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Albany Law School

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Last updated: October 14, 2026

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Albany Law School

Albany Law School is a private, independent law school in Albany, New York, that enrolled a first-year class of 237 students in Fall 2025 from 2,638 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 158 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.54. It is ranked #120 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News rankings, and it is the oldest independent law school in the United States, founded in 1851. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that Albany pairs a broad and unusually generous non-conditional grant program — 94% of students receive grants with a median award of $38,000 and a guaranteed minimum of $20,000 per year — and a genuinely national reputation in government law with a high private sticker price of $66,554 in 2026–27 tuition, at an estimated 2026–27 cost of attendance of $91,042.

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Albany Law at a Glance

Category Latest information
Founded 1851
Type Private, independent (historically Albany Law School of Union University)
ABA approval or accreditation Approved by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar; approval year not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed
Location Albany, New York
Latest U.S. News rank #120 tie (2026 edition)
Latest completed applications 2,638 (Fall 2025, 2025 509 report)
Latest acceptance rate 37.45% (Fall 2025)
Latest LSAT median 158 (Fall 2025)
Latest GPA median 3.54 (Fall 2025)
Latest entering class 237 (233 full-time, 4 part-time; Fall 2025)
Current tuition $67,174 (2026–27, tuition plus all mandatory fees); $66,554 tuition, $580 fees
Current estimated cost of attendance $91,042 (2026–27, computed)
Latest first-time bar passage 86.71% (all jurisdictions, 2025 first-time takers); 87.50% on the New York bar
Latest bar-required employment 86.3% full-time, long-term bar-required (Class of 2024); 92% of the employed Class of 2025 in bar-required or JD-advantage roles
Current dean Cinnamon Carlarne

The admissions figures are drawn from Albany Law's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (2,638 completed applications, 988 offers, 37.45% acceptance rate, 236 enrollees from the applicant pool, first-year class of 237, total J.D. enrollment 615 as of October 5, 2025). The school's own class-profile page reports the same cycle with slightly different counts — 2,572 applicants and 238 enrolled, with a median GPA of 3.53 — reflecting different reporting dates and counting methods, and this profile uses the standardized 509 figures. Tuition and fee lines are from the 509 report for 2025–26 and from the school's 2026–27 cost-of-attendance page; the $91,042 total is arithmetic from those published components rather than a single published figure. Cinnamon Carlarne is dean; her appointment date was not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed. Albany Law was long known as Albany Law School of Union University and remains an independent institution rather than a unit of a larger university, sharing a 54-acre campus in Albany with three other colleges.

Introduction

Albany.jpg



Albany Law School, founded in 1851, is the oldest independent law school in the United States. It was established in Albany, New York by Amos Dean, Ira Harris and Amasa J. Parker, with Dean serving as the school's first dean until 1868, and it has operated continuously as a freestanding institution since — it was historically associated with Union University in nearby Schenectady and is still sometimes listed as Albany Law School of Union University, but it is not part of Union College or of the State University of New York. The school has begun marking 175 years of shaping law and public life.

Its location is the source of much of its identity. Albany is the capital of New York State, and Albany Law sits at 80 New Scotland Avenue in the heart of the city, on a 54-acre campus shared with three other colleges. That proximity to state government produced the school's signature strength: Albany Law was ranked #1 in the nation for government law by preLaw magazine and earned an A− rating in health law for the third consecutive year, and it remains among the top U.S. law schools at preparing students for careers in government, public interest and public-sector law. It also produced, in Kate Stoneman (class of 1898), its first alumna and the first woman admitted to the New York State bar, and in William McKinley (1867) and Robert H. Jackson (1912) a President of the United States and a Justice of the Supreme Court.

With a total J.D. enrollment of 615 and a first-year class of 237, Albany Law is a mid-sized independent school. Its identity rests on three pillars: a national reputation in government and public law built on its capital-city location and its Government Law Center; an unusually broad and non-conditional grant program that makes its high sticker price far more manageable than the headline number suggests; and a distinctive multi-format curriculum that includes a traditional three-year J.D., an accelerated two-year J.D., a four-year program charged at 75% of the full-time rate, and an online Flex J.D.

