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

The honest answer to how to get into UC Berkeley School of Law starts with two numbers. According to Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 entering class posted an LSAT median of 170 (167 to 172) and a GPA median of 3.92 (3.84 to 3.99). 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 Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and Berkeley Law's own admissions pages.

Berkeley Law is the California public with a national footprint, and two numbers capture why it stands apart. In Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 91 grants exceed full tuition, a stack of above-sticker awards that softens the nonresident price for out-of-state admits in a way most public schools cannot match. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 241 of 408 graduates, 59.1%, entered firms of 101-plus lawyers. The thesis of this page is that UC Berkeley law is a scholarship-rich, large-firm-heavy public school whose real gate is its 170 LSAT median, not its 14.84% acceptance rate.

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

Here is the UC Berkeley law snapshot in one place. According to Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted an LSAT of 167, 170, and 172 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles, a GPA of 3.84, 3.92, and 3.99, and a 14.84% acceptance rate. Cost, grants, bar passage, and jobs sit in the table below.

MetricBerkeley Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)167 / 170 / 172GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.84 / 3.92 / 3.99Acceptance rate14.84%Applications6,562Offers of admission974Matriculants from the pool374First-year class374Full-time tuition and feesResident $62,532; nonresident $76,149Living expenses$45,866Share receiving grants86% (869 students)Median grant$31,158Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage94.79% (exam year 2025)Employed at ten months99.0% (404 of 408)

Source: Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class) for admissions, cost, and grants; the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 for jobs; and Berkeley Law's ABA bar-passage report for the bar. Tuition and living expenses are printed separately in the 509, which does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total. Verified August 2026.

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

You really need a 170 LSAT and a 3.92 GPA to sit at the center of Berkeley Law's class. Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 167 to 172 and the GPA middle at 3.84 to 3.99. Below either 25th percentile, the other number must clearly compensate.

Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure sets the realistic UC Berkeley law LSAT median at 170 and the UC Berkeley law GPA median at 3.92 for the fall 2025 entering class. The median is the line where half the enrolled students scored higher and half lower, so a 170 LSAT and a 3.92 GPA do not make an applicant exceptional at Berkeley; they make an applicant typical, which is exactly the target. The 75th percentiles, a 172 LSAT and a 3.99 GPA, mark where a file moves from competitive to strong, and the 25th percentiles, a 167 LSAT and a 3.84 GPA, mark the soft floor.

Below either 25th percentile, UC Berkeley law admissions still happens, but the file has to earn it. An applicant under the 167 LSAT needs a GPA at or above the 3.92 median, ideally toward 3.99, to signal that the lower test score is the outlier rather than the pattern. An applicant under the 3.84 GPA needs a 172-plus LSAT and a clear, documented reason for the transcript. What does not work at Berkeley Law is bringing both numbers below the 25th percentiles and expecting the application to survive the first read.

The shape of Berkeley Law's numbers tells you how much forgiveness to expect. Berkeley Law is balanced, not a splitter school: the GPA spread from the 3.84 twenty-fifth percentile to the 3.92 median is only 0.08, and the LSAT spread from 167 to 170 is just three points, per Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Splitter friendly means a school forgives a lower GPA for a high LSAT; reverse-splitter friendly means it forgives a lower LSAT for a high GPA. Berkeley Law does neither cleanly, so a big LSAT will not reliably buy back a weak GPA, and a perfect GPA will not fully rescue a low LSAT. The safe reading of UC Berkeley law requirements is simple: get both numbers to the medians, and treat anything below the 25th percentile as a gap the rest of the file has to explain.

Is Berkeley Law harder to get into than its reputation?

By acceptance rate, no. UC Berkeley law is not harder than its reputation; it sits in the middle of its LSAT band. Among the 25 leading schools with a median LSAT within two points of Berkeley Law's 170, Berkeley Law's 14.84% rate ranks 14th most selective. Its 170 median, not the rate, is the true gate.

