How to Get Into University of Arkansas Law School: LSAT, GPA & Admissions (2026)

How to get into University of Arkansas Law School is a tougher question than the school's regional reputation suggests. According to Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 entering class posted a 158 LSAT median, inside a 155 to 161 range, and a 3.71 GPA median, inside a 3.54 to 3.87 range. Hit both and you are competitive at one of the most selective schools at its academic level.

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 Arkansas 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 Arkansas Law's own pages.

The single most distinctive fact about Arkansas Law is that it is far more selective than its profile implies. According to Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures, among the 47 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Arkansas Law's 158, Arkansas Law is the 5th most selective, admitting just 26.63% of applicants. Very few schools at this academic level guard their seats so tightly. That fact, a flagship that admits about one applicant in four while sitting at an accessible-looking 158 median, is the thesis this page returns to: Arkansas Law is a quietly selective flagship, and its admissions math, its per-credit tuition, and its Arkansas-centered career pipeline all read most clearly through that lens.

University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) law admissions at a glance: LSAT, GPA, acceptance rate and cost

Arkansas Law is a flagship public school whose acceptance rate runs well below what its LSAT median might lead you to expect. According to Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 158 LSAT median, a 3.71 GPA median, and a 26.63% acceptance rate. Arkansas Law bills tuition per credit hour, so the 509 prints no annual full-time figure, and living expenses are listed separately at $22,194. The table below collects the core numbers.

MetricArkansas Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)155 / 158 / 161GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.54 / 3.71 / 3.87Acceptance rate26.63%Applications950Offers of admission253Matriculants from the pool135First-year class135Full-time tuition and feesBilled per credit hour; the 509 prints no annual full-time figureLiving expenses$22,194Share receiving grants87% of studentsMedian grant$9,000Conditional scholarshipsNo (an award cannot be cut for grades)First-time bar passage81.91%Employed at ten months87.1% (108 of 124)

Source: Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), Arkansas Law's ABA bar-passage report, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024. The 509 bills tuition per credit hour and lists living expenses separately, and it does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so this page does not state one.

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

You realistically need a 158 LSAT and a 3.71 GPA to sit at the center of Arkansas Law's class. Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 155 to 161 and the GPA middle at 3.54 to 3.87. Because Arkansas Law admits only about one applicant in four, hitting both medians matters more here than at a more forgiving school.

Take the two numbers one at a time. The University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) law LSAT median is 158, with a 25th percentile of 155 and a 75th percentile of 161, per Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The band is symmetrical: three points separate the median from the 155 bottom quarter and three from the 161 top quarter. In plain terms a 161 reaches into the top of the admitted class, a 158 sits at the middle, and a 155 marks the bottom quarter yet stays inside the admitted range. The important context is the acceptance rate: because Arkansas Law admits just 26.63% of applicants, a 155 that would be safely mid-pack elsewhere is closer to the edge here, and an LSAT at or above the 158 median is the surer position.

The GPA band is narrow at the bottom. The University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) law GPA median is 3.71, with a 25th percentile of 3.54 and a 75th percentile of 3.87, according to the same disclosure. The distance from the 25th percentile to the median is just 0.17 of a point, one of the tighter GPA bands in this guide, so Arkansas Law's admitted students cluster closely in the mid-to-high 3.5s through the high 3.8s. A 3.54 keeps an applicant inside the admitted band, but the compact spread means there is little room to slide on GPA without a strong LSAT to compensate.

So what does a realistic Arkansas Law profile look like? A 158 LSAT paired with a 3.71 GPA lands an applicant squarely at both medians, per Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, and given the 26.63% acceptance rate that is a genuinely competitive rather than a safe position. Fall below the 155 LSAT or the 3.54 GPA and you need a clear compensating strength on the other number. On the splitter question, Arkansas Law is splitter friendly: its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.17 and an LSAT spread of 3 points. A splitter-friendly school forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high, so a high-LSAT applicant with a GPA a little under the 3.71 median has a realistic path at Arkansas Law, though the school's low acceptance rate means the LSAT needs to do real work.