Rankings and Reputation

Albany Law is ranked #120 (tie) out of 194 in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. Its national reputation rests less on that position than on government law, where it holds a #1 ranking from preLaw magazine, and on its alumni network in New York State government, the judiciary and the Capitol press corps. The school's own materials describe its vision as "an independent law school with a national reputation for excellence," and its 36-member Board of Trustees includes general counsels, CEOs, judges and partners in prominent law firms.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition Albany Law rank
2026 120 (tie) of 194
2025 117
2024 105

The 2026 placement is from the current U.S. News profile; the #117 and #105 figures are from Albany Law's Wikipedia entry and are included to show the trajectory, which has been a modest decline of roughly fifteen places over three editions. A separate 2026–27 peer-reputation tabulation places Albany Law at 120th on the peer-assessment metric specifically, with a score of 2.1 — which is consistent with the overall placement in the current edition. Applicants should treat movement in the 100–130 band as immaterial to practical outcomes, which at Albany are driven by the government and public-law network, the New York bar results and the grant aid rather than by rank position.

Specialty rankings

Specialty Albany Law placement
Government Law #1 in the nation (preLaw magazine)
Health Law A− rating (preLaw magazine), third consecutive year
Online Law Programs (Flex J.D.) #4 on preLaw's list of best online law schools
Business/Corporate Law #124 (tie), 2026 U.S. News specialty table

The #1 government-law ranking and the Health Law A− are school-announced recognitions from preLaw magazine rather than U.S. News specialty ranks, and the Business/Corporate placement at #124 (tie) is drawn from the U.S. News specialty table. U.S. News specialty rank numbers for Clinical Training, Health Care Law, International Law, Trial Advocacy and other fields were not retrieved in machine-readable form for this profile and are therefore not listed. The school's recognized program strengths as documented on its own site are government law, health law, technology and other areas, with 14 concentrations available to J.D. candidates.

Independent metric rankings

Metric Value National rank
Presence of minority faculty 25.9% #38
Presence of female faculty 49.4% #45 (tie)
Bar-required employment (FT, long-term) 86.3% #54
Federal clerkship rate 1.5% #92
Acceptance rate (selectivity) 37.5% #104
LSAT composite 157.7 (154 · 158 · 161) #105
Overall employment at 10 months 92.7% #109
Highest tuition (full-time) $63,994 #122
Bar Passage Rate (first-time) 74.3% (−11.5 vs. New York's 85.8%) #136
Student-to-faculty ratio 14.3:1 #140 (tie)
GPA composite 3.48 (3.16 · 3.54 · 3.75) #143

Source: ILRG's 2026 Albany Law profile, built on December 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. ILRG's bar passage and employment figures cover the 2024 cohort, while the school's own reported figures below cover 2025 — both are presented so the trend and the conflict can be read. Note that the student-to-faculty ratio of 14.3:1 in ILRG's computation is derived from 509 headcounts that include non-full-time faculty, whereas the school's own class-profile page reports 8:1.

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric Fall 2025
Completed applications 2,638
Offers of admission 988
Acceptance rate 37.45%
Enrollees from applicant pool 236
Deferred admissions 1
Total in first-year class 237 (233 full-time, 4 part-time)
Yield (enrollees / offers) 22.77%

Enrollment rate from completed applications was 8.53%. Seven students transferred in and five first-year students transferred out. Total J.D. enrollment was 615 as of October 5, 2025. The school's class-profile page, which reports the same cycle on a different basis, lists 2,572 applicants and 238 enrolled.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic 25th percentile Median 75th percentile
LSAT 154 158 161
Undergraduate GPA 3.16 3.54 3.75

The class-profile page reports a median GPA of 3.53 with a 25th percentile of 3.15, a rounding difference from the 509 figures used above.

Interpreting the numbers

Albany Law's 37.45% acceptance rate places it #104 nationally on selectivity — mildly selective, roughly the national average for ABA-approved schools, and a striking improvement over the 54.6% the school accepted in 2019. The applicant volume is large relative to the class: 2,638 applications for 237 seats means the school admits nearly a thousand applicants to fill its class, and with only 22.77% of admitted applicants enrolling, Albany is heavily dependent on yield management — nearly eight in ten admitted applicants go elsewhere. The band is also wide: a 25th-percentile LSAT of 154 and a 25th-percentile GPA of 3.16 mean the school admits a substantial group well below its medians, which is a real opportunity for applicants whose numbers fall short of the medians but who can make a case on other grounds.

