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How to Get Into University of Memphis Law School: LSAT, GPA & Admissions (2026)
How to Get Into University of Memphis Law School: LSAT, GPA & Admissions (2026)
How to get into University of Memphis Law School is best answered as a Tennessee question. According to Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 entering class posted a 155 LSAT median, inside a 152 to 159 range, and a 3.53 GPA median, inside a 3.22 to 3.77 range. Hit both and you are well positioned at a school that launches most of its graduates into Tennessee.
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 Memphis 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 Memphis Law's own pages.
The single most distinctive fact about Memphis Law is how tightly its graduates cluster in Tennessee. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Tennessee took 76.3% of Memphis Law graduates, the highest home-market concentration of any school in this guide, and the top three markets together took 80.4%. That concentration, paired with a strong 93.8% employment rate at ten months, is the thesis this page returns to: Memphis Law is a Tennessee career launchpad above all, and its admissions numbers, its cost, and its outcomes all read most clearly through that lens, alongside two honest cautions, a first-time bar rate below its region and the highest first-year attrition in this guide, that every applicant should weigh before enrolling.
University of Memphis law admissions at a glance: LSAT, GPA, acceptance rate and cost
Memphis Law is a moderately selective public school with a strong Tennessee focus. According to Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 155 LSAT median, a 3.53 GPA median, and a 41.07% acceptance rate. Resident tuition and fees run $21,228 and nonresident $26,948, with living expenses listed separately at $28,729. The table below collects the core numbers.
MetricMemphis Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)152 / 155 / 159GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.22 / 3.53 / 3.77Acceptance rate41.07%Applications582Offers of admission239Matriculants from the pool96First-year class96Full-time tuition and feesResident $21,228 / nonresident $26,948Living expenses$28,729Share receiving grants62% of studentsMedian grant$11,000Conditional scholarshipsYes (an award can be cut if grades fall below the school's threshold)First-time bar passage72.5%Employed at ten months93.8% (91 of 97)
Source: Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), Memphis Law's ABA bar-passage report, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024. Tuition and living expenses are printed separately in the 509, which does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so this page does not quote one.
What LSAT and GPA do you really need to get into Memphis Law?
You realistically need a 155 LSAT and a 3.53 GPA to sit at the center of Memphis Law's class. Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 152 to 159 and the GPA middle at 3.22 to 3.77. Below either 25th percentile, the other number has to carry a clear compensating strength.
Take the two numbers one at a time. The University of Memphis law LSAT median is 155, with a 25th percentile of 152 and a 75th percentile of 159, per Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The band leans upward at the top: three points separate the median from the 152 bottom quarter, but four points separate it from the 159 top quarter. In plain terms a 159 reaches well into the top of the admitted class, a 155 sits at the middle, and a 152 marks the bottom quarter yet stays inside the admitted range. Because Memphis Law admits about 41.07% of applicants, an LSAT at or a little above 155 is a genuinely competitive position, and a 152 keeps an applicant in the mix, especially with a strong GPA.
The GPA band is moderately wide. The University of Memphis law GPA median is 3.53, with a 25th percentile of 3.22 and a 75th percentile of 3.77, according to the same disclosure. The distance from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.31 of a point, so Memphis Law's admitted students spread from the low 3.2s through the high 3.7s. A 3.22 keeps an applicant inside the admitted band, and a 3.53 sits at the middle, so a solid rather than spotless undergraduate record is fully competitive here.
So what does a realistic Memphis Law profile look like? A 155 LSAT paired with a 3.53 GPA lands an applicant squarely at both medians, per Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, and against a 41.07% acceptance rate that is a comfortable, competitive position. Fall below the 152 LSAT or the 3.22 GPA and you need a clear compensating strength on the other number. On the splitter question, Memphis Law is splitter friendly: its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.31 and an LSAT spread of 3 points, so the GPA band is a little more forgiving than the LSAT band. A splitter-friendly school forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high, so an applicant with a 155-or-better LSAT and a GPA in the low 3.2s has a realistic path at Memphis Law.
