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

The short answer to how to get into UC Irvine Law School is to hit the medians from UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure: a 169 LSAT and a 3.8 GPA. The middle 50 percent scored 166 to 170 on the LSAT and 3.59 to 3.9 in GPA. Clear 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. Every figure on this page comes from UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and UC Irvine Law's own published pages.

UC Irvine Law School sends an unusually large share of its class into large firms, and that outcome is the fact to lead with. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 41.5 percent of UC Irvine Law graduates went to large firms of 101 or more lawyers, a high share that marks the school as a genuine large-firm feeder. That outcome sits on top of real selectivity: UC Irvine Law reports a 169 LSAT median and a 14.92 percent acceptance rate in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the most selective admit rate among its California public peers on this site. Its graduates concentrate in California, where 79.9 percent of the Class of 2024 worked, with 87.2 percent across the top three markets, per the ABA Employment Summary. The thesis of this page is that UC Irvine Law School is a selective public school with a strong large-firm pipeline into the California market, and its numbers reward a high LSAT.

UC Irvine Law School at a glance: LSAT, GPA, acceptance rate and cost

UC Irvine Law School posts a 169 LSAT median, a 3.8 GPA median, and a 14.92 percent acceptance rate in UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Full-time tuition and fees run $61,288 for residents and $73,533 for nonresidents, with living expenses of $37,293 listed separately. The table below collects the headline numbers.

MetricUC Irvine Law School (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)166 / 169 / 170GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.59 / 3.8 / 3.9Acceptance rate14.92%Applications3,720Offers of admission555Matriculants from the applicant pool188First-year class189Full-time tuition and feesresident $61,288 / nonresident $73,533Living expenses$37,293Share receiving grants95%Median grant$25,000Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage85.53%Employed at ten months93.3% (153 of 164)

Source: UC Irvine Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), with employment from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 and bar passage from UC Irvine Law's ABA bar-passage report. Tuition is reported separately for residents and nonresidents, and the 509 lists living expenses on their own and does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so this page reports the components rather than inventing an all-in figure for UC Irvine Law.

What LSAT and GPA do you really need to get into UC Irvine Law School?

UC Irvine Law School reports an LSAT spread of 166 to 170 and a GPA spread of 3.59 to 3.9 in its 2025 ABA 509. A 169 and a 3.8 sit at both medians. Below the 166 LSAT or the 3.59 GPA, you need a clear compensating strength on the other number to stay competitive.

UC Irvine Law School reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 166, 169, and 170, and a GPA 25th, 50th, and 75th of 3.59, 3.8, and 3.9 for the fall 2025 entering class, per UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The median is the fiftieth percentile: half of enrolled students scored above 169 on the LSAT and above 3.8 in GPA, and half below. At UC Irvine Law the LSAT median is high and the band is tight on the top, so the LSAT is where the class is built.

Read the realistic range this way. A 169 LSAT paired with a 3.8 GPA sits at both medians of UC Irvine Law School, a strong and competitive position. The LSAT band is narrow, running just from 166 at the 25th percentile to 170 at the 75th, a four-point spread, so even the bottom quartile of admitted students scored 166 or better. That tells you UC Irvine Law expects a high LSAT from almost everyone it admits. A 166, the 25th percentile, is real admit territory, but it wants a GPA at or above the 3.8 median to carry it.

The shape of the two bands makes UC Irvine Law School splitter friendly. Lovare's read of the 509 spreads shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.21 and an LSAT 25th-to-median spread of three points, so the GPA band runs wider on the low side than the LSAT band. A splitter-friendly school forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high, while a reverse-splitter-friendly school forgives a lower LSAT when the GPA is high. UC Irvine Law leans splitter: a high LSAT near the 170 upper quartile paired with a GPA in the 3.6 range has a genuine path, more so than a strong GPA sitting on an LSAT below 166. If your LSAT is your stronger number, UC Irvine Law School is a school worth targeting.

One reassuring number sits underneath all of this. UC Irvine Law School reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0 percent in its 2025 ABA 509, which means essentially no members of a recent first-year class left for academic reasons. For an applicant weighing whether a school pushes people out after admitting them, UC Irvine Law's 0.0 percent academic attrition is a signal that the class it admits is the class it keeps.

Is UC Irvine Law School harder to get into than its reputation?