The trend since 2019 is a genuine repositioning:

Metric 2019 2025
Acceptance rate 54.6% 37.5%
LSAT median 153 158
LSAT 25th–75th 151–156 154–161
GPA median 3.32 3.54
GPA 25th–75th 3.06–3.62 3.16–3.75

A 17-point drop in acceptance rate and a five-point rise in median LSAT over six years is a substantial change, and it is the context for the bar-passage discussion below — Albany is admitting materially stronger students than it did in 2019, and the most recent bar results reflect that shift.

Application timing

The application is free — Albany charges no application fee. The 2025 ABA 509 report lists application deadlines of December 1 and June 30, which function as an early/priority date and a final close; the financial-aid deadline was not stated in the 509 report and should be confirmed from the school's financial-aid pages. The school admits both a traditional three-year J.D. and an accelerated two-year J.D., and offers a four-year program charged at 75% of the full-time tuition rate, so applicants should indicate their intended track at the point of application. The school publishes a full articulation and transfer policy and a list of participating partner institutions.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Albany Law's 2026–27 tuition is $66,554, with mandatory fees of $580 ($200 SBA activity fee, $40 registration fee, $380 bar success fee), for a total of $67,174. The 509 report's own lines for 2025–26 are $63,994 full-time tuition plus $240 in fees, and $57,594 part-time tuition plus the same $240 in fees.

Item Amount
Tuition, 2026–27 (three-year J.D.) $66,554
SBA Activity Fee $200
Registration Fee $40
Bar Success Fee $380
Total tuition and fees, 2026–27 $67,174
Tuition, four-year program (75% of full-time rate) $49,916
Tuition, 2025–26 full-time (509 report) $63,994 (plus $240 fees)
Tuition, 2025–26 part-time (509 report) $57,594 (plus $240 fees)
Additional final-year allowance for the New York bar exam $377

U.S. News reports the same full-time figure of $63,994 and a part-time figure of $57,594, matching the 509 lines. The four-year program's 75%-of-full-time structure is unusual and materially reduces the per-year cost for students who extend their studies. Albany charges no application fee.

Cost of attendance

Expense 2026–27, nine-month year
Tuition and mandatory fees (billed by school) $67,174
Books, supplies, course materials and equipment $1,510
Housing $14,240
Food $3,548
Transportation $1,990
Personal $2,050
Loan fees $530
Estimated total cost of attendance $91,042

The $91,042 total is arithmetic from the school's published components; Albany does not publish a single combined line, so it should be labelled as computed if quoted elsewhere. The 509 report's own living-expense lines are $21,844 for off-campus students and $9,664 for students living at home for 2025–26 — and the $9,664 figure is the number that matters most, because living at home cuts roughly $12,180 from the annual budget, more than any other single decision a student can make. An additional one-time allowance of up to $1,500 is available for the documented rental or purchase of a computer (hardware only). The accelerated two-year J.D. is budgeted on an eleven-month cycle, with housing of $17,404, food of $4,336, books of $2,265, transportation of $2,432, personal expenses of $2,505 and loan fees of $530. Cost growth has been steep: ILRG records room and board rising from $10,750 in 2019 to $21,844 in 2025, a 103% increase, alongside tuition rising from $47,450 to $63,994.

Financial aid

This is the most consequential fact in Albany Law's profile, and it cuts strongly in the school's favour. Per the 2025 Standard 509 report, 584 students — 94% — received grants, with a median grant of $38,000, a 25th percentile of $20,000 and a 75th percentile of $46,000.

