Last updated: October 13, 2026

University of New Mexico School of Law

The University of New Mexico School of Law is a public law school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that enrolled a first-year class of 108 students in Fall 2025 from 640 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 157 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.56. It is ranked #117 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News rankings, and it is the only law school in New Mexico. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that UNM pairs one of the lowest resident tuitions of any ABA-approved law school in the country — $21,020 for 2026–27, with a 60% grant rate and a $10,000 median grant — with a small, state-anchored program whose employment and bar outcomes are strong but regional, at a 2026–27 cost of attendance of roughly $44,952 for residents and $68,670 for non-residents.

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University of New Mexico Law at a Glance

Category	Latest information
Founded	1947
Type	Public
ABA approval or accreditation	Council Approved Since 1949
Location	Albuquerque, New Mexico
Latest U.S. News rank	#117 tie (2026 edition)
Latest completed applications	640 (Fall 2025, 2025 509 report)
Latest acceptance rate	41.41% (Fall 2025)
Latest LSAT median	157 (Fall 2025)
Latest GPA median	3.56 (Fall 2025)
Latest entering class	108 (Fall 2025)
Current tuition	$21,020 resident / $44,738 non-resident (2026–27)
Current estimated cost of attendance	$44,952 resident / $68,670 non-resident (2026–27, computed)
Latest first-time bar passage	85.7% (2024 cohort, ILRG tabulation of ABA data)
Latest bar-required employment	75 of 100 Class of 2025 graduates full-time long-term bar-required
Current dean	Camille Carey

The admissions figures are drawn from UNM's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (640 completed applications, 265 offers, 41.41% acceptance rate, 103 enrollees from the applicant pool, first-year class of 108 as of October 2025). UNM's own materials and third-party trackers sometimes report slightly different totals — LSD.law lists a 38.87% yield against the 509 report's 38.49%, and one preparatory-site profile on older data lists a class of 346 — and this profile uses the standardized 509 figures. Tuition is from UNM Law's 2026–27 cost page; the cost-of-attendance totals are arithmetic from the school's published tuition and living-expense components rather than a single published line. Camille Carey, who holds the Karelitz Chair in Evidence and Procedure and joined the UNM Law faculty in 2009, is dean; her contract was renewed for a second five-year term effective July 1, 2027, after a faculty vote in which 77% recommended renewal, following a public campaign by alumni and students to replace her over the school's direction and the diversity of its student body.

Introduction

The University of New Mexico School of Law, founded in 1947, is the law school of the University of New Mexico and the only law school in the state of New Mexico. Formal legal education in New Mexico began in 1947 on the second floor of the grandstand at Zimmerman Field, the University's football field, with four professors teaching an inaugural class of 53 students, 51 of whom were recent military veterans; at that point only 20 women had been admitted to practice law in the history of the state. The school moved into its current building in 1971 — designed by architect Antoine Predock while working for George Wright & Associates — and added the Fred Hart wing in 2002, designed by Edward Mazria. The New Mexico Court of Appeals sits immediately next door, sharing library and courtroom facilities with the school by design.

With approximately 300 J.D. students and a first-year class of roughly 108, UNM is one of the smallest law schools in the United States. Its identity rests on four pillars: a genuinely low price for New Mexico residents; a deliberately small cohort with an unusually favourable student-to-faculty ratio; a clinical program that is required of every graduate and has been ranked among the best in the country for decades; and a distinctive public-law role in which the dean, under Article VI, Section 35 of the New Mexico Constitution, chairs the state's judicial selection process and the school holds primary responsibility for judicial education within the state.

UNM Law is also known for its programs in Indian law and natural resources law. Its Indian Law Program — built around a specialized course of study leading to a certificate, the Southwest Indian Law Clinic and the faculty-edited Tribal Law Journal — reflects the school's position as one of the earliest law schools to prioritize the enrollment of indigenous students, and the American Indian Law Center based at the school is the oldest existing Indian-controlled and operated legal and public policy organization in the country.

