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Creighton University School of Law

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Last updated: October 29, 2026

Creighton University School of Law

Creighton University School of Law is a private law school in Omaha, Nebraska, that enrolled a first-year class of 162 students in Fall 2025 from 815 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 153 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.51. It is ranked #144 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News rankings, and its Class of 2024 posted a 95.5% overall employment rate ten months after graduation (#53 of 195 schools in ILRG's tabulation of ABA data). The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that Creighton pairs Jesuit-identity instruction, a 9.2:1 student-faculty ratio, generous non-conditional scholarships (89% of students receive grants, median $25,600), and joint-degree options like the J.D./M.S. Government Organization and Leadership program with first-time bar passage that trails Nebraska's average by roughly eight to ten points, no loan repayment assistance program, and the least selective admissions profile in the Big East region (64.54% acceptance), at a 2026–27 cost of attendance of $92,416 for first-year traditional J.D. students.

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Creighton Law at a Glance

Category Latest information
Founded 1904 (joint project with the Omaha Bar Association; first dean Timothy J. Mahoney)
Type Private (Jesuit / Catholic)
ABA approval or accreditation ABA approved (Council of the Section of Legal Education) — accredited since 1924
Location Omaha, Nebraska (2500 California Plaza, on the Creighton University campus)
Latest U.S. News rank #144 tie (2026 edition)
Latest completed applications 815 (Fall 2025, 2025 509 report)
Latest acceptance rate 64.54% (Fall 2025)
Latest LSAT median 153 (Fall 2025)
Latest GPA median 3.51 (Fall 2025)
Latest entering class 162 (all full-time) (Fall 2025)
Current tuition $1,648 per credit hour (2026–27); estimated 1L tuition $52,736 (32 credit hours); U.S. News displays $56,440 full-time
Current estimated cost of attendance $92,416 for the first-year traditional J.D. year (2026–27, school figure, including health insurance and loan fees)
Latest first-time bar passage 72.6% (U.S. News profile); 71.2% (LawHub, 2025 first-time takers) vs. a 79.4% same-exam average; ultimate 2-year passage 83% (U.S. News)
Latest bar-required employment 84.1% (#82 of 195, Class of 2024, ABA data per ILRG); Class of 2025 detail not machine-readable this cycle
Current dean Joshua P. Fershee (11th dean, since July 1, 2019)

The admissions figures are drawn from Creighton's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (815 completed applications, 526 offers, 64.54% acceptance rate, 162 in the first-year class as of October 2025), and this profile uses the standardized 509 figures throughout. Tuition and cost data are from the university's 2026–27 law tuition and fee schedule and the official J.D. cost-of-attendance page; the U.S. News figure of $56,440 and ILRG's $48,346 are third-party annualizations with different credit-hour assumptions, so all three are shown. Joshua P. Fershee, a scholar of business, energy, and property law who previously served as associate dean for faculty development, became the school's 11th dean on July 1, 2019, after serving two years as interim dean.

Introduction

Creighton.jpg



Creighton University School of Law, founded in 1904 as a joint project with the Omaha Bar Association, is the law school of Creighton University, a Jesuit university in Omaha, Nebraska. It was housed in the Edward Creighton Institute on South 18th Street until 1921, when it moved to new quarters on the main campus; the American Bar Association accredited the school in 1924. With total J.D. enrollment of 427 and a first-year class of 162, Creighton is one of the smaller law schools in the region.

Creighton's identity rests on three pillars: its Catholic, Jesuit mission of "educating the whole person," expressed in a curriculum that pairs doctrine with professional formation; a practitioner-rich faculty (118 non-full-time instructors supplement the full-time core) and a 9.2:1 student-faculty ratio per U.S. News; and a placement culture rooted in Omaha's legal market — home to five Fortune 500 headquarters, a dense federal and state bench, and the school's own alumni network of governors, senators, federal judges, and United States attorneys.

