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

The short answer to how to get into University of Dayton Law School is to reach the medians in Dayton Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure: a 155 LSAT and a 3.69 GPA. The middle 50 percent scored 151 to 158 and earned 3.44 to 3.89, so a file at both medians is solidly 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. Admissions figures on this page come from University of Dayton Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for the fall 2025 entering class, employment figures from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and bar passage and other details from Dayton Law's own published ABA reports and pages.

University of Dayton Law School is more selective than its reputation suggests, funds effectively its entire class with unusually large grant awards, and places graduates across a wider geographic footprint than most Ohio schools. Among the 56 ABA law schools whose median LSAT is within two points of Dayton Law's 155, Dayton Law ranks 7th most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. According to Dayton Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 102% of students receive grant aid, a figure at or above the enrolled base that effectively describes the whole class, with a median award of $33,000 and 21 awards above full tuition. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, only 53.7% of graduates worked in the top market, the least concentrated profile among the Ohio schools in this tier. One honest structural note runs through the cost analysis: Dayton Law bills tuition per credit hour and the 509 prints no single annual full-time figure, so this page does not state an annual tuition total. The thesis of this page is that University of Dayton Law School is a selective, deeply funded school with broader geographic reach than its peers and a tuition structure that requires a direct quote from the school to price.

University of Dayton Law School at a glance: LSAT, GPA, acceptance rate and cost

University of Dayton Law School posts a 155 LSAT median, a 3.69 GPA median, and a 30.66% acceptance rate in Dayton Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Tuition is billed per credit hour with no single annual figure printed, and grants reach effectively the whole class. The table below collects the headline numbers for the fall 2025 entering class.

MetricUniversity of Dayton Law School (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)151 / 155 / 158GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.44 / 3.69 / 3.89Acceptance rate30.66%Applications1,611Offers of admission494Matriculants from the applicant pool167First-year class168 (89 full-time + 79 part-time)Full-time tuition and feesBilled per credit hour; the 509 prints no single annual full-time figureLiving expenses$19,395Share receiving grants102%Median grant$33,000Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage84.29%Employed at ten months93.5% (101 of 108)

Source: University of Dayton Law School's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for the fall 2025 entering class, with employment from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 and bar passage from Dayton Law's ABA bar-passage report. The 509 reports tuition on a per-credit-hour basis with no single annual full-time figure and lists living expenses separately, so this page does not state an annual tuition total or a combined cost-of-attendance total.

What LSAT and GPA do you really need to get into University of Dayton Law School?

University of Dayton Law School reports an LSAT spread of 151 to 158 and a GPA spread of 3.44 to 3.89 in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. A 155 LSAT and a 3.69 GPA sit at both medians. Below the 151 LSAT or the 3.44 GPA, an applicant needs a clear compensating strength on the other number.

University of Dayton Law School reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 151, 155, and 158, and a GPA 25th, 50th, and 75th of 3.44, 3.69, and 3.89 for the fall 2025 entering class, per Dayton Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The median is the fiftieth percentile: half of the enrolled class scored above 155 on the LSAT and above 3.69 in GPA, and half scored below. The LSAT band is wide, running seven points from the 151 bottom quartile to the 158 top quartile, which means Dayton Law admits a real spread of scores rather than clustering at the median.

The realistic read is straightforward. A 155 LSAT paired with a 3.69 GPA places you at both University of Dayton Law School medians, the position from which a file competes on its merits. Drop below the 151 LSAT that marks the 25th percentile, or below the 3.44 GPA at the same rung, and Dayton Law will look for a clear compensating strength on the other number. A 158 LSAT can carry a 3.44 GPA; a 3.89 GPA can carry a 151 LSAT. Because the LSAT band reaches down to 151, an applicant in the low 150s with a strong transcript is genuinely in range at University of Dayton Law School, which is a wider door than the 30.66% acceptance rate alone would suggest.

On the splitter question, Lovare reads University of Dayton Law School as splitter friendly. The 509 shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.25 against an LSAT 25th-to-median spread of four points, and Lovare's read is that Dayton Law forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high. A splitter is a high-LSAT, lower-GPA applicant; a reverse-splitter is the opposite. The wide four-point LSAT gap from the median down to the 25th percentile is the tell: University of Dayton Law School admits a meaningful number of students below its LSAT median when the rest of the file is strong, so a 158 LSAT gives real cover to a GPA that dips under the 3.44 quartile.