About in line with it. By raw acceptance rate, UC Irvine Law School ranks 13th most selective of the 26 schools within two points of its 169 LSAT median, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509. That middle-of-the-band placement means UC Irvine Law is roughly as selective as its high LSAT median would lead you to expect.

Reputation places UC Irvine Law School among the strong public law schools that have risen quickly, and its 169 LSAT median fits that standing. Its acceptance rate is consistent with that reputation. Lovare built a peer band of the 26 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of UC Irvine Law's 169, that is, a median of 167 to 171, then ranked them by acceptance rate from the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. By that ranking, UC Irvine Law School comes in 13th most selective of the 26, right in the middle of a very strong band.

In plain terms, UC Irvine Law School is neither the easiest nor the hardest admit among schools at its LSAT level, but the whole band is elite, so a middle rank here still describes a demanding school. According to UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, the school received 3,720 applications, made 555 offers, and enrolled a first-year class of 189, for a 14.92 percent acceptance rate. That is a genuinely selective figure in absolute terms, well under one admit in six.

The honest verdict is that UC Irvine Law School lives up to its reputation as a selective public school rather than exceeding or falling short of it. For an applicant at or above the 169 median, it is a realistic reach-to-target, and for an applicant below the 166 LSAT quartile, it is a genuine reach that needs a strong GPA and application to convert. Read UC Irvine Law School as squarely as selective as its numbers suggest.

How much does UC Irvine Law School cost, and how much scholarship money will you get?

UC Irvine Law School charges $61,288 in resident tuition and fees and $73,533 for nonresidents, per UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA 509, plus $37,293 in living expenses. Ninety-five percent of students receive grants, the median award is $25,000, and a nonresident on the median grant nets about $48,533 in tuition and fees before living costs.

Start with the sticker, which comes in two versions. UC Irvine Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $61,288 for California residents and $73,533 for nonresidents, plus $37,293 in living expenses. The 509 prints tuition and living costs separately and does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so any all-in annual number quoted elsewhere is someone's arithmetic rather than a figure UC Irvine Law reports, and this page will not invent one. Residents begin from the lower $61,288 base, which is the single biggest cost lever at a public school like UC Irvine Law.

On aid, UC Irvine Law School reaches almost its entire class. According to the same 509, 95 percent of UC Irvine Law students receive grant aid, with awards at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $17,500, $25,000, and $35,000. Notably, UC Irvine Law reports 0 full-tuition awards and 0 awards above full tuition, so while grants are nearly universal, none of them cover the full sticker. The aid at UC Irvine Law is broad but capped: nearly everyone gets something, but no one is riding a full-tuition scholarship.

The math for a typical recipient works out like this. Against the $73,533 nonresident sticker, a student receiving UC Irvine Law School's median grant of $25,000 nets about $48,533 in tuition and fees before living costs, per Lovare's read of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. A resident holding the same $25,000 median grant starts from the lower $61,288 base and therefore pays materially less. The aid is also stable: UC Irvine Law reports that its scholarships are not conditional, so an award is not tied to a first-year GPA or class-rank threshold and cannot be cut if your grades slip. The grant UC Irvine Law School quotes at admission is the grant you keep.

What are your real chances off the UC Irvine Law School waitlist?

UC Irvine Law School does not disclose waitlist offers or admits, and no ABA report does. The honest proxy is implied yield: 188 matriculants against 555 offers is a 33.9 percent yield, per Lovare's read of UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA 509. That moderate yield means UC Irvine Law fills much of its class from first-round offers.

Here is the reasoning in full. UC Irvine Law School enrolled 188 matriculants from the applicant pool against 555 offers in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, an implied yield of 33.9 percent. No ABA disclosure, UC Irvine Law's included, publishes how many applicants are admitted off the waitlist or how many accept, so implied yield is the honest proxy for waitlist movement. When about a third of admitted students enroll, a school fills most of its class from first-round offers but still leaves some room a waitlist can fill.

A 33.9 percent yield is moderate, the highest among the schools profiled in this set, which puts UC Irvine Law School between the extremes. It is higher than a school that yields a quarter of its offers and leans hard on its waitlist, and lower than a school that yields close to half and barely moves its list. For a waitlisted applicant to UC Irvine Law, that means real but limited hope: some cycles will see movement, others little.