Metric Value
Students receiving grants 584
Percentage receiving grants 94%
75th percentile grant $46,000
50th percentile (median) grant $38,000
25th percentile grant $20,000
Guaranteed minimum award for 2025 entrants $20,000 per academic year, guaranteed up to three years
Total scholarship dollars offered $31 million
First-year scholarship recipients Over 89% (up to full tuition)

The median grant of $38,000 covers 57% of the 2026–27 tuition line, and the guaranteed minimum of $20,000 per year for 2025 entrants — the figure the school commits to in its own general scholarship policy — covers 30%. The school states it offers grants ranging from $5,000 to full-tuition scholarships and that more than 60% of first-year students receive awards, though the school's class-profile page reports that over 89% of first-year students received scholarships in the most recent cycle, up to full tuition, with $31 million offered in total. Endowment support is meaningful: the school reports an $81 million endowment as of May 2021, 90 endowed scholarships, 11 endowed fellowships, 25 prizes and 4 endowed chairs, with the We Rise Together campaign raising a record $33 million.

Conditional scholarships: the school does not award scholarships that may be reduced or eliminated based on law school academic performance other than failure to maintain good academic standing. The 509 report accordingly shows zero conditional scholarships. In a profile series where several schools eliminate 20–40% of conditional awards, a school with 94% grant coverage, a $38,000 median award, a published guarantee of at least $20,000 per year for three years, and entirely non-conditional terms presents one of the lowest financial-risk scholarship profiles in this series — and it is what makes the $66,554 sticker price a misleading headline.

Debt perspective

Albany Law operates a formal Loan Repayment Assistance Program: J.D. graduates from the three most recent graduating classes may apply for forgivable loans of up to $10,000 per year for a maximum of three years, which is a real and capped benefit rather than an open-ended promise. Average indebtedness and the proportion of graduates borrowing were not retrieved for this profile; one historical school source cites an average of $30,000 in loan debt for students who graduate with debt, but that figure is undated and refers to a much older cohort, so it is not reliable for current applicants. The arithmetic nonetheless explains why Albany's debt picture is likely better than its sticker price implies: a student paying the full $67,174 tuition and fees would face roughly $201,500 in tuition alone over three years, but a student receiving the median $38,000 grant faces roughly $87,500 in net tuition, and a student on the guaranteed $20,000 minimum faces roughly $141,500. Applicants should pull average indebtedness and the borrowing rate from the ABA's graduate-indebtedness data and confirm the LRAP's qualifying-employment terms — income caps and eligible job categories — before relying on it, since the $10,000-per-year, three-year structure is capped even for graduates who need it most.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

Albany Law reports that the Class of 2025 achieved a 93% employment rate, and that 92% of employed graduates held full-time, long-term, Bar Admission Required/Anticipated or J.D. Advantage positions — the school's fifth consecutive year at that level. The school also reports that it "remains among the top law schools in the U.S. at preparing students for careers in government and public interest, and for jobs as public servants."

Employment metric Class of 2025
Employment rate 93% (school-reported)
Employed graduates in full-time, long-term bar-required or JD-advantage roles 92%
Consecutive years at this level 5

For comparison, ILRG's 509-based tabulation of the Class of 2024 gives 86.3% full-time, long-term bar-required employment — national rank #54, a genuinely strong placement — along with 92.7% overall employment at ten months (rank #109) and a 1.5% federal clerkship rate (rank #92). The 86.3% bar-required rate is the single most favourable employment metric in Albany Law's profile and sits well above the national average and above several higher-ranked schools in this series.

Salary medians, the sector-by-sector breakdown, clerkship counts, and the geographic distribution of the Class of 2025 were not retrieved in machine-readable form for this profile. The school publishes an Employment Outcomes page and links its ABA Employment Summary reports, which contain those line items, and they should be pulled from the source documents rather than estimated. ILRG's salary statistics for its report are drawn from the Class of 2023 and exclude JD-advantage positions.

What these numbers mean

Read together, the two data points describe a school whose placement is stronger than its rank position suggests, with one clear caveat about definitions. A 93% employment rate with 92% of the employed in full-time, long-term bar-required or JD-advantage roles is a solid outcome, and the fifth consecutive year at that level indicates stability rather than a single good cycle. The 86.3% full-time, long-term bar-required rate — ranked #54 nationally — is the more demanding measure and is genuinely strong for a school ranked #120, which is consistent with Albany's government and public-sector pipeline: government and public-interest legal jobs are typically full-time, long-term, bar-required positions, so a school that places heavily into those sectors scores well on this metric. The 1.5% federal clerkship rate is modest but not negligible. The missing pieces are salary data — which for a government-heavy placement mix would likely show a lower median than a law-firm-heavy school of the same employment rate, and which matters enormously given a $66,554 sticker price — and the geographic distribution. Prospective applicants should treat the high bar-required rate as verified, the salary picture as unavailable, and the price-versus-salary arithmetic as the question the profile cannot yet answer from the retrieved sources.

