Last updated: August 25, 2026

University of Chicago Law School

The University of Chicago Law School is a private law school in Chicago, Illinois, that enrolled a first-year class of 203 students in Fall 2025 with a median LSAT of 174 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.97. It is ranked #2 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News rankings and admits about 9.7% of applicants. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is whether Chicago's elite BigLaw and federal clerkship placement and its rigorous, economics-oriented intellectual culture justify a total cost of attendance exceeding $122,000 per year when weighed against large merit offers from peer schools.

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Chicago Law at a Glance

Category	Latest information
Founded	1902
Type	Private
ABA approval or accreditation	ABA approved (Council of the Section of Legal Education)
Location	Chicago, Illinois
Latest U.S. News rank	#2 tie (2026 edition)
Latest completed applications	6,581 (Fall 2025)
Latest acceptance rate	9.74% (Fall 2025)
Latest LSAT median	174 (Fall 2025)
Latest GPA median	3.97 (Fall 2025)
Latest entering class	203 (Fall 2025)
Current tuition	$83,316 (2025–26); $86,856 (2026–27)
Current estimated cost of attendance	$122,034 (2026–27, 1L)
Latest first-time bar passage	96.7% (Class of 2025)
Latest bar-required employment	209 of 216 graduates, 96.8% (Class of 2025)
Current dean	Adam Chilton

The admissions figures are drawn from the University of Chicago's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report, and the employment figures from the school's official Class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary (status as of March 15, 2026). Adam Chilton became dean in 2025, succeeding Thomas J. Miles, who stepped down on June 30, 2025, after a decade in the role. Note that the 2026–27 cost-of-attendance figure is the school's published 1L budget and is higher than the 2025–26 tuition shown in the 509.

Introduction

The University of Chicago Law School, founded in 1902, is a small, intensely intellectual law school located in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. It is the birthplace of the law-and-economics movement and remains defined by a rigorous, theory-driven, and interdisciplinary approach to legal education. With a total J.D. enrollment of roughly 615 students, it is one of the smaller elite national schools.

Chicago is a genuinely national institution whose graduates place into BigLaw, federal clerkships, government, and academia at rates matched by very few schools. Its identity rests on three pillars: an unusually strong record of placing graduates into federal appellate clerkships (including regular U.S. Supreme Court clerkships), elite BigLaw placement, and a distinctive scholarly culture that prizes analytical rigor and the economic analysis of law.

Rankings and Reputation

The University of Chicago Law School is ranked #2 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, behind only Stanford. Chicago has sat at or near the very top of the rankings for decades and is widely regarded by judges, academics, and sophisticated employers as one of the two or three strongest law schools in the country for placing graduates into the most competitive jobs, particularly federal clerkships and elite law firms.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition	Chicago rank
2026	2 (tie)
2025	3
2024	3
2023	3

Chicago's ranking has been essentially immovable within the top three for years; applicants should treat single-spot movement within that band as immaterial to career outcomes.

Specialty rankings

Chicago is consistently regarded as among the strongest schools in the nation for law and economics, corporate law, and constitutional law, and it places a disproportionate share of its graduates into federal appellate clerkships. 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	6,581
Offers of admission	641
Acceptance rate	9.74%
Enrollees from applicant pool	191
Total in first-year class	203
Yield (enrollees / offers)	29.8%

The difference between the 191 enrollees from the applicant pool and the 203 total first-year students is accounted for by deferred matriculants and other enrollees reported separately in the 509. Chicago's yield is lower than that of Yale, Stanford, or Harvard, which is consistent with its practice of making merit-scholarship offers and competing for the same applicants as those schools.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic	25th percentile	Median	75th percentile
LSAT	171	174	176
Undergraduate GPA	3.87	3.97	4.00

Chicago also accepts the GRE; only 4 students enrolled with GRE scores in 2025, too few for the school to publish percentile data.

Interpreting the numbers

A 174 median LSAT and 3.97 median GPA place Chicago in a tie for the highest LSAT median in the country and the highest GPA median among the top schools. These are medians, not cutoffs: Chicago reads files holistically and admits meaningful numbers of applicants both below and above these figures. No LSAT score or GPA guarantees admission at this level.