Berkeley Law carries the reputation of a top public law school, often discussed alongside schools with much lower acceptance rates, so the fair question is whether its admissions gate matches that billing. By the UC Berkeley law acceptance rate alone, it does not quite. Among the 25 leading national law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Berkeley Law's 170, from 168 to 172, ranked by acceptance rate, Berkeley Law's 14.84% rate is the 14th most selective. That is the middle of the group, not the front of it.

Several schools at the same LSAT level admit a smaller share of applicants than Berkeley Law does. The University of Michigan sits at 8.6%, the University of Southern California at 11.0% and its Gould figure at 11.2%, the University of North Carolina at 11.2%, UCLA at 12.1%, Boston University at 12.1%, Texas A&M University at 12.1%, the University of Georgia at 12.7%, Duke University at 12.9%, Vanderbilt University at 13.3%, New York University at 13.4%, and the University of Texas at Austin at 14.0%. Just behind Berkeley in the same band sit the University of Florida at 14.9%, UC Irvine at 14.9%, Georgetown University at 15.8%, the University of Notre Dame at 16.1%, and Fordham University at 16.2%. One entry needs an asterisk: Boston College shows 8.5%, but Boston College reports its offers on a narrower basis, so it is not a true selectivity peer and should not anchor the comparison.

The takeaway is that Berkeley Law's difficulty is real, but it lives in the LSAT median, not the acceptance rate. A school can admit a middling share of applicants and still be brutally hard because the pool self-selects: at a 170 median, the people who apply already cluster high, so a 14.84% rate among elite applicants bites harder than the same rate at a school with a 165 median. UC Berkeley law is exactly as hard as its 170 LSAT and 3.92 GPA make it, and slightly more forgiving on raw acceptance rate than its ranking reputation would suggest.

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

Yes. Berkeley Law offers a binding Early Decision with a November 14 deadline, according to Berkeley Law's own admissions pages. Binding means that if UC Berkeley law admits you, you commit to enroll and withdraw other applications. Berkeley Law does not publish its ED deposit amount or exact withdrawal terms, so confirm those directly before you file.

Berkeley Law's own admissions pages state that Berkeley offers a binding Early Decision plan with a November 14 deadline. Binding is the operative word: if UC Berkeley law admits an applicant through Early Decision, that applicant is committing to enroll and to withdraw applications elsewhere. That commitment can help a candidate who sits right at the medians and wants to signal that Berkeley Law is a genuine first choice, because a binding pledge is the strongest demonstration of intent an applicant can send to an admissions committee.

The tradeoff is real and worth stating plainly. A binding Early Decision removes an applicant's ability to compare admitted-student offers and to use competing scholarships as leverage, which matters at a school where 86% of students receive grants, per Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. The applicant is trading optionality for an earlier, possibly friendlier read. That trade only makes sense when Berkeley Law is unambiguously the top choice and the applicant is prepared to enroll even if little aid materializes.

Here Berkeley Law leaves two things unstated, and honesty requires flagging them rather than filling them in. Berkeley Law does not publish its Early Decision deposit amount on its admissions pages, and it does not publish the exact terms or timing of the required withdrawal from other schools. Because a binding commitment is a serious obligation, an applicant should confirm the deposit figure, the withdrawal mechanics, and any aid consequences directly with Berkeley Law before filing Early Decision, and should not assume the terms mirror another school's program.

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

Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees of $62,532 for residents and $76,149 for nonresidents, plus $45,866 in living expenses, with no single cost-of-attendance total printed. 86% of students receive grants, the median grant is $31,158, and a typical recipient nets about $44,991 in nonresident tuition.

Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure prints the cost in parts rather than as one number. Full-time tuition and fees are $62,532 for California residents and $76,149 for nonresidents, and living expenses are listed separately at $45,866. That 509 does not print a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so anyone quoting one all-in UC Berkeley law figure is combining lines the school reports apart, and this page will not invent one. Residency is the single biggest lever on the sticker: the in-state discount is more than $13,000 a year in tuition and fees alone.