Bar passage

Bar statistic Value
First-time passage, all jurisdictions, 2025 86.71%
First-time passage, New York State, 2025 87.50%
First-time passage, New York bar, July 2025 87% (school-announced)
Ultimate bar passage, Class of 2023 91.16%
ILRG tabulation, 2024 first-time takers 74.3% (−11.5 points vs. New York's 85.8%)
ILRG tabulation, 2019 first-time takers 70.6% (−5.1 points vs. New York's 75.7%)

These figures conflict, and the conflict must be stated plainly rather than averaged. The school's own most recent figures — 86.71% across all jurisdictions and 87.50% on the New York bar for 2025 first-time takers, with 87% announced for the July 2025 New York administration — describe a school that comfortably passes the large majority of its first-time takers. ILRG's independently tabulated measure for the 2024 administration puts the first-time rate at 74.3%, 11.5 points *below* the New York statewide average of 85.8%. Two things plausibly explain the gap: ILRG's report covers a different (earlier) cohort than the school's 2025 figures, and the measures may treat repeat and out-of-state takers differently. The direction of travel is clear in any case — the school's own series improved sharply from 70.6% in 2019 to the high-80s by 2025, which is consistent with a five-point rise in median LSAT over the same period. The 91.16% two-year ultimate rate for the Class of 2023 indicates that graduates who fail on the first attempt generally pass later. Applicants should rely on the school's most recent all-jurisdiction figure as the current position, while recognising that the independent 2024 tabulation was materially worse and that Albany's bar performance has historically trailed the New York average rather than beaten it.

Where graduates go

Albany Law's placement identity is government and public service, and the school states explicitly that it remains among the top U.S. law schools in preparing students for government and public-interest careers and for jobs as public servants — a claim consistent with its #1 preLaw ranking in government law and with the 86.3% bar-required employment rate that such roles produce. The detailed sector distribution, salary medians, clerkship counts and geographic breakdown for the Class of 2025 were not retrieved for this profile and should be taken from the school's Employment Outcomes page and ABA Employment Summary reports before publication. What can be said on the evidence is that the government-law pipeline is the school's strongest and most documented asset, that the federal clerkship rate of 1.5% is modest, and that applicants targeting New York State government, the legislature, state agencies, public-interest organisations, legal aid or district attorneys' offices should read the school's outcomes as its clearest competitive advantage.

Academics and Programs

The J.D. is offered in several formats: a traditional three-year residential program, an accelerated two-year J.D., a four-year program charged at 75% of the full-time tuition rate, and a Flex J.D. delivered online, which preLaw magazine ranked #4 among the best online law schools in America. Albany Law offers 14 concentrations for J.D. candidates, an LL.M. program, certificates, and joint degrees including J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.P.A., J.D./M.R.P., J.D./M.S. and J.D./M.S.W. The 2025 509 report lists 43 full-time faculty, 41 non-full-time faculty, and four full-time plus one part-time librarian; the class-profile page reports 48 full-time and 29 part-time faculty, six librarians and 78 staff in total, with a stated student-to-faculty ratio of 8:1. ILRG's 509-derived computation across 85 faculty members gives 14.3:1, and the two figures differ because the school's 8:1 rests on its own faculty count while ILRG's includes non-full-time faculty and a larger student body denominator. The faculty is 49.4% female (#45 nationally) and 25.9% racial or ethnic minority (#38 nationally) — the minority-faculty percentage is the strongest diversity metric in this profile series so far.

Curriculum and special strengths

Albany Law's signature academic strength is government law. Its Government Law Center is the institutional anchor of the #1 preLaw ranking, and the school's capital-city location gives students direct access to the New York State legislature, executive agencies, the Court of Appeals and the state bar. Health law is the school's second strongest area, recognised with an A− rating from preLaw for a third consecutive year; students in the health law concentration gain field experience with real clients in the Health Law Clinic. The school's curricular offer is deliberately small-sectioned: the class-profile data shows a first-year section size of 60 and an upper-division course distribution in which 80 sections enrol fewer than 25 students, 31 enrol 25 to 49, five enrol 50 to 74, three enrol 75 to 99 and only two exceed 100 — a profile that supports the small-class experience the school advertises. Thirty-one seminars and 27 co-curricular offerings are available, and 144 seats are available in law clinics.

