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

How to get into University of Iowa Law School starts with two numbers. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports an LSAT median of 164, with a middle 50% of 161 to 165, and a GPA median of 3.78, spanning 3.62 to 3.92. A 164 and a 3.78 sit at both medians, and at Iowa Law those medians are genuinely attainable rather than a stretch.

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 admissions figure on this page comes from Iowa Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for the fall 2025 entering class, every employment figure from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and the rest from the University of Iowa College of Law's own pages.

Iowa Law's most distinctive trait is that it is the most attainable school in its academic band while remaining one of the best values in this series. Among the 36 ABA law schools whose median LSAT is within two points of Iowa Law's 164, Iowa Law admits the largest share of applicants, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures, so its 164 median understates how reachable an offer actually is. On price, Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports 109 full-tuition awards against a first-year class of 159 and a resident tuition line of $30,944 that its $30,043 median grant nearly erases. The thesis of this page is that Iowa Law pairs unusually friendly admissions odds for its academic level with a resident price that few law schools can match.

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

Iowa Law is an accessible flagship with a low resident price and deep scholarship pool. According to Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 164 LSAT median, a 3.78 GPA median, and a 44.43% acceptance rate. Full-time tuition and fees are $30,944 for residents and $52,191 for nonresidents, and 77% of students receive a grant.

MetricIowa Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)161 / 164 / 165GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.62 / 3.78 / 3.92Acceptance rate44.43%Applications1,247Offers of admission554Matriculants from the pool156First-year class159Full-time tuition and feesResident $30,944 / nonresident $52,191Living expenses$23,920Share receiving grants77%Median grant$30,043Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage96.43% (Iowa, 2024 exam year)Employed at ten months95.5% (168 of 176)

Source: Iowa Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for the fall 2025 entering class, Iowa Law's ABA bar-passage report, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024. Tuition and living expenses are printed as separate lines in the 509, which does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, and the tuition line is split into a resident and a nonresident figure.

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

You realistically need a 164 LSAT and a 3.78 GPA to sit at the center of Iowa Law's class. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 161 to 165 and the GPA middle at 3.62 to 3.92. Both are the medians, and both are more forgiving than the numbers at higher-ranked peers.

Iowa Law reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 161, 164, and 165, and a GPA spread of 3.62, 3.78, and 3.92, in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The University of Iowa law LSAT median of 164 and the University of Iowa law GPA median of 3.78 describe a strong but reachable class. The LSAT band from the 25th to the 75th percentile is only four points wide, and much of that width sits below the median, so a score of 161 already reaches the bottom quarter of the class rather than falling out of range.

That has a practical meaning for University of Iowa law requirements. A 164 LSAT and a 3.78 GPA place an applicant exactly at both medians, per Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, which is the middle of the class at a 44.43% acceptance rate that is itself generous for the academic level. Below the 161 LSAT or the 3.62 GPA, an applicant needs a clear compensating strength on the other number. A 3.5 GPA applicant realistically wants an LSAT at or near the 165 upper quartile, while a 160 LSAT applicant leans on a GPA closer to the 3.92 top quartile to stay comfortably in range at Iowa Law.

On the splitter question, Iowa Law is splitter friendly. The GPA spread from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.16 and the LSAT spread is three points, per Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, so the school tolerates a softer GPA when the LSAT is strong. A splitter-friendly school forgives a low GPA paired with a high test score; a reverse-splitter-friendly school forgives a low LSAT paired with a high GPA. Iowa Law leans toward the first pattern, so an applicant carrying a 165 LSAT with a GPA in the 3.5 range has a real path here. University of Iowa law admissions rewards the applicant whose test score leads the file.

Is Iowa Law harder to get into than its reputation?

No, it is more attainable than its academic profile suggests. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports a 44.43% acceptance rate, and among the 36 ABA law schools within two LSAT points of its 164 median, Iowa Law is the least selective, per Lovare's analysis. Its 164 median reads competitive, yet an offer is genuinely reachable.