Is University of Dayton Law School harder to get into than its reputation?

University of Dayton Law School is considerably more selective than its 30.66% acceptance rate suggests. Among the 56 ABA law schools whose median LSAT is within two points of Dayton Law's 155, ranked by acceptance rate, Dayton Law is 7th most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. That places it near the top of its band.

Reputation tends to file University of Dayton Law School as a mid-sized Catholic school in southwest Ohio, respected regionally for its teaching and its flexible program rather than for national selectivity. To test the admit gate against that reputation, Lovare built a peer band of the 56 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Dayton Law's 155, that is, a median of 153 to 157, then ranked them by acceptance rate from the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. University of Dayton Law School comes in 7th of 56, near the top of the band and well ahead of where its reputation would place it.

What that means for you is that the headline acceptance rate understates the real gate. A 30.66% rate is already selective, and ranked against schools with the same academic profile, University of Dayton Law School converts a smaller share of its applicants than nearly all of its peers, the signature of strong demand driven in part by its deep grant awards. The practical consequence is that you should treat Dayton Law as a school where reaching the 155 and 3.69 medians matters, not a safety you clear on reputation. It is not a national reach, but within its band it is one of the firmer gates, and the near-top ranking is the number to plan around, tempered by the wide LSAT band that keeps the door open to strong sub-median files.

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

University of Dayton Law School bills tuition per credit hour, and its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure prints no single annual full-time tuition figure, so this page does not compute one. What the 509 does show is unusually deep grant aid: 102% of students receive a grant, and the median award is $33,000, with 21 awards above full tuition.

The cost structure at University of Dayton Law School is different from most peers, and honesty about that difference matters. Dayton Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports tuition on a per-credit-hour basis and does not print a single annual full-time figure, which means any annual tuition number you see quoted elsewhere is an estimate built on an assumed credit load, not a figure Dayton Law publishes in the 509. This page will not invent an annual total. To price the degree accurately, ask University of Dayton Law School directly for its current per-credit rate and the credit load it expects each year, because that is the only reliable way to turn a per-credit rate into an annual number. The 509 does list living expenses at $19,395, reported separately from tuition.

Where the 509 is unambiguous is on grant depth, and here University of Dayton Law School stands out. According to the same disclosure, 102% of students receive grant aid, a figure at or above the enrolled base that effectively describes the whole class, with awards at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $28,000, $33,000, and $37,000. Dayton Law reports 21 awards above full tuition and none at exactly full tuition. Grant awards in the $28,000 to $37,000 range are among the largest dollar figures in this tier, which signals a school using aid aggressively to build its class.

The one calculation this page will not perform is a net tuition, and the reason is structural rather than cautious. Because University of Dayton Law School reports no annual tuition figure in the 509, there is no sticker to subtract the $33,000 median grant from, so a clean net-annual-tuition read is not available from the disclosure. The grant dollars are real and large, but you can only translate them into a net price once you have the school's per-credit rate and expected credits. Get that quote in writing from Dayton Law, then set the median grant against it.

One reassurance matters at University of Dayton Law School: its scholarships are not conditional. Per Dayton Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, awards are not tied to a first-year class-rank or GPA threshold, so a grant cannot be cut if your grades slip after the first year. The award University of Dayton Law School quotes at admission is the award you keep for all three years, and with first-year academic attrition reported at just 2.0% in the same disclosure, the academic footing after enrollment is stable.

What are your real chances off the University of Dayton Law School waitlist?

University of Dayton Law School does not disclose waitlist offers or admits, and no ABA report does. The honest proxy is implied yield: 167 matriculants against 494 offers is a 33.8% yield in Dayton Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. That is a moderate yield, so the waitlist can move in some years, though it is never guaranteed.

Here is the reasoning in full. University of Dayton Law School enrolled 167 matriculants from 494 offers in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, an implied yield of 33.8%. No ABA disclosure, Dayton 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 roughly a third of admitted students enroll, a school extends meaningfully more offers than it has seats, which tends to keep a live waitlist as a backstop when yield runs light in a given cycle.

