Law school

University of San Diego School of Law

San Diego, CA

#54 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 and the ABA employment outcomes it reports.

Admissions profile

Median LSAT
163
Median GPA
3.84
Admit rate
23.5%
Entering class
240
Applications
4,241
Admitted
997

Source: USD School of Law — Official Standard 509 Information Report (Fall 2025 / Class of 2028) · Fall 2025 entering class

How competitive is USD?

Reported for the Fall 2025 entering class.

For the Fall 2025 entering class, USD reported a median LSAT of 163 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.84.

Its published LSAT band runs 160 / 163 / 165: the 25th percentile sits three points below the median and the 75th sits two points above it.

USD admitted 997 applicants from 4,241 applications, an admit rate of 23.5%.

240 students enrolled.

What LSAT and GPA do you need for USD?

The ABA reports where the entering class landed — three percentiles, not a cut-off. No score is required, and none guarantees anything.

LSAT

Published LSAT: 25th 160 · median 163 · 75th 165.

GPA

Published GPA: 25th 3.59 · median 3.84 · 75th 3.92.

Percentiles: American Bar Association Standard 509 Information Report · Fall 2025 entering class

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See the full analysis

Two numbers only. The full analysis also weighs your softs, your residency, your application round and when you submit.

Class of 2025 employment outcomes

Reported by the school to the American Bar Association, about ten months after graduation.

  • Employed in a professional position99.2%234 of 236 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.

    ABA Employment Summary

  • Bar admission required89.0%210 of 236 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.

    ABA Employment Summary

  • Firms of 501+ attorneys13.1%31 of 236 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.

    ABA Employment Summary

  • Federal clerkship2.1%5 of 236 graduates

    Federal clerkships / total graduates. Excludes state, local, territorial, tribal and international clerkships.

    ABA Employment Summary

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.

Essay prompts

We haven't confirmed this school's current-cycle essay prompts in the school's own words yet. Only prompts we can quote exactly are published here.

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.

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