Law school
Fordham University School of Law
New York, NY
#42 in U.S. News & World Report Best Law Schools (2026-27)
Published admissions data for the Fall 2025 entering class, an estimate of where your own numbers land, the school's own essay prompts and the ABA employment outcomes it reports.
Admissions profile
- Median LSAT
- 168
- Median GPA
- 3.81
- Admit rate
- 16.2%
- Entering class
- 447
- Applications
- 8,811
- Admitted
- 1,429
Sources: Fordham Law — ABA Standard 509 Information Report (2025); Fordham Law — Quick Facts · Fall 2025 entering class
How competitive is Fordham?
Reported for the Fall 2025 entering class.
For the Fall 2025 entering class, Fordham reported a median LSAT of 168 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.81.
Its published LSAT band runs 166 / 168 / 170: the 25th percentile sits two points below the median and the 75th sits two points above it.
Fordham admitted 1,429 applicants from 8,811 applications, an admit rate of 16.2%.
447 students enrolled.
What LSAT and GPA do you need for Fordham?
The ABA reports where the entering class landed — three percentiles, not a cut-off. No score is required, and none guarantees anything.
Published LSAT: 25th 166 · median 168 · 75th 170.
Published GPA: 25th 3.64 · median 3.81 · 75th 3.88.
Percentiles: American Bar Association Standard 509 Information Report · Fall 2025 entering class
Add your own numbers — nothing is saved, and no account is needed.
Two numbers only. The full analysis also weighs your softs, your residency, your application round and when you submit.
Essay prompts
2026–27 cycle, quoted from the school. Never summarised, never behind a control.
Personal statement — REQUIRED PERSONAL ESSAY
2 pages
While the topic of this required essay is up to you, the most successful personal statements are those that develop a sense of the applicant and their values, aspirations, and concerns. As Fordham Law School's motto is "In the Service of Others," we are also interested in hearing about contributions you would like to make to our student body, the legal profession, and, ultimately, the larger society.
Source: Fordham University School of Law — JD application requirements
Personal statement — OPTIONAL PERSONAL ESSAY
2 pages
Educating lawyers to represent clients whose problems and perspectives grow out of a wide range of life circumstances is fundamental to Fordham Law School's mission. For this optional personal essay, please discuss how your life experiences or aspects of your personal identity have motivated or inspired you, posed challenges, helped you build skills, and/or taught you valuable lessons. We are eager to learn how these experiences or aspects of your identity have helped shape who you are and prepared you for the study and practice of law to help others who need your expertise to solve hard problems.
Source: Fordham University School of Law — JD application requirements
Application addendum (optional)
2 pages
You're also welcome to submit any optional statements and/or appendices. If you choose to submit an optional statement, it should not exceed two double-spaced pages.
Source: Fordham University School of Law — JD application requirements
Class of 2025 employment outcomes
Reported by the school to the American Bar Association, about ten months after graduation.
- Employed in a professional position91.7%385 of 420 graduates
Bar-admission-required + J.D.-advantage + professional-position + law-school-funded jobs / total graduates, about ten months after graduation. Excludes the ABA's non-professional 'Other Position', 'Undeterminable', and 'Start Date After' rows, so it reads lower than a school's headline employment figure.
- Bar admission required85.5%359 of 420 graduates
Jobs requiring bar admission / total graduates. The ABA's Bar Admission Required/Anticipated row only — J.D. Advantage is a different measure and is NOT added to it.
- Firms of 501+ attorneys44.8%188 of 420 graduates
Jobs at law firms of 501+ attorneys / total graduates. Exactly the ABA's 501+ band — not 251+, not 100+, not a private-practice share.
- Federal clerkship3.1%13 of 420 graduates
Federal clerkships / total graduates. Excludes state, local, territorial, tribal and international clerkships.
Share of the whole graduating class, counting every position the ABA reports (full- or part-time, long- or short-term), measured about ten months after graduation.
Not published for this school
Application deadlines
We haven't re-verified this school's current-cycle deadlines yet, so none are published here. Check the school's own admissions page for dates.
Sources and methodology
Last verified September 1, 2026.
Where each figure comes from
- Admissions figures
- Percentiles, admit rate and class size as reported to the American Bar Association under Standard 509, or published by the school in its own class profile. The source for each figure is linked beside it.
- Deadlines and essay prompts
- Taken from the school's own current-cycle application instructions and quoted exactly. A date or a prompt we have not re-verified for this cycle is withheld rather than carried over from last year.
- Employment outcomes
- Counts from the school's ABA Employment Summary for the class year shown, over one denominator: every graduate. The share is those two counts divided, and both are printed so it can be checked.
- Chance estimate
- Litigator One's own model, not school-published data and not a prediction of a decision. It reads your two numbers against this school's published percentiles and its overall admit rate.
Cited on this page
- Fordham Law — ABA Standard 509 Information Report (2025) — American Bar Association
- Fordham Law — Quick Facts — Fordham University School of Law
- Fordham University School of Law — JD application requirements — Fordham University School of Law
- Best Law Schools (2026-27) — U.S. News & World Report
Other schools on Litigator
Other schools in NY.