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

How to get into University of Virginia Law School starts with two numbers. According to UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted an LSAT median of 173 (168 to 175) and a GPA median of 3.99 (3.83 to 4.04). Hit both and you are on target; a high GPA can offset a lower LSAT.

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

What defines University of Virginia Law School in this set is a tight double-market pipeline and an unusually clean record of outcomes. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, New York and the District of Columbia together took a clear majority of the class, UVA Law posted a 100.0% ultimate bar-passage rate, and 15.1% of graduates went into federal clerkships. Its binding admissions option is not a fall Early Decision round at all but a rolling expedited track that runs deep into the cycle. The thesis of this page is that UVA Law is a New York and Washington firm feeder with elite courtroom credentials, and that its binding path rewards applicants who are ready to commit but did not decide until later in the year.

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

University of Virginia Law School is among the most selective law schools in the country. According to UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, the fall 2025 class posted a 173 LSAT median, a 3.99 GPA median, and a 10.17% acceptance rate. Full-time tuition and fees run $77,900 for residents and $80,900 for nonresidents. The table collects the core numbers.

MetricUniversity of Virginia Law School (fall 2025 entering class)LSAT (25th / 50th / 75th)168 / 173 / 175GPA (25th / 50th / 75th)3.83 / 3.99 / 4.04Acceptance rate10.17%Applications6,734Offers of admission685Matriculants from the pool302First-year class309Full-time tuition and fees$77,900 resident / $80,900 nonresidentLiving expenses$28,770Share receiving grants66%Median grant$35,000Conditional scholarshipsNoFirst-time bar passage94.98%Employed at ten months98.7% (295 of 299)

Source: LSAT, GPA, acceptance rate, applications, offers, matriculants, tuition, living costs, and grants come from UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class); first-time bar passage comes from UVA Law's ABA bar-passage report; the ten-month employment figure comes from the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024. The 509 prints tuition and fees and living expenses separately and 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 University of Virginia Law School?

You really need a 173 LSAT and a 3.99 GPA to sit at the center of UVA Law's class. UVA Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure puts the LSAT middle at 168 to 175 and the GPA middle at 3.83 to 4.04. A strong GPA is the more forgiving lever, so a lower LSAT hurts less than a lower GPA.

Read UVA Law's two admissions rows together and the strategy becomes clear. UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports an LSAT 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of 168, 173, and 175, and a GPA spread of 3.83, 3.99, and 4.04. The UVA law LSAT median of 173 sits inside a wide seven-point middle band that runs from 168 all the way to 175. The UVA law GPA median of 3.99 sits inside a much tighter band, and the 75th percentile of 4.04 signals that a meaningful share of the class carries grade-point averages above a 4.0 on weighted or plus-scale transcripts.

The width of that LSAT band is the single most actionable fact about UVA Law admissions. Because the LSAT 25th-to-median spread is five points while the GPA spread is just 0.16, UVA Law is best described as reverse-splitter friendly. A reverse-splitter-friendly school forgives a lower LSAT when the GPA is high; a splitter-friendly school does the reverse. In practice this means a UVA Law applicant with a 3.99-plus GPA and an LSAT down around the 168 floor is in genuinely live territory, whereas an applicant with a 175 LSAT but a GPA well under the 3.83 floor faces a steeper climb. If you have to be below a median somewhere, be below it on the LSAT, not the GPA, when UVA Law is the target.

A realistic on-target profile therefore looks like this. A 173 LSAT paired with a 3.99 GPA places an applicant exactly at both of UVA Law's medians, per its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, which is the center of the class and a competitive position at a 10.17% acceptance rate. An applicant at the 175 LSAT and 4.04 GPA upper quartiles is comfortably above the middle and a strong scholarship candidate. An applicant below the 168 LSAT floor needs a GPA at or above the 3.99 median to offset it, and an applicant below the 3.83 GPA floor needs a genuinely high LSAT and a distinctive file to stay in the UVA Law pool.

One reassurance sits underneath these numbers. UVA Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0%, meaning no one in the measured cohort washed out academically. Among the Michigan-to-Minnesota tier of top schools, a zero-attrition figure is about as strong a signal as exists that UVA Law admits students it fully intends to graduate. Getting in is the hard part; once in, the data says you finish.