Rankings and Reputation

Creighton Law is ranked #144 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, confirmed across the U.S. News release, 7Sage's consolidated table, and the TaxProf Blog's peer-reputation compilation (which lists Creighton's academic peer score at 2.1, tied for #121 in the peer-assessment band). Its reputation among regional employers remains solid: a Creighton J.D. reviewer on the U.S. News site describes "elite instruction," a "powerful alumni network," and "some of the best law faculty anywhere," and the school's Nebraska-bar performance and alumni placement in state government anchor its regional identity.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition Creighton rank
2026 144 (tie)
2025 Not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed

The 2025, 2024, and 2023 ranks were not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed. Applicants should treat several-digit movement within this band as immaterial to Creighton's practical career outcomes, which are driven by regional placement, bar results, and price rather than rank position.

Specialty rankings

Creighton is widely regarded as a distinctive choice for students seeking business, health, family, and litigation training within a Jesuit framework — the school's own materials advertise options in "business law, family law, litigation, sports law and more," and its six formal certificates (including Health Law; Business, Commercial and Tax Law; and International and Comparative Law) structure that strength. Specific U.S. News specialty rank numbers for the current edition were not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed and are therefore not listed here.

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric Fall 2025
Completed applications 815
Offers of admission 526
Acceptance rate 64.54%
Enrollees from applicant pool 160
Total in first-year class 162
Yield (enrollees / offers) 30.42%

The first-year class is entirely full-time — the 509 report lists zero part-time students — and includes 2 students who deferred admission from a previous year and were not part of the current-year applicant pool. Total J.D. enrollment stood at 427 as of October 5, 2025.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic 25th percentile Median 75th percentile
LSAT 150 153 156
Undergraduate GPA 3.14 3.51 3.74

Whether Creighton accepts the GRE in addition to the LSAT was not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed.

Interpreting the numbers

A 64.54% acceptance rate is among the least selective in American legal education — ILRG ranks Creighton #193 of 196 schools on selectivity — so applicants should treat admission itself as highly likely at or above the medians. The more meaningful signal is the class profile's composition: the median GPA has risen from 3.29 (2019) to 3.51 while the median LSAT has held exactly flat at 153 (the 25th–75th band of 150–156 is identical to 2019's), meaning the school has grown and academically strengthened even as its admit rate widened from 52.1% to 64.5%. The 30.42% yield reflects a regional admit pool heavily cross-offered by Nebraska and other Midwest schools. No LSAT or GPA guarantees admission.

Application timing

The application fee is $50. Per the 2025 509 report, Creighton offers a non-binding Early Decision program with a November 1 deadline, a priority scholarship-consideration deadline of March 31, and a final Regular Decision deadline of May 1; the priority financial aid deadline is February 1 (to avoid processing delays). To hold a seat, admitted students pay two $250 enrollment reservation deposits per the acceptance letter.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Tuition for the 2026–27 academic year is $1,648 per credit hour (the same rate for the Accelerated J.D.), with the GOAL joint-degree program charged at an additional $1,122 per credit hour. The school's 2025–26 509 lines are $1,542 per credit (resident and non-resident) plus $436 in other annual per-credit fees; U.S. News displays a $56,440 full-time figure and ILRG's ABA-data tabulation shows $48,346 — third-party annualizations with differing credit-hour assumptions, so the school's own per-credit rate is the standard used here. Estimated first-year tuition at 32 credit hours (16 per semester) is $52,736. Tuition is the same for residents and non-residents because Creighton is private.

Cost of attendance

Expense 2026–27 (first-year traditional J.D.)
Tuition $52,736
Total estimated cost of attendance $92,416

The line-item breakdown is published: a $1,676 University Fee and $646 University Technology Fee (per year, at $838/$323 per semester), a $634 BarBri Academic Success Program Fee ($317 per semester), housing of $10,350, food of $4,870, personal expenses of $10,828, transportation of $3,222, books and supplies of $2,500, health insurance of $4,424 (a 6-month estimate of $2,212 is waivable with comparable coverage), and loan fees of $530. Second- and third-year students budget $89,442 (tuition drops to $47,792 at 14.5 credit hours per semester), and the two-year Accelerated J.D. carries a $128,978 all-in budget. A $150 international orientation fee and a $50 late-degree application fee round out the schedule; late payment accrues 2% of the outstanding monthly balance.