The school publishes three journals: the Albany Law Review, the Albany Law Journal of Science and Technology, and the Albany Government Law Review — the last of which is a direct expression of the school's government-law specialisation. The Justice Center was endowed in 2019 with a $15 million gift, and the school has funded 10 new scholarships and endowed funds alongside a new Barrister position. Endowed resources include 90 endowed scholarships, 11 endowed fellowships, 25 prizes and 4 endowed chairs, backed by an $81 million endowment as of May 2021. Notable faculty have included Alicia Ouellette, Ira Mark Bloom, Vincent M. Bonventre, Raymond H. Brescia and Patrick M. Connors, with the current deanship held by Cinnamon Carlarne, a scholar with a B.A. from Baylor, a J.D. from UC Berkeley and BCL and MSc degrees from Oxford.

Clinics and experiential learning

Albany Law's clinical program offers 144 seats across its in-house clinics, with the Health Law Clinic the most clearly documented — students represent real clients in health-related matters, which is the experiential counterpart to the school's A− health law rating. The school's clinical, co-curricular and seminar offerings are itemised in its ABA required disclosures, with 27 co-curricular offerings and 31 seminars available in the reported academic year. Experiential learning is also embedded in the professional-competency side of the curriculum: the 2026–27 cost of attendance includes a mandatory $380 Bar Success Fee, indicating that bar-preparation support is built into the program rather than sold separately, and J.D. students can gain field experience with real clients through the school's clinics. The specific clinic roster beyond the Health Law Clinic, client populations, externship structure and semester-in-practice options were not retrieved in machine-readable form for this profile and should be filled from the school's programs and clinics pages before publication.

Student Life and Location

Living in Albany

Albany Law School is located at 80 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, New York 12208-3494, on a 54-acre campus shared with three other colleges in the heart of New York's capital city. The location is the school's defining practical asset: the New York State Capitol, the legislature, state agencies, the Court of Appeals and the state bar are all within the city, which is why government law is both the school's top-ranked program and its strongest employment pipeline. Albany is a mid-sized city with a cost of living far below New York City — the school's 2026–27 housing allowance is $14,240 and its 509 off-campus living figure is $21,844, both a fraction of what comparable budgets cost in Manhattan — and it sits roughly two and a half hours from both New York City and Boston, giving students access to downstate and New England markets without the urban cost. For students who can live at home, the 509 at-home living allowance of $9,664 is the single largest cost lever available, cutting roughly $12,180 from the annual budget relative to living off campus. The trade-off is market size: Albany's private-practice market is small, and students targeting large-firm work in New York City should expect to compete for those positions from upstate rather than recruit on their home turf.

Student body

Metric Value
Total J.D. enrollment 615 (509 report, as of October 5, 2025)
Total J.D. enrollment (class-profile page) 594
Entering class 237
M.S. enrollment 51
LL.M. enrollment 16
Certificate enrollment 11
Women 50.7%
Men 47.3%
Non-binary / other 2.0%
Full-time faculty 43 (plus 41 non-full-time)
Students from a diverse background (entering class 2025) 31%

The enrollment figures reflect two bases — the most recent 509 filing at 615 J.D. students and the school's class-profile page at 594 — and both are shown rather than reconciled. The entering class of 237 came from 2,638 applications and is 31% students from a diverse background. Graduation rates are strong: of the cohort entering as the Class of 2021, 87% graduated in three years and 89% in four; for the Class of 2022 cohort, 90% graduated in three years and 93% in four. Attrition is very low, reported at 0.7% academic and 0.3% other. With 594–615 J.D. students across a three-year program and a first-year section size of 60, Albany Law offers a small-section experience inside a mid-sized school, and it serves the widest range of students in this profile series through its four formats — three-year, accelerated two-year, extended four-year at reduced tuition, and online Flex J.D. Alumni include William McKinley (1867), 25th President of the United States; Robert H. Jackson (1912), former U.S. Supreme Court Justice; Kate Stoneman (1898), the first alumna and first woman admitted to the New York State bar; Thomas J. Vilsack (1975), U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and former Governor of Iowa; Richard D. Parsons (1971), former Chairman of Citigroup; Dr. Bonnie D. Jenkins (1988), Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security; Michael Garcia (1989) and Leslie Stein (1981), Associate Judges of the New York State Court of Appeals; and David Miranda (1988) and Stephen P. Younger (1982), both former Presidents of the New York State Bar Association.