The class structure at University of Dayton Law School shapes the odds in a distinctive way. The 167 matriculants filled a first-year class of 168, split almost evenly at 89 full-time and 79 part-time, per the same 509, and the one-student gap between the matriculant count and the enrolled class is not itemized. That large part-time cohort, nearly half the class, means Dayton Law runs two enrollment tracks at once, and an applicant open to the part-time program may find a path that the full-time numbers alone do not show. The 33.8% implied yield is computed from the 167 matriculants against the 494 offers, the correct comparison for reasoning about this cycle's waitlist odds at University of Dayton Law School.

If you land on the University of Dayton Law School waitlist, the play is the standard one: send a concise letter of continued interest naming Dayton Law as a top choice, add any new LSAT score or improved grades, and keep another acceptance in hand as your real plan. A 33.8% yield leaves some room for waitlist movement, but movement is never promised, and the disciplined approach is to treat the waitlist at University of Dayton Law School as a possibility rather than a plan.

Where do University of Dayton Law School graduates actually work?

In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, University of Dayton Law School placed 53.7% of graduates in the top market and 64.8% across its top three markets, the least concentrated profile among the Ohio schools in its tier. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers took 10.2% of graduates, and federal clerkships took 1.9%.

University of Dayton Law School's employment profile is anchored in Ohio but reaches noticeably wider than its Ohio peers. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Dayton Law placed 58 graduates in Ohio, 8 in Indiana, and 4 in Colorado. That is a 53.7% top-market share and a 64.8% top-three share, and the notable feature is how much lower that concentration runs than at the other Ohio schools in this tier, where four in five graduates often stay in state. At University of Dayton Law School, closer to half stay in Ohio and a meaningful share spreads to Indiana, Colorado, and beyond, which gives the degree a broader reach for applicants who are not certain they want to stay in one market.

Why lead with concentration rather than the raw employment rate? Because the rate is uniformly high across peers. University of Dayton Law School reported 101 of 108 graduates employed at ten months, or 93.5%, in the same ABA Employment Summary, a strong figure but one that says less about fit than where those jobs are. At Dayton Law, the answer is Ohio first, but with the widest secondary spread of any school in this Ohio group.

On firm outcomes, University of Dayton Law School is a modest large-firm feeder. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 10.2% of Dayton Law graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, roughly one in ten, which tells you the majority of the class works in smaller firms, business, government, and public interest. Federal clerkships accounted for 1.9% of University of Dayton Law School graduates in the same summary, a small but real channel into the federal courts for students who target it.

Read the whole profile together and University of Dayton Law School is best understood as an Ohio-centered school with unusually broad geographic reach and a solid bar record. Its 84.29% first-time pass rate for exam year 2024, with Ohio as the largest jurisdiction, per Dayton Law's ABA bar-passage report, is one of the stronger first-time figures among the Ohio schools in this tier, and its 88.1% ultimate pass rate for the 2022 cohort shows most graduates clear the bar in time. That combination of a solid bar rate and a wider job map is the practical case for University of Dayton Law School.

When are University of Dayton Law School's application deadlines?

University of Dayton Law School's specific application deadlines and any Early Decision terms are not confirmed here for the current cycle. If you are planning a cycle, confirm the current regular-decision deadline and any binding or non-binding Early Decision option directly on Dayton Law's admissions site, because those dates shift from year to year and this page will not state a date it cannot verify.

University of Dayton Law School, like most ABA law schools, runs a rolling admissions cycle that typically opens in the early fall and reviews files as they are completed, which rewards applying early in the window when more seats and more scholarship money remain. That early-application edge is worth taking seriously at Dayton Law, where the grant awards are large and an early file competes best for the deepest aid. The exact opening date, the priority and final deadlines, and whether University of Dayton Law School offers an Early Decision track with specific terms are details this page did not verify from a primary source.

The practical takeaway for University of Dayton Law School applicants is to treat the calendar as a competitive variable rather than an afterthought. Aim to have your LSAT taken, your transcripts and letters in, and your application submitted as early in the cycle as your materials allow, both for admission odds and for the best shot at the grant pool. Confirm the current deadlines and any Early Decision terms on University of Dayton Law School's admissions page before you rely on them, because a page like this one is a planning aid verified in August 2026, not the registrar of record.

Frequently asked questions about getting into University of Dayton Law School

Is a 155 LSAT good enough for Dayton Law?

A 155 is exactly the LSAT median at University of Dayton Law School, per Dayton Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, where the middle 50 percent scored 151 to 158. A 155 puts you at the fiftieth percentile, a solid position. Paired with a GPA near the 3.69 median, a 155 makes you a comfortably in-range candidate at University of Dayton Law School.

