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

The short answer to how to get into University of South Dakota Law School is to reach the medians in University of South Dakota Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure: a 152 LSAT and a 3.47 GPA, with a middle 50 percent of 149 to 156 on the LSAT and 3.16 to 3.81 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 University of South Dakota Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for the fall 2025 entering class, the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and the school's own published pages.

University of South Dakota Law is a rare pairing of a very low price and a real clerkship pipeline. According to University of South Dakota Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, resident tuition and fees run just $12,076, and first-year academic attrition is 0.0%. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 9.3% of University of South Dakota Law graduates entered federal clerkships, an unusually high share for a school of its size, while 61.3% went to work in South Dakota. The thesis of this page follows from those numbers, with one caveat every applicant must read. University of South Dakota Law is the in-state value play for a South Dakota or regional career, competitive at a 152 LSAT and notable for its federal clerkship placement, but its scholarships are conditional and can be cut if first-year grades fall below the school's threshold.

University of South Dakota Law at a glance: LSAT, GPA, acceptance rate and cost

University of South Dakota Law posts a 152 LSAT median, a 3.47 GPA median, and a 62.47% acceptance rate in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Resident tuition and fees run $12,076 and nonresident $32,184, with living expenses of $18,034. Grants reach 55% of students. The table below collects University of South Dakota Law's headline admissions, cost, and outcome numbers.

MetricUniversity of South Dakota Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)149 / 152 / 156GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.16 / 3.47 / 3.81Acceptance rate62.47%Applications405Offers of admission253Matriculants from the applicant pool85First-year class88Full-time tuition and feesResident $12,076 / nonresident $32,184Living expenses$18,034Share receiving grants55%Median grant$5,000 (25th $590, 75th $10,000)Conditional scholarshipsYes (an award can be cut if grades fall below the school's threshold)First-time bar passage72.6% (exam year 2024, South Dakota)Employed at ten months92.0% (69 of 75)

Source: University of South Dakota Law'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 University of South Dakota Law's ABA bar-passage report. 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 invent one.

What LSAT and GPA do you really need to get into University of South Dakota Law?

University of South Dakota Law reports an LSAT spread of 149 to 156 and a GPA spread of 3.16 to 3.81 in its 2025 ABA 509. A 152 and a 3.47 sit at both medians. Below the 149 LSAT or the 3.16 GPA, an applicant needs a clear compensating strength on the other number.

University of South Dakota Law reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 149, 152, and 156, and a GPA 25th, 50th, and 75th of 3.16, 3.47, and 3.81 for the fall 2025 entering class, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The median is the fiftieth percentile: half of enrolled students at University of South Dakota Law scored above 152 on the LSAT and above 3.47 in GPA, and half below. A median is a target, not a cutoff, but the two medians together mark the center of a competitive file at University of South Dakota Law.

This is exactly where an honest page matters. A 152 median is precisely the LSAT at which a score in the high 140s or low 150s is competitive rather than out of reach. An applicant sitting at 149, 150, or 152 has often been told those numbers close every door, and that is not true: at University of South Dakota Law a 149 lands at the 25th percentile and a 152 sits at the median, both inside the real admit zone. If your LSAT is in that band, University of South Dakota Law is a school built for your profile rather than one to rule out.

The trade-off between the two numbers has a direction here. Lovare reads University of South Dakota Law as splitter friendly, with a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.31 and an LSAT 25th-to-median spread of three points in the 2025 ABA 509. A splitter-friendly school forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high; a reverse-splitter-friendly school forgives a lower LSAT when the GPA is high. University of South Dakota Law leans splitter, so a strong LSAT at or above 152 paired with a GPA below the 3.16 lower quartile has a genuine path, while a high GPA with an LSAT under 149 is the harder of the two imbalanced files. If your LSAT is your strength, University of South Dakota Law is a school where that strength does real work.

Is University of South Dakota Law harder to get into than its reputation?

University of South Dakota Law is one of the more accessible schools in its LSAT band. Lovare's band analysis places University of South Dakota Law 37th most selective of the 41 ABA schools whose median LSAT is within two points of its 152, using acceptance rate from the 2025 ABA 509. A 62.47% acceptance rate reads as open, and within its band the school sits near the accessible end.