To size up Iowa Law's selectivity fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 36 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Iowa Law's 164, that is a median of 162 to 166, ranked by acceptance rate, Iowa Law is the least selective of the group, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. In plain terms, of every school that enrolls a class at roughly Iowa Law's academic level, Iowa Law admits the largest share of the applicants who apply.

Here is the honest read on the University of Iowa law acceptance rate. Iowa Law enrolls a class with a solid 164 LSAT median and a 3.78 GPA median, numbers that on paper look like a reach for a middle-of-the-pack applicant. But the 44.43% admit rate tells the real story: Iowa Law is not trying to run an ultra-selective front door, and a well-prepared applicant near its medians has strong odds. Part of the reason is a smaller applicant pool, 1,247 applications in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, against which Iowa Law extends 554 offers to fill a class of 159. For an applicant with numbers at or slightly below the medians, Iowa Law is one of the friendlier bets at its academic level, and that accessibility is a feature worth naming plainly rather than a knock on the school.

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

Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $30,944 for residents and $52,191 for nonresidents, with living expenses of $23,920 and no combined cost-of-attendance total printed. Iowa Law awards grants to 77% of students, and its scholarships are not conditional, so an award cannot be cut for a low first-year grade curve.

Start with the sticker, which comes in two versions at a public school. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $30,944 for Iowa residents and $52,191 for nonresidents, and separately lists living expenses of $23,920. That 509 does not print a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so this page will not manufacture one, and it reports the resident and nonresident tuition lines exactly as the school files them.

Now the aid, where Iowa Law is a standout. According to its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, 77% of students receive a grant, with quartiles of $24,000, $30,043, and $34,527. What sets Iowa Law apart is the depth of the deepest awards: the same disclosure reports 109 full-tuition awards and 33 awards above full tuition, and with a first-year class of 159, that full-tuition pool is large relative to the class. A meaningful slice of Iowa Law students pay no tuition at all.

The resident math is striking. Iowa Law's resident tuition and fees line is $30,944, and the median grant is $30,043, per its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, so a resident who receives the median award sees nearly the entire tuition line covered before living costs. That is an unusually favorable position among law schools and a central reason Iowa Law reads as a value. For nonresidents, the arithmetic in the packet works from the $52,191 sticker: a nonresident receiving Iowa Law's median grant of $30,043 nets about $22,148 in tuition and fees before living costs, using figures from Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure.

Two more facts protect the applicant. Iowa Law reports that its scholarships are not conditional, per the same disclosure, so an award cannot be reduced or revoked if a student lands in the bottom of the class curve, and the award quoted at admission is the award kept for all three years. Because Iowa Law awards merit-influenced aid and holds a large full-tuition pool, stronger numbers improve both the odds of admission and the chance of landing one of those full rides.

What are your real chances off the Iowa Law waitlist?

Live, and the accessible front door helps. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure records 554 offers and 156 matriculants from the pool, an implied yield of 28.2%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so that yield is the honest proxy: a school keeping under a third of its offers relies on later rounds to fill the class.

Here is the reasoning in full. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 554 offers of admission and 156 matriculants drawn from that applicant pool, which works out to an implied yield of 28.2%. No ABA disclosure, Iowa 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. When a school converts fewer than three in ten offers into enrollments, it is sending well over three offers for every seat and expecting most admitted students to enroll elsewhere.

That low yield, combined with an already accessible admit rate, makes a waitlist spot at Iowa Law a genuine possibility rather than a courtesy. Because Iowa Law keeps only 28.2% of its admits, it can find itself returning to the waitlist to reach its class target, so an applicant held there has legitimate reason to send a concise letter of continued interest and stay engaged through the summer at Iowa Law.

One honest note on the class figures. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure lists 156 matriculants from the applicant pool but a first-year class of 159. The small gap reflects students who arrive through paths other than this single cycle's pool, such as admits who deferred from a prior year. The 28.2% implied yield is computed from the 156 pool matriculants against the 554 offers, which is the correct comparison for reasoning about this cycle's waitlist odds at Iowa Law.

Where do Iowa Law graduates actually work?

