33 / 3.62Acceptance rate33.12%Applications2,032Offers of admission673Matriculants from the pool219First-year class221Full-time tuition and feesResident $21,038 / nonresident $28,167Living expenses$27,784Share receiving grants51% of studentsMedian grant$7,363Conditional scholarshipsYes, an award can be reduced or lost if grades fall below the school's thresholdFirst-time bar passage72.36%Employed at ten monthsNot reported in this packet; see the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024

Source: Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), Thurgood Marshall 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 resident tuition, nonresident tuition, and living expenses as separate figures rather than inventing one combined number. The overall ten-month employment rate is not confirmed here into this packet, so the employment section reports the figures that were pulled and points to the ABA summary for the rest.

What LSAT and GPA do you really need to get into Thurgood Marshall School of Law?

You realistically need a 150 LSAT and a 3.33 GPA to sit at the center of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law class. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 148 to 152 and the GPA middle at 2.99 to 3.62. Below the 148 LSAT or the 2.99 GPA, the other number has to carry a clear compensating strength.

Take the two numbers one at a time. The Thurgood Marshall School of Law LSAT median is 150, with a 25th percentile of 148 and a 75th percentile of 152, per Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That is a tight four-point band from bottom quartile to top quartile, which means small LSAT differences matter here: a 152 already reaches the top quarter of the Texas Southern Law class, while a 148 sits at the bottom quarter but stays inside the admitted range rather than ruling a candidate out. The narrowness of the band is itself useful information, because it tells an applicant that a two- or three-point LSAT gain can move a file from the bottom of the class to the top.

The GPA band is wider and more forgiving. The Thurgood Marshall School of Law GPA median is 3.33, with a 25th percentile of 2.99 and a 75th percentile of 3.62, according to the same disclosure. The distance from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.34 of a point, a meaningful spread that tells you Texas Southern Law will seriously consider a GPA just under 3.0 when the LSAT is at or above the 150 median. A 3.62 reaches the top quarter of the class, and a GPA below 2.99 puts pressure on the LSAT to compensate.

So what does a realistic Texas Southern Law profile look like? A 150 LSAT paired with a 3.33 GPA lands an applicant squarely at both medians, per Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, a competitive center-of-class position. On the splitter question, Thurgood Marshall School of Law is splitter friendly: its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.34 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 Texas Southern Law leans that way, so an applicant holding a 150-or-better LSAT with a GPA in the low 3.0s or high 2.9s has a genuinely realistic path here.

Is Thurgood Marshall School of Law harder to get into than its reputation?

In relative terms, yes. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 33.12% acceptance rate looks accessible, but against schools with the same academic profile it is one of the more selective. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 33.12% admit rate, which ranks it 2nd most selective among the 23 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 150 median.

To judge the Texas Southern Law acceptance rate fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 23 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 150, that is a median of 148 to 152, ranked by acceptance rate, Thurgood Marshall School of Law is the 2nd most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Twenty-one of the 23 schools sharing its LSAT profile admit a larger share of applicants than Texas Southern Law's 33.12%, which means the school is choosier than its one-in-three headline implies.

The practical reading is a balance an applicant should hold in both hands. On one side, Thurgood Marshall School of Law admits about a third of its applicants, so a candidate at or near the medians has a real and reasonable shot rather than a long one. On the other, the school is not a rubber stamp: it received 2,032 applications and extended 673 offers for its fall 2025 class, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, and it is the second-choosiest school in its academic band. The honest conclusion is that Texas Southern Law sits right where a mid-150s or high-140s applicant should be applying, as a genuine target, and that a file built cleanly to the 150 median and 3.33 GPA is what makes the difference between the two-thirds turned away and the third admitted.

How much does Thurgood Marshall School of Law cost, and how much scholarship money will you get?

Thurgood Marshall School of Law is one of the more affordable ABA law schools by sticker: its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports resident tuition and fees of $21,038 and a nonresident rate of $28,167. The aid picture is more limited, though: 51% of students receive a grant, the median award is $7,363, and the scholarships are conditional on grades.

Start with the sticker, because it is the school's strongest selling point. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports full-time tuition and fees of $21,038 for residents and $28,167 for nonresidents, with living expenses of $27,784 for the year. The 509 does not print a single cost-of-attendance total, so this page keeps those figures separate rather than combining them into a number the disclosure does not report. A resident tuition figure of $21,038 is among the lowest at any ABA-accredited law school, and that low sticker, not the scholarship budget, is where the value of a Texas Southern Law degree begins.

