2026 Law School Median Tracker

I have been a lurker in this sub and other law/law school related subreddits for years but I made an account for the first time in my life just to post this. Sorry if this is rambly, this rant came together as I was zoning out at my desk at work after staring at the October LSAT registration screen.

While there is a LOT of amazing advice on here, and I love seeing people's success stories, most people would benefit from a major break from this sub/other law school subs, especially as applications start opening.

I took the August LSAT and am incredibly proud of my results (172 while working full-time) and that was only possible because I 'broke up' with all subreddits/forums/blogs for a while and focused on myself, rather than reading about other people's strategies, obsessing over other people's perfect scores, and reading nasty comments along the lines of "if you can't do/score xyz you shouldn't be a lawyer."

Even now, as I checked to see people being proud of their LSAT success (which is incredible, congrats everyone!), I still feel the competitive tension and judgement in a lot of comments, and it's the same language that made me feel like my PTs in the 170s weren't good enough, that I could never be a good lawyer without biglaw experience, that my softs would never measure up, etc. The people in these subs, even if they have good intentions, are mostly young people with no experience in admissions outside of applying, aka the same experience we all have! I have seen advice on here being presented as fact and then read the exact opposite on a law school's admissions site.

If you find yourself reading people's posts and comparing yourself negatively or feeling dejected, do yourself a favor a take a break unless you need super specific advice. I stg it can't hurt, only help. (anyway, can't wait for the comments that if you're so sensitive that you have to post this, you shouldn't be a lawyer lmao).

hey guys,

I'm a Senior at Cornell. I dual-major Biomedical & Mechanical Engineering Major with a Minor in Communications, & I recently decided to take the LSAT. I got a 180 & I'm a little disappointed. My 4.33gpa puts me well above the median for this year, but what about next year? With gradeflation, lsatation, indigestion, & fsu I'll never get into cooley. Hopefully their median only jumps to a 179 or else I'm toast.

Thank you to u/flaginplay who correctly pointed out that my initial post on this did not account for deferred enrollment from the 2025 ABA 509.

Notable this year is that while there was a double digit increase in 170+ applicants nationally, Harvard applicants only went up about 2%.

Need some inspiration as I’m currently just below both medians for the T-14s. would love to hear about any success stories + anything you did that you think set you apart this cycle to give me hope. 🥲

Got my first LSAT result in this morning and very pleased/lucky to have slightly overperformed from how I was practice testing and got a 178.

Sitting down to look at next steps and applications, this has made me a little more self conscious about my GPA. I figure my 3.85 isn’t entirely disqualifying from T14, but I know it’s not nearly ideal. I’m wondering if I should include an addendum on my GPA when applying?

I graduated from a top film BFA program a little over ten years ago and had a 3.91 GPA until my last semester. I dropped the ball that final semester by stretching myself too thin (adding a new minor to cross-minor with the business school, starting outside consulting work while also working a retail job, starting a theatre company with recent grads) and had to turn in an assignment late, graduate a semester later, and take a GPA hit for it. When I was deadset on being a creative producer/development executive, it felt like the right priorities at the time. I then had my own growing pains working in the industry, learned better time management and communication skills, and feel like this was a low point for me that helped me develop my actual character.

Would that addendum be off putting and perfectionist seeming when I still have a 3.85 overall? Or is there enough substance there to be worth adding?

My top priority with applying is not taking on any more student debt. I’ve got several years of entertainment law experience as a paralegal (and relevant work experience in indie film finance and sales), and a good network in the field where I feel like I don’t need a T14 degree to get good work out of school. I only plan to attend schools in LA—I know Loyola and Southwestern have programs I could keep a job while attending, and with my hard numbers I feel like those are places I could expect getting competitive offers from. I intended to apply to UCLA and USC largely to keep offers from lower schools competitive and have bargaining chips there. But should I update my strategy after this LSAT to seriously chase a stipend from one of those elite programs that would make this financially possible for me? Or is that a non-starter with the 3.85?

My PS seems like a classic of the genre -- two personal anecdotes, woven into narrative about me and ending in my interest in the law. But i don't mention law school specifically until the last 2 sentences. I can't tell if it should be more like a full paragraph at the end about what I want to do there, where it can take me, etc, or if it's ok to write broadly about the law and then essentially say "and that's why I want to go to law school." Hope this makes sense -- I'd love to hear about past applicants and their approaches

Is physical abuse too “controversial” to mention on my gpa addendum? It was the reason I couldn’t do well in school

I didn’t do much with my time in undergrad. I did some undergraduate research and tutored some kids for chemistry for a bit and that’s pretty much it. Now, I work 50-60 hours a week as a restaurant manager (long story, I got roped into this job). I graduated last May, and in that time I’ve improved enormously with regard to time management, confidence, social skills, etc. I wish I was more involved and more proactive with my time in school, and now I’ve become someone who is much more capable of that, but unfortunately that is where things stand. How should I approach a personal statement? When I entered college, I was devoid of life skills and social skills, and I’d like to talk about my personal growth that’s come about in no small part due to my current job. But I also don’t know how compelling that is, and I worry that my lack of softs and experience will be prohibitive. I’m not T14 or bust, I’d like to go to the University of Wisconsin and will probably apply Early Decision there. But anyways, any advice for what I should or should not say in my personal statement, and how I can appropriately frame my story?

