Law school
University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law
Columbia, SC
#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
- 162
- Median GPA
- 3.67
- Admit rate
- 29.9%
- Entering class
- 211
- Applications
- 2,214
- Admitted
- 632
Sources: Joseph F. Rice School of Law — Class of 2028 Profile; Joseph F. Rice School of Law — Standard 509 Information Report (2025) · Fall 2025 entering class
How competitive is South Carolina?
Reported for the Fall 2025 entering class.
For the Fall 2025 entering class, South Carolina reported a median LSAT of 162 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.67.
Its published LSAT band runs 160 / 162 / 164: the 25th percentile sits two points below the median and the 75th sits two points above it.
South Carolina admitted 632 applicants from 2,214 applications.
211 students enrolled.
What LSAT and GPA do you need for South Carolina?
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 160 · median 162 · 75th 164.
Published GPA: 25th 3.43 · median 3.67 · 75th 3.86.
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
Tell us about yourself. Give the Admissions Committee information you believe is relevant to the admission decision that is not elicited elsewhere in the application. You may address your academic or intellectual interests, significant accomplishments or obstacles overcome, personal or professional goals, educational achievements, or any way in which your perspective, viewpoint, or experiences will contribute to the School of Law community.
Source: University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law — JD application instructions
Current resume
Required
Please attach a résumé or curriculum vitae which details your college education (including significant leadership, academic honors, and accomplishments), employment, community involvement, volunteer service, or other activities. Since law school recruitment preparation begins early in the first- year of law school, save time now! Convert your current resume to the format you will use in law school. Here is a link to specific guidance and a template you can follow.
Source: University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law — JD application instructions
Statement of Demonstrated Personal Qualities
Optional · 1 page
Evidence of certain skills and abilities can show your potential to meet the challenges of law school and the profession. Feel free to provide examples of personal qualities or experiences that have shaped your development in areas such as intellectual and cognitive reasoning, research and information gathering, communications, planning and organizing, resolution of conflicts, client and business relations, working with others (including those with different perspectives and goals than your own), and character development. Please note that the law school cannot use your essay in any way to discriminate or provide a benefit based on an applicant's race or other legally protected status.
Source: University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law — JD application instructions
Statement of Economic, Social or Personal Background
Optional · 1 page
The law school is interested in your distinct experiences or life challenges that may not be apparent in the rest of the application or discussed in your personal statement. We invite you to share information that will provide context for our evaluation of your potential for success in our academic setting. Relevant information to provide could include, but is not limited to, financial hardship, educational adversity, special talents, specific work or community service, unusual rural or urban upbringing, foreign residence, military background, or unique personal or family circumstances. Feel free to discuss life circumstances that affected your ability to access resources, advising, or opportunities to demonstrate your interest in or aptitude for the study of law (e.g., family educational attainment, your employment, family income during childhood, public benefits access, need-based aid, housing insecurity or homelessness, family responsibilities, parenting or caregiving, or justice-system impacted family members.) Please note that the law school cannot use your essay in any way to discriminate or provide a benefit based on an applicant's race or other legally protected status.
Source: University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law — JD application instructions
Statement of Academic Context
Optional · 1 page
If you believe your LSAT or other (e.g., ACT or SAT) test scores or academic records do not accurately represent your potential to be successful at our law school, please tell us why, and tell us what we should consider in place of, or supplemental to, these factors. If your undergraduate, graduate, or professional school attendance has been interrupted for one or more terms for any reason, please explain the circumstances and provide a description of your activities during that time.
Source: University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law — JD application instructions
Class of 2025 employment outcomes
Reported by the school to the American Bar Association, about ten months after graduation.
- Employed in a professional position94.7%180 of 190 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 required88.9%169 of 190 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+ attorneys8.4%16 of 190 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 clerkship1.6%3 of 190 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
- Joseph F. Rice School of Law — Class of 2028 Profile — University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law
- Joseph F. Rice School of Law — Standard 509 Information Report (2025) — American Bar Association
- University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law — JD application instructions — University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law
- Best Law Schools (2026-27) — U.S. News & World Report
Other schools on Litigator
Schools at a nearby published rank.