In Iowa first, but more spread across the Midwest than most regional schools. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Iowa took 32.4% of Iowa Law graduates and the top three markets 48.9%, the least concentrated result in this series. Firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 25.6%, and federal clerkships took 5.1%.

The most useful fact about Iowa Law's employment outcomes is how dispersed they are. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Iowa Law placed 57 graduates in Iowa, 19 in Illinois, and 10 in Minnesota, its three largest markets. Iowa alone absorbed 32.4% of the class, and the top three markets together took 48.9%, meaning fewer than half of Iowa Law graduates cluster in the top three states. That is the widest geographic spread among the schools profiled in this series, and it points to a program that feeds the broader Midwest, from Chicago to the Twin Cities, rather than a single local bar.

By employer type, Iowa Law sits in the middle. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 25.6% of Iowa Law graduates taking jobs at firms of 101 or more lawyers, a moderate large-firm share consistent with a regional flagship that also sends graduates into government, public interest, and smaller firms across the Midwest.

Clerkships are a relative strength. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 5.1% of Iowa Law graduates went into federal clerkships, a share that edges above several higher-priced schools in this series and signals a program that places a steady trickle of graduates on the federal bench.

Overall placement is strong. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 168 of 176 Iowa Law graduates employed at the ten-month mark, a 95.5% employment rate, and Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0%, meaning no member of the entering class washed out academically in the first year. An applicant who wants to practice in Iowa or the surrounding Midwest and values a low resident price is buying exactly what Iowa Law reliably delivers; an applicant set on a coastal large-firm market should note that Iowa Law's graduates concentrate in the Midwest.

When are Iowa Law's application deadlines?

Iowa Law runs a rolling admissions cycle, and its specific Early Decision terms are not confirmed here for the current cycle. Because application timelines and any binding Early Decision mechanics shift from year to year, confirm the current deadlines and Early Decision rules directly on the University of Iowa College of Law's admissions site before you rely on them.

This page dates what it states. As verified in August 2026, the deadline and Early Decision specifics for Iowa Law were not among the figures pulled from primary disclosures for this profile, so this page does not print a fixed application date or claim a particular Early Decision structure. That is a deliberate choice consistent with the rest of the page: where a term was not verified from a primary source, it is left out rather than guessed.

What an applicant can act on now is the strategy that Iowa Law's data implies. Because Iowa Law rewards strong numbers with both admission and scholarship, and because its 28.2% yield means the class is not locked early, applying earlier in a rolling cycle generally helps, particularly for the large full-tuition scholarship pool. For the exact opening date, the regular deadline, and whether Iowa Law offers a binding Early Decision option in the current cycle, check the school's own admissions pages, which are the authoritative source for dates this profile intentionally does not invent.

Frequently asked questions about getting into Iowa Law

Is a 164 LSAT good enough for Iowa Law?

A 164 is exactly Iowa Law's LSAT median in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, so it places an applicant at the center of the class. Half of the fall 2025 class scored 164 or higher, inside a 161 to 165 middle range. At a 44.43% acceptance rate, a 164 applicant to Iowa Law with a solid GPA is in a strong position, since the school admits a generous share at this level.

What GPA do you need for Iowa Law?

Iowa Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.78, a 25th percentile of 3.62, and a 75th percentile of 3.92. The middle half of Iowa Law's class sits in that 3.62 to 3.92 band. Realistically an applicant wants a GPA at or above 3.62, and anything lower leans on an LSAT near the 165 upper quartile to offset it at Iowa Law.

What is Iowa Law's acceptance rate?

Iowa Law's acceptance rate is 44.43%, computed as 554 offers against 1,247 applications in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That makes Iowa Law the least selective of the 36 schools within two LSAT points of its 164 median, per Lovare's analysis. In other words, at its academic level Iowa Law admits the largest share of applicants, which makes it one of the more attainable options in its band.

How many people apply to Iowa Law?