Is Memphis Law harder to get into than its reputation?
A little, yes. Memphis Law sits in the more selective portion of its academic band rather than the accessible end. Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a 41.07% acceptance rate, which ranks it 16th most selective of the 59 schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of its 155. That places Memphis Law inside the more selective third of its band.
To judge the University of Memphis law acceptance rate fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 59 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Memphis Law's 155, that is a median of 153 to 157, ranked by acceptance rate, Memphis Law is the 16th most selective, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. That places Memphis Law inside the more selective third of its band: 15 of the schools sharing its LSAT profile admit a smaller share of applicants than Memphis Law's 41.07%, while 43 admit a larger share.
The practical reading is constructive. Memphis Law admits about two applicants in five, and its 582 applications against 239 offers, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, describe a school that is competitive without being a lottery. One driver of its position is a small entering class of 96, which keeps the offer count disciplined. The takeaway is that an applicant should not treat Memphis Law as an automatic safety on the strength of its 155 median, and should present numbers at or above both medians, while an applicant above the medians can approach Memphis Law as a strong scholarship target.
How much does Memphis Law cost, and how much scholarship money will you get?
Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists resident tuition and fees at $21,228 and nonresident at $26,948, with living expenses of $28,729 printed separately and no single cost-of-attendance total. The aid reaches most of the class: 62% of Memphis Law students receive a grant, with a median award of $11,000, though the scholarships are conditional on grades.
Start with the sticker. Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists resident tuition and fees of $21,228 and nonresident tuition and fees of $26,948, both modest public-school figures, and separately lists living expenses at $28,729. That 509 does not print a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so any all-in annual number quoted elsewhere for Memphis Law is someone's arithmetic rather than a figure the school reports, and this page will not invent one. The headline is that Memphis Law's tuition is affordable relative to private peers, and the nonresident premium over the resident rate is comparatively small.
The aid picture lowers the cost further for most students. Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 62% of students receive a grant, with grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $5,000, $11,000, and $20,000. The same disclosure reports 13 full-tuition awards and 18 awards above full tuition, a notable number of full-and-better packages for a class of 96. For a typical recipient, a student holding Memphis Law's median grant of $11,000 nets about $15,948 in nonresident tuition and fees before living costs, per the same disclosure, and for a resident the same grant covers roughly half of the $21,228 sticker.
Here the honest cautions matter, and they are connected. According to Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, its scholarships are conditional, which means a first-year award can be reduced or cut if your grades fall below the school's stated threshold. That caution carries extra weight at Memphis Law because the same disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 7.0%, the highest figure in this guide, so the first-year curve is doing real work and a conditional award is genuinely at risk for a student who lands in the lower part of the class. Before you count that money as guaranteed, ask the Memphis Law admissions office in writing what threshold applies and what share of students keep the full award into the second and third years.
The strategic read for Memphis Law is that its low sticker and broad aid make it a strong regional value, but the conditional-scholarship and 7.0% attrition figures mean you should stress-test the money and the first-year odds before enrolling. Because Memphis Law admits about two in five applicants and awards grants to 62% of enrolled students, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, an applicant who pushes the LSAT above the 155 median and the GPA above the 3.53 median improves both the size of the award and the odds of staying above the renewal threshold once classes begin.
What are your real chances off the Memphis Law waitlist?
Moderate. Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure records 239 offers and 96 matriculants, an implied yield of 40.2%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so implied yield is the honest proxy: a 40.2% yield means Memphis Law sends about two and a half offers per seat and does not fill its class from first-round commitments alone.
Here is the reasoning in full. Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 239 offers of admission and 96 matriculants drawn from the applicant pool, which is an implied yield of 40.2%. No ABA disclosure, Memphis 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 40.2% of its offers into enrollments, it sends about two and a half offers for every seat it fills, a class-building pattern that leaves room for a waitlist to move in a given year.