Application timing

The application fee is $90, submitted through LSAC. Chicago offers a binding Early Decision program with a December 1 deadline (decisions by the end of December), and a Regular Decision deadline of March 1. The school uses a paperless, rolling review for regular decision. Applying earlier in the cycle is generally advantageous at a school this selective.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Tuition for the 2025–26 academic year is $83,316; the published 2026–27 tuition is $86,856, plus a Graduate Student Services Fee of $1,560 and a one-time Lifetime Transcript Fee of $84. Tuition is the same for residents and non-residents because Chicago is private.

Cost of attendance

Expense	2026–27 (1L)
Tuition	$86,856
Graduate Student Services Fee	$1,560
Lifetime Transcript Fee	$84
Living expenses (housing, food, personal, etc.)	balance to total
Total cost of attendance	$122,034

The $122,034 figure is the school's published total 1L budget for 2026–27; the living-expense components make up the difference between direct charges and the total.

Financial aid

Unlike Yale, Stanford, and Harvard, Chicago awards substantial merit-based scholarships in addition to need-based aid. Per the 2025 Standard 509 report, 78% of students (485 of 615) received grants, with a median grant of $15,000, a 25th percentile of $10,000, and a 75th percentile of $30,000. The high percentage of recipients but moderate median reflects Chicago's strategy of spreading merit money broadly to compete for top applicants.

Debt perspective

Chicago's use of merit aid means that many admitted students pay materially less than sticker price, which can make it a better financial value than the need-only schools for applicants who do not qualify for need-based grants. Students who pay near full price face a total three-year cost approaching $370,000. Chicago supports graduates entering public interest through a loan repayment assistance program; applicants comparing offers should model net cost after scholarships rather than sticker price.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

Employment category	Graduates
Total graduates	216
Total employed	212
Bar passage required/anticipated	209 (96.8%)
J.D. advantage	3
Enrolled in graduate studies	2
Unemployed — seeking	2
Employment status unknown	0

Employment by type (of the 212 employed):

Employer type	Graduates
Law firms (total)	143 (67.5%)
of which 500+ attorneys	129 (90.2% of firm)
Judicial clerkships (total)	51 (24.1%)
Federal	49
State/local/territorial	2
Public interest	8 (3.8%)
Government	7 (3.3%)
Education	2 (0.9%)
Business & industry	1 (0.5%)

What these numbers mean

Chicago's Class of 2025 outcomes are exceptional by any measure. A remarkable 90.2% of firm-bound graduates went to firms of 500+ attorneys, and 24.1% of all employed graduates took judicial clerkships, 49 of them federal. Combined BigLaw-plus-federal-clerkship placement is roughly 84% of employed graduates — among the highest in the nation. The 96.8% bar-required figure confirms that nearly every graduate who wanted a job requiring bar passage obtained one.

Bar passage

Bar statistic	Class of 2025
First-time bar passage rate	96.7%

Chicago has recorded first-time bar passage rates of roughly 97% in recent years (97.42% for the Class of 2024), consistently among the top three or four schools in the nation and well above the ABA weighted average. Its graduates sit for the bar in many jurisdictions, with large contingents in Illinois and New York.

Where graduates go

Chicago is a genuinely national school. For the Class of 2025, the top destinations were Illinois (61 graduates), New York (57), California (23), Washington, D.C. (17), and Texas (7). The strong Illinois concentration reflects both the school's location and the depth of the Chicago legal market, but graduates disperse to every major coastal and national market.

Academics and Programs

The J.D. requires a standard first-year curriculum followed by an extensive range of upper-level electives, seminars, and workshops. Chicago's academic culture is defined by the Socratic method, analytical rigor, and interdisciplinary study, particularly the economic analysis of law.

Law and economics, interdisciplinary study, and joint degrees

Chicago is the home of law and economics and offers deep interdisciplinary training through its many centers and its coordination with the University of Chicago's other graduate divisions. It offers joint-degree programs, including a JD/MBA with the Booth School of Business, and supports a wide range of cross-disciplinary study.

Clinics and experiential learning

Chicago operates a broad set of in-house clinics through its Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic and related programs, along with externships and simulation courses, giving students direct client-representation and practice experience across a range of subject areas.

