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University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

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Last updated: September 22, 2026

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University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law is a public law school in Baltimore, Maryland, that enrolled a first-year class of 229 students in Fall 2025 from 2,876 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 164 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.73. It is ranked #62 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News rankings, and its clinical training and dispute resolution programs rank #8 nationally while health care law ranks #6. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that Maryland Carey pairs top-10 specialty strength and a downtown Baltimore location inside the country's second-largest legal market with a notably heavy debt profile — average indebtedness of $145,541 among 2025 J.D. graduates who borrowed — against an unusually generous cost structure for Maryland residents.

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Maryland Carey Law at a Glance

Category Latest information
Founded 1816
Type Public
ABA approval or accreditation ABA approved (Council of the Section of Legal Education)
Location Baltimore, Maryland
Latest U.S. News rank #62 tie (2026 edition)
Latest completed applications 2,876 (Fall 2025, 2025 509 report)
Latest acceptance rate 26.08% (Fall 2025, 509); 26.1% (U.S. News)
Latest LSAT median 164 full-time / 154 part-time (Fall 2025)
Latest GPA median 3.73 full-time / 3.25 part-time (Fall 2025)
Latest entering class 229 (Fall 2025: 208 full-time, 21 part-time)
Current tuition (2025–26) $37,830 resident / $55,844 non-resident (full-time)
Current estimated cost of attendance Not published in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed
Latest first-time bar passage 81.7% (2025 graduates, LawHub)
Latest bar-required employment 95% of employed 2025 graduates in bar-required or J.D.-advantage roles (school-reported)
Current dean Renée H. Laurent (formerly Renée McDonald Hutchins)

The admissions figures are drawn from Maryland Carey Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (2,876 completed applications, 750 offers, 229 in the first-year class as of October 2025, total J.D. enrollment 650). The school's own "Fast Facts" page reports 3,140 applications, 792 admitted, and 235 enrolled for the 2025 entering class; the difference reflects different reporting dates and counting methods, and this profile uses the standardized 509 figures except where the school's newer cohort data adds detail. Tuition figures are the officially reported 2025–26 charges from the 509 report. Renée H. Laurent serves as dean and professor of law; she previously served on the faculty for fourteen years before becoming dean, and the school's sources refer to her under both her current name and her earlier name, Renée McDonald Hutchins. The precise date of her appointment as dean was not confirmed in the sources reviewed.

Introduction

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The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, founded in 1816, is the law school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and one of the oldest law schools in the United States. It occupies a campus at 500 West Baltimore Street in downtown Baltimore, within walking distance of the Inner Harbor, Camden Yards, and an unusual concentration of courts and government offices.

Maryland Carey's identity rests on three pillars: a clinical program ranked among the top ten nationally for more than a decade and a litigation-and-advocacy culture built around it; a cluster of nationally ranked specialty programs — health care law (#6), clinical training (#8), dispute resolution (#8), and environmental law (#18) — supported by the school's position inside the University of Maryland, Baltimore's seven professional schools; and a location that places students inside the Baltimore–Washington corridor, which the school describes as the second-largest legal market in the country. It is one of the older public law schools in the nation and carries a strong public-service orientation, reflected in its stated mission of enhancing access to justice and providing pro bono legal services.

Rankings and Reputation

Maryland Carey Law is ranked #62 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. Its reputation rests less on that overall position than on a set of specialty programs that regularly outrank the school as a whole — most importantly clinical training and dispute resolution, both in the national top ten, and health care law at #6.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition Maryland Carey rank
2026 62 (tie)

Earlier ranks were not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed. Applicants should treat movement within the 55–70 band as largely immaterial to Maryland Carey's practical career outcomes, which are driven by the Baltimore–Washington market, the clinical program's reputation with public-interest and government employers, and the health-law pipeline rather than by overall rank position.

Specialty rankings

Program U.S. News 2026 rank
Health Care Law #6 (tie)
Clinical Training #8 (tie)
Dispute Resolution #8 (tie)
Part-time Law Program #13 (tie)
Environmental Law #18 (tie)
Criminal Law #31 (tie)
Constitutional Law #40 (tie)
Business / Corporate Law #47 (tie)
Contracts / Commercial Law #51 (tie)
Legal Writing #66 (tie)
Intellectual Property Law #76 (tie)

The clinical program in particular has been ranked among the nation's top ten by U.S. News for more than a decade, and it is the single most consistently cited strength of the school.