Is Arkansas Law harder to get into than its reputation?

Yes, decisively. This is the single most important thing to understand about Arkansas Law. Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a 26.63% acceptance rate, which ranks it 5th most selective of the 47 schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of its 158. Almost no school at its academic level admits a smaller share of applicants.

To judge the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) law acceptance rate fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 47 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Arkansas Law's 158, that is a median of 156 to 160, ranked by acceptance rate, Arkansas Law is the 5th most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Only four of the schools sharing its LSAT profile admit a smaller share of applicants, while 42 admit a larger share. In other words, at a 158 median that looks accessible on paper, Arkansas Law behaves like one of the most selective schools in its entire academic band.

The practical reading changes how you should apply. Arkansas Law admits only about one applicant in four, so its 950 applications against 253 offers, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, describe a genuinely competitive admit rather than a safe one. Two forces drive this: a small entering class of 135 seats and a disciplined offer count. The takeaway is that an applicant should not treat Arkansas Law as a backup on the strength of its 158 median alone, and should instead present numbers at or above both medians, because at a 26.63% acceptance rate the margin for a weak spot is thin. The upside is that admission to Arkansas Law carries real selectivity, which is part of what a degree from a genuinely selective flagship is worth.

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

Arkansas Law bills tuition per credit hour, so its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure prints no single annual full-time tuition figure, and this page states that plainly rather than inventing an annual total. What the 509 does report is broad aid: 87% of Arkansas Law students receive a grant, and the scholarships are not conditional on grades.

Start with the sticker, or rather the absence of a single one. Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure bills tuition per credit hour and does not print an annual full-time tuition and fees figure, so any all-in annual number quoted elsewhere for Arkansas Law is someone's arithmetic rather than a figure the school reports, and this page will not compute one. What the 509 does list is living expenses, separately, at $22,194. To find your own tuition cost, request the current per-credit rate and your expected credit load directly from Arkansas Law.

The aid picture is where the numbers turn favorable. Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 87% of students receive a grant, one of the broadest reach figures in this guide, with grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $5,500, $9,000, and $11,000. The same disclosure reports 0 full-tuition awards and 8 awards above full tuition. The awards are modest in dollar terms relative to some private peers, but they reach nearly the whole class, and because Arkansas bills per credit hour rather than at a high private sticker, a grant of several thousand dollars offsets a meaningful share of the bill.

One consumer-protective point works firmly in the applicant's favor at Arkansas Law. According to Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, its scholarships are not conditional, so a first-year award cannot be cut for landing in the bottom half of the curve. The grant you are quoted in your offer is the grant you keep, which removes the renewal risk that some schools attach to first-year merit money. Combined with a first-year academic attrition rate of 2.0% in the same disclosure, the message is that Arkansas Law is not using either the curve or a scholarship condition to thin its class after enrollment.

The strategic read for Arkansas Law is that because tuition is billed per credit and aid reaches 87% of the class, the real cost question is your per-credit rate net of a grant you have a strong chance of receiving. Because Arkansas Law's acceptance rate is a selective 26.63%, an applicant who clears both medians is not only more likely to be admitted but better positioned to land toward the upper end of the grant range, so strong numbers do double duty here as they do at any selective school.

What are your real chances off the Arkansas Law waitlist?

Limited, because Arkansas Law fills much of its class from first-round offers. Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure records 253 offers and 135 matriculants, an implied yield of 53.4%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so implied yield is the honest proxy: a 53.4% yield is high, meaning more than half of admitted students enroll and the class fills efficiently.

Here is the reasoning in full. Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 253 offers of admission and 135 matriculants drawn from the applicant pool, which is an implied yield of 53.4%. No ABA disclosure, Arkansas 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 53.4% of its offers into enrollments, it sends fewer than two offers for every seat it fills, one of the most efficient class-building patterns in this guide, which leaves relatively little room for heavy waitlist activity.