The aid picture is where an applicant should read carefully. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 51% of students receive a grant, which means nearly half of the class receives no grant at all and pays the full sticker. Among those who do receive aid, grants run $3,500 at the 25th percentile, $7,363 at the median, and $10,519 at the 75th percentile, and the school made 7 full-tuition awards and none above full tuition, per the same disclosure. On the packet's own arithmetic, against the $28,167 nonresident sticker a median-grant recipient nets about $20,804 in tuition and fees before living costs, and a resident starts from the lower $21,038 figure. The honest summary is that the discount here is modest, so the low base tuition, rather than a large scholarship, is what keeps the cost down.

One consumer-protective point deserves plain language. According to Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, its scholarships are conditional, which means a first-year award can be reduced or lost if a student's grades fall below the threshold the school sets. Paired with the first-year academic attrition of 12.0% that the same disclosure reports, this matters: a scholarship offered at admission is not guaranteed for all three years, and an applicant should ask Texas Southern Law directly what grade or class-rank standard the award requires and how many students kept the full award last year. Reading the fine print on a conditional scholarship at Texas Southern Law is not optional, it is the single most important financial question to ask before enrolling.

What are your real chances off the Thurgood Marshall School of Law waitlist?

Moderate, because the Thurgood Marshall School of Law yield sits in the middle. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure records 673 offers and 219 matriculants, an implied yield of 32.5%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so implied yield is the honest proxy: a 32.5% yield means the class fills substantially from first-round offers, with some room for the waitlist.

Here is the reasoning in full. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 673 offers of admission and 219 matriculants drawn from the applicant pool, which is an implied yield of 32.5%. No ABA disclosure, Thurgood Marshall 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 about a third of its offers into enrollments, it sends roughly three offers for every seat it fills, so it builds most of the class from its initial offers while keeping a waitlist in reserve for the seats that do not fill.

For a waitlisted applicant, that middle-of-the-road yield is neither a strong signal nor a discouraging one. A 32.5% implied yield tells you Thurgood Marshall School of Law does not lean as heavily on its waitlist as a very-low-yield school does, but it is not a school that fills entirely from first-round commitments either. The honest limit is that Texas Southern Law, like every school, does not publish year-to-year waitlist admit counts, so movement varies by cycle. If you are on the Texas Southern Law waitlist, a concise letter reaffirming Thurgood Marshall School of Law as a first choice is still worth sending, because a genuine commitment to enroll is exactly what helps a school fill its remaining seats.

Where do Thurgood Marshall School of Law graduates actually work?

Chiefly in Texas, though the overall ten-month employment rate is not confirmed here into this packet. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Texas took 57.9% of Thurgood Marshall School of Law graduates and the top three markets took 60.7%. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 8.2% of the class, and federal clerkships took 1.1%. Market concentration in Texas is the defining feature.

The most useful fact about Texas Southern Law's outcomes is that they center on the Texas market without concentrating there as tightly as some Texas schools. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Thurgood Marshall School of Law placed 106 graduates in Texas, 3 in Maryland, and 2 in California, its three largest markets, out of 183 graduates that year. Texas alone absorbed 57.9% of the class, and the top three markets together took 60.7%, per the same summary. The spread below the top market is thin and geographically scattered, so in practice a Texas Southern Law degree is a Texas degree, aimed above all at the Houston and broader Texas legal markets.

By employer type, Thurgood Marshall School of Law places into public-interest, government, and smaller-firm roles more than into the largest firms. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 8.2% of Texas Southern Law graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, a modest large-firm share, and 1.1% entering federal clerkships. An applicant drawn to Texas Southern Law for its access mission should read those figures as consistent with its role: it is a school that broadens entry into the Texas bar rather than a large-firm feeder, and its outcomes reflect that purpose.

On the overall employment rate, honesty requires a plain statement of what is missing. The ten-month employment rate for the Thurgood Marshall School of Law Class of 2024 is not confirmed here into this packet, so this page does not print a percentage of graduates employed at ten months. An applicant who wants that figure should read it directly from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, linked in the Sources section, rather than rely on a number this page cannot verify from the packet. What the packet does support is the market and employer-type picture above, and the school's first-year academic attrition of 12.0% from its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, a figure discussed in the cost section because it interacts with the conditional scholarships.

When are Thurgood Marshall School of Law's application deadlines?

Thurgood Marshall 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 Texas Southern 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, Thurgood Marshall 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 Texas Southern Law, confirm whether Thurgood Marshall 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 Texas Southern 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 Thurgood Marshall 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 Texas Southern Law application benefits from being complete early, because seats and the limited scholarship dollars are more plentiful earlier in a cycle.

Frequently asked questions about getting into Thurgood Marshall School of Law

Is a 150 LSAT good enough for Thurgood Marshall School of Law?

A 150 is exactly Thurgood Marshall School of Law's LSAT median, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, so it is genuinely competitive here. Half of the fall 2025 class scored at or above 150 and half below, inside a 148 to 152 middle range. Paired with a GPA near the 3.33 median, a 150 puts a Texas Southern Law applicant squarely at the center of the admitted class rather than at its edge.