What GPA do you need to get into Dayton Law?

University of Dayton Law School reports a GPA median of 3.69, with a 25th-to-75th range of 3.44 to 3.89, in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Aim for 3.69 or higher to sit at the median. Because Dayton Law is splitter friendly, a GPA down toward the 3.44 quartile can still work if your LSAT reaches the 158 upper quartile at University of Dayton Law School.

What is Dayton Law's acceptance rate?

University of Dayton Law School admitted 30.66% of applicants for the fall 2025 class, extending 494 offers against 1,611 applications, according to Dayton Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Among the 56 schools within two points of its 155 LSAT median, that ranks University of Dayton Law School 7th most selective, near the top of its band.

How many people apply to Dayton Law each year?

University of Dayton Law School received 1,611 applications for the fall 2025 entering class, made 494 offers, and enrolled 167 matriculants for a first-year class of 168, per Dayton Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. That pool and a 33.8% implied yield produce the 30.66% acceptance rate at University of Dayton Law School.

How much does Dayton Law cost per year?

University of Dayton Law School bills tuition per credit hour, and its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure prints no single annual full-time figure, so no annual tuition total is stated here. The 509 lists living expenses of $19,395 separately. To price the degree, ask Dayton Law for its current per-credit rate and expected credit load, then set the grant against it at University of Dayton Law School.

Does Dayton Law give scholarships?

Yes, deeply. University of Dayton Law School reports that 102% of students receive grant aid, a figure at or above the enrolled base that effectively describes the whole class, with awards of $28,000, $33,000, and $37,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles and 21 awards above full tuition, per Dayton Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Those are among the largest grant dollars at University of Dayton Law School's tier.

Are Dayton Law scholarships conditional?

No. University of Dayton Law School does not use conditional scholarships, per Dayton Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, so an award is not tied to a first-year class-rank or GPA threshold and cannot be cut if your grades slip. The grant University of Dayton Law School quotes at admission is the award you keep for all three years, which makes the large awards reliable.

What is Dayton Law's bar passage rate?

University of Dayton Law School posted an 84.29% first-time bar passage rate for exam year 2024, with Ohio as its largest jurisdiction, according to Dayton Law's ABA bar-passage report. That is one of the stronger first-time figures among the Ohio schools in its tier. Its ultimate pass rate for the 2022 cohort was 88.1%, so most University of Dayton Law School graduates pass the bar in time.

Where do most Dayton Law graduates work?

Ohio leads, but the spread is wide. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows University of Dayton Law School placed 58 graduates in Ohio, 8 in Indiana, and 4 in Colorado, a 53.7% top-market share and 64.8% across the top three. University of Dayton Law School has the least concentrated placement profile of the Ohio schools in this tier, giving the degree broader geographic reach.

Can a splitter get into Dayton Law?

A splitter has a real path. Lovare reads University of Dayton Law School as splitter friendly, with a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.25 against a wide LSAT spread of four points in the 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. That means Dayton Law forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high, so a 158 LSAT paired with a GPA under the 3.44 quartile is genuinely viable at University of Dayton Law School.

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

University of Dayton Law School ranks 7th most selective of the 56 ABA schools within two points of its 155 LSAT median, by acceptance rate in the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures, per Lovare's analysis. That is near the top of its band, so University of Dayton Law School is markedly harder to get into than its 30.66% acceptance rate suggests, and reaching the medians matters.

Is Dayton Law worth the cost?

For applicants who want broad reach and deep aid, it is compelling, but price it carefully. University of Dayton Law School pairs the widest job map of the Ohio schools with an 84.29% first-time bar rate and grant awards around a $33,000 median, per its 2025 ABA 509 and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024. Because Dayton Law bills per credit hour, get a firm tuition quote to complete the value math at University of Dayton Law School.

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

A file above both medians competes best for the largest awards. Because University of Dayton Law School reports a 75th-percentile grant of $37,000 and 21 awards above full tuition, an application above the 3.69 GPA and 155 LSAT medians is best positioned for the deepest aid, per Dayton Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Since University of Dayton Law School scholarships are not conditional, the award you win is the award you keep.

Sources

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

University of Dayton Law School 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=121&year=2025

University of Dayton Law School ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=121&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=121&year=2024

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