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

Roughly in line with it, not harder. UVA Law enjoys a top-tier reputation, and its 10.17% acceptance rate places it in the middle of its elite LSAT band, not at the front. UVA Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure makes it the seventh most selective of the schools clustered around its 173 median. The reputation and the math match.

To size up UVA Law's selectivity fairly, compare it only against schools with a similar academic profile. Among the 17 leading national law schools whose median LSAT falls within two points of UVA Law's 173, that is, a median of 171 to 175, ranked by acceptance rate, UVA Law is the seventh most selective of the group. Its reconciled 10.17% UVA law acceptance rate comes straight from UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, and it is the number this page uses throughout.

Ranked from most to least selective by acceptance rate, the 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 10.17%, Columbia University at 11.8%, UCLA at 12.1%, Northwestern University (Pritzker) at 12.3%, Duke University at 12.9%, New York University at 13.4%, the University of Texas at Austin at 14.0%, Georgetown University at 15.8%, Cornell University at 18.2%, Washington University in St. Louis at 19.0%, and the University of Minnesota at 26.7%. UVA Law sits seventh, behind Yale, Stanford, Penn, Michigan, Harvard, and Chicago, and ahead of Columbia, NYU, Duke, Georgetown, and Cornell.

One caution applies whenever acceptance rates are compared. Boston College reports an 8.5% acceptance rate that can look like an elite-tier figure, but Boston College reports its offers on a narrower basis than the schools in this band, so it is not a true selectivity peer and is not part of UVA Law's comparison group. Set that aside and the honest read on UVA Law is that it is exactly as selective as a top-tier reputation implies: six schools in its own LSAT band admit a smaller share of applicants, and roughly ten do not. UVA Law is elite, but it is not stealth-harder than it looks, and an applicant should treat it as a school where strong numbers plus a well-built file, rather than numbers alone, do the work.

Does University of Virginia Law have Early Decision, and is it binding?

Yes, but not in the usual shape. UVA Law's binding option is an Expedited Decision track, not a fall Early Decision round. According to UVA Law's own J.D. application page, an applicant may submit any time before March 1 and receive a binding decision within 21 business days. It commits you fully, but it runs almost the whole cycle.

Here are the mechanics exactly as UVA Law publishes them. According to UVA Law's own J.D. application information page, the Expedited Decision option lets an applicant submit at any point before March 1 and receive a decision within 21 business days of the file being complete. On admission, the applicant must withdraw all other law school applications regardless of their status and start no new ones, which is what makes the track binding. There is no single November deadline to hit; the binding commitment is available on a rolling basis across the cycle.

That structure is genuinely different from a conventional binding Early Decision, and it changes the strategy. A fall Early Decision round forces an applicant to commit before most of the cycle has played out; UVA Law's Expedited Decision lets an applicant wait, watch the season develop, and still pull the binding lever as late as February so long as the file is in before March 1. It rewards the applicant who is certain UVA Law is the first choice but who was not ready to sign that certainty away in October or November.

On money, UVA Law does not penalize the binding path. Per UVA Law's own J.D. application page, Expedited Decision admits remain eligible for both merit and need-based aid on the same terms as Regular Decision admits. So unlike some binding programs that trade aid consideration for an early answer, UVA Law's expedited track keeps full scholarship eligibility intact. The real trade is only the loss of the ability to compare competing offers, which is the standard cost of any binding commitment and a reasonable price for an applicant who already knows UVA Law is where they want to be.

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

University of Virginia Law School lists full-time tuition and fees at $77,900 for residents and $80,900 for nonresidents, with living expenses of $28,770, in its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. UVA Law spreads grants to two-thirds of students, the median grant is $35,000, and a notable 56 students hold full-tuition awards. None of the grants are conditional on grades.

Start with the sticker. UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $77,900 for Virginia residents and $80,900 for nonresidents, and separately lists living expenses at $28,770. 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 UVA Law reports, and this page will not invent one.