If you land on the UC Irvine Law School waitlist, the play is standard: send a concise letter of continued interest naming UC Irvine Law as a top choice, add any new LSAT score or grades, and keep another acceptance in hand as your floor. One honest note on the class figures: UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA 509 lists 188 matriculants from the pool but a first-year class of 189, a gap of one that reflects a student arriving through a path other than this single cycle. The 33.9 percent implied yield uses the 188 pool matriculants against the 555 offers, which is the right comparison for reasoning about UC Irvine Law waitlist odds.

Where do UC Irvine Law School graduates actually work?

In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, UC Irvine Law School placed 79.9 percent of graduates in California and 87.2 percent across its top three markets. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers took 41.5 percent, and 1.8 percent won federal clerkships. UC Irvine Law is a California-concentrated large-firm feeder.

Start with concentration, because it is what predicts fit. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, UC Irvine Law School placed 131 of its graduates in California, 6 in the District of Columbia, and 6 in New York. That is a 79.9 percent top-market share and an 87.2 percent top-three share, describing a school whose network runs deep in California. If you want to practice in Los Angeles, Orange County, or the Bay Area, UC Irvine Law School is aimed squarely at your market. If your target is New York or Washington, that 87.2 percent top-three concentration is a signal that UC Irvine Law's alumni pull is heavily Californian.

On firm outcomes, UC Irvine Law School is a genuine standout, and this is its signature number. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 41.5 percent of UC Irvine Law graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, a high share that outpaces most schools at its level and is the single strongest reason to choose UC Irvine Law School for a large-firm career. When more than four in ten graduates enter large-firm practice, the school is functioning as a real BigLaw pipeline into the California market.

The rest of the picture rounds it out. UC Irvine Law School reported 153 of 164 graduates employed at ten months, or 93.3 percent, in the same ABA Employment Summary, a solid overall employment rate. Federal clerkships are a smaller slice: the summary shows 1.8 percent of UC Irvine Law graduates entering federal clerkships. Taken together, the outcomes describe a school that funnels a large share of its class into California large firms, with a smaller clerkship footprint, exactly the profile an applicant aiming at California BigLaw wants to see from UC Irvine Law School.

When are UC Irvine Law School's application deadlines?

UC Irvine Law School's specific application deadlines and any Early Decision terms are not confirmed here for the current cycle, so confirm them directly on UC Irvine Law's admissions site. The sources here, the 2025 ABA 509 and the ABA employment and bar reports, do not publish cycle dates. This guidance is dated August 2026.

To be transparent about what this page can and cannot verify: the primary disclosures behind UC Irvine Law School's numbers, namely the 2025 ABA Standard 509 report and the ABA employment and bar-passage reports, do not include application deadlines or the terms of any binding Early Decision program. Rather than state a date this page cannot source, the honest step is to send you to UC Irvine Law School's own admissions page for the current cycle's deadlines and any Early Decision option, verified as of August 2026.

As a general matter in law school admissions, applying earlier in a cycle tends to help, because offers and scholarship funds deplete as a class fills. That general dynamic is consistent with UC Irvine Law School's 33.9 percent implied yield from its 2025 ABA 509, which shows a school that fills a solid share of its class from first-round offers. Submitting a complete, strong application early, well before any posted final deadline you confirm on the school's site, is the lower-risk approach at UC Irvine Law School.

Frequently asked questions about getting into UC Irvine Law School

Is a 169 LSAT good enough for UC Irvine Law?

A 169 is exactly the LSAT median at UC Irvine Law School, per UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, where the middle 50 percent scored 166 to 170. A 169 puts you at the fiftieth percentile, competitive rather than a lock. Pair it with a GPA at or above the 3.8 median and you are a strong candidate at UC Irvine Law School.

What GPA do you need to get into UC Irvine Law?

UC Irvine Law School reports a GPA median of 3.8, with a 25th to 75th range of 3.59 to 3.9, in its 2025 ABA 509. Aim for 3.8 or higher. Because UC Irvine Law is splitter friendly, a high LSAT can help carry a GPA in the 3.6 range, so the LSAT is the more forgiving number at UC Irvine Law School.

What is UC Irvine Law's acceptance rate?

UC Irvine Law School admitted 14.92 percent of applicants for the fall 2025 class, extending 555 offers against 3,720 applications, according to UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That is the most selective admit rate among the California public schools profiled here, and it ranks 13th of the 26 schools in UC Irvine Law's LSAT band.