For a waitlisted applicant, the honest read is that the odds are slimmer than at a lower-yield school. A 53.4% implied yield at Arkansas Law reflects a strong in-state pull: many admitted Arkansas residents choose the flagship and enroll, so the school does not need to lean heavily on its waitlist to fill 135 seats. The honest limit is that Arkansas Law, like every school, does not publish year-to-year waitlist admit counts, so movement varies by cycle. If you are on the Arkansas Law waitlist, a concise letter of continued interest that names Arkansas Law as your first choice and reaffirms your ties to Arkansas is still worth sending, because in a thin-margin year even a short waitlist can move, but you should hold a firm alternative.

Where do Arkansas Law graduates actually work?

Mostly in Arkansas, with modest reach into neighboring states. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Arkansas Law's top market, Arkansas, took 59.7% of graduates, and the top three markets together took 74.2%. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 9.7% of the class, and federal clerkships took 0.8%.

The defining fact about Arkansas Law's outcomes is a strong but not total concentration in the home state. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Arkansas Law placed 74 graduates in Arkansas, 9 in Missouri, and 9 in Texas, its three largest markets. Arkansas alone took 59.7% of the class, and the top three markets combined reached 74.2%, per the same summary. That home-state share is high, as you would expect from a flagship, but the roughly one in four graduates who launch outside Arkansas, spread across Missouri, Texas, and other states, gives the degree a little more portability than a purely local school.

By employer type, the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 9.7% of Arkansas Law graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, a moderate large-firm share, and federal clerkships taking just 0.8% of the class, a low clerkship figure worth noting honestly. The picture is of a school whose graduates land primarily in Arkansas small and mid-size firms, government, and business, rather than in national large-firm or clerkship tracks. An applicant drawn to Arkansas Law specifically for federal clerkships should weigh that 0.8% figure with clear eyes.

The overall placement rate is solid. The same ABA Employment Summary shows 108 of 124 Arkansas Law graduates employed at ten months, an 87.1% rate, so 16 graduates were not yet placed at the ten-month mark, a gap an applicant should weigh alongside the school's strong in-state pipeline. On the bar exam, Arkansas Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 81.91% for the 2024 exam year in Arkansas, a solid result, rising to a 93.33% ultimate rate for the 2022 cohort, so the large majority of Arkansas Law graduates who sit the exam ultimately pass.

When are Arkansas Law's application deadlines?

Arkansas Law runs a J.D. admissions cycle, but this page does not print a specific deadline date because the packet behind it did not pull one. The honest instruction is to confirm Arkansas 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, Arkansas 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 Arkansas Law, confirm whether Arkansas Law offers an Early Decision round, whether it is binding, and what its deadline is, on the school's own admissions page before you rely on it. Application cycle dates shift from year to year, and a date that holds for one cycle can move in the next, so treat Arkansas Law's official site as the registrar of record. What this page can say with confidence, verified in August 2026, is that at a school as selective as Arkansas Law, with a 26.63% acceptance rate and only 135 seats, applying early in the cycle is a genuine advantage because seats and aid are most available before the class fills.

Frequently asked questions about getting into Arkansas Law

Is a 158 LSAT good enough for Arkansas Law?

A 158 is exactly Arkansas Law's LSAT median, per Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, so it is competitive, but given a selective 26.63% acceptance rate it is a middle position rather than a safe one. Half of the fall 2025 class scored at or above 158 and half below, inside a 155 to 161 range. Paired with a GPA near the 3.71 median, a 158 places an Arkansas Law applicant at the center of a competitive class.

What GPA do you need for Arkansas Law?

Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.71, with a 25th percentile of 3.54 and a 75th percentile of 3.87. The band is tight, just 0.17 of a point from the 25th percentile to the median, so realistically you want a GPA of at least 3.54 to stay inside Arkansas Law's admitted range, and a strong LSAT helps most when your GPA sits at the lower end of that band.

What is Arkansas Law's acceptance rate?

Arkansas Law's acceptance rate is 26.63%, computed as 253 offers against 950 applications in Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That ranks Arkansas Law 5th most selective among the 47 schools within two LSAT points of its 158 median, near the very top of its academic band. About one applicant in four receives an offer from Arkansas Law in a given cycle, which is far more selective than the school's reputation implies.