The aid picture at UVA Law has a distinctive shape. According to UVA Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, 66% of students receive grant aid, a smaller share than the most grant-heavy schools but still two out of three. Grant amounts at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles are $25,000, $35,000, and $50,000. What stands out is the top of that distribution: UVA Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure reports 56 full-tuition awards and 5 awards above full tuition. Fifty-six full rides is a large number for a class this size, so UVA Law concentrates serious money on a meaningful group of its strongest admits rather than sprinkling small grants across nearly everyone. These grants include both merit and need-based aid, so a strong UVA law admissions profile helps directly.

For a typical grant recipient the math runs like this. Against the $80,900 nonresident sticker for tuition and fees, a student receiving UVA Law's median grant of $35,000 nets about $45,900 in tuition and fees before living costs, using figures from UVA Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure. Just as important, UVA Law reports that its scholarships are not conditional, per its 2025 ABA 509 disclosure, so an award cannot be reduced or revoked for landing in the bottom of the first-year curve. The grant a UVA Law admit is quoted is the grant they keep for all three years, which removes the quiet risk that makes conditional-scholarship offers at other schools worth less than their headline number.

The strategic read is that UVA Law rewards applicants who push toward the top of the band. Because the largest awards, including 56 full-tuition grants, cluster among the strongest files, an applicant sitting at or above the 175 LSAT and 4.04 GPA upper quartiles is best positioned to land in that group. With a 66% grant share, most admits get something, but the full-tuition money is where numbers matter most at UVA Law.

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

Slim, and the math shows why. UVA Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure shows 685 offers and 302 matriculants from the pool, an implied yield of 44.1%. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so implied yield is the honest proxy: a 44.1% yield means UVA Law fills most of its class from first-round offers and leans little on the waitlist.

Here is the reasoning in full. UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports 685 offers of admission and 302 matriculants drawn from the applicant pool, an implied yield of 44.1%. No ABA disclosure, UVA Law's included, publishes how many applicants are admitted off the waitlist or how many accept, so implied yield is the honest way to reason about waitlist movement. The logic is direct: the higher the share of offers a school converts to enrollments, the more of its class is locked in from the first round, and the less space it has to backfill from a waitlist.

A 44.1% yield is on the high side for a national law school, which tells a waitlisted UVA Law applicant to prepare for a long shot rather than to count on movement. A school that yields, say, 25% over-offers heavily, expects most admits to decline, and predictably works its waitlist to finish the class. UVA Law is closer to the opposite case: it keeps well over four in ten of the students it admits, so in a typical cycle it needs comparatively little waitlist help, and a UVA Law waitlist spot is a real but slender lifeline. An applicant who lands on it and still wants UVA Law should send a short, specific letter of continued interest, because at these odds a clear signal is what separates the files that get the call.

One honest note on the class figures. UVA Law's 2025 ABA 509 disclosure lists 302 matriculants from the applicant pool but a first-year class of 309. The gap reflects students who arrive through paths other than this single cycle's pool, such as admitted students who deferred from a prior year. The 44.1% implied yield is computed from the 302 pool matriculants against the 685 offers, which is the correct comparison for reasoning about this cycle's waitlist odds at UVA Law.

Where do University of Virginia Law graduates actually work?

In New York and Washington, above all. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, New York took 28.8% of UVA Law graduates and the District of Columbia nearly matched it, so the top three markets took 64.2%. Large firms of 101-plus lawyers hired 65.2%, and 15.1% won federal clerkships, an elite share.

The single most useful fact about University of Virginia Law School's employment outcomes is the dominance of two markets. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, UVA Law placed 86 graduates in New York, 83 in the District of Columbia, and 23 in Virginia, its three largest markets. New York, the top market, took 28.8% of the class, and New York and the District of Columbia together took 169 of UVA Law's 299 graduates, a clear majority. The top three markets combined took 64.2%, per the same ABA Employment Summary. A UVA Law degree, in practice, points hard toward the New York and Washington legal markets, with Virginia as a strong home base behind them.

By employer type, the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 195 UVA Law graduates, or 65.2%, taking jobs at large firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 180 of them, 60.2% of the class, at the very largest firms of 501 or more lawyers. Large-firm practice, what applicants usually mean by BigLaw, is the dominant destination for a UVA Law graduate, and it skews heavily toward the biggest firms, exactly the firms that anchor the New York and Washington markets the class feeds.