Financial aid

Per the 2025 Standard 509 report, 89% of students (343) received grants, with a median grant of $25,600, a 25th percentile of $15,200, and a 75th percentile of $37,458. The distribution runs 45% receiving less than half tuition, 28% half-to-full tuition, 13% full tuition, and 3% more than full tuition. Critically, the awards are non-conditional: the 509 report states 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 therefore files no conditional-scholarship retention chart — a structural advantage over the clawback regimes common at peer schools. U.S. News's financial-aid contact fields (director, phone, deadline) read "N/A"; the school's aid priority deadline of February 1 comes from the 509 report.

Debt perspective

The average law-school debt and the proportion of graduates who borrowed were not reported in the sources reviewed — the U.S. News indebtedness table reads "N/A" — and the school does not offer a loan repayment assistance program for 2025 J.D. graduates. What is verifiable: universal-access grant coverage at a $25,600 median compresses the effective price materially below the $92,416 sticker, and a computed three-year traditional-program budget of roughly $271,300 all-in (2026–27 rates, including insurance and loan fees; $92,416 + $89,442 + $89,442) sits at the moderate end for private schools. Because Creighton's graduates cluster in Nebraska and regional practice — where small-firm and public-sector salaries dominate — and no LRAP backstop exists, applicants should borrow conservatively and request the school's debt disclosures directly before committing. HeyFutureLawyer's ABA-data model estimates a roughly $100K expected starting salary for recent classes.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

Per HeyFutureLawyer's tabulation of ABA data, the class of 113 graduates produced a 92.9% overall employment rate ten months after graduation, with an estimated starting salary of approximately $100,000. The school's own ABA Employment Summary PDF was not machine-readable in the sources reviewed this cycle.

Employment metric Class of 2025
Overall employment rate (10 months) 92.9% (HeyFutureLawyer ABA-data tabulation; ILRG's Class-of-2024 figure is 95.5%, #53 of 195)
School-funded positions Not machine-readable in the sources reviewed this cycle

The detailed ABA category table (exact bar-passage-required count, firm-size distribution, clerkship counts, and unemployment figures for the Class of 2025) was not machine-readable in the sources reviewed — the school's Consumer Employment PDF failed to load — and is therefore not reproduced here; the most recent fully machine-readable vintage is ILRG's Class of 2024 tabulation (95.5% overall employment #53; 84.1% bar-required #82; 0.7% federal clerkships #133). Applicants should consult Creighton's official ABA Employment Summary for the current line items.

What these numbers mean

A 92.9% employment rate with a ~$100,000 modeled salary is strong for this tier, and the Class-of-2024 vintage (95.5% overall, #53 nationally) shows the school can compete on outcomes well above its #144 rank. The verified federal-clerkship rate is thin (0.7%, #133), consistent with a regional-practice identity: graduates cluster in Nebraska firms, government, and business, with the Jesuit network and Omaha's corporate base doing the placement work. Federal clerkship placement is minimal; Creighton's identity is firmly regional-professional rather than national-elite.

Bar passage

Bar statistic 2025 graduates
First-time bar passage rate (all jurisdictions) 72.6% (U.S. News profile); 71.2% (LawHub, 2025 first-time takers)
Average first-time passage, same jurisdictions 79.4% (2025, LawHub/HeyFutureLawyer basis) — Creighton −8.2 points
Ultimate bar passage (2-year average) 83% (U.S. News profile)
Nebraska average, first-time (2024 administrations) 82.7% (Creighton 72.6%, −10.1; ILRG) — 2019: 72.9% vs. 81.7% (−8.8)

The different figures reflect differing methodologies and vintages (U.S. News's composite versus LawHub's all-jurisdiction calculation, and the 2024-administration basis ILRG uses for the Nebraska comparison), but every verified measure places Creighton below the state and same-exam averages — a gap of roughly eight to ten points that has persisted since at least 2019 and is the school's principal statistical liability. The school's 2026 ABA Bar Admission report was not machine-readable in the sources reviewed; applicants should consult it for cohort-level ultimate-passage detail.