Rankings and Reputation

UNM Law is ranked #117 (tie) out of 194 in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, with an overall score of 59. The school's reputation is strongest on metrics that measure access and scale — faculty diversity, student-to-faculty ratio and price for residents — and weakest on price for non-residents and on the absolute rate of employment ten months after graduation. Its clinical training program is the single specialty area where it ranks at the top of the national table.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition	UNM rank
2026	117 (tie) of 194
2025	107 (tie)

The 2025 figure is the placement reported in UNM's Wikipedia entry and echoed by LSD.law; the 2026 figure is from the current U.S. News profile. Editions prior to 2025 were not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed. Applicants should treat movement in the 100–120 band as immaterial to practical career outcomes, which for UNM are driven by the New Mexico legal market and by residency-based price rather than by rank position. Historical context: a 2016 UNM news release described an eleven-place jump to #60, a band the school has not occupied since.

Specialty rankings

Specialty	UNM rank
Clinical Training	#15 (tie), 2026–27 edition
Business/Corporate Law	#124 (tie)
Constitutional Law	#108 (tie)
Contracts/Commercial Law	#98 (tie)

Clinical Training is UNM's headline specialty rank, and it is the one the school itself promotes — reporting a #9 national placement in earlier editions and describing a clinical law program that has been "at the forefront of clinical legal education for over 50 years." The Business/Corporate, Constitutional and Contracts/Commercial placements are drawn from the same U.S. News specialty table. Rankings for Environmental Law, Health Care Law, Intellectual Property, International Law, Dispute Resolution and Criminal Law were not retrieved for this profile and are therefore not listed; the school does teach in all of those areas, and U.S. News lists them as program offerings rather than ranked specialties in the data reviewed.

Independent metric rankings

Metric	Value	National rank
Presence of female faculty	58.8%	#8 (tie) of 196
Student-to-faculty ratio	7.2:1 (ILRG measure)	#11 (tie)
Presence of minority faculty	45.1%	#11 of 196
Bar Passage Rate (first-time)	85.7% (+4.5 vs. New Mexico's 81.2%)	#71
Overall employment at 10 months	93.5%	#83
Bar-required employment (FT, long-term)	81.5%	#100
LSAT composite	157.3	#107
Federal clerkship rate	1.1%	#109
Acceptance rate (selectivity)	41.4%	#122
GPA composite	3.50	#138
Highest tuition (full-time)	$43,192	listed in the 300s

Source: ILRG's 2026 UNM Law profile, built on December 2025 ABA 509 disclosures.

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric	Fall 2025
Completed applications	640
Offers of admission	265
Acceptance rate	41.41%
Enrollees from applicant pool	103
Total in first-year class	108
Yield (enrollees / offers)	38.49%

The first-year class of 108 was entirely full-time; UNM operates no part-time or evening division, and the 509 report lists part-time tuition as $0. Enrollment rate from completed applications was 15.94%. One student transferred in and five transferred out in the reporting year. Total J.D. enrollment was 296.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic	25th percentile	Median	75th percentile
LSAT	154	157	161
Undergraduate GPA	3.12	3.56	3.82

UNM does not accept the GRE or any other standardized test in place of the LSAT. The school's admissions page states that it requires at least one reportable LSAT score and will not waive the requirement under any circumstances, and that self-reports of other standardized test scores will not be considered.

Interpreting the numbers

UNM's 41.41% acceptance rate makes it the least selective school in this profile series so far and roughly the median for ABA-approved law schools nationally, placing it #122 of 196 on that metric. The spread is what matters for applicants: a 25th-percentile LSAT of 154 and a 25th-percentile GPA of 3.12 mean the school admits a substantial band of applicants well below its medians, and the yield tells the same story from the other side — only 103 of 265 admitted applicants enrolled, so more than 60% of admitted students go elsewhere. UNM gives substantial preference to New Mexico residents, and the admissions committee is a five-member body composed of three full-time faculty members, the assistant dean for admissions, and one elected third-year student.

The trend since 2019 has been steady tightening:

Metric	2019	2025
Acceptance rate	48.0%	41.4%
LSAT median	153	157
LSAT 25th–75th	151–156	154–161
GPA median	3.40	3.56
GPA 25th–75th	3.09–3.64	3.12–3.82

A caveat unique to a school this small: with roughly 108 matriculants, a handful of applicants moving either way can shift a median by a full point, so year-over-year swings in UNM's medians should be read with caution.

Application timing

The application fee is $50 and is submitted through LSAC. UNM publishes a four-tier deadline ladder:

December 15 — binding Early Decision deadline. A binding early admit must withdraw all other applications and submit a non-refundable $400 seat deposit within 30 days of the offer.
February 1 — priority deadline for admission and merit-based scholarships. Applications completed by this date normally receive a decision within two weeks of file assignment, and scholarship decisions issue within one business day of the admission offer.
April 1 — Regular Decision deadline.
July 15 — Late Decision deadline, closing the application.