The clerkship pipeline is where UVA Law separates itself. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 45 UVA Law graduates, 15.1% of the class, went into federal clerkships, roughly one in seven. That is an elite federal-clerkship share, and paired with a proximity to the Washington courts it reflects both the strength of the class and the reach of UVA Law's faculty recommendations into federal chambers. For an applicant weighing appellate practice, a future in government, or an academic path, that 15.1% is a defining UVA Law credential.

Outcomes at the top are exceptionally clean. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 295 of 299 UVA Law graduates employed at the ten-month mark, a 98.7% employment rate, and UVA Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a 100.0% ultimate pass rate for the 2022 cohort measured two years out. Near-total employment is common across the top of the market, so the reason to weigh UVA Law on concentration is fit: this is a degree built for New York and Washington firm and clerkship work, and an applicant who wants those two markets is buying exactly the right tool, while an applicant set on, say, the West Coast should note how little of the class lands there.

When are University of Virginia Law's application deadlines?

University of Virginia Law School runs a binding Expedited Decision track and a regular cycle. According to UVA Law's own J.D. application page, the Expedited Decision option requires submission before March 1 for a decision within 21 business days. UVA Law's disclosures do not give this page a fixed regular-decision deadline, so confirm the current date on UVA Law's site.

Take the dates UVA Law does publish first. According to UVA Law's own J.D. application information page, the binding Expedited Decision option is available to applicants who submit before March 1, with a decision promised within 21 business days of a complete file. That March 1 cutoff is the firm, dated milestone for the binding track, and an applicant certain that UVA Law is a first choice can plan around it and use it as late in the cycle as February.

For the regular J.D. cycle, honesty requires a caveat. The source documents behind this page, chiefly UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure and its J.D. application page, do not hand this page a single fixed regular-decision deadline to quote, so this page will not manufacture one. UVA Law reviews applications on a rolling basis, and application cycle dates shift from year to year, so a date correct for one cycle can move in the next. The Expedited Decision cutoff stated here reflects the published cycle and was verified in August 2026. Before relying on any regular-cycle deadline, confirm the current date directly on UVA Law's admissions site, because a page like this is a planning aid, not the registrar of record.

Frequently asked questions about getting into University of Virginia Law School

Is a 173 LSAT good enough for UVA Law?

A 173 is exactly UVA Law's LSAT median, per UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, so it is good enough to be competitive but not to feel safe. Half of the fall 2025 class scored at or above 173 and half below, inside a 168 to 175 middle range. At a 10.17% acceptance rate, a 173 applicant to UVA Law is well positioned when the GPA sits near 3.99, since a strong GPA is the more forgiving number.

What GPA do you need to get into UVA Law?

UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports a GPA median of 3.99, with a 25th percentile of 3.83 and a 75th percentile of 4.04. The UVA law GPA middle band is tight and high, so the typical admit sits between 3.83 and 4.04. Because UVA Law is reverse-splitter friendly, the GPA carries real weight: a below-3.83 GPA is harder to offset than a below-median LSAT at UVA Law.

What is UVA Law's acceptance rate?

UVA Law's acceptance rate is 10.17%, computed as 685 offers against 6,734 applications in UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. That ranks seventh most selective among the 17 leading law schools within two LSAT points of UVA Law's 173 median. Roughly ten applicants in every hundred receive an offer from UVA Law in a given cycle, one of the lower admit rates at its LSAT level.

How many people apply to UVA Law each year?

UVA Law received 6,734 applications for its fall 2025 entering class, according to UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. From that pool, UVA Law extended 685 offers of admission and enrolled 302 matriculants, building a first-year class of 309. The distance between 6,734 applications and 685 offers is what produces UVA Law's 10.17% acceptance rate.

Does UVA Law have binding Early Decision?

Yes, in the form of a binding Expedited Decision track rather than a fall Early Decision round. According to UVA Law's own J.D. application page, an applicant may submit any time before March 1 for a decision within 21 business days, and on admission must withdraw all other applications and start no new ones. UVA Law keeps Expedited Decision admits eligible for both merit and need-based aid.

How much does UVA Law cost per year?

UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure lists full-time tuition and fees at $77,900 for residents and $80,900 for nonresidents, with living expenses of $28,770. UVA Law does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance total in that 509, so this page will not quote one. A student receiving UVA Law's median grant of $35,000 nets about $45,900 in nonresident tuition and fees before living costs.

