The Weight of the LSAT in Law School Applications

LSAT Acceptance at U.S. Law Schools

According to LSAC, the LSAT is "the only test accepted for admission purposes by all ABA-accredited law schools and Canadian common-law schools." While this is a true statement, it does not mean that every applicant to these institutions must take the LSAT to qualify for admission. Over the past few years, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) has grown in popularity among law school applicants and many programs now accept the GRE in place of the LSAT. In fact, as of 2025, more than 100 of the 199 American Bar Association-accredited law schools accept the GRE as a valid alternative to the LSAT. 

Prestigious law programs accepting the GRE include Columbia Law School, Cornell Law School, Duke University School of Law, Emory University School of Law, Harvard Law School, New York University School of Law, Northeastern University School of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Stanford Law School, University of California at Berkeley School of Law, and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, to name but a few of the most recognizable law programs. 

At present, we are not aware of any law schools in the United States that will admit students without test scores. This means, if you wish to attend law school, you will need to take either the LSAT or the GRE. Despite the increasing popularity of the GRE, the majority of law program applicants still take the LSAT and submit those scores as part of their application.

The Importance of the LSAT to Law School Applications

We all know the LSAT is an important part of the law school application process. But exactly how important is your test score?

In general terms, it can be said that law schools value LSAT scores more than they do your undergraduate GPA. However, just how much weight your LSAT score carries will vary between law programs and depends entirely on the preference and acceptance practices of each specific institution. Although higher grades and stronger LSAT scores are desirable attributes at all law schools, their relative importance varies, which can make it difficult to know which schools you have the best chance of being accepted by.

LSAC offers a free law school admissions calculator where you can enter your undergraduate GPA and an LSAT score, which can be your actual LSAT score or a hypothetical score you are striving to obtain. The calculator can show you how likely you are to be accepted at a given law program based on those two factors. Of course, this tool is only intended as a guide to identifying law programs where your application would be considered competitive, and just because you have a high chance of being accepted by a given program doesn't guarantee you will be. LSAC has claimed the calculator's accuracy is at least 95%, but remember that using the tool provides you with information rather than guarantees.

A Few Specific Examples

LSAC's admissions calculator tool can be used to explore the expectations of individual programs. Say you have an undergraduate GPA of 3.9 and an LSAT score of 163. You would have a 7% chance of being accepted at Columbia University School of Law, a 12% chance of being accepted at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, and a 79% chance of being accepted at Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law.

Say you have an undergraduate GPA of 3.5 and an LSAT score of 170. You would have an 81% chance of being accepted at American University Washington College of Law and a 95% chance of being accepted at the University of Houston Law Center.

And finally, say you have an undergraduate GPA of 3.7 and an LSAT score of 171. You would have an 85% chance of admission at UConn School of Law, an 89% chance of being accepted at Northeastern University School of Law, a 90% chance of being accepted at the University of Miami School of Law, and a 95% chance of admission at Rutgers Law School.

It is worth pointing out that the most exclusive and elite law programs demand both a high undergraduate GPA and a high LSAT score, although a very high LSAT score may help offset a lower GPA. We encourage test takers to review LSAC data on their targeted law programs, as this will help you set LSAT score goals and eventual application goals in combination with your GPA.

Reasons for the LSAT's Weight

There are two major reasons that law schools prioritize the LSAT over undergraduate GPA, letters of recommendation, and personal essays or candidate statements.

The first is arguably for legitimate educational purposes. Not all undergraduate majors require the same level of intellectual rigor, and undergraduate institutions offer a wide variety of instructional quality. The LSAT ostensibly evaluates, say, a criminal justice major at the University of Alabama by the same standard that it uses to assess a physics major at Yale. 

The second reason for the LSAT's importance has to do with law school prestige. The major methods of ranking law schools (such as those published by U.S. News & World Report) consider the average test scores of a law school's admitted students when calculating the final ranking score. Programs are risking a drop in the rankings if they accept a large number of students with lower LSAT scores, something no law school wants.

Links between LSAT Scores and Law School Selectivity

As mentioned earlier, the most selective law schools also have the highest average LSAT scores. Consider the following data for the 2024-2025 academic year:

Once you have completed or are close to completing your undergraduate education, there's not much you can do to improve your undergraduate GPA. You can, however, focusing on achieving the highest LSAT score possible through rigorous and consistent test preparation that will be certain to set your application apart and increase your competitiveness at the law programs of your choice.

LSAT Scores and Merit Scholarships

Although scholarships for law school are typically based on several factors—including GPA, field of interest, and personal background—a strong LSAT performance can be incredibly helpful to financing a legal education. Exploring the financial aid section of law school websites can yield a number of promising opportunities to those willing to spend time reading them. Admitted students are automatically considered for several scholarships at certain institutions, while other scholarships require a separate application process and interview. It is worth doing your research when it comes to scholarships and financial aid, and improving your chances of securing financial assistance for law school is yet another reason to take preparing for the LSAT seriously.