Required materials are a two-to-three-page double-spaced personal statement, a résumé, and two letters of recommendation (up to three accepted; academic or professional, preferably written within one year), with optional academic, lived-experience and character-and-fitness addenda. The committee begins meeting in October and decides on a rolling basis.

Conflict note: the 2025 ABA 509 report lists a March 1 application deadline and a March 1 financial-aid deadline, while U.S. News lists a July 15 application deadline and a July 15 financial-aid deadline, and the school's own admissions page publishes the December 15 / February 1 / April 1 / July 15 sequence above. This profile uses the school's own ladder, which is the operational one; the 509 line should be treated as a reporting artifact to be re-checked against the next cycle.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Tuition and mandatory fees for the 2026–27 academic year are $21,020 for New Mexico residents and $44,738 for non-residents, for full-time enrollment of twelve or more credit hours per semester in the fall and spring. The 509 report's own line items are $19,474 in resident tuition plus $1,546 in fees, and $43,192 in non-resident tuition plus the same $1,546 in fees. U.S. News reports $21,018 in-state and $44,736 out-of-state, a two-dollar rounding difference from the school's published figures. A $120 clinic fee is charged to third-year students to cover malpractice insurance in the required six-credit clinical course and is subject to annual renegotiation; additional charges apply to summer and study-abroad enrollment, and 2027–28 rates will be announced in April 2027.

Cost of attendance

Expense	2026–27
Tuition and fees, resident	$21,020
Tuition and fees, non-resident	$44,738
Books and supplies	$1,660
Housing and food	$14,750
Transportation	$2,498
Miscellaneous expenses	$4,590
Loan fees	$434
Total living allowance	$23,932
Estimated total cost of attendance	$44,952 resident / $68,670 non-resident
Additional allowance for students with qualifying dependents	$3,964

The $44,952 and $68,670 totals are arithmetic from the school's published tuition and its $23,932 living allowance; UNM does not publish a single combined cost-of-attendance line, so these should be labelled as computed if quoted elsewhere. The 509 report's own living-expense figures are $23,114 on campus, $23,114 off campus, and $14,078 living at home — essentially identical to the 2026–27 budget for on- and off-campus students, with commuting from a family home producing a materially lower number. Cost-of-living inflation, not tuition, has been the fastest-growing component of a UNM legal education: ILRG records room and board rising from $9,864 in 2019 to $23,114 in 2025, an increase of 134%.

Financial aid

Per the 2025 Standard 509 report, 175 students (60%) received grants, with a median grant of $10,000, a 25th percentile of $5,000, and a 75th percentile of $16,000. Broad-but-modest grant coverage is the pattern: a majority of the class receives aid, but the median award covers less than half of resident tuition and roughly a quarter of non-resident tuition. Admitted applicants are automatically considered for academic merit scholarships, with priority consideration for those who complete their file by February 1, and admitted applicants who meet that deadline receive a scholarship decision within one business day of the admission offer. The school's financial aid contact is director K. Renee Ferrell at (505) 277-0958. UNM also publishes multi-year scholarship retention data.

Conditional scholarships: UNM does award conditional scholarships, and the 509 report shows reductions in each of the last three reported years.

Academic year	Conditional scholarships offered	Reduced or eliminated
2024–25	41	6
2023–24	39	3
2022–23	31	3

That is a roughly 15% loss rate in the most recent year and under 10% in the two prior years — low in absolute terms and far gentler than peer schools in this profile series that eliminate 20–40% of conditional awards. Data for 2021–22 was not provided in the report.