For a waitlisted applicant, the read is cautiously hopeful. A 40.2% implied yield at Memphis Law reflects a largely regional applicant pool, many of whom weigh Memphis Law against other Tennessee and neighboring-state options. The honest limit is that Memphis Law, like every school, does not publish year-to-year waitlist admit counts, so movement varies by cycle. If you are on the Memphis Law waitlist, a concise letter of continued interest that names Memphis Law as your first choice and reaffirms your ties to the Memphis area is worth sending, because a school with a regional yield profile values applicants who signal they will actually enroll in Tennessee.
Where do Memphis Law graduates actually work?
Overwhelmingly in Tennessee, more so than any school in this guide. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Memphis Law's top market, Tennessee, took 76.3% of graduates, and the top three markets together took 80.4%. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 8.2% of the class, and federal clerkships took 3.1%.
The defining fact about Memphis Law's outcomes is their concentration in Tennessee. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Memphis Law placed 74 graduates in Tennessee, 2 in Arkansas, and 2 in Colorado, its three largest markets. Tennessee alone took 76.3% of the class, the highest single-state share in this guide, and the top three markets combined reached 80.4%, per the same summary. This is a school built around the Memphis and wider Tennessee legal market, so an applicant who wants to practice in the region is buying into a deep local network, while an applicant targeting a distant or national market should weigh that concentration carefully, because a Memphis Law degree travels less than a more nationally distributed one.
By employer type, the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 8.2% of Memphis Law graduates taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, a modest large-firm share, with federal clerkships at 3.1%. The picture is of a school whose graduates land primarily in Tennessee small and mid-size firms, government, and business, rather than in national large-firm tracks, with a respectable clerkship share for a regional school.
The overall placement rate is the strongest headline number Memphis Law reports. The same ABA Employment Summary shows 91 of 97 Memphis Law graduates employed at ten months, a 93.8% rate, the highest in this guide, so only 6 graduates were not yet placed at the ten-month mark. That strong placement number, however, sits beside the bar exam, where Memphis Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 72.5% for the 2024 exam year in Tennessee, a comparatively low first-time rate that an applicant should weigh seriously, rising to an 82.86% ultimate rate for the 2022 cohort. The honest synthesis is that Memphis Law graduates who pass the bar find Tennessee jobs at a high rate, but the first-time bar figure and the 7.0% first-year attrition rate are the two hurdles to clear first.
When are Memphis Law's application deadlines?
Memphis 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 Memphis 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, Memphis 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 Memphis Law, confirm whether Memphis 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 Memphis Law's official site as the registrar of record. What this page can say with confidence, verified in August 2026, is that with only 96 seats and conditional scholarships in play, a strong Memphis Law application benefits from being complete early, when seats and aid are most available.
Frequently asked questions about getting into Memphis Law
Is a 155 LSAT good enough for Memphis Law?
A 155 is exactly Memphis Law's LSAT median, per Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, so it is good enough to be competitive, and against a 41.07% acceptance rate it is a comfortable position. Half of the fall 2025 class scored at or above 155 and half below, inside a 152 to 159 range. Paired with a GPA near the 3.53 median, a 155 places a Memphis Law applicant at the center of the class.
What GPA do you need for Memphis Law?
Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.53, with a 25th percentile of 3.22 and a 75th percentile of 3.77. Realistically you want a GPA of at least 3.22 to stay inside Memphis Law's admitted band, and because Memphis Law is splitter friendly, a strong LSAT at or above 155 can offset a GPA in the low 3.2s in the school's read of the file.
What is Memphis Law's acceptance rate?
Memphis Law's acceptance rate is 41.07%, computed as 239 offers against 582 applications in Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That ranks Memphis Law 16th most selective among the 59 schools within two LSAT points of its 155 median, inside the more selective third of its academic band. About two applicants in five receive an offer from Memphis Law in a given cycle.
How many people apply to Memphis Law?