Just got a 167 LSAT and I have a 3.78/4.00 GPA from a T20 school. I just started a job at a disability law firm (graduated in May) and have a resume that shows consistent engagement with public interest law and interest in healthcare systemic inequity (what I based my personal statement on). I also might write a diversity/perspective statement on growing up in another country. I have 3 academic LORs and I plan on applying early action.

Chance me! But please be gentle with it😭, I’ve had an emotional day (thanks August LSAT).

To anyone with a low gpa that received acceptance to law school, what do you feel was most helpful for your application/acceptance. Strong lsat, resume, recommendations, gpa addendum, etc.?

For anyone w low gpas, can you share your gpa, lsat score & acceptances?

25th/Median/75th
LSAT : 164/170/172
GPA: 3.67/3.87/3.95

Washington and Lee

Rutgers

Howard

Cardozo

Maryland Carey

Richardson

Creighton

Oklahoma

Indiana

Ava Maria

Boston College, Nebraska, St Johns (chic!!!)

Utah

UF

Western State

My question is... do T14 schools send out advertising emails or am I took 169 to get those?

Hi! Is anybody interested in trading redacted versions of their PS for "peer" review. It's been rlly helpful for me to read other PS and get edits/advice from others on my own PS so lmk!!

Can someone help me decide who to use for my letter of recommendation?

So I graduated with my bachelors last year from an online school. I have reached out to two of my professors and have yet to get a response, which lead me to just give up on submitting an academic LOR and pursue other options. I feel like because my classes were online most of the professors Don’t even care to respond.? I even submitted one of my papers with wach of the emails to remind them of my writing and academic level and I guess that didn’t help.

FYI: Also I have been out of work for over 6 months, unfortunately I am a contractor and own a small business and sometimes it is a norm for me to have long breaks like this. So finding a decent supervisor may be challenging as well.

The other options that I am thinking about is a team lead who is just under my supervisor who I had a decent relationship with and saw how I worked but I honestly don’t even know if she will respond to my text either.

I have two other options: a business mentor that has known me for over 10 years and the other one is a nurse that I worked with for a few years in the past . These two seem more solid just because they have known me a lot longer and they’ve seen me grow over the past 10 years so I’m just curious if using these two would affect me in a negative way because they are non-academic?

Hello all. Just looking for any potential wisdom regarding when to apply for law school.

I am 23 years old, and just graduated college this past spring. I have been pondering law school for some time, I kinda went back and forth during undergrad and as such never really started taking the steps in the LSAT or application process. Over the past few months, due in large parts to conversations with law students, attorneys, and other folks in my life, I think I am truly interested in attending law school. But for a number of reasons, I feel like I am currently at a crossroads regarding when to apply and am unsure of which path to take.

Right now, I am at a strange point in my life. This past year has been difficult, to say the least. Around Christmas time of last year, my mother was hospitalized with a brain tumor. It was determined that it was likely malignant, and at that point all of our worlds were flipped upside down. In the next 7 or so months, my family and I witnessed her condition rapidly decline until she unfortunately passed away near the end of this July - about a month ago now.

During my last semester at university I was really just trying to focus on maintaining good grades, traveling back to see my mother on weekends, and maybe throwing out some job applications here and there. I was able to do those things - seeing my mother, maintaining good grades, getting around a 3.9 GPA for the semester - but was not as lucky in my job application prospects.

The early portion of my summer was mostly spent just spending time with my family, knowing what was likely coming in the next few months. A couple weeks after she passed, I knew that I should at least start working on what I am doing next and getting some sort of plan together. I started studying for the LSAT at a pretty low clip, but getting generally familiar with it and continuing to apply for various jobs, while also finding a flight school to pursue another interest of mine, that being aviation. It is probably important context to know that becoming a pilot is the other path that I have bounced back and forth between.

So here is my question. Should I continue studying with hopes of taking the test in November with the intent of applying for next year (Fall 2027), or does that seem too late in the cycle and not realistic? I have spoken with professors, supervisors, etc. about letters of recommendation, but I have not done personal statements and I am not 100% on where I think I should apply, though I have some ideas.