Where graduates go

Creighton's graduates concentrate in Nebraska and the surrounding regional markets, with placement driven by Omaha's corporate and government legal community and the school's alumni network (which includes three governors, a United States Senator, multiple federal district judges, and a half-dozen United States attorneys). Exact state-by-state and employer-type counts for the Class of 2025 were not published in machine-readable form in the sources reviewed and are therefore not listed.

Academics and Programs

The J.D. is offered in traditional (three-year) and Accelerated (two-year, summer–fall–spring) formats, with six formal certificates and four joint degrees structuring the upper-level curriculum.

Curriculum and special strengths

Creighton offers six certificates — Health Law; Family Law; Business, Commercial and Tax Law; Criminal Law and Procedure; International and Comparative Law; and Litigation — and four joint degrees: the 3/3 BSBA/J.D. program (undergraduate degree and J.D. in six years instead of seven), the M.B.A./J.D., the J.D./M.S. in Government Organization and Leadership (GOAL), and the J.D./M.S. in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. U.S. News lists coursework in clinical training, dispute resolution, environmental law, health care law, intellectual property law, international law, business/corporate law, constitutional law, contracts/commercial law, and criminal law. The student-run Creighton Law Review publishes four times annually, and the Creighton International and Comparative Law Journal (founded 2010) is an online forum for international legal scholarship; the Moot Court team has won multiple regional and national competitions.

Clinics and experiential learning

Creighton operates the Milton R. Abrahams Legal Clinic, which provides free legal assistance on civil matters to low-income residents of Douglas County, and — since Fall 2017 — the Creighton Immigrant and Refugee Clinic, housed within the Abrahams Clinic and run in cooperation with the Immigrant Legal Center (formerly Justice for Our Neighbors), which supports immigrants and refugees. The BarBri Academic Success Program fee embeds commercial bar-prep support throughout the curriculum.

Student Life and Location

Living in Omaha

Creighton Law sits on the university's campus at 2500 California Plaza in downtown Omaha, Nebraska's largest city and a legal market with five Fortune 500 headquarters, a substantial federal courthouse presence, and a compact state bench and bar. The school's $10,350 housing and $4,870 food budgets reflect Omaha's moderate cost of living — materially below coastal peers — though the personal-expense line ($10,828) and health insurance ($4,424) push the all-in budget above what sticker-tuition comparisons alone suggest. The trade-off is regional confinement: graduates seeking national-firm or coastal placement must compete without the in-market alumni density Creighton enjoys at home.

Student body

With a first-year class of 162 (427 total J.D. students), Creighton is small; the student-faculty ratio is 9.2:1 per U.S. News, though ILRG computes 15.2:1 from ABA data (tied #148 — the methodologies differ). ILRG reports 69 total faculty, 40.6% women (tied #140) and 11.6% racial or ethnic minorities (#169); the 509 PDF's faculty tables returned parse artifacts in the sources reviewed and could not be used. Students run the Creighton Law Review, the Creighton International and Comparative Law Journal, and a range of organizations. The Fall 2025 class was entirely full-time; whether a formal part-time J.D. track exists beyond the fee schedule's part-time rates was not confirmed in the sources reviewed.

How Creighton Compares

Choose Creighton if

  • You want a Jesuit legal education with small classes (9.2:1 per U.S. News), a practitioner-rich faculty, and structured depth through six certificates and four joint degrees — including the unique GOAL program pairing the J.D. with a government-organization master's.
  • You are targeting Omaha and Nebraska practice — the alumni network spans governors, senators, federal judges, and U.S. attorneys, and the Class of 2024 posted a 95.5% overall employment rate (#53 of 195).
  • You value non-conditional scholarships — 89% of students receive grants (median $25,600) that cannot be clawed back for class rank, only for failure to maintain good academic standing.