Debt perspective

The average indebtedness of 2025 J.D. graduates who incurred law school debt was $90,872, and 70% of graduates borrowed. U.S. News reports that the school does not offer a loan repayment assistance program for 2025 J.D. graduates, so public-interest plans should be built on federal programs alone until the school confirms otherwise. The arithmetic explains the figure: a resident borrowing the full $44,952 annual budget for three years would approach or exceed $130,000 in gross cost before aid, and it is the combination of a $21,020 resident tuition and a $10,000 median grant that keeps actual borrowing in the low $90,000s. Because UNM is dramatically cheaper for residents, the debt picture for in-state graduates is far more favourable than for non-residents on identical or even more generous grant packages — the single most important financial fact in this profile. Students paying non-resident sticker price face a three-year gross cost approaching $206,000.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

UNM's Class of 2025 comprised 100 graduates. On the school's own headline count, 81 of them (81%) had secured employment as of the ten-month reporting date, and 99% of those employed held bar-required or JD-advantage positions. The full ABA Employment Summary for the class gives the following detail:

Employment metric	Class of 2025
Total graduates	100
Employed — bar admission required/anticipated	75 (74 full-time long-term; 1 part-time long-term)
Employed — J.D. advantage	5
Employed — other position	1
Enrolled in graduate studies	1
Unemployed — seeking	1
Unemployed — not seeking	1
Employment status unknown	16
Law school funded positions	0

Employer-type distribution among the 81 employed graduates:

Employer type	Graduates
Law firms (all sizes)	40
Government	17
Public interest	9
Clerkships — state, local and territorial	11
Clerkships — federal	1
Business and industry	2
Education	1

Within law firms, the distribution is almost entirely small: one solo practitioner, 21 in firms of 1–10 attorneys, nine in firms of 11–25, three in firms of 26–50, five in firms of 51–100, and one in a firm of 101–250. No graduate entered a firm of 251 or more attorneys.

Geographic distribution: 66 of the employed graduates on the reporting sheet are in New Mexico, two in Arizona, and two in California, with none employed in a foreign country.

Salary data: ILRG's tabulation of the preceding cycle puts the median private-sector salary at $80,000 and the median public-sector salary at $72,276.

What these numbers mean

The verified detail is unusually informative for a school of this size. Of 100 graduates, 75 took full-time long-term bar-required work and another five took JD-advantage positions, which means the ratio of "real legal job" to "odd job" among the employed is excellent — there is essentially no JD-advantage padding and no reliance on school-funded jobs, since UNM funded zero positions. The weakness is the denominator, not the numerator: 16 graduates had unknown employment status at the ten-month mark and two were unemployed, one of them not seeking work, so the school's absolute placement rate of 81% sits well below the national average. The employer mix also makes clear what kind of school this is: 17 government placements, 11 state and local clerkships, nine public-interest placements and a single federal clerkship, against 40 law-firm placements almost entirely in firms of 100 or fewer attorneys. Median private-sector pay of $80,000 and public-sector pay of $72,276 are livable in New Mexico and far below what a large-market salary would be. Applicants should read these numbers as confirming that UNM produces working lawyers in New Mexico, and not as evidence of national or large-firm portability.

Prior cohorts, as published by the school, show the same general pattern:

Cohort	Graduates	Employed	Bar-required or JD-advantage
Class of 2024	112	99 (88%)	96 (97%)
Class of 2023	98	81 (83%)	81 (100% of employed)
Class of 2022	78	72 (92%)	67 (86%)
Class of 2021	105	94	90
Class of 2020	121	105	105

ILRG's separate 509-based tabulation for the Class of 2024 gives 93.5% overall employment at ten months (national rank #83), 81.5% full-time long-term bar-required employment (#100), and a 1.1% federal clerkship rate (#109), against 85.7% of the Class of 2021 in full-time, long-term, JD-required employment per the school's own ABA disclosures.

Bar passage

Bar statistic	Value
First-time passage, 2024 cohort	85.7% (+4.5 points vs. New Mexico's 81.2% statewide rate)
First-time passage, 2025 cohort	77.0% (−0.9 points vs. the average of the jurisdictions where they sat)
Historical comparison, 2019 cohort	90.4% (+4.7 vs. New Mexico's 85.7%)
July 2019 administration, UNM first-time takers	82% vs. 79% statewide
February 2019 administration, UNM first-time takers	65% vs. 65% statewide
Older school-reported figure (cohort not specified)	92% (Wikipedia infobox, undated — treat as unreliable)

The different figures reflect differing methodologies and cohort years. The clearest reading of the last two reporting years is that UNM first-time takers pass at rates in the mid-80s and slightly beat the New Mexico state average, with a 2024 margin of +4.5 points and a 2025 result that slipped fractionally below the average of the jurisdictions where UNM graduates sat. The school's ABA disclosures page reproduces administration-level results from 2008–2019, and its July 2019 first-time rate of 82% against a 79% state figure is broadly consistent with the ILRG long-run comparison. There is no evidence of a bar-preparation failure, and equally no evidence of a bar-passage moat.