Iowa Law received 1,247 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. From that pool, Iowa Law extended 554 offers and enrolled 156 matriculants, building a first-year class of 159. The smaller applicant pool and generous offer count are what produce both the 44.43% acceptance rate and the 28.2% yield at Iowa Law.

How much does Iowa Law cost?

Iowa Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $30,944 for residents and $52,191 for nonresidents, plus living expenses of $23,920. Iowa Law does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so this page will not quote one. A nonresident receiving Iowa Law's median grant of $30,043 nets about $22,148 in tuition and fees before living costs.

Does Iowa Law give scholarships?

Yes, generously. Iowa Law awards grants to 77% of students, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, with quartiles of $24,000, $30,043, and $34,527, plus 109 full-tuition and 33 above-full-tuition awards. The scholarships are not conditional at Iowa Law, so an award cannot be cut for grades. With a resident tuition line of $30,944, the median grant nearly covers a resident's tuition outright.

What is Iowa Law's bar passage rate?

Iowa Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 96.43% for the 2024 exam year, with Iowa as the largest jurisdiction. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, is 91.5%. These figures cover different cohorts, so read the high first-time rate and the ultimate rate as separate measures rather than a single trend at Iowa Law.

Where do Iowa Law graduates work?

Most Iowa Law graduates work across the Midwest. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Iowa taking 57 graduates (32.4%), Illinois 19, and Minnesota 10, so the top three markets account for 48.9% of the class, the widest spread in this series. Iowa Law feeds the broader Midwest rather than a single local bar.

Do Iowa Law graduates get large-firm jobs?

Some do, at a moderate rate. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 25.6% of Iowa Law graduates took jobs at firms of 101 or more lawyers. That large-firm share is consistent with a regional flagship that also channels graduates into government, public interest, judicial clerkships, and smaller firms across Iowa and the wider Midwest, so large-firm practice is one common path among several at Iowa Law.

Is Iowa Law a good value for residents?

Yes, unusually so. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists resident tuition and fees at $30,944 and a median grant of $30,043, so a resident receiving the median award sees nearly the whole tuition line covered before living costs. With 109 full-tuition awards reported and 77% of students on a grant, Iowa Law is one of the strongest resident values in this series.

Can a splitter get into Iowa Law?

Yes. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.16 and an LSAT spread of three points, which makes it splitter friendly. A splitter with a high LSAT and a lower GPA has a realistic path at Iowa Law, since a strong test score can offset a softer transcript, and the generous overall admit rate widens that path further.

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

Iowa Law is the least selective of the 36 schools in its LSAT band. Among ABA law schools with a median LSAT within two points of Iowa Law's 164, ranked by acceptance rate, its 44.43% is the highest admit rate in the group, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. By admit rate, Iowa Law is the most attainable school at its academic level.

Is Iowa Law worth it?

For many applicants, especially residents, yes. Against a resident tuition and fees sticker of $30,944 in Iowa Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, 77% of students receive a grant and the median award is $30,043, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 95.5% of Iowa Law graduates employed at ten months. The low resident price and deep scholarship pool make the cost easy to defend.

Does Iowa Law have high first-year attrition?

No. Iowa Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0%, meaning no member of the fall entering class was dismissed for academic reasons in the first year. Paired with a 95.5% employment rate in the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, that pattern suggests students who enroll at Iowa Law reliably progress toward the degree.

Does Iowa Law offer Early Decision?

Iowa Law's specific Early Decision terms are not confirmed here for the current cycle, so this profile does not state whether Iowa Law runs a binding Early Decision round or when it closes. As verified in August 2026, applicants should confirm Early Decision availability and all application deadlines directly on the University of Iowa College of Law's own admissions site, which is the authoritative source for current dates.

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

Numbers above the medians. Because Iowa Law awards merit-influenced aid, an LSAT above 164 and a GPA above 3.78, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, improve both admission and grant size. With 109 full-tuition and 33 above-full-tuition awards reported, a high-numbers applicant at Iowa Law has a genuine shot at one of the many full rides rather than a token discount.

Sources

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

Iowa Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=56&year=2025

Iowa Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=56&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=56&year=2024

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