Scholarships then move the real price for most students. Berkeley Law reports that 86% of students receive grants, with award quartiles of $20,000 at the 25th percentile, $31,158 at the median, and $42,245 at the 75th, per its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Crucially, these grants blend merit and need aid, so Berkeley Law is not a need-only school; strong numbers can earn money here, unlike at Yale, Harvard, or Stanford, which award no merit aid and instead meet demonstrated need. Berkeley Law also made 4 full-tuition awards and, in the figure that defines its scholarship story, 91 above-full-tuition awards, grants that exceed tuition and help offset the nonresident sticker and living costs. That count of 91 is what lets a national applicant treat Berkeley Law's out-of-state price as negotiable rather than fixed.

The net math is the number to hold onto. A median grant recipient at Berkeley Law nets about $44,991 in nonresident tuition and fees after the $31,158 median grant, before living costs, using figures from Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. And because none of Berkeley Law's scholarships are conditional on maintaining a class rank or GPA, an award won as a 1L is an award kept, which removes the nasty surprise that conditional-scholarship schools spring on students who land below a cutoff.

What are your real chances off the Berkeley Law waitlist?

Thinner than at a low-yield school. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so the honest proxy is implied yield: matriculants divided by offers. For Berkeley Law's fall 2025 class, 374 enrolled from 974 offers, a 38.4% yield. That is fairly high, meaning Berkeley Law fills most of its class from first-round offers and leans less on its waitlist.

No ABA disclosure, Berkeley Law's included, publishes how many applicants a school admits from its waitlist, so any precise waitlist odds are guesses. The honest way to reason about Berkeley Law's waitlist is implied yield: the share of admitted students who actually enroll, computed as matriculants divided by offers. For the fall 2025 class, Berkeley Law enrolled 374 students from 974 offers, an implied yield of 38.4%, per Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure.

That 38.4% is on the higher side for a school at this level, and it carries a clear message for waitlist hopefuls. When a large share of admitted students say yes, a school predicts its class well from the first round of offers and does not need to reach deep into its waitlist to fill seats. A higher yield therefore means tougher waitlist odds, and a lower yield means more waitlist movement. Berkeley Law's 38.4% suggests UC Berkeley law leans less on its waitlist than a school whose yield sits in the twenties would.

The practical advice follows from that. An applicant who lands on Berkeley Law's waitlist should treat it as a real but thin chance, keep another deposit down elsewhere, and send a concise letter of continued interest that updates the file with anything genuinely new. No one should build a plan around waitlist movement at a school whose 38.4% yield says it mostly enrolls the students it admits in the first round.

Where do Berkeley Law graduates actually work?

UC Berkeley law is a California school with a national reach. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 244 of 408 graduates, 59.8%, took California jobs, and the top three markets held 80.6%. Nearly six in ten, 241 graduates or 59.1%, entered firms of 101-plus lawyers.

Berkeley Law's outcomes are geographically concentrated, and concentration, more than the headline employment rate, is what should decide whether the school fits a given plan. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Berkeley Law reported 408 graduates with 404 employed at ten months, a 99.0% employment rate. That number is excellent but nearly uninformative on its own, because almost every top school clears the high nineties. What distinguishes UC Berkeley law is where those jobs are.

California dominates. Of 408 graduates, 244, or 59.8%, took jobs in California, with New York a distant second at 59 graduates and the District of Columbia third at 26, per the same ABA Employment Summary. The top three markets together held 80.6% of the class, which tells you Berkeley Law is a California-anchored school with a real but secondary national reach into New York and Washington. For an applicant who wants to practice in the Bay Area or Los Angeles, that concentration is a feature: Berkeley Law's alumni network and on-campus recruiting are densest exactly where most graduates land. For an applicant set on Texas, Florida, or the Southeast, the same concentration is a caution worth weighing.