Other recognition

  • Ranked as one of the best 376 U.S. universities by the Princeton Review, based on survey responses from more than 122,000 students
  • The law school is one of seven professional schools on the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, alongside schools of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, social work, dentistry, and the graduate school — a structure that supports the health law and public health law programs

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric Fall 2025 (509 report)
Completed applications 2,876
Offers of admission 750
Acceptance rate 26.08%
Total in first-year class 229
— Full-time 208
— Part-time evening 21
Total J.D. enrollment 650
Yield (enrollees / offers) 30.5%

Maryland Carey Law's own "Fast Facts" page, last updated May 2026, reports a slightly larger and newer cohort for the 2025 entering class: 3,140 applications, 792 admitted, and 235 enrolled (211 full-time day and 24 part-time evening). The two sets of figures are reported on different bases — the 509 report reflects the class as of October 2025 and the Fast Facts page reflects the school's final enrollment count — and both are reproduced here rather than reconciled.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic 25th percentile Median 75th percentile
LSAT (full-time) 157 164 166
LSAT (part-time) 149 154 162
Undergraduate GPA (full-time) 3.45 3.73 3.90
Undergraduate GPA (part-time) 3.04 3.25 3.78

The school reports a median LSAT of 164 across the enrolling class with a full range of 146 to 175, and a median GPA of 3.82 with a range of 2.31 to 4.20 — the wider ranges indicating that Maryland Carey admits a genuinely broad band of applicants rather than cutting off at a narrow credential threshold.

Class composition (2025 entering class, school-reported)

Demographic metric Value
Women 63%
Persons of color 40%
First-generation college graduates 15%
First-generation law school graduates 85%
Pell Grant recipients 21%
LGBTQ+ students 23%
Average age 25 (range 20–55)
Graduated college in 2026 26%
In-state students 52%
States represented 30
Colleges represented 120

The 85% first-generation law student figure and the 63% women figure are among the more distinctive cohort characteristics in the school's rank band, and they shape an advising culture oriented toward students without family experience in the profession.

Interpreting the numbers

A 164 full-time median LSAT against a 26.08% acceptance rate places Maryland Carey in the selective-but-accessible tier of public law schools — materially more accessible than the top 30, but with full-time credentials in line with peer publics in the Washington–Baltimore corridor. The part-time evening division runs a far lower credential band (154 median LSAT, 3.25 median GPA) because it serves working applicants, a pattern common to evening programs. The school's own reported ranges — an LSAT floor of 146 and a GPA floor of 2.31 — signal that Maryland Carey weighs non-academic factors heavily in a meaningful number of admissions decisions.

Application timing and requirements

Specific application deadlines for the current cycle were not retrieved in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed and should be confirmed with the Office of Admissions. What is confirmed is the contact point for admissions questions: the Office of Admissions, 500 West Baltimore Street, Suite 130, Baltimore, MD 21201-1786; phone (410) 706-3492; email [email protected]; office hours Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Transfer applicants are handled through a separate process, with credit-transfer policies published under the school's ABA Standard 509(c) disclosures.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Because Maryland Carey is a public law school, tuition differs substantially between Maryland residents and non-residents, and a part-time evening division offers a reduced annual load.

Official 1L tuition and fees, 2025–26 (ABA Standard 509 report)

Program Tuition Fees Total
Full-time, Maryland resident $37,830 $2,179 $40,009
Full-time, non-resident $55,844 $2,179 $58,023
Part-time, Maryland resident $24,831 $2,163 $26,994
Part-time, non-resident $36,556 $2,163 $38,719

The $40,009 full-time resident figure is corroborated by U.S. News, which lists in-state tuition and fees of $40,009 for the doctorate program. Tuition is not locked to the entering rate, so applicants should assume annual increases across the three-year full-time or part-time course of study.

Cost of attendance

The line-item cost-of-attendance budget for Maryland Carey — including housing, food, books, transportation, and personal expenses — was not retrievable in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed. Applicants should request the current J.D. cost-of-attendance budget directly from the Office of Financial Aid before comparing offers. The verified floor is the tuition table above: $40,009 for a full-time Maryland resident and $58,023 for a full-time non-resident in the first year.

Financial aid

Per the 2025 Standard 509 report, 507 students received grants against a J.D. population of 644 students — approximately 79% of the student body. The distribution is heavily weighted toward the top end: the median grant is $28,000, the 75th percentile is $40,000, but the 25th percentile is only $10,161. That spread indicates Maryland Carey concentrates large awards on a substantial subset of the class while a meaningful group receives comparatively little.

