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

The honest answer to how to get into University of Texas at Austin Law School starts with two numbers. According to Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 entering class posted an LSAT median of 172 (166 to 173) and a GPA median of 3.89 (3.75 to 3.96). Hit both and you are competitive, not admitted.

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 Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, and Texas Law's own admissions pages.

University of Texas at Austin School of Law is the value play of the T14, and the case rests on three numbers this page will keep returning to as it walks through University of Texas at Austin law admissions. First, Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists resident tuition and fees at $38,236, less than half the sticker at the private schools in this set, which makes Texas Law the best value in the top 14 for a Texas resident. Second, Texas Law's own early-decision page states that a binding Early Decision admission automatically converts a nonresident to resident tuition rates, erasing the $18,586 gap between the $56,822 nonresident and $38,236 resident figures for the length of the degree. Third, Texas Law keeps its graduates in state: the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 placed 290 of its 412 graduates in Texas, 70.4% of the class. The thesis of this page is that Texas Law is the strongest value in the T14 for anyone building a Texas career, and that its binding Early Decision is the single most powerful cost lever in this entire set.

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

Texas Law is the best value in the T14, especially for Texas residents. According to Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 172 LSAT median, a 3.89 GPA median, and a 13.99% acceptance rate. Resident tuition and fees run $38,236, nonresident $56,822. The table below collects the core numbers.

MetricTexas Law (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)166 / 172 / 173GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.75 / 3.89 / 3.96Acceptance rate13.99%Applications6,297Offers of admission881Matriculants from the pool361First-year class373Full-time tuition and feesResident $38,236 / nonresident $56,822Living expenses$25,398Share receiving grants94% (815 students)Median grant$23,375Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage95.86%Employed at ten months98.1% (404 of 412)

Source: Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class), Texas 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. The share-receiving-grants row lists the recipient count because the 509 as compiled here does not print a clean enrollment denominator for that percentage.

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

You realistically need a 172 LSAT and a 3.89 GPA to sit at the center of Texas Law's class. Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 166 to 173 and the GPA middle at 3.75 to 3.96. Below either 25th percentile, the other number must compensate.

Take the two rows one at a time. The University of Texas at Austin law LSAT median is 172, with a 25th percentile of 166 and a 75th percentile of 173, per Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That 25th-to-median spread of six points is the widest at the bottom of any school profiled here, which tells you something important: Texas Law will seriously consider an applicant whose LSAT sits in the high 160s, well below the 172 median, provided the rest of the file is strong. A 173 puts a candidate in the top quarter, a 172 is the exact middle, and a 166 sits at the bottom quarter but remains inside the admitted band.

The GPA band is tighter but still workable. The University of Texas at Austin law GPA median is 3.89, with a 25th percentile of 3.75 and a 75th percentile of 3.96, according to the same disclosure. The distance from the 25th percentile to the median is 0.14 of a point. In plain terms, Texas Law's admitted students cluster high, but a 3.75 is a genuinely live number rather than a disqualifier, and the top quarter of the class reaches to a near-perfect 3.96.

So what does a realistic Texas Law profile look like? A 172 LSAT paired with a 3.89 GPA lands an applicant squarely at both medians, per Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, which is a competitive center-of-class position at a school admitting about 14 in every hundred applicants. Fall below the 166 LSAT or the 3.75 GPA and you need a clear compensating strength on the other number. A 3.6 GPA applicant realistically wants an LSAT at or above the 173 upper quartile, and a 164 LSAT applicant needs a GPA near the 3.96 top quarter to offset the score in Texas Law's read.

On the splitter question, Texas Law is strongly reverse-splitter friendly, and this is central to its admissions personality. Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.14 and an LSAT 25th-to-median spread of 6 points, the widest LSAT spread in this set, so the LSAT band is proportionally the more forgiving of the two. 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. Texas Law leans firmly reverse-splitter, meaning a high-GPA applicant with an LSAT several points under 172 has a genuinely realistic path, especially a strong Texas resident. That profile, a near-median or better GPA paired with a high-160s LSAT, is exactly the kind of file Texas Law absorbs most readily.