Where graduates go

The Class of 2025 stayed in New Mexico: 66 of the employed graduates on the reporting sheet are in the state, with two each in Arizona and California and none abroad. The sectoral shape — 17 government, 11 state and local clerkships, nine public interest, one federal clerkship, and 40 law-firm placements almost all in firms of 100 or fewer lawyers — describes a state and local public-law and small-firm pipeline rather than a large-firm one. Prospective applicants aiming at BigLaw or national practice should treat portability as the school's key structural weakness; applicants aiming at New Mexico public practice, tribal law, legal aid, prosecution and defence, natural-resources work or small-firm practice should read the same numbers as an advantage, since the alumni network and clinical exposure are concentrated exactly there. UNM Law also has a unique institutional relationship with New Mexico's government: under the terms of the state constitution, the dean of the law school chairs the state's judicial selection process, including the Judicial Compensation Commission, and serves on other boards and commissions, while the school holds primary responsibility for all judicial education within the state.

Academics and Programs

The J.D. is a full-time day program requiring completion of 86 credit hours over three years. Notably, UNM requires completion of a clinical course to graduate — clinical education is optional at most law schools, and a required six-credit third-year clinic is a distinguishing structural feature of the curriculum. The school's small size supports close faculty contact, and the low published student-to-faculty ratios bear this out, though the three available measures disagree: the school's own site claims 5.1-to-1, U.S. News reports 4.7-to-1, and ILRG's computation from the 509 headcounts gives 7.2-to-1 (ranked #11 nationally on that measure). ILRG's 7.2-to-1 is the figure most directly comparable across schools because it is derived from the same 509 faculty and enrollment counts: 41 full-time faculty, 61 non-full-time faculty, and eight full-time librarians.

Curriculum and special strengths

UNM's signature programs are clinical education, Indian law, and natural resources and environmental law. The in-house Clinical Law Program maintains five full-time legal clinics and has been consistently recognized as among the best in the country, and the school claims more than 50 years at the forefront of clinical legal education. The Indian Law Program includes a specialized course of study leading to a certificate in Indian law, the Southwest Indian Law Clinic, and the faculty-edited Tribal Law Journal. The Natural Resources and Environmental Law Program offers a specialized course of study and certificate alongside the student-edited Natural Resources Journal. The school also publishes the New Mexico Law Review. Degree options beyond the J.D. include dual degrees with the J.D./M.A. in Accounting, J.D./M.A. in Latin American Studies, J.D./M.B.A. and J.D./M.P.A., a Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.), and certificates in Indian law and natural resources law. Study-abroad and exchange opportunities exist with UNM programs in Mexico, Canada and Tasmania, and an exchange with the University of New Hampshire School of Law that allows UNM students to study patent and intellectual property law there.

Faculty of note include Christian G. Fritz, Nathalie Martin and Kevin K. Washburn, with former faculty including Norman Bay, Charles W. Blackwell, Vern Countryman, Cruz Reynoso and Suellyn Scarnecchia.

Clinics and experiential learning

The required six-credit third-year clinic, carrying a $120 malpractice-insurance fee, is the anchor of experiential learning at UNM. Five full-time clinics operate in-house, and the school reports that participation in the clinic is mandatory for all students — the single strongest structural feature of the curriculum and the basis of its #15 clinical training specialty rank. The Southwest Indian Law Clinic gives students direct client representation in tribal and Indian-law matters, and the school's externship and simulation offerings supplement the in-house clinics. The specific clinic roster — practice areas and client populations — was not retrieved in machine-readable form for this profile and should be filled from the school's clinical program pages before publication. Centers and institutes based at the school include the American Indian Law Center (the oldest existing Indian-controlled and operated legal and public policy organization in the country), the Madrid Summer Law Institute, UNM Mediation Training, the UNM Institute of Public Law, the Utton Transboundary Resources Center, and a Pre-law Summer Institute run by the AILC that prepares American Indian and Alaska Native students for law school by replicating the first semester of law school.