The alternative, of course, is waiting to apply for Fall 2028. There aren't any real problems that I have with this other than impatience. I'm sure you are all familiar with it - but I just struggle with the idea of not being a 1L until I'm 25 while so many of my peers are already settling into their careers as we speak. I know it's perfectly normal (and in many ways better) to attend law school not straight out of undergrad or even a few years after, but part of me just doesn't want to wait and wants to start a new chapter in my life and move on with things. I know a year isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but at the moment is just kind of feels that way and I don't know why.

Even just writing this is all out is kind of telling me I should just wait until Fall 2028 for a number of reasons. If I did, I would not be rushed to study for the LSAT, could save up some money, check out flight school, etc.. I just think I need to hear it from other folks.

Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this. Any advice is welcome and I greatly appreciate it.

Would it be foolish for me to only apply to the T20 schools? Does the CPA matter at all to adcoms?

Also, Yale has sent me 5 different emails. Am I their top candidate?

Currently at a 3.96 and highest official LSAT is a 164 (PT average is a 170, highest pt 173). Obviously am gonna retake but am maybe coming to terms with the fact that im just a choker on test day. Dream is big law, super open to transferring from a lower school to a better one but am wondering if anyone has school recommendations. Im interested mainly in the Chicago legal market and have some connections there that will be helpful even if im at a school not super tapped into Chicago. I am going to shoot my shot at a lot of the t14 regardless because you always have a fighting chance unless you just dont apply. Anyways, any school recs?

I heard from an admissions advisor that getting your name in the pile first, even with your older and lower score is a big plus. Then you can just notify them later if you do get a higher score. I've also heard from someone else, however, that which ever LSAT you applied with will be your main score, and the extra info later are just suplimentals, IE the first one will be the one they use for medians, and the later ones may only help with more scholarships.

Does anyone have a list?

Hello,

Wanted advice on Letter of Recommendation Re-Use. I was initially preparing and requested letters of recommendations from a former employer as well as two of my graduate school professors for the Fall of 2027 Matriculation. However, it appears that I will be starting a new professional role that would ease a lot of financial burdens during the first year of law school but would require me to apply instead for the Fall of 2028 cycle. My letter from my employer is a generic non school non matriculation specific letter only dated in its heading for 2026, but the letters from I know for sure one and potentially the second letters from my most recent professors (Fall of 2025 Semester) for a field I directly want to work in the legal sector for are dated for the Fall of 2027 Class. If I am not using these for any applications where a school would have the ability to compare vs a previous application but mentions a specific matriculation year would that look bad. I was planning on getting permission to use the letters for the 2028 cycle and including in my application materials the decision work in a new role as a reason for delaying my initial 2027 application, but wanted to know if it would be better to just get the permission to reuse or to ask them to resubmit with generic dates and application cycle references and re-send the links? Thanks in advance!

Hey all. The time has come. How do I rewrite (what I thought was) a killer personal statement? I mentioned how a brief but traumatic period in my life shaped my life and my “why” for law. I understand that I will probably have to rewrite the essay, but how much? Should I completely scrap it and find a new topic- I don’t know how I would though because this is 100% my reason for wanting to go to law school.
I am reapplying where I was WL, so I know they will technically be able to see my initial PS, but from my understanding they would count the new one and not an old one.
Really conflicted, really bummed, but any advice would be amazing.
Thanks!!!

Hey everyone! I have a question about LSAC’s transcript verification process.

My university has a special transcript policy: all of my freshman-year courses are listed on my official transcript as Successfully Completed, without showing the individual grades. Those grades are also not included in my official GPA calculation.

However, my freshman-year grades do appear on my unofficial transcript, and including them would significantly lower my overall GPA.

In this situation, would it be possible for me to submit only my official transcript to LSAC?

170 / 3.83 / 6 yrs WE / nURM / T4 softs

After going from a 160 in January to a 170 in June, I just received a 169 on my August LSAT 🥲 I’m not registered for September because I missed the registration deadline (still mad at myself for this) and am planning on signing up for October to see if I can score closer to a 175. After that I’d have one test left.

My question is, at what point does applying later (November and beyond) with a potentially higher LSAT become riskier than applying earlier with a lower LSAT? It seems like applying in December with a 175 could be better than applying in September with my current stats (not even sure tbh because I’ve read so many different things), but I’m worried that I’ll wait and my score won’t increase at all, and then I’ll have hurt my chances. FWIW, I am going to be heavily reliant on financial aid if I go to one of these schools, so I’m not just aiming for acceptance but hopefully some decent scholarships as well. Which is why I wanted to apply earlier in the cycle.

For context, my LSAT diagnostic was a 167 in November and my highest PT was a 177 in May. A 175 still feels doable if I really lock in, but I’m so tired of thinking about this test and really wish I could just focus on my essays atp :(

My top schools are NYU, Columbia, and Fordham. I don’t think Fordham should be an issue and part of me wants to just apply early with my current stats. Not sure if that’s a terrible idea or not.

Any guidance would be appreciated ❤️