How Albany Law Compares

Choose Albany Law if

  • You want a government, public-interest or public-service career. Albany holds the #1 national ranking in government law from preLaw magazine and an 86.3% full-time, long-term bar-required employment rate ranked #54 nationally, and the school sits in the state capital with direct access to the legislature, agencies and courts.
  • You care about the net price rather than the sticker price. 94% of students receive grants with a median award of $38,000, a guaranteed minimum of $20,000 per year for 2025 entrants assured for three years, and no conditional scholarships of any kind — against a $66,554 tuition line, the median award covers 57% of it.
  • You want an LRAP with defined terms: forgivable loans of up to $10,000 per year for up to three years, available to J.D. graduates of the three most recent classes.
  • You want flexibility in how you study. Albany offers a three-year J.D., an accelerated two-year J.D., a four-year program charged at 75% of full-time tuition, and an online Flex J.D. ranked #4 nationally by preLaw.
  • You want small sections in a mid-sized school: a first-year section size of 60, 80 upper-division sections enrolling fewer than 25 students, 31 seminars, 27 co-curricular offerings and 144 clinical seats.
  • You want a faculty that leads this profile series on minority representation: 25.9% minority faculty, ranked #38 nationally, and 49.4% female faculty.
  • You want health law, recognised with an A− rating for a third consecutive year, with a live-client Health Law Clinic.
  • You can live at home in the Albany area: the 509 at-home living allowance of $9,664 is roughly $12,180 below the off-campus figure.

Consider alternatives if

  • You want a large-firm or New York City private-practice career. Albany's market is a government market, its federal clerkship rate is 1.5%, and a $66,554 sticker price with a government-sector salary outcome is a harder arithmetic case than a BigLaw pipeline.
  • You are relying on a high bar-passage cushion. The school reports 86.71% first-time passage across all jurisdictions for 2025, but ILRG's independent tabulation of the 2024 administration put the school 11.5 points *below* the New York statewide average — the two do not reconcile, and Albany has historically trailed rather than led the state average.
  • You need certainty about salary outcomes. The sector distribution, salary medians and geographic placement for the Class of 2025 were not retrievable in machine-readable form, so the price-to-earnings arithmetic cannot yet be verified.
  • You want a larger national alumni footprint in corporate or coastal practice. Albany's network is deepest in New York State government, the judiciary and the upstate bar.
  • You want the lowest possible total borrowing without relying on grants. Without a median-level award, three years at the full sticker price approaches $201,500 in tuition alone before living costs.
  • You want a part-time program at a materially lower tuition. Albany's part-time 2025–26 tuition was $57,594, only about $6,400 below the full-time rate.

The TLS Verdict

Albany Law School is the strongest-value independent law school in this profile series, and the 2025 numbers make the case concretely. It is the nation's oldest independent law school, founded in 1851, ranked #1 nationally in government law by preLaw magazine, rated A− in health law for three consecutive years, and holds an 86.3% full-time, long-term bar-required employment rate that ranks #54 nationally — all from a school ranked #120 overall. Its scholarship structure is the decisive fact: 94% of students receive grants, the median award is $38,000, the school guarantees a minimum of $20,000 per year for three years to its 2025 entrants, and it awards no conditional scholarships whatsoever, which means the $66,554 tuition line is close to a fiction for most admitted applicants. Add an LRAP worth up to $10,000 a year for three years, an at-home living allowance of $9,664, low attrition with 90% three-year graduation rates, a first-year section size of 60, a 25.9% minority faculty ranked #38 nationally, and four study formats including a two-year accelerated J.D. and a nationally ranked online Flex J.D., and the school presents a genuinely differentiated proposition. The counterweights are real: a 37.45% acceptance rate with only 22.77% of admits enrolling, bar results that the school reports at 86.71% for 2025 but that an independent tabulation scored 11.5 points *below* the New York average for the prior cohort, no retrievable salary data to test a $66,554 price, a 1.5% federal clerkship rate, and a placement network rooted in state government rather than large-firm practice. For an applicant who wants to practise in New York State government, public interest, health law or upstate private practice, who receives the school's typical grant, and who can live affordably in Albany, this is one of the best-supported choices available at its rank. For an applicant chasing BigLaw, a federal clerkship, or a national corporate network, the money buys a broader platform elsewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard is it to get into Albany Law?