How many people apply to Arkansas Law?

Arkansas Law received 950 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. From that pool, Arkansas Law extended just 253 offers of admission and enrolled 135 matriculants, building a first-year class of 135. The combination of a moderate applicant pool and a disciplined offer count is what makes Arkansas Law's 26.63% acceptance rate so selective for its LSAT level.

How much does Arkansas Law cost?

Arkansas Law bills tuition per credit hour, and its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure prints no single annual full-time tuition figure, so this page does not state or invent an annual total. The 509 does list living expenses separately at $22,194. To learn your own cost, request the current per-credit rate and expected credit load directly from Arkansas Law, then subtract any grant, since 87% of students receive one.

Does Arkansas Law give scholarships?

Yes, to almost the whole class. Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 87% of students receive a grant, with amounts of $5,500, $9,000, and $11,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles, plus 8 awards above full tuition. Best of all, Arkansas Law's scholarships are not conditional, so an award cannot be cut for grades, which removes the renewal risk that some schools attach to first-year merit money.

What is Arkansas Law's bar passage rate?

Arkansas Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 81.91% for the 2024 exam year, with Arkansas as the largest jurisdiction, a solid result. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, rises to 93.33%, per the same report, so the large majority of Arkansas Law graduates who sit the exam ultimately pass, even if a portion need more than one attempt.

Where do Arkansas Law graduates work?

Mostly in Arkansas. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Arkansas taking 74 Arkansas Law graduates (59.7%), Missouri 9, and Texas 9, so the top three markets account for 74.2% of the class. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 9.7% of Arkansas Law graduates and federal clerkships took just 0.8%, so the class leans toward in-state firm, government, and business practice.

Can a splitter get into Arkansas Law?

Yes, but the LSAT has to carry weight. Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.17 and an LSAT spread of 3 points, and the school reads as splitter friendly, forgiving a lower GPA when the LSAT is high. Because Arkansas Law admits only 26.63% of applicants, a splitter needs an LSAT at or above the 158 median to offset a GPA under the 3.71 median.

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

Near the top of its band. Among the 47 schools with a median LSAT within two points of Arkansas Law's 158, ranked by acceptance rate, Arkansas Law is 5th most selective at 26.63%, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Only four band peers admit a smaller share of applicants than Arkansas Law does, so it is meaningfully harder to get into than its 158 median suggests at first glance.

Is Arkansas Law worth it?

For an Arkansas-focused career, the value case is strong. Arkansas Law bills tuition per credit hour with no annual sticker in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, yet 87% of students receive grants, the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 87.1% employed at ten months, and the first-time bar rate is 81.91%. Combined with non-conditional scholarships and genuine selectivity, Arkansas Law is a sound value for a student aiming to practice in the state.

What LSAT and GPA give the best shot at an Arkansas Law scholarship?

The highest you can post, since Arkansas Law is selective and rewards strong files. Per Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, grants reach an $11,000 upper quartile and 8 awards exceed full tuition. An LSAT at or above the 161 upper quartile paired with a GPA near the 3.87 top quarter gives the strongest shot at the largest awards, and because the awards are not conditional, an Arkansas Law grant you win is a grant you keep.

How does Arkansas Law's yield compare with its acceptance rate?

Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows 253 offers against 950 applications, a selective 26.63% acceptance rate, and 135 of those admits enrolled, a high 53.4% yield. The combination is telling: Arkansas Law admits few applicants and a large share of them enroll, which is the signature of a flagship with a strong in-state pull and little need to over-offer, so its waitlist tends to move less.

Are Arkansas Law scholarships conditional on grades?

No. Arkansas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that its scholarships are not conditional, which means a first-year award cannot be reduced or cut if your grades fall in the first year. That is a meaningful advantage over schools with conditional aid, because the grant quoted in your Arkansas Law offer is guaranteed for its term rather than contingent on staying above a grade or class-rank threshold.

Sources

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

Arkansas Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=5&year=2025

Arkansas Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=5&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=5&year=2024

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