Grant metric Value
Students receiving grants 507 of 644 (approximately 79%)
25th percentile grant $10,161
Median grant $28,000
75th percentile grant $40,000
Conditional scholarships None
  • No conditional scholarships: the school states that it does not award scholarships that may be reduced or eliminated based on law school academic performance other than failure to maintain good academic standing, and it therefore does not complete a conditional-scholarship retention chart. This is a meaningful protection given the size of the median award.
  • Loan and work-study programs, need-based grant programs, and any loan repayment assistance program offered by the school were not confirmed in the sources reviewed this cycle.
  • The financial aid application deadline and priority date were not retrieved.

Debt perspective

The debt picture is the least favorable feature of Maryland Carey's value proposition. U.S. News reports average indebtedness of $145,541 for 2025 J.D. graduates who incurred law school debt — a figure that approaches the full three-year sticker cost of a non-resident and reflects the fact that non-resident tuition of $55,844 per year, plus living expenses, exceeds the standard federal borrowing caps of $20,500 annually in Direct Unsubsidized loans plus Grad PLUS loans. The proportion of graduates who borrowed was not retrievable in the sources reviewed, so the $145,541 figure cannot be contextualized against the share of the class it represents.

The mitigating factors are the median grant of $28,000, the absence of conditional scholarships, the strong clerkship and public-interest placement the school reports for its 2025 class, and the availability of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for graduates entering government and nonprofit work — a common path at this school given that 27% of the 2025 employed class entered public interest, government, education, or business and industry.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

Maryland Carey Law reports strong outcomes for its 2025 graduating class, with a distinctive tilt toward judicial clerkships that is unusual for a school in this rank band.

Employment metric Class of 2025
Employed or pursuing another graduate degree 97% (school-reported)
Employed graduates in bar-required or J.D.-advantage positions 95% (school-reported)
Employment score (LawHub, long-term full-time legal jobs) 79.8%
Underemployment score (LawHub) 0%
Employed in judicial clerkships 33% of employed graduates
Employed in law firms 39%, of whom 41% at firms of more than 100 attorneys
Employed in public interest, government, education, business, or industry 27%

The school notes that its 39% law-firm figure does not include graduates who deferred firm employment in order to take a clerkship — a relevant caveat given that a third of employed graduates clerked.

Reading the two sets of numbers

The school's own figures (97% employed or in graduate study; 95% of employed graduates in bar-required or J.D.-advantage roles) and the independent LawHub employment score (79.8%, with a 0% underemployment score) measure different things. LawHub's score counts only full-time, long-term positions that require bar passage, which explains why it is lower than the school's broader "employed or in graduate study" figure. The combination — a strong headline placement rate, a low bar-required-only rate relative to peers, and a 0% underemployment score — is consistent with a class that places very heavily into clerkships, government, and public-interest roles rather than uniformly into bar-required firm jobs.

The detailed ABA category table for the Class of 2025 (exact bar-required count, firm-size distribution, unemployment figures, and state-by-state placement) was not retrievable in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed and is therefore not reproduced here. Applicants should consult Maryland Carey Law's official Class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary, published under the school's ABA Required Disclosures.

Bar passage

Bar statistic 2025 graduates
First-time bar passage rate 81.7% (LawHub)
Bar-required employment rate 86.0% (ILRG, most recent edition retrieved)
Overall employment rate 93.0% (ILRG, most recent edition retrieved)
Federal clerkship rate 3.6% (ILRG)

The school publishes both an ABA Bar Passage Outcomes report for 2026 and one for 2025, along with its Standard 509 reports, under its ABA Required Disclosures — those are the authoritative documents for jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction first-time and ultimate bar passage data. The 81.7% first-time figure sits in the middle of the national range and below the strongest publics in the region; prospective students comparing Maryland Carey against the University of Maryland's in-state peer institutions should pull the jurisdiction detail from the school's Bar Passage Outcomes report, since Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. rates can diverge substantially.

Where graduates go

The school's stated geography is the Baltimore–Washington corridor, which it describes as the country's second-largest legal market. Maryland Carey's campus sits within walking distance of the U.S. Immigration Court, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the U.S. District Courthouse, the Maryland Attorney General's Office, and the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, and it offers externships across state and federal government agencies, nonprofits, NGOs, and trade associations. With 52% of the entering class drawn from Maryland, the graduate base is heavily in-state, supplemented by placement into Washington, D.C., and its suburbs. Exact state-by-state counts for the Class of 2025 were not published in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed.

Academics and Programs

The J.D. requires foundational first-year coursework followed by a broad elective curriculum, allowing students either to concentrate in a specialty or to build a general practice foundation.