Consider alternatives if

  • Bar-passage risk worries you — Creighton's first-time rate has trailed Nebraska's average by 8.8 to 10.1 points in every verified vintage since 2019 (72.6% vs. 82.7% most recently), and ultimate passage (83%) sits mid-pack.
  • You need an LRAP or transparent debt data — U.S. News reports no loan repayment assistance program and "N/A" indebtedness fields, so financing rests on the scholarship and per-credit pricing.
  • You want national-firm or federal-clerkship placement — the verified federal-clerkship rate is 0.7% (#133), and the school's identity is regional.

The TLS Verdict

Creighton Law is a Jesuit value play with a placement ceiling and a bar-passage floor. The strengths are real: a 95.5% Class-of-2024 employment rate that ranked #53 nationally, universal-access non-conditional scholarships at a $25,600 median, a 9.2:1 ratio, joint degrees no peer in the region offers (GOAL especially), and an alumni network that dominates Nebraska's bench and bar. The liabilities are equally verifiable: first-time bar passage that has run 8–10 points below Nebraska's average since at least 2019, no LRAP, unpublished debt data, a 64.54% acceptance rate that ranks near the bottom of the national selectivity table, and a 0.7% federal-clerkship rate. At $92,416 for the first year (all-in, 2026–27), the value proposition works best for applicants committed to Omaha and Nebraska practice within a Catholic-institutional frame. For anyone else, the numbers say the bar exam and the state line are the tests that matter.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard is it to get into Creighton Law?

Not very, relatively speaking: for Fall 2025, Creighton accepted 64.54% of applicants (526 offers from 815 completed applications), with 160 students enrolling from the applicant pool into a class of 162 — a 30.42% yield. ILRG ranks the school #193 of 196 on selectivity.

What LSAT score is competitive for Creighton?

The median LSAT for the Fall 2025 entering class was 153, with a middle-50% range of 150 to 156 — a band identical to 2019's. The school's GRE policy was not confirmed in the sources reviewed.

What GPA do Creighton applicants typically have?

The median undergraduate GPA for the Fall 2025 entering class was 3.51, with a middle-50% range of 3.14 to 3.74 — up from a 3.29 median in 2019.

Does Creighton give scholarships?

Yes, broadly and without clawbacks. Per the 2025 ABA 509 report, 89% of students received grants, with a median grant of $25,600 (25th–75th percentiles $15,200–$37,458), and awards cannot be reduced or eliminated based on law school academic performance, other than failure to maintain good academic standing.

What is Creighton's bar passage rate?

For 2025 first-time takers, 72.6% (U.S. News) or 71.2% (LawHub) against same-exam averages of 79.4–82.7% — roughly eight to ten points below. Ultimate (2-year) passage is 83% per U.S. News.

Is Creighton good for BigLaw?

Not particularly. The verified federal-clerkship rate is 0.7% (#133 of 195), and the school's placement identity is regional: Nebraska firms, government, and business, powered by an alumni network of governors, senators, federal judges, and U.S. attorneys.

Does Creighton offer a part-time J.D.?

The Fall 2025 entering class was entirely full-time (162 of 162), and the 509 report lists zero part-time students; the university's fee schedule carries part-time rates, but a formal part-time J.D. program was not confirmed in the sources reviewed.

What is Creighton Law best known for?

Creighton is best known for its Jesuit identity ("educating the whole person"), its GOAL and other joint degrees, its six practice certificates, the Milton R. Abrahams and Immigrant/Refugee clinics, a strong moot court record, and an alumni network that includes Senator Mike Johanns, Governors Frank Morrison, Richard Ogilvie, Norbert Tiemann, and Frank Barrett, federal Judges Joseph Bataillon and Susan Bazis, and former U.S. Secretary of the Navy Francis P. Matthews.

Contact and Key Links

Creighton University School of Law
2500 California Plaza
Omaha, NE 68120

Admissions Phone: (402) 280-2870

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

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