Law school
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Baltimore, MD
#62 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
- 164
- Median GPA
- 3.72
- Admit rate
- 26.1%
- Entering class
- 229
- Applications
- 2,876
- Admitted
- 750
Source: Maryland Carey Law — Standard 509 Information Report (2025) · Fall 2025 entering class
How competitive is Maryland?
Reported for the Fall 2025 entering class.
For the Fall 2025 entering class, Maryland reported a median LSAT of 164 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.72.
Its published LSAT band runs 156 / 164 / 166: the 25th percentile sits eight points below the median and the 75th sits two points above it.
Maryland admitted 750 applicants from 2,876 applications, an admit rate of 26.1%.
229 students enrolled.
What LSAT and GPA do you need for Maryland?
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 156 · median 164 · 75th 166.
Published GPA: 25th 3.37 · median 3.72 · 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 · 750 words
Lawyers are routinely asked to engage critical analytical skills during moments of stress or engagement across difference. The ability to remain level-headed in the face of adversity is one essential lawyering skill. So too are leadership, resilience, determination, familiarity with diverse constituencies, and adaptability to change. While law school will provide you with training in all of these areas, our most successful applicants bring to their legal education some prior experience in one or more of them. To help us gain a fuller sense of who you are as a person, you are required to submit a personal statement. Applicants are required to submit a personal statement. We recommend that you use the personal statement to present to the Admissions Committee information and perspectives regarding your background, experience, special circumstances and interests that you believe will help the Committee understand your unique story. In addition, the statement should address why you are interested in obtaining a law degree and, more specifically, why you are interested in attending the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. The personal statement should be no longer than 750 words, double-spaced, and must be typed and not hand-written. Upload your personal statement as an attachment to the application form.
Source: Maryland Carey Law — First-Year JD Applicants
Optional Essay
250 words
Applicants are invited to complete one (and only one) of the optional essay prompts below. In responding to a prompt, please keep in mind that what you contributed to or took away from any experience is far more important to us than the experience itself. Your optional essay should be no longer than 250 words, double-spaced, and must be typed and not hand-written. Please title your document with the option you select. Upload any submission as an attachment to the application form. Option 1: Members of the Maryland Carey Law community make a difference in the world in ways big and small. We encourage our students and alumni to make their corner of the world a bit brighter through leadership and innovation. Describe one of your most important accomplishments and explain why it is important to you. Discuss how you demonstrated leadership, helped innovate, and/or drove change as part of that accomplishment. Option 2: The Law School values determination and resilience and recognizes that these traits are critical to success not just in law school, but also in the legal profession. Describe a significant challenge, disappointment, or setback that you faced. Discuss how you approached this experience and what you learned from it. Option 3: To succeed at the Law School and in the legal profession, you must be able to have respectful discussions across differences and, where appropriate, be open to changing your mind. Describe a time when you changed your mind on an important topic after discussing it with a person with whom you disagreed or after learning additional information. Discuss what you learned from this experience. Option 4: Maryland Carey Law has a strong sense of community and a longstanding tradition of public engagement. Our students and graduates are committed in rich and varied ways to public service and community engagement. Describe a community that has been particularly meaningful to you. Discuss what you gain from being a part of this community and what you contribute to this community.
Source: Maryland Carey Law — First-Year JD Applicants
Résumé
Required
Résumé: Submit a résumé or curriculum vitae detailing your education, employment, skills, honors, awards, and accomplishments. Upload your résumé as an attachment to the application form.
Source: Maryland Carey Law — First-Year JD Applicants
Class of 2025 employment outcomes
Reported by the school to the American Bar Association, about ten months after graduation.
- Employed in a professional position95.2%198 of 208 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 required82.2%171 of 208 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+ attorneys10.1%21 of 208 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 clerkship1.9%4 of 208 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
- Maryland Carey Law — Standard 509 Information Report (2025) — American Bar Association
- Maryland Carey Law — First-Year JD Applicants — University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
- Best Law Schools (2026-27) — U.S. News & World Report
Other schools on Litigator
Schools at a nearby published rank.