Curriculum and special strengths

Maryland Carey organizes its upper-level curriculum around a set of established specialty areas:

  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Business Law
  • Clinical Law
  • Cybersecurity and Crisis Management
  • Environmental Law
  • Health Care Law
  • Intellectual Property Law
  • International and Comparative Law
  • Public Health Law
  • Women, Leadership, and Equality

Three of these correspond directly to the school's top-20 national rankings — health care law (#6), dispute resolution (#8), and environmental law (#18) — and the health and public health law programs benefit directly from Maryland Carey's position inside a campus that also houses schools of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, dentistry, and social work.

Degree programs include the J.D., the LL.M. (Master of Laws), and the M.S.L. (Master of Science in Law), along with dual-degree options. The specific dual-degree partner programs were not retrieved in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed and should be confirmed with the school.

Clinics and experiential learning

The clinical program is Maryland Carey's signature strength. The school operates more than 25 clinics covering a broad range of practice areas, including civil and criminal litigation, advice and counseling, and transactional work. Civil practice areas include environmental law, health, housing and community development, juvenile law and children, AIDS, and immigration. Students in the criminal clinics regularly represent defendants in misdemeanor cases in Maryland's district courts and work in the school's community justice efforts.

Beyond clinics, experiential learning includes internships, externships, and trial advocacy programs. The program has been ranked among the nation's top ten by U.S. News for more than a decade, and the school's litigation culture is reinforced by a strong advocacy curriculum and by its downtown location, which places courts and agencies within walking distance.

Journals

  • Maryland Law Review
  • Journal of Health Care Law & Policy
  • Journal of Business & Technology Law
  • Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class
  • Journal of International Law

Faculty

Metric 2025 509 report
Full-time faculty 69 (33 men, 36 women)
Non-full-time faculty 123 (73 men, 50 women)
Total faculty 192
Computed J.D. students per full-time faculty member Approximately 9.4:1 (650 J.D. students divided by 69 full-time faculty)
Wikipedia-listed figures 59 full-time and 112 adjunct (older data; superseded by the 509 report)

The full-time faculty is nearly evenly divided between men and women, which is unusual among law faculties and consistent with the school's 63% women enrollment.

Student Life and Location

Living in Baltimore

Maryland Carey Law is located at 500 West Baltimore Street in downtown Baltimore, near the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards and among seven professional schools on the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus. The location is genuinely urban and practically oriented: the U.S. Immigration Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, U.S. District Courthouse, Maryland Attorney General's Office, and Circuit Court of Baltimore City are all within walking distance, and the school's clinics and externships draw directly on those institutions.

The broader region is the school's principal selling point. The Baltimore–Washington corridor offers access to state and federal government agencies, nonprofits, NGOs, and trade associations, with Amtrak and MARC trains, UMB shuttles, CityBus, BaltimoreLink, and other MTA buses connecting the two cities, and BWI Airport a fifteen-minute drive from campus. The trade-offs are those of any urban campus: a car-dependent region, a downtown location that requires situational awareness, and a legal market that is strong locally but less nationally portable than New York or Chicago.

Student body

Total J.D. enrollment is 650, with a first-year class of 229 split between 208 full-time day and 21 part-time evening students. Including LL.M. and M.S.L. students, the school's overall enrollment is approximately 705. The part-time evening division, which draws working professionals, is a distinctive feature: its 149 LSAT 25th percentile and 3.25 median GPA indicate a cohort admitted on substantially different criteria from the day division.

The entering class is 63% women, 40% persons of color, 85% first-generation law students, 23% LGBTQ+, and 21% Pell Grant recipients, with an average age of 25 and students drawn from 30 states and 120 colleges. That profile produces a student culture oriented toward public service and access to justice rather than toward a purely transactional, firm-track experience.

How Maryland Carey Law Compares

Choose Maryland Carey if

  • You are a Maryland resident: at $40,009 in first-year tuition and fees for a top-70 law school with top-10 clinical and dispute-resolution programs, the in-state value is genuinely strong.
  • You want a top-10 clinical program with more than 25 clinics and access to courts and agencies within walking distance — this is one of the best clinical educations in the country.
  • You are targeting health care law: the #6 national ranking and the presence of medical, nursing, pharmacy, and social work schools on the same campus is a combination few schools can match.
  • You want a judicial clerkship — 33% of employed 2025 graduates clerked, an unusually high figure.
  • You are drawn to public interest, government, or public service work; 27% of the employed class entered those sectors.