Is Texas Law harder to get into than its reputation?

Not especially. Texas Law is more attainable on acceptance rate than its T14 standing suggests. Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a 13.99% acceptance rate, which ranks it 15th most selective of the 21 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 172 median. Its academic profile outranks its admit rate.

To judge University of Texas at Austin law acceptance rate fairly, compare Texas Law only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 21 leading national law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of Texas Law's 172, that is a median of 170 to 174, ranked by acceptance rate, Texas Law is the 15th most selective. Its 13.99% rate, from Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, places it in the lower half of its own academic band, even though its 172 LSAT median ties it with NYU and sits above Georgetown and Cornell.

Ranked from most to least selective by acceptance rate, that band runs as follows: Yale University at 4.1%, Stanford University at 6.1%, the University of Pennsylvania (Carey) at 8.1%, the University of Michigan at 8.6%, Harvard University at 9.2%, the University of Chicago at 9.7%, the University of Virginia at 10.2%, Columbia University at 11.8%, UCLA and Boston University both at 12.1%, Northwestern University (Pritzker) at 12.3%, Duke University at 12.9%, Vanderbilt University at 13.3%, New York University at 13.4%, and then the University of Texas at Austin at 13.99%. Behind Texas Law sit UC Berkeley at 14.8%, Georgetown University at 15.8%, the University of Notre Dame at 16.1%, Cornell University at 18.2%, Brigham Young University (BYU) at 22.8%, and the University of Minnesota at 26.7%.

One school needs an asterisk. Boston College reports an 8.5% acceptance rate that would slot it high in a band like this, but Boston College reports its offers on a narrower basis than the others, so it is not a true selectivity peer and is not counted in the ranking above. With that caveat noted, the read is clear. Fourteen schools in Texas Law's band are more selective by acceptance rate, and six are less selective, so Texas Law sits in the lower middle of its cluster. That is not a quality judgment; Texas Law's academic profile is elite, and its 13.99% acceptance rate reflects a smaller applicant pool of 6,297 rather than any softness in the class. The practical point for an applicant is that Texas Law is more attainable on raw admit rate than its national reputation implies, and for a strong Texas resident willing to commit through binding Early Decision, it is one of the most winnable elite law schools in the country relative to its ranking.

Does Texas Law have Early Decision, and is it binding?

Yes. Texas Law offers a binding Early Decision program with a powerful financial upside. According to Texas Law's own early-decision page, the deadline is November 1, and you must withdraw all pending applications and decline other offers immediately on admission. Every ED admit gets a competitive three-year scholarship, and nonresidents automatically receive resident tuition.

The mechanics matter here more than at any other school in this set, because Texas Law attaches real money to the commitment. Texas Law's own early-decision page describes a binding Early Decision round with a November 1 deadline. If Texas Law admits an Early Decision applicant, that applicant must withdraw all pending applications at other law schools and decline any offers already in hand, immediately. That is the standard binding obligation, and it should be undertaken only by an applicant certain Texas Law is the first choice.

What makes Texas Law's Early Decision unusual is the automatic financial package. According to Texas Law's own early-decision page, every Early Decision admit automatically receives a competitive scholarship spread over three years, and nonresident Early Decision admits automatically receive resident tuition rates. That second term is the powerful one. Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists nonresident tuition and fees at $56,822 and resident at $38,236, a difference of $18,586 a year, so a nonresident admitted through binding Early Decision converts to the resident rate and saves that gap annually for the length of the degree, on top of the competitive scholarship. No other school profiled here ties a tuition reclassification to its Early Decision round, which is why this page calls Texas Law's Early Decision the strongest cost lever in the set. The trade is real, though: in exchange for that money, an Early Decision applicant gives up the ability to compare offers elsewhere, so the decision to apply binding to Texas Law should be made with eyes open.

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

Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists resident tuition and fees at $38,236, nonresident at $56,822, and living expenses at $25,398, with no single cost-of-attendance total printed. Texas Law is exceptionally generous: 94% of students receive merit or need-based grants, the highest share in this set, with a $23,375 median.