The employer mix reinforces the large-firm thesis in Berkeley Law's distinctive angle. Berkeley Law sent 241 graduates, 59.1%, to firms of 101-plus lawyers, and 213, or 52.2%, to firms of 501-plus lawyers, per the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, so more than half the class walked into the largest firms in the country. Federal clerkships took another 37 graduates, 9.1%, a strong secondary pipeline that feeds appellate and academic careers. Read together, the geographic concentration and the firm-size data say UC Berkeley law is a California large-firm and clerkship machine, and the best fit is a student who wants precisely that.

When are Berkeley Law's application deadlines?

As of August 2026, the only application deadline in this Berkeley Law profile is the binding Early Decision date of November 14, from Berkeley Law's admissions pages. This profile does not carry a separate regular decision deadline. Law school cycle dates shift every year, so confirm the current regular deadline directly on Berkeley Law's site.

Timing at Berkeley Law comes down to one published date and one honest gap. Berkeley Law's admissions pages give a binding Early Decision deadline of November 14, and as of August 2026 that is the deadline this profile can state with confidence. Early Decision is the earliest lane, and it suits an applicant who has finished a strong LSAT and knows Berkeley Law is the first choice, subject to the binding commitment discussed above.

For regular applicants, honesty matters more than a confident-sounding date. This profile does not carry a separate regular decision deadline for UC Berkeley law, and law school cycle dates move from year to year, so quoting a specific regular deadline here would risk sending a stale number. The correct move is to confirm the current regular deadline directly on Berkeley Law's admissions site before planning a submission.

Two pieces of general guidance still hold. First, in law admissions a complete file read earlier in a cycle generally competes against fewer filed applications than the same file read in the final weeks, so finishing the LSAT and assembling the application sooner rather than later is rarely a mistake. Second, whatever the regular deadline turns out to be, anyone weighing the binding option should treat the November 14 Early Decision date as the real calendar anchor at Berkeley Law and back-plan test dates and recommendation letters from there.

Frequently asked questions about getting into Berkeley Law

Is a 170 LSAT good enough for Berkeley Law?

A 170 is exactly UC Berkeley law's median LSAT in Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, so it is competitive, not a lock. At the median, half the enrolled class scored higher, up to the 172 seventy-fifth percentile. Pair a 170 with a GPA near the 3.92 median and it is a strong application; below the 3.84 GPA floor, a 170 alone will not carry a file at Berkeley Law.

What GPA do you need to get into Berkeley Law?

UC Berkeley law's GPA medians are tight. Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a 3.84 twenty-fifth percentile, a 3.92 median, and a 3.99 seventy-fifth percentile. Aim for 3.92 or higher to sit at or above the median. A GPA below 3.84 is a real liability that a 172-plus LSAT and a strong story must offset, because the spread from 3.84 to 3.92 is only 0.08 of a point.

What is Berkeley Law's acceptance rate?

UC Berkeley law's acceptance rate is 14.84% for the fall 2025 cycle, computed from 974 offers against 6,562 applications in Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That places Berkeley Law in the middle of its LSAT band by selectivity, not at the sharp end. The high 170 LSAT median, not the acceptance rate, is what makes Berkeley Law genuinely hard to enter.

How many people apply to Berkeley Law each year?

Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 6,562 applications for the fall 2025 entering class, from which Berkeley Law made 974 offers and enrolled 374 students. That is a first-year class of 374 drawn from a large national pool. The gap between 6,562 applicants and 374 seats is why UC Berkeley law admissions rewards numbers at or above the medians.

Does Berkeley Law have binding Early Decision?

Yes. Berkeley Law offers a binding Early Decision with a November 14 deadline, per Berkeley Law's own admissions pages. Binding means that if UC Berkeley law admits you, you must enroll and withdraw other applications. Berkeley Law does not publish its ED deposit amount or exact withdrawal terms, so confirm those directly before committing, because a binding pledge removes the ability to compare offers.