Moderately selective: for Fall 2025, Albany accepted 37.45% of applicants (988 offers from 2,638 completed applications), 236 of whom enrolled, producing a 22.77% yield on offers. In 2019 the acceptance rate was 54.6%.

What LSAT score is competitive for Albany Law?

The median LSAT for the Fall 2025 entering class was 158, with a middle-50% range of 154 to 161. Scores at or above 158 are competitive, and because the 25th percentile is 154 the school admits a real band of applicants below its median.

What GPA do Albany Law applicants typically have?

The median undergraduate GPA for the Fall 2025 entering class was 3.54, with a middle-50% range of 3.16 to 3.75. The school's class-profile page reports a median of 3.53 with a 25th percentile of 3.15.

Does Albany Law give scholarships?

Yes, and broadly. Per the 2025 ABA 509 report, 584 students (94%) received grants, with a median grant of $38,000, a 25th percentile of $20,000 and a 75th percentile of $46,000. For students entering in 2025 the school guarantees a minimum award of $20,000 per academic year for up to three years, and it reports offering $31 million in scholarships with over 89% of first-year students receiving an award, up to full tuition.

Does Albany Law offer conditional scholarships?

No. The school 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 the 509 report shows zero conditional scholarships.

What is Albany Law's bar passage rate?

The school reports an 86.71% first-time pass rate across all jurisdictions for 2025 and 87.50% on the New York bar, with 91.16% ultimate passage for the Class of 2023. An independent tabulation of the 2024 administration put the first-time rate at 74.3%, which was 11.5 points below the New York statewide average of 85.8% — the two measures do not reconcile, and the school's bar performance has historically trailed the state average.

How many Albany Law graduates get jobs?

The school reports a 93% employment rate for the Class of 2025, with 92% of employed graduates in full-time, long-term bar-required or JD-advantage positions — the fifth consecutive year at that level. ILRG's tabulation of the Class of 2024 gives 86.3% full-time, long-term bar-required employment (ranked #54 nationally), 92.7% overall employment at ten months and a 1.5% federal clerkship rate.

What does Albany Law cost?

Tuition for 2026–27 is $66,554 plus $580 in mandatory fees, for $67,174 total. With books, housing, food, transportation, personal expenses and loan fees, the estimated total cost of attendance is $91,042. The four-year program is charged at 75% of the full-time rate, or $49,916. Students living at home receive a much lower living allowance — $9,664 per the 509 report versus $21,844 off campus.

Is there an application fee?

No. Albany Law does not charge an application fee.

Does Albany Law have a loan repayment assistance program?

Yes. The LRAP offers forgivable loans of up to $10,000 per year for a maximum of three years to J.D. graduates of the three most recent graduating classes. Qualifying-employment terms, including income caps, should be confirmed with the school.

Can I study part-time or online at Albany Law?

Yes. Albany Law offers a three-year residential J.D., an accelerated two-year J.D., a four-year program charged at 75% of the full-time tuition rate, and a Flex J.D. delivered online, which preLaw magazine ranked #4 among the best online law schools in America. A small number of full-time first-year students — four in Fall 2025 — are enrolled on a part-time basis.

What is Albany Law best known for?

Government law — ranked #1 nationally by preLaw magazine and supported by the Government Law Center and its capital-city location — together with health law, a 94% grant rate with a $38,000 median award and no conditional scholarships, and its status as the oldest independent law school in the United States, founded in 1851.

Contact and Key Links

Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, NY 12208-3494

Admissions Phone: (518) 445-2311

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

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