Reputation tends to file University of South Dakota Law as a small, accessible state school, and the selectivity data agree. Lovare built a peer band of the 41 ABA law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of University of South Dakota Law's 152, that is a median of 150 to 154, then ranked them by acceptance rate from the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. University of South Dakota Law comes in 37th most selective of the 41, a position near the accessible end that matches its reputation rather than upending it.

This is where honesty serves the applicant better than spin. A 62.47% acceptance rate and a lower-band position do not make University of South Dakota Law a lesser choice for the right person; they make it a realistic one. For an applicant with a 149 to 156 LSAT and a GPA in the 3.1 to 3.5 range, many higher-ranked schools are genuine reaches, while University of South Dakota Law is a school where that same profile is competitive and where the resident price is among the lowest in the country. The constructive read is that University of South Dakota Law is precisely the kind of school an in-state or regional candidate should target, provided that candidate also weighs the bar-passage and conditional-scholarship terms below with clear eyes. With only 405 applications for 88 seats, University of South Dakota Law does not need a large pool to fill its class, which is part of why the acceptance rate runs high.

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

University of South Dakota Law lists resident tuition and fees of $12,076 and nonresident tuition and fees of $32,184 in its 2025 ABA 509, plus $18,034 in living expenses. Grants reach 55% of students, with a modest median award of $5,000. The real value here is the low resident tuition, not the grants, and the aid is conditional, so read the terms closely.

Start with the sticker, because it is the headline. University of South Dakota Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $12,076 for residents and $32,184 for nonresidents, plus $18,034 in living expenses. The 509 prints tuition and living 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 University of South Dakota Law reports, and this page will not manufacture one. On the resident line, and with living expenses well below the national norm, University of South Dakota Law is one of the least expensive ABA options in the country before any aid.

The grant picture is modest and concentrated rather than broad and deep. According to the same 509, 55% of University of South Dakota Law students receive grant aid, barely over half the class, with awards at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $590, $5,000, and $10,000. Those middle numbers are small, but the top is real: University of South Dakota Law reports 13 full-tuition awards and 5 awards above full tuition for a class of 88, so the aid clusters at the top among a limited number of high-scoring students rather than spreading thinly across everyone. Against the $32,184 nonresident sticker, a student on the $5,000 median grant nets about $27,184 in tuition and fees before living costs, while a resident on the same median grant nets about $7,076 against the $12,076 resident figure.

Now the warning every University of South Dakota Law applicant needs to hear plainly. University of South Dakota Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports that the school uses conditional scholarships, which means a first-year award can be reduced or cut if your grades fall below the threshold the school sets. A conditional scholarship is not the same as a stable, guaranteed grant. Before you accept a University of South Dakota Law offer, ask the admissions office in writing exactly what class rank or GPA you must maintain, how many students held that scholarship last year, and how many kept it. The reassuring counterweight is that University of South Dakota Law reports 0.0% first-year academic attrition, so students are not failing out, but keeping a conditional award on a graded curve is a separate test from staying enrolled, and you should budget around the figure that survives your first year.

What are your real chances off the University of South Dakota Law waitlist?

University of South Dakota Law does not disclose waitlist offers or admits, and no ABA report does. The honest proxy is implied yield: 85 matriculants against 253 offers is a 33.6% yield in the 2025 ABA 509. That is a moderate yield, so University of South Dakota Law fills much of its class from first-round offers while leaving some room for waitlist movement.

Here is the reasoning in full. University of South Dakota Law enrolled 85 matriculants from 253 offers in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, an implied yield of 33.6%. No ABA disclosure, University of South Dakota Law's included, publishes how many applicants are admitted from 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 keeps some late flexibility.

A 33.6% yield is moderate, which leaves a University of South Dakota Law waitlist candidate with real but limited odds. The play is the standard one: send a concise letter of continued interest that names University of South Dakota Law as a top choice, add any new LSAT score or grades, and keep a firm acceptance elsewhere as your anchor while you wait. Because the school works with a small pool and a small class, timing matters, so an early and complete application is the surer route to a first-round offer at University of South Dakota Law rather than a waitlist seat.