How much does Berkeley Law cost per year?

Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees of $62,532 for California residents and $76,149 for nonresidents, plus $45,866 in living expenses. The 509 does not print a single cost-of-attendance total, so UC Berkeley law does not publish one figure. Grants cut the sticker for most students: 86% receive aid, with a median grant of $31,158.

Does Berkeley Law give merit scholarships?

Yes. UC Berkeley law grants include both merit and need aid, per Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, so unlike a few schools that award need only, Berkeley Law funds merit. 86% of students receive grants, quartiles run $20,000, $31,158, and $42,245, and Berkeley Law made 4 full-tuition and 91 above-full-tuition awards. None of these scholarships are conditional on maintaining grades.

What is Berkeley Law's bar passage rate?

UC Berkeley law posts strong bar numbers. Berkeley Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time passage rate of 94.79% for exam year 2025, with 92.89% in California, its largest jurisdiction. The ultimate passage rate, measured two years out for the 2023 cohort, is 96.64%. First-year academic attrition at Berkeley Law is 0.0%, so essentially everyone who starts finishes.

Do Berkeley Law graduates get large-firm (BigLaw) jobs?

Yes, at scale. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 241 of 408 Berkeley Law graduates, 59.1%, took jobs at firms of 101-plus lawyers, and 213, or 52.2%, went to firms of 501-plus lawyers. That is the core of UC Berkeley law's large-firm pipeline. Another 37 graduates, 9.1%, took federal clerkships, a strong secondary track for Berkeley Law graduates.

Where do most Berkeley Law graduates work?

California, decisively. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 244 of 408 Berkeley Law graduates, 59.8%, working in California, with New York next at 59 and the District of Columbia at 26. The top three markets held 80.6% of the class. UC Berkeley law is a California-anchored school with a real but smaller national footprint into New York and Washington.

Can a splitter get into Berkeley Law?

It is harder at Berkeley than at a classic splitter school. UC Berkeley law is balanced, not splitter friendly: Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a narrow 0.08 GPA spread from 3.84 to 3.92 and a three-point LSAT spread from 167 to 170. A high LSAT does not easily buy forgiveness for a sub-3.84 GPA at Berkeley Law, so both numbers should sit near the medians.

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

Among the 25 leading schools whose median LSAT is within two points of Berkeley Law's 170, Berkeley Law's 14.84% acceptance rate ranks 14th most selective. Schools like Michigan at 8.6%, USC at 11.0%, and UCLA at 12.1% admit a smaller share, per the band data. By raw acceptance rate, UC Berkeley law sits mid-band; its selectivity comes from the 170 LSAT median, not the rate.

Is Berkeley Law worth the cost?

For most admits aiming at California large-firm practice or clerkships, yes. Berkeley Law sends 59.1% of graduates to firms of 101-plus lawyers and 9.1% to federal clerkships, per the Class of 2024 ABA Employment Summary, the outcomes that service six-figure tuition. With a median grant of $31,158 cutting nonresident tuition to about $44,991, UC Berkeley law pencils out best for market-focused, scholarship-supported students.

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

Because 91 of Berkeley Law's grants exceed full tuition, the biggest awards go to applicants above both medians. Clear the 172 LSAT and 3.99 GPA seventy-fifth percentiles in Berkeley Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, and you compete for the top of the $20,000 to $42,245 range and beyond. UC Berkeley law grants blend merit and need, so a strong aid application matters at Berkeley Law too.

Sources

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

Berkeley Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=7&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/archive/2025/03/EQSummary-22-03-31-2025-10-35-25.pdf

Berkeley Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=7&year=2025

Berkeley Law Early Decision and applying pages: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/admissions/jd/applying-for-jd-degree/ready-to-apply/

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