Consider alternatives if

  • You would be a non-resident paying $58,023 in first-year tuition and fees, especially combined with the reported $145,541 average indebtedness.
  • Bar passage is a priority for you: the 81.7% first-time rate trails several regional peers, and a low first-time pass rate interacts badly with heavy debt if it delays licensure.
  • You want a large-firm pipeline. Maryland Carey places well in Maryland and D.C. firms, but it is not a national BigLaw feeder, and only 41% of its law-firm hires went to firms of more than 100 attorneys.
  • You need a small, intimate cohort — at 650 J.D. students the school is mid-sized, and the day division alone enrolls over 200 students per class.

The TLS Verdict

The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law is a school whose specialty strengths substantially exceed its overall rank. Its clinical program (#8) and dispute resolution program (#8) have been national top-ten fixtures, health care law ranks #6, and its downtown Baltimore location places students inside the corridor the school calls the country's second-largest legal market. Placement for the Class of 2025 was strong on the school's measures — 97% employed or in graduate study, 95% of employed graduates in bar-required or J.D.-advantage roles — with a striking 33% entering judicial clerkships and 27% in public interest, government, education, or business. Financial aid is broad (79% of students receive grants, median $28,000, 75th percentile $40,000) and no scholarships are conditional.

The trade-offs are equally clear. Reported average indebtedness of $145,541 for 2025 graduates who borrowed is high relative to the school's placement profile, driven by non-resident tuition of $55,844 per year plus living expenses exceeding federal borrowing caps; the cost-of-attendance budget and loan repayment assistance program could not be verified in the sources reviewed and are essential due diligence items. First-time bar passage of 81.7% and a bar-required-only employment score of 79.8% (per LawHub, with a 0% underemployment score) describe a school that places graduates reliably but disproportionately outside the highest-paying bar-required track. For Maryland residents, especially those targeting health law, public service, or a clerkship, Maryland Carey is a strong and defensible choice; for non-residents paying near-full price, the debt math requires a hard look at the grant offer before committing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard is it to get into Maryland Carey Law?

Moderately selective: for Fall 2025, the school accepted 26.08% of applicants (750 offers from 2,876 completed applications), yielding a first-year class of 229.

What LSAT score is competitive for Maryland Carey Law?

The full-time median LSAT for the Fall 2025 entering class was 164, with a middle-50% range of 157 to 166. The part-time evening division's median was 154, with a range of 149 to 162. The school reports a full range of 146 to 175 across the enrolling class, so there is a real path for applicants below the median.

What GPA do Maryland Carey applicants typically have?

The full-time median undergraduate GPA was 3.73, with a middle-50% range of 3.45 to 3.90. The part-time median was 3.25, with a range of 3.04 to 3.78. The school reports a full range of 2.31 to 4.20.

Does Maryland Carey Law give scholarships?

Yes, broadly. Per the 2025 ABA 509 report, 507 of 644 students (about 79%) received grants, with a median of $28,000 and a 75th percentile of $40,000 — but a 25th percentile of only $10,161, meaning award amounts vary widely.

Does Maryland Carey Law have conditional scholarships?

No. The school states that it does not award scholarships that may be reduced or eliminated based on academic performance other than failure to maintain good academic standing.

What is Maryland Carey Law's bar passage rate?

The first-time bar passage rate for 2025 graduates was 81.7% per LawHub. The school publishes jurisdiction-level first-time and ultimate bar passage data in its ABA Bar Passage Outcomes reports for 2025 and 2026 under its ABA Required Disclosures.

Is Maryland Carey Law good for public interest and government work?

Yes. Twenty-seven percent of employed 2025 graduates entered public interest, government, education, or business and industry, the school operates more than 25 clinics, and its stated mission emphasizes access to justice and pro bono service. It is a common feeder for Maryland and D.C. government and nonprofit employers.

Is Maryland Carey Law good for clerkships?

Yes, notably so. The school reports that 33% of employed 2025 graduates were in judicial clerkships — an unusually high share for a school in this rank band — and U.S. News ranks clinical training #8 and dispute resolution #8.

Does Maryland Carey Law offer a part-time J.D.?

Yes. The part-time evening division enrolled 21 students in the Fall 2025 first-year class per the 509 report (24 per the school's Fast Facts page). It is ranked #13 nationally by U.S. News.

What is the tuition at Maryland Carey Law?

For 2025–26, full-time tuition and fees are $40,009 for Maryland residents and $58,023 for non-residents. Part-time tuition and fees are $26,994 resident and $38,719 non-resident.

What is Maryland Carey Law best known for?

Its clinical program (#8 nationally, top ten for more than a decade), health care law (#6), dispute resolution (#8), and its downtown Baltimore location inside the Baltimore–Washington legal corridor.

Contact and Key Links

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
500 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-1786

Main Phone: 410-706-7214

Admissions Phone: 410-706-3492

Admissions Email: [email protected]

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

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