One honest note on the class figures. University of South Dakota Law's 2025 ABA 509 lists 85 matriculants from the applicant pool but a first-year class of 88. The gap of 3 reflects students who arrive through paths other than this single cycle's pool, such as admitted students who deferred from a prior year. The 33.6% implied yield is computed from the 85 pool matriculants against the 253 offers, which is the correct comparison for reasoning about this cycle's waitlist odds at University of South Dakota Law.

Where do University of South Dakota Law graduates actually work?

University of South Dakota Law is a South Dakota placement school with a standout federal clerkship share. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 61.3% of graduates went to work in South Dakota and 70.7% across the top three markets. Federal clerkships took 9.3%, while large firms of 101 or more lawyers took just 1.3%. University of South Dakota Law feeds the state and the courts more than national firms.

Lead with the concentration. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, University of South Dakota Law placed 46 of its graduates in South Dakota, 4 in Iowa, and 3 in Colorado. That is a 61.3% top-market share and a 70.7% top-three share, an Upper Midwest profile centered on South Dakota with modest spillover into neighboring states. If you want to practice in South Dakota or the surrounding region, that network is the point of a University of South Dakota Law degree.

The clerkship share is the distinctive number and deserves a plain reading. University of South Dakota Law sent 9.3% of its Class of 2024 into federal clerkships, per the same ABA Employment Summary, a strikingly high share for a school of its size and one that outruns many higher-ranked programs. That points to a genuine clerkship pipeline into the regional federal courts, and it is a real draw for an applicant who wants to clerk. Because the class is small, a single strong clerkship year moves the percentage a lot, so confirm current clerkship placement directly with University of South Dakota Law before you rely on it.

The flip side is large-firm placement, which is thin. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows just 1.3% of University of South Dakota Law graduates entering large firms of 101 or more lawyers. That is a candid signal that University of South Dakota Law is not a national BigLaw feeder: its graduates go to government, clerkships, small and mid-size firms, and public-interest roles far more often than to large firms. An applicant whose goal is a 101-plus-lawyer firm should read the 1.3% share plainly, while the overall 92.0% employment rate at ten months, 69 of 75 graduates, shows most graduates do land professional work.

When are University of South Dakota Law's application deadlines?

This page's sources do not specify University of South Dakota Law's application deadlines or its Early Decision terms. Both should be confirmed directly on University of South Dakota Law's admissions page rather than taken from any date this page cannot verify. The guidance here is dated: it reflects what was verifiable in August 2026.

Because the school's Early Decision terms are not confirmed here for the current cycle, University of South Dakota Law applicants should treat the school's own admissions page as the authority on deadlines, decision rounds, and whether any early or binding option exists. Rather than state a specific date that this page's primary sources do not support, the honest approach is to point you to University of South Dakota Law directly. Cycle dates shift from year to year, so confirm the current timeline on the school's site before you plan around it.

What the numbers do support is a timing strategy. University of South Dakota Law extended 253 offers against 405 applications for a first-year class of 88, per its 2025 ABA 509. With a small pool and a small class, seats and the limited number of full-tuition awards go early, so an early, complete application is generally the stronger position regardless of the exact deadline. Apply to University of South Dakota Law when your file is ready and your LSAT is at its best, and verify the current dates on the school's site.

Frequently asked questions about getting into University of South Dakota Law

Is a 152 LSAT good enough for University of South Dakota Law?

A 152 is exactly the LSAT median at University of South Dakota Law, per its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, where the middle 50 percent scored 149 to 156. A 152 puts you at the fiftieth percentile, competitive but not a lock. Pair it with a GPA at or above the 3.47 median and you are a solid candidate at University of South Dakota Law.

What GPA do you need for University of South Dakota Law?

University of South Dakota Law reports a GPA median of 3.47, with a 25th to 75th range of 3.16 to 3.81, in its 2025 ABA 509. Aim for 3.47 or higher. Because University of South Dakota Law is splitter friendly, a strong LSAT can help carry a GPA below the 3.16 lower quartile, so applicants with an imbalanced file should lean on their LSAT at University of South Dakota Law.

What is University of South Dakota Law's acceptance rate?

University of South Dakota Law admitted 62.47% of applicants for the fall 2025 class, extending 253 offers against 405 applications, according to its 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Among schools at the same 152 median LSAT, University of South Dakota Law is one of the more accessible, ranking 37th most selective of 41 in its band.