Does UVA Law give merit scholarships?

Yes. UVA Law awards grants that blend merit and need. Per UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 66% of students receive grants, the median grant is $35,000, and there are 56 full-tuition and 5 above-full-tuition awards. Fifty-six full rides is a large number for the class size, so a strong LSAT and GPA improve scholarship odds at UVA Law, and none of the awards are conditional on grades.

What is UVA Law's bar passage rate?

UVA Law's ABA bar-passage report shows a first-time pass rate of 94.98% for the 2024 exam year, with a 98.0% rate in its largest jurisdiction, the District of Columbia. The ultimate pass rate, measured two years out for the 2022 cohort, is 100.0%, per the same report. A perfect ultimate rate means every measured UVA Law graduate who kept sitting for the bar eventually passed it.

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

Yes, and it is the dominant outcome. In the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024, 195 UVA Law graduates (65.2%) took jobs at firms of 101 or more lawyers, and 180 of those (60.2% of the class) landed at firms of 501 or more lawyers. Large-firm practice is by far the leading destination for UVA Law graduates, concentrated in the New York and Washington markets the class feeds.

Where do most UVA Law graduates work?

UVA Law graduates concentrate in New York and Washington. The ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows New York taking 86 graduates (28.8%), the District of Columbia 83, and Virginia 23, so the top three markets account for 64.2% of the class. New York and Washington together take a clear majority of UVA Law graduates, which makes the degree a two-market feeder more than a national one.

Can a splitter get into UVA Law?

A reverse splitter can, more easily than a traditional splitter. UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure shows a wide LSAT 25th-to-median spread of five points but a tight GPA spread of 0.16, so UVA Law forgives a lower LSAT paired with a high GPA more readily than the reverse. A UVA Law applicant with a 3.99-plus GPA and an LSAT near the 168 floor is in live territory; a low-GPA, high-LSAT splitter faces a steeper path.

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

Middle of the pack within an elite band. Among the 17 leading national schools with a median LSAT within two points of UVA Law's 173, ranked by acceptance rate, UVA Law's 10.17% is the seventh lowest, behind Yale, Stanford, Penn, Michigan, Harvard, and Chicago, per UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure. UVA Law is elite but not the single hardest admit at its academic level, and it sits ahead of Columbia, NYU, Duke, and Georgetown.

Is UVA Law worth the cost?

For most admitted students, yes. Against an $80,900 nonresident tuition and fees sticker in UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure, 66% of students receive grants with a median of $35,000, and the ABA Employment Summary for the Class of 2024 shows 98.7% of UVA Law graduates employed at ten months, 65.2% in large firms, and 15.1% in federal clerkships. A 100.0% ultimate bar rate and that clerkship share make UVA Law's cost defensible.

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

Numbers at or above both upper quartiles give the best shot. Because UVA Law's grants blend merit and need and 56 students hold full-tuition awards, an applicant at the 175 LSAT and 4.04 GPA upper quartiles from UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure is best positioned for the largest money. The median grant is $35,000, and pushing both numbers above the medians, especially the GPA, is how applicants move toward full-tuition consideration at UVA Law.

What is UVA Law's first-year attrition rate?

UVA Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 disclosure reports first-year academic attrition of 0.0%. No one in the measured cohort was dismissed for grades, which tells an admitted student that the difficulty at UVA Law is getting in, not staying in. Paired with a 94.98% first-time bar pass rate and a 100.0% ultimate rate from UVA Law's ABA bar-passage report, the path from admission to a law license at UVA Law is remarkably reliable.

Sources

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

UVA Law 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (fall 2025 entering class): https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/AnnualQuestionnaire/GenerateIndividualDisclosure509Report?schoolId=153&year=2025

ABA Employment Summary, Class of 2024: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/EmploymentOutcomes/GenerateIndividualEQSummaryReport?schoolId=153&year=2024

UVA Law ABA bar-passage report: https://backend.abarequireddisclosures.org/api/BarPassageOutcomes/GenerateIndividualBarPassageReport?schoolId=153&year=2025

UVA Law J.D. application information page: https://www.law.virginia.edu/admissions/admissions/jd-application-information

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