Student Life and Location

Living in Albuquerque

UNM Law is located at 1117 Stanford NE on the main University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131-0001, adjacent to the New Mexico Court of Appeals, which shares library and courtroom facilities with the school. Albuquerque is New Mexico's largest city and its legal-market centre, which is precisely why the school's placement is concentrated locally: two-thirds of the employed Class of 2025 are working in New Mexico. Housing and food is the dominant living cost at $14,750 of a $23,932 total living allowance — roughly 62% of the non-tuition budget — with books at $1,660, transportation at $2,498, miscellaneous expenses at $4,590 and loan fees at $434. The 509 report's own figures put the on-campus and off-campus living allowances at the same $23,114 and living at home at $14,078, so commuting from a family home produces a materially lower budget, and the school adds a $3,964 allowance for students with qualifying dependents. The trade-off is market size rather than remoteness: Albuquerque supports government, tribal, public-interest and small-firm practice well, and does not support large-firm hiring at scale.

Student body

Metric	Value
Total J.D. enrollment	296
Entering class	108
Women	55.1%
Men	42.2%
Non-binary / other	2.7%
Full-time faculty	41 (plus 61 non-full-time, 8 librarians)

With a total J.D. enrollment of 296 and a first-year class of 108, UNM is among the smallest law schools in the country, which produces a close-knit community and unusual access to clinic slots and faculty attention. The school has one of the highest student diversity indexes of any U.S. law school, with Hispanic students as the largest minority group, and it was among the first law schools in the country to prioritize the enrollment of indigenous students — a history reflected in the Indian Law Program, the Southwest Indian Law Clinic, the Tribal Law Journal and the American Indian Law Center based on campus. The faculty is 58.8% female (ranked #8 nationally) and 45.1% racial or ethnic minority (#11 nationally), among the most diverse faculties of any ABA-approved school. There is no part-time or evening division; the J.D. is full-time and residential. Students compete in a wide slate of moot court and negotiation competitions, including the National Native American Moot Court Competition, the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the ABA Negotiation Competition and others.

How UNM Law Compares

Choose UNM Law if

You are a New Mexico resident. At $21,020 in 2026–27 tuition and mandatory fees, UNM is one of the cheapest ABA-approved legal educations in the country for its own residents, and the 60% grant rate with a $10,000 median award makes the net number smaller still.
You intend to practise in New Mexico — government, prosecution or defence, legal aid, tribal law, natural resources or small-firm practice — and value the near-total bar-required character of placements (75 of 100 graduates in full-time long-term bar-required work, 99% of the employed in bar-required or JD-advantage roles) and 66 of the employed cohort working in-state.
You want clinical training as a required part of the degree rather than an elective. UNM requires a six-credit clinic to graduate and ranks #15 nationally in Clinical Training.
You want a genuinely small cohort: 296 J.D. students, a 108-person entering class, and published ratios between 4.7:1 and 7.2:1 depending on the measure used.
You want a faculty that looks like the population it serves: 58.8% women (#8 nationally) and 45.1% minority faculty (#11 nationally).
You want public-law exposure built into the institution — the dean chairs the state's judicial selection process and the school runs New Mexico's judicial education.

Consider alternatives if

You are a non-resident with no New Mexico ties. At $44,738 in 2026–27 tuition and fees — a $23,718 premium over the resident rate — plus a $90,872 average debt load among borrowers and no LRAP, you would be paying private-school prices for a state-anchored placement network.
You want large-firm or national practice. No member of the Class of 2025 entered a firm of 251 or more attorneys, the median private-sector salary was $80,000, and only one graduate took a federal clerkship.
You need a bar-passage safety margin. The most recent first-time figure of 77.0% sat 0.9 points below the average of the jurisdictions where UNM graduates sat, and the school roughly matches the New Mexico average rather than dominating it.
You need a part-time, evening or online J.D. — UNM is full-time only, with no part-time division and part-time tuition reported as $0.
You want to apply with the GRE. UNM accepts only the LSAT and states it will not waive that requirement under any circumstances.
You are relying on loan forgiveness for a public-interest career — plan on federal programs only, since the school reported no LRAP for its 2025 graduates.