Start with the sticker, which is really two stickers. Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists resident tuition and fees at $38,236 and nonresident tuition and fees at $56,822, and separately lists living expenses at $25,398, the lowest living figure in this set because Austin costs less than Washington or New York. That 509 does not print a single combined cost-of-attendance total, so any all-in annual number quoted elsewhere is someone's arithmetic rather than a figure Texas Law reports, and this page will not invent one.

Now the aid, where Texas Law is the standout. Texas Law's grant pool blends merit and need-based money, and an extraordinary 94% of students receive some grant, a total of 815 students, the highest share of any school profiled here, according to Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The same disclosure reports grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of $10,000, $23,375, and $38,586, and separately reports 23 full-tuition awards and 62 awards above full tuition. That last figure is notable: Texas Law gives more than twice as many above-full-tuition awards as full-tuition ones, meaning a meaningful group of students receive grants large enough to cover tuition entirely and then reach into living costs.

For a typical recipient, the math is favorable, especially against the resident base. Using the nonresident sticker, a student holding Texas Law's median grant of $23,375 nets about $33,447 in tuition and fees before living costs, per Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Measured against the $38,236 resident sticker, that same median grant covers well over half of tuition, and layered on top of a resident rate that already undercuts the private schools in this set, the net cost of a Texas Law degree can land far below anything a private T14 offers. Texas Law's scholarships are also not conditional, per the same disclosure, so a first-year award cannot be cut for landing in the bottom half of the curve; the grant you are quoted is the grant you keep.

The strategic read is that value is Texas Law's core advantage. Because Texas Law awards merit and need aid to 94% of students and pairs it with a low resident tuition, a strong applicant, particularly a Texas resident or a nonresident willing to commit through binding Early Decision, can assemble a genuinely low-cost path to a top-14 degree. Push your LSAT and GPA up, because at Texas Law those numbers drive both admission and the size of a discount that starts from an already low base.

What are your real chances off the Texas Law waitlist?

Slim. Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure records 881 offers and 361 matriculants from the pool, an implied yield of 41.0%, the highest in this set. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, but a 41% yield means Texas Law fills most of its class from first-round offers and leans less on its waitlist.

Here is the reasoning in full. Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 881 offers of admission and 361 matriculants drawn from the applicant pool, which is an implied yield of 41.0%. No ABA disclosure, Texas Law's included, publishes how many applicants receive offers off the waitlist or how many accept, so implied yield is the honest proxy for waitlist movement. The logic is that when a school converts 41% of its offers into enrollments, it sends only about two and a half offers for every seat it fills, which is a comparatively efficient class-building process that leaves less unfilled space to backfill from a waitlist.

Among the schools profiled here, Texas Law's 41.0% yield is the highest, and it reflects a loyal, self-selected applicant pool: many people who apply to Texas Law, especially Texas residents, genuinely want to be there and enroll when admitted, which drives yield up and waitlist reliance down. A binding Early Decision program reinforces that effect, since Early Decision admits are locked in and count toward yield with certainty. For a waitlisted applicant, the practical read is sober. A Texas Law waitlist spot is a real but slender lifeline, thinner than at the lower-yield schools in this set, because Texas Law fills more of its class from first-round and Early Decision commitments. The honest limit is that Texas Law, like every school, does not publish year-to-year waitlist admit counts, so movement varies by cycle, but a 41.0% implied yield signals a school that does not usually need to reach deep into its waitlist to finish the class.

Where do Texas Law graduates actually work?

In Texas, and then clerkships stand out. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Texas took 70.4% of Texas Law graduates and the top three markets took 83.5%. Large firms of 101-plus lawyers hired 49.8%, and an unusually high 12.1% took federal clerkships. Concentration, not the raw rate, decides fit.