What GPA do you need for Thurgood Marshall School of Law?

Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.33, with a 25th percentile of 2.99 and a 75th percentile of 3.62. Realistically you want a GPA of at least 2.99 to stay inside the Texas Southern Law admitted band, and because the school is splitter friendly, an LSAT at or above 150 can offset a GPA in the high 2.9s in its read of the file.

What is Thurgood Marshall School of Law's acceptance rate?

The Thurgood Marshall School of Law acceptance rate is 33.12%, computed from 673 offers against 2,032 applications in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. About one applicant in three receives an offer. That still ranks Texas Southern Law 2nd most selective among the 23 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 150 median, so the rate is choosier than it first appears.

How many people apply to Thurgood Marshall School of Law?

Thurgood Marshall School of Law received 2,032 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. From that pool, Texas Southern Law extended 673 offers of admission and enrolled 219 matriculants, building a first-year class of 221. The gap between 673 offers and 219 enrollments reflects a 32.5% yield, so the school builds most of its class from first-round offers.

How much does Thurgood Marshall School of Law cost?

Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports full-time tuition and fees of $21,038 for residents and $28,167 for nonresidents, with living expenses of $27,784. The resident figure is among the lowest at any ABA law school. 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 Thurgood Marshall School of Law give scholarships?

Yes, but to about half the class. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 51% of students receive a grant, with a median award of $7,363 and grants reaching a $10,519 upper quartile. Texas Southern Law made 7 full-tuition awards and none above full tuition, and the scholarships are conditional, so a first-year award can be cut if grades fall below the school's threshold.

What is Thurgood Marshall School of Law's bar passage rate?

Thurgood Marshall School of Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 72.36% for the 2024 exam year, with Texas as the largest jurisdiction. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, is 76.0%, per the same report. Both rates sit below the Texas norms, so an applicant should weigh Texas Southern Law's bar support and their own exam preparation seriously.

Where do Thurgood Marshall School of Law graduates work?

Mostly in Texas. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Texas taking 106 Thurgood Marshall School of Law graduates (57.9%), Maryland 3, and California 2, so the top three markets account for 60.7% of the class. Texas Southern Law sends 8.2% of graduates to large firms of 101 or more lawyers and 1.1% into federal clerkships. The overall ten-month employment rate is not confirmed here into this packet.

Can a splitter get into Thurgood Marshall School of Law?

Yes, and the high-LSAT splitter has the edge. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.34 and an LSAT spread of two points, so the GPA band is the more forgiving one. That makes Texas Southern Law splitter friendly: an applicant with a 150-or-better LSAT and a GPA in the low 3.0s or high 2.9s fits the profile the school admits.

How selective is Thurgood Marshall School of Law compared with schools at the same LSAT?

Very, for its band. Among the 23 leading schools with a median LSAT within two points of Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 150, ranked by acceptance rate, Texas Southern Law is 2nd most selective at 33.12%, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Twenty-one band peers admit a larger share of applicants, so the school is choosier than its one-in-three rate suggests.

Is Thurgood Marshall School of Law worth it?

The case rests on access and low cost. Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows resident tuition of $21,038, among the lowest anywhere, and an access-oriented mission that opens the Texas bar to applicants at a 150 median. The honest counterweights are a 72.36% first-time bar rate, 12.0% first-year attrition, and conditional scholarships, so Texas Southern Law rewards students who plan for a demanding first year.

Does Thurgood Marshall School of Law have high first-year attrition?

Yes, and an applicant should plan for it. Thurgood Marshall 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. Combined with conditional scholarships that can be cut for grades, this makes the first year at Texas Southern Law academically demanding, and it is the single biggest risk to weigh before enrolling.

What LSAT and GPA give the best shot at a Thurgood Marshall School of Law scholarship?

Scores above the medians. Per Thurgood Marshall School of Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, grants reach a $10,519 upper quartile, with 7 full-tuition awards, and only 51% of students receive any grant, so aid is competitive. An LSAT at or above the 152 upper quartile paired with a GPA near the 3.62 top quarter gives the best shot at a Texas Southern Law award, since higher numbers drive the limited scholarship budget.

How large is Thurgood Marshall School of Law's entering class?

Thurgood Marshall School of Law enrolled a first-year class of 221 for fall 2025, drawn from 219 matriculants out of the applicant pool, according to its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That class was built from 673 offers against 2,032 applications. The relatively large class for the applicant pool is part of why the Texas Southern Law acceptance rate sits at 33.12% even though the school is selective within its band.

Sources

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

Thurgood Marshall School of Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=146&year=2025

Thurgood Marshall School of Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=146&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=146&year=2024

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