How many people apply to UC Irvine Law each year?

UC Irvine Law School received 3,720 applications for the fall 2025 entering class, made 555 offers, and enrolled a first-year class of 189, per UC Irvine Law's 2025 ABA 509. That large pool against a small number of offers is what produces UC Irvine Law School's 14.92 percent acceptance rate.

How much does UC Irvine Law cost per year?

UC Irvine Law School lists full-time tuition and fees of $61,288 for residents and $73,533 for nonresidents, plus $37,293 in living expenses, in its 2025 ABA 509. UC Irvine Law does not publish a single cost-of-attendance total in the 509, so tuition and living are best read separately rather than summed into an invented all-in figure for UC Irvine Law School.

Does UC Irvine Law give scholarships?

Yes, to nearly everyone. UC Irvine Law School reports that 95 percent of students receive grant aid, with awards of $17,500, $25,000, and $35,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles, in its 2025 ABA 509. UC Irvine Law reports no full-tuition awards, so grants are broad but capped below the full sticker, and they are not conditional on grades.

What is UC Irvine Law's bar passage rate?

UC Irvine Law School posted an 85.53 percent first-time bar passage rate for exam year 2024, with California as its largest jurisdiction, according to UC Irvine Law's ABA bar-passage report. Its ultimate pass rate for the 2022 cohort was 92.7 percent. Both figures are strong for California, where the bar exam is among the nation's toughest, and reflect well on UC Irvine Law School.

Where do most UC Irvine Law graduates work?

Most stay in California. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows UC Irvine Law School placed 131 graduates in California, 6 in the District of Columbia, and 6 in New York, a 79.9 percent top-market share and 87.2 percent across the top three. UC Irvine Law School has a strongly California-concentrated placement profile.

Do UC Irvine Law graduates get large-firm jobs?

Yes, at a high rate. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, UC Irvine Law School sent 41.5 percent of graduates to large firms of 101 or more lawyers, a standout share that outpaces most schools at its level. That large-firm pipeline is UC Irvine Law School's signature outcome and its strongest draw for applicants targeting California BigLaw.

Can a splitter get into UC Irvine Law?

A splitter has a real path. Lovare reads UC Irvine Law School as splitter friendly, with a wide GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.21 but a narrow LSAT spread of three points in the 2025 ABA 509. That means UC Irvine Law forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high, so a high-LSAT applicant with a GPA in the 3.6 range is viable at UC Irvine Law School.

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

Right in the middle. Among the 26 schools whose median LSAT is within two points of UC Irvine Law School's 169, ranked by acceptance rate, UC Irvine Law is 13th most selective of 26, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509. The band is elite, so UC Irvine Law School's middle rank still describes a demanding admit.

Is UC Irvine Law worth it?

For a California large-firm career, the case is strong. UC Irvine Law School pairs its tuition with 95 percent grant reach and, in the Class of 2024 summary, a 41.5 percent large-firm placement rate and 93.3 percent employment at ten months. Add an 85.53 percent first-time bar pass rate, and the outcomes support the cost, especially for residents who pay the lower tuition at UC Irvine Law School.

Does UC Irvine Law push out first-year students?

No. UC Irvine Law School reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0 percent in its 2025 ABA 509, meaning essentially no first-year students left for academic reasons. Combined with scholarships that are not conditional, that tells an applicant the class UC Irvine Law admits is the class it keeps, without a hidden first-year washout risk at UC Irvine Law School.

Is UC Irvine Law a good choice for out-of-state applicants?

It depends on your target market. UC Irvine Law School placed 79.9 percent of the Class of 2024 in California, with just 6 graduates each in the District of Columbia and New York, per the ABA Employment Summary. If you plan to practice outside California, weigh UC Irvine Law's heavy in-state concentration against a school rooted where you want to work.

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

Numbers above the medians. Because UC Irvine Law School reports a $35,000 upper-quartile grant and no full-tuition awards in its 2025 ABA 509, an LSAT above 169 and a GPA above 3.8, near the 170 and 3.9 upper quartiles, position you for the largest available awards. Strong numbers are the surest route to top scholarship money at UC Irvine Law School.

Sources

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

UC Irvine Law School 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=211&year=2025

UC Irvine Law School ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=211&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=211&year=2024

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