Memphis Law received 582 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. From that pool, Memphis Law extended 239 offers of admission and enrolled 96 matriculants, building a first-year class of 96. The small class size is one reason Memphis Law's 41.07% acceptance rate sits in the more selective part of its LSAT band despite a modest applicant pool.
How much does Memphis Law cost?
Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists resident tuition and fees at $21,228, nonresident at $26,948, and living expenses at $28,729. Memphis Law does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so this page will not quote one. A nonresident holding Memphis Law's median grant of $11,000 nets about $15,948 in tuition and fees before living costs, and for a resident the same grant covers roughly half of the $21,228 sticker.
Does Memphis Law give scholarships?
Yes, to most students. Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports that 62% of students receive a grant, with amounts of $5,000, $11,000, and $20,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles, plus 13 full-tuition awards and 18 awards above full tuition. Those scholarships are conditional at Memphis Law, so a first-year award can be cut if your grades fall below the school's threshold, which is worth confirming in writing.
What is Memphis Law's bar passage rate?
Memphis Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 72.5% for the 2024 exam year, with Tennessee as the largest jurisdiction, a comparatively low first-time rate that an applicant should weigh honestly. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, rises to 82.86%, per the same report, so a portion of graduates who do not pass initially pass on a later attempt.
Where do Memphis Law graduates work?
Overwhelmingly in Tennessee. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Tennessee taking 74 Memphis Law graduates (76.3%), Arkansas 2, and Colorado 2, so the top three markets account for 80.4% of the class, the highest concentration in this guide. Large firms of 101 or more lawyers hired 8.2% of Memphis Law graduates and federal clerkships took 3.1%.
Can a splitter get into Memphis Law?
Yes. Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.31 and an LSAT spread of 3 points, so the GPA band is a little more forgiving than the LSAT band. That makes Memphis Law splitter friendly: an applicant with a 155-or-better LSAT and a GPA in the low 3.2s fits the profile Memphis Law admits, helped by the school's 41.07% acceptance rate.
How selective is Memphis Law compared with schools at the same LSAT?
More selective than most of its band. Among the 59 schools with a median LSAT within two points of Memphis Law's 155, ranked by acceptance rate, Memphis Law is 16th most selective at 41.07%, per Lovare's analysis of the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. Fifteen band peers admit a smaller share of applicants than Memphis Law does, so it sits inside the more selective third of its academic level.
Is Memphis Law worth it?
For a Tennessee-focused career, the value case is real, with caveats. Against a low resident sticker of $21,228 in Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 62% of students receive grants with an $11,000 median, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 93.8% employed at ten months. Weigh that against a 72.5% first-time bar rate and a 7.0% first-year attrition rate before you commit to Memphis Law.
What LSAT and GPA give the best shot at a Memphis Law scholarship?
The highest you can post, because stronger numbers win larger awards and help hold a conditional one. Per Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, grants reach a $20,000 upper quartile, with 13 full-tuition and 18 above-full-tuition awards. An LSAT at or above the 159 upper quartile paired with a GPA near the 3.77 top quarter gives the strongest shot at the largest awards at Memphis Law.
How does Memphis Law's yield compare with its acceptance rate?
Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows 239 offers against 582 applications, a 41.07% acceptance rate, and 96 of those admits enrolled, a 40.2% yield. The moderate yield reflects a regional applicant pool weighing several Tennessee-area options. The practical effect is that Memphis Law does not fill its class from first-round offers alone, which leaves room for its waitlist to move in a given cycle.
Does Memphis Law have high first-year attrition?
Yes, the highest in this guide. Memphis Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 7.0%, meaning a real share of the entering class was dismissed for grades in the first year. For an applicant that is a clear signal to take the first-year curve seriously and to confirm how it interacts with a conditional scholarship at Memphis Law before enrolling.
Sources
Every figure on this page is drawn from primary disclosures, listed here so readers can verify each one directly.
Memphis Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=140&year=2025
Memphis Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=140&year=2025
ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=140&year=2024