The TLS Verdict

UNM Law is the archetype of the value-for-residents law school, and the numbers support the reputation more convincingly than the rankings do. A 296-student J.D. program at $21,020 for New Mexico residents, a 60% grant rate with a $10,000 median award, a required six-credit clinic and a #15 clinical-training specialty rank, 58.8% female and 45.1% minority faculty ranked #8 and #11 nationally, a 2024 first-time bar pass rate of 85.7% beating the state average by 4.5 points, and 75 of 100 graduates in full-time long-term bar-required work with zero school-funded jobs and no JD-advantage padding — that is a coherent, well-priced public law school doing exactly what a state law school should do. The counterweight is equally clear: a 77.0% first-time bar rate for the 2025 cohort, 16 graduates with unknown status and a headline placement rate of 81%, no graduate in a firm of 251 or more attorneys, one federal clerkship, and a non-resident price of $44,738 with $90,872 average borrower debt and no LRAP. The decisive variable is residency. At $21,020, UNM is one of the best legal-education buys in the country for an applicant who intends to practise in New Mexico; at $44,738 it is a regional school priced like a national one. Apply under the February 1 priority deadline to capture automatic scholarship consideration, take the LSAT seriously because the school accepts nothing else and waives nothing, and treat the January-to-July window as real slack — roughly 62% of admitted applicants go elsewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard is it to get into UNM Law?

Moderately selective: for Fall 2025, UNM accepted 41.41% of applicants (265 offers from 640 completed applications), and 103 of those admitted enrolled.

What LSAT score is competitive for UNM Law?

The median LSAT for the Fall 2025 entering class was 157, with a middle-50% range of 154 to 161. Scores at or above 157 are competitive, and the school admits a meaningful band of applicants at and below 154.

What GPA do UNM Law applicants typically have?

The median undergraduate GPA for the Fall 2025 entering class was 3.56, with a middle-50% range of 3.12 to 3.82.

Does UNM Law give scholarships?

Yes, broadly but modestly. Per the 2025 ABA 509 report, 175 students (60%) received grants, with a median grant of $10,000 and a 25th-to-75th range of $5,000 to $16,000. Admitted applicants are considered automatically for merit scholarships, and completing by the February 1 priority deadline secures a scholarship decision within one business day of the admission offer.

Does UNM Law offer conditional scholarships?

Yes. The school offered 41 conditional scholarships in 2024–25 and six were reduced or eliminated, following three of 39 in 2023–24 and three of 31 in 2022–23 — a loss rate of roughly 15% most recently.

What is UNM Law's bar passage rate?

First-time takers from the 2024 cohort passed at 85.7%, 4.5 points above the New Mexico average of 81.2%. The 2025 cohort passed at 77.0%, 0.9 points below the average of the jurisdictions where they sat. UNM has historically run roughly four to five points above the state average.

How many UNM Law graduates get jobs?

The school reports 81 of 100 Class of 2025 graduates (81%) employed at the ten-month mark, with 99% of those in bar-required or JD-advantage positions. The full ABA summary shows 75 in full-time long-term bar-required jobs, five in JD-advantage positions and 16 with employment status unknown. The Class of 2024 shows 99 of 112 (88%) employed with 97% in bar-required or JD-advantage roles.

Where do UNM Law graduates work?

Predominantly in New Mexico: 66 of the employed Class of 2025 are in-state, with two each in Arizona and California. By sector, 40 went to law firms (almost all of 100 or fewer attorneys), 17 to government, 11 to state and local clerkships, nine to public interest, two to business and industry, one to a federal clerkship and one to education.

What does UNM Law cost?

$21,020 for New Mexico residents and $44,738 for non-residents in 2026–27, full-time including mandatory fees. With the school's $23,932 living allowance, the approximate all-in cost is $44,952 for residents and $68,670 for non-residents.

How much debt do UNM Law graduates carry?

The average for 2025 J.D. graduates who borrowed is $90,872, and 70% of graduates borrowed. The school reported no loan repayment assistance program for that cohort.

Does UNM Law offer a part-time J.D.?

No. The J.D. is a full-time day program requiring 86 credit hours over three years, with no part-time or evening division.

Can I apply to UNM Law with the GRE?

No. UNM requires a reportable LSAT score and states that it will not waive the requirement under any circumstances, and that self-reported other standardized test scores will not be considered.

What is UNM Law best known for?

Its clinical program — required of every graduate and ranked #15 nationally — together with its Indian law and natural resources law programs, its very low tuition for New Mexico residents, and its unusually diverse faculty and student body.

Contact and Key Links

University of New Mexico School of Law
1117 Stanford NE, MSC11 6070
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001

Admissions Phone: (505) 277-0958

Admissions Email: [email protected]

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

UNM School of Law

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