The most useful fact about Texas Law's employment outcomes is how strongly they stay in state. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, Texas Law placed 290 graduates in Texas, 30 in New York, and 24 in the District of Columbia, its three largest markets. Texas alone absorbed 70.4% of the class, the top market share, and the top three markets together took 83.5%, per the same ABA Employment Summary. In practice a Texas Law degree is a Texas degree: seven in ten graduates begin their careers in the state, feeding the major legal markets of Austin, Houston, and Dallas, with New York and Washington as distant secondary options.

By employer type, the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 205 Texas Law graduates, or 49.8%, taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 175 of them, 42.5% of the class, at the very largest firms of 501 or more lawyers. That large-firm share is real but lower than at the coastal schools in this set, and the reason is instructive: a larger portion of Texas Law's class chooses clerkships and the Texas market's mix of employers rather than concentrating almost entirely in national BigLaw.

That brings up Texas Law's standout outcome. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 50 Texas Law graduates, an unusually high 12.1% of the class, went into federal clerkships. That clerkship share is more than double what most schools in this set report and is a genuine distinction for Texas Law, reflecting deep ties to the federal bench in Texas and beyond. Overall placement is essentially total: the same summary shows 404 of 412 graduates employed at ten months, a 98.1% rate, and Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0%, so essentially no one who starts washes out academically. The reason to weigh Texas Law on concentration rather than the 98.1% headline is that near-total employment is standard at the top of the market; what defines Texas Law is the specific shape of its outcomes, which is Texas-first, clerkship-heavy, and strong in large firms without being solely a BigLaw pipeline.

When are Texas Law's application deadlines?

Texas Law runs a binding Early Decision round and a regular cycle. According to Texas Law's own early-decision page, the binding Early Decision deadline is November 1. Cycle dates shift from year to year, so confirm the current deadlines on Texas Law's site. This reflects the 2025 to 2026 cycle.

Texas Law's published calendar gives one firm date to anchor on. According to Texas Law's own early-decision page, the binding Early Decision deadline is November 1, the early round that carries the automatic three-year scholarship and, for nonresidents, the resident tuition reclassification. Beyond that Early Decision deadline, the sources compiled for this page do not state a separate regular-cycle deadline for Texas Law, so rather than invent one, this page notes the absence honestly: confirm Texas Law's current regular J.D. deadline directly on the school's admissions site before you plan around it.

One caveat applies to every deadline here. Application cycle dates shift from year to year, and a date that holds for one cycle can move in the next. The November 1 Early Decision deadline stated on this page reflects the 2025 to 2026 cycle as published on Texas Law's own early-decision page and verified in August 2026. Before relying on it, confirm the current dates on Texas Law's site, because a profile like this one is a planning aid, not the registrar of record.

Frequently asked questions about getting into Texas Law

Is a 172 LSAT good enough for Texas Law?

A 172 is exactly Texas Law's LSAT median, per Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, so it is good enough to be competitive rather than safe. Half of the fall 2025 class scored at or above 172 and half below, inside a 166 to 173 middle range. Paired with a GPA at or near the 3.89 median, a 172 puts a Texas Law applicant comfortably at the center of the admitted class.

What GPA do you need to get into Texas Law?

Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.89, with a 25th percentile of 3.75 and a 75th percentile of 3.96. Realistically you want a GPA of at least 3.75 to stay inside the admitted band, and because Texas Law is strongly reverse-splitter friendly, a GPA at or above the 3.89 median can offset an LSAT several points under 172 in Texas Law's read of the file.

What is Texas Law's acceptance rate?

Texas Law's acceptance rate is 13.99%, computed as 881 offers against 6,297 applications in Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That ranks Texas Law 15th most selective among the 21 leading schools within two LSAT points of its 172 median, in the lower half of its academic band. About 14 applicants in every hundred receive an offer from Texas Law in a given cycle.

How many people apply to Texas Law each year?

Texas Law received 6,297 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. From that pool, Texas Law extended 881 offers of admission and enrolled 361 matriculants, building a first-year class of 373. The gap between 361 matriculants and 373 first-years reflects students who arrive through paths other than this cycle's pool, such as prior-year deferrals.

Does Texas Law have binding Early Decision?