Student Life and Location

Living in Chicago / Hyde Park

The Law School is located in Hyde Park, a leafy, intellectually dense neighborhood on Chicago's South Side about seven miles from the downtown Loop. The setting offers a lower cost of living than coastal peer cities, access to the enormous Chicago legal market, and a classic university-community feel, though it is somewhat removed from the downtown legal district.

Student body

With roughly 615 J.D. students, Chicago is one of the smaller elite national schools, which supports a rigorous but relatively intimate academic culture. Students run a number of journals (including the University of Chicago Law Review) and organizations, and the school's quarter system and demanding first-year curriculum foster a reputation for intensity.

How Chicago Compares

Choose Chicago if

You want the strongest possible combination of BigLaw and federal clerkship placement, including a realistic shot at appellate and Supreme Court clerkships.
You are drawn to a rigorous, economics-oriented, and intellectually demanding approach to legal education.
You value merit scholarships and want to minimize net cost relative to the need-only schools.

Consider alternatives if

You prefer a larger student body or a different intellectual culture (in which case Harvard or a coastal school may fit better).
You are set on a specific coastal market and want the densest possible local alumni network there.
You are pursuing public interest and want to compare LRAP terms and clinic emphasis carefully against schools with a stronger public-service focus.

The TLS Verdict

The University of Chicago Law School is, for career outcomes, essentially peerless outside of Yale and Stanford, and arguably the strongest school in the country for federal clerkships relative to its size. Its #2 ranking, 96.8% bar-required employment, and roughly 84% combined BigLaw-plus-federal-clerkship placement confirm that the degree's practical value is elite. The distinctive advantage over its top-three peers is financial: Chicago's willingness to award merit scholarships can make it dramatically cheaper than Yale, Stanford, or Harvard for admitted students. The principal caution is cultural — Chicago's rigorous, theory-driven environment is not for everyone — but for applicants targeting BigLaw, a federal clerkship, or academia, it is about as close to a sure thing as legal education offers, often at a lower net cost than its peers.

What Students Say

The following reflects recurring themes in Top-Law-Schools.com forum discussions. These comments are anecdotal and not representative survey results.

Frequently mentioned positives

Forum participants consistently highlight Chicago's extraordinary clerkship and BigLaw placement, the generosity of its merit scholarships, the quality of its faculty, and the tight-knit feel produced by the small class size. Many note that the school's intensity translates into exceptionally strong career outcomes.

Frequently mentioned concerns

The most common concerns are the school's reputation for academic rigor and a demanding first year, the high sticker cost of attendance for those who do not receive large merit awards, and the Hyde Park location, which some students find removed from downtown Chicago. Some discussion also notes that the quarter system moves quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard is it to get into the University of Chicago Law School?

Very hard. For Fall 2025, Chicago accepted 9.74% of applicants (641 offers from 6,581 completed applications), placing it among the four most selective law schools in the country.

What LSAT score is competitive for Chicago?

The median LSAT for the Fall 2025 entering class was 174, with a middle-50% range of 171 to 176. Scores at or above 174 are competitive, but no score guarantees admission given the holistic review.

What GPA do Chicago applicants typically have?

The median undergraduate GPA for Fall 2025 was 3.97, with a middle-50% range of 3.87 to 4.00.

Does Chicago give scholarships?

Yes. Unlike the need-only schools, Chicago awards substantial merit scholarships. Per the 2025 ABA 509 report, 78% of students received grants with a median award of $15,000.

What is Chicago's bar passage rate?

For the Class of 2025, the first-time bar passage rate was 96.7%, consistently among the highest in the nation.

Is Chicago good for BigLaw and clerkships?

Yes. For the Class of 2025, about 67.5% of employed graduates joined law firms (90% of those at 500+ attorney firms) and 24.1% took judicial clerkships, nearly all federal.

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

No. Chicago offers a full-time J.D. program only.

What is the University of Chicago Law School best known for?

Chicago is best known as the birthplace of law and economics, for its rigorous intellectual culture, and for its elite federal clerkship and BigLaw placement.

Contact and Key Links

University of Chicago Law School
1111 East 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

Admissions Phone: 773-702-9484

Admissions Email: [email protected]

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

The University of Chicago Law School

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