How many people apply to University of South Dakota Law?

University of South Dakota Law received 405 applications for the fall 2025 entering class, made 253 offers, and enrolled 85 matriculants for a first-year class of 88, per its 2025 ABA 509. That small pool for a small class is what produces University of South Dakota Law's high 62.47% acceptance rate.

How much does University of South Dakota Law cost?

University of South Dakota Law lists full-time tuition and fees of $12,076 for residents and $32,184 for nonresidents, plus $18,034 in living expenses, in its 2025 ABA 509. University of South Dakota 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 University of South Dakota Law.

Does University of South Dakota Law give scholarships?

To about half the class. University of South Dakota Law reports that 55% of students receive grant aid, with awards of $590, $5,000, and $10,000 at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles, plus 13 full-tuition awards and 5 above full tuition, per its 2025 ABA 509. Those awards are conditional at University of South Dakota Law, so a first-year grant can be cut if your grades fall below the school's threshold.

What is University of South Dakota Law's bar passage rate?

University of South Dakota Law posted a 72.6% first-time bar passage rate for exam year 2024, with South Dakota as the largest jurisdiction, according to its ABA bar-passage report. Its ultimate pass rate for the 2022 cohort was 92.31%. The strong ultimate figure shows that the large majority of University of South Dakota Law graduates who sit for a bar exam eventually pass, though the first-time rate calls for serious preparation.

Where do University of South Dakota Law graduates work?

Most stay in South Dakota. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows University of South Dakota Law placed 46 graduates in South Dakota, 4 in Iowa, and 3 in Colorado, a 61.3% top-market share and 70.7% across the top three. University of South Dakota Law feeds the state and the regional federal courts, with a notable 9.3% clerkship share.

Can a splitter get into University of South Dakota Law?

A splitter has a real path. Lovare reads University of South Dakota Law as splitter friendly, with a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.31 and an LSAT spread of three points in the 2025 ABA 509. That means University of South Dakota Law forgives a lower GPA when the LSAT is high, so a high-LSAT applicant with a GPA below the 3.16 lower quartile is more viable at University of South Dakota Law than the reverse profile.

How selective is University of South Dakota Law compared with schools at the same LSAT?

University of South Dakota Law is 37th most selective of the 41 ABA schools whose median LSAT is within two points of its 152, ranked by acceptance rate in the 2025 ABA 509, per Lovare's analysis. That standing near the accessible end means University of South Dakota Law is more open than most schools posting the same median LSAT.

Is University of South Dakota Law worth it?

For a South Dakota or regional career, the value case is strong. University of South Dakota Law pairs resident tuition of $12,076 and low living costs with a 9.3% federal clerkship share, a 92.31% ultimate bar pass rate, and 0.0% first-year attrition, per its 2025 ABA 509 and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024. Weigh that against the conditional scholarship terms before you commit to University of South Dakota Law.

Are University of South Dakota Law scholarships conditional?

Yes. University of South Dakota Law's 2025 ABA 509 reports that the school uses conditional scholarships, so a first-year award can be reduced or cut if your grades fall below the threshold the school sets. Before accepting, ask University of South Dakota Law in writing for the exact class-rank or GPA requirement and the share of last year's recipients who kept their award, then budget around the post-first-year figure.

Why is University of South Dakota Law's federal clerkship share so high?

University of South Dakota Law reported that 9.3% of its Class of 2024 entered federal clerkships, per the ABA Employment Summary, a high share for a school of its size that points to a genuine pipeline into the regional federal courts. Because University of South Dakota Law graduates a small class, a single strong clerkship year moves the percentage sharply, so confirm current placement with the school directly.

What LSAT and GPA give the best shot at a University of South Dakota Law scholarship?

Scores above the medians. Because University of South Dakota Law reports 13 full-tuition awards and 5 above-full-tuition awards but only a $5,000 median grant in its 2025 ABA 509, an LSAT above the 152 median toward the 156 upper quartile, paired with a GPA above 3.47 toward the 3.81 upper quartile, is how you reach the concentrated top awards at University of South Dakota Law rather than a small partial grant.

Sources

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

University of South Dakota Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for the fall 2025 entering class: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=138&year=2025

University of South Dakota Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=138&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=138&year=2024

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