Yes. Texas Law offers a binding Early Decision round with a November 1 deadline, according to Texas Law's own early-decision page. On admission, an applicant must withdraw all pending applications and decline other offers immediately. Uniquely in this set, every Texas Law Early Decision admit automatically receives a competitive three-year scholarship, and nonresident admits automatically convert to resident tuition rates.

How much does Texas Law cost per year?

Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists resident tuition and fees at $38,236, nonresident tuition and fees at $56,822, and living expenses at $25,398 for the year. Texas Law does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total in that 509, so this page will not quote one. A student holding Texas Law's median grant of $23,375 nets about $33,447 against the nonresident tuition figure before living costs.

Does Texas Law give merit scholarships?

Yes, and broadly. Texas Law's grants blend merit and need-based aid, and an extraordinary 94% of students receive one, a total of 815 students, the highest share in this set, per Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The median grant is $23,375, with 23 full-tuition and 62 above-full-tuition awards. A strong LSAT and GPA earn both admission and a larger discount at Texas Law.

What is Texas Law's bar passage rate?

Texas Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 95.86% for the 2024 exam year, with a 95.89% rate in its largest jurisdiction, Texas. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, is 96.47%, per the same report. In short, the large majority of Texas Law graduates who sit for a bar exam pass it on the first try, and nearly all pass eventually.

Do Texas Law graduates get large-firm (BigLaw) jobs?

Yes, though at a lower rate than the coastal schools in this set. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 205 Texas Law graduates (49.8%) took jobs at firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 175 of those (42.5% of the class) landed at firms of 501 or more lawyers. Large-firm practice is the largest single destination for Texas Law graduates, balanced by a strong clerkship pipeline.

Where do most Texas Law graduates work?

In Texas, overwhelmingly. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows Texas taking 290 Texas Law graduates (70.4%), New York 30, and the District of Columbia 24, so the top three markets account for 83.5% of the class. A Texas Law degree, in practice, points hardest at the Texas legal market, feeding Austin, Houston, and Dallas above all.

Can a splitter get into Texas Law?

Yes, and the reverse-splitter has the clear edge. Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a GPA 25th-to-median spread of 0.14 and an LSAT spread of 6 points, the widest LSAT spread in this set, so a high-GPA applicant with a lower LSAT fits Texas Law's reverse-splitter profile well. A strong Texas resident with a near-median GPA and a high-160s LSAT has a genuinely realistic path to Texas Law.

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

Lower-middle of its band. Among the 21 leading schools with a median LSAT within two points of Texas Law's 172, ranked by acceptance rate, Texas Law is 15th most selective at 13.99%, per Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. Fourteen band peers, including NYU at 13.4% and Michigan at 8.6%, admit a smaller share of applicants than Texas Law does. Its academic profile outranks its admit rate.

Is Texas Law worth the cost?

For Texans, emphatically yes, and for others via Early Decision. Against a $38,236 resident sticker in Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 94% of students receive grants, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 98.1% of graduates employed at ten months, with 12.1% in federal clerkships. That low cost and strong outcome make Texas Law the best value in the T14 for a Texas career.

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

The highest you can post, because Texas Law awards merit aid to nearly everyone. Per Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, grants reach a $38,586 upper quartile, with 23 full-tuition and 62 above-full-tuition awards. An LSAT above the 173 upper quartile and a GPA near the 3.96 top quarter give the strongest shot at the larger awards, and binding Early Decision adds an automatic scholarship at Texas Law.

Does Texas Law give in-state tuition to nonresidents?

Through binding Early Decision, yes. Texas Law's own early-decision page states that nonresident Early Decision admits automatically receive resident tuition rates. Because Texas Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists nonresident tuition at $56,822 and resident at $38,236, that reclassification saves a nonresident $18,586 a year for the length of the degree, on top of the automatic competitive scholarship every Texas Law Early Decision admit receives.

Sources

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

Texas Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=142&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=142&year=2024

Texas Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=142&year=2025

Texas Law Early Decision page: https://law.utexas.edu/admissions/apply/early-decision-admissions/

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