Last updated: October 7, 2026

Alexander Blewett III School of Law

The Alexander Blewett III School of Law is a public law school at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana, that enrolled a first-year class of 95 students in Fall 2025 from 568 completed applications, with a median LSAT of 156 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.64. It is ranked #99 (tie) in the 2026 U.S. News rankings, and it is Montana's only law school. The central decision issue for admitted applicants is that Montana's resident tuition is among the lowest of any ABA-approved law school in the country at $28,018 a year and the state is served by a single law school, so graduates face almost no in-state competition and post a 91.0% bar-required employment rate ranked #25 nationally and a 9.0% federal clerkship rate ranked #14 — but the same insularity means the school has no meaningful national pipeline, and a non-resident who cannot satisfy Montana's strict 12-month residency rule faces a $55,610 tuition and an $85,325 cost of attendance in one of the smallest legal markets in the United States.

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University of Montana (Blewett) at a Glance

Category	Latest information
Founded	1911 (115 years ago)
Type	Public (University of Montana)
ABA approval or accreditation	Approved by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar; ABA member since 1923; AALS member since 1914
Location	Missoula, Montana
Latest U.S. News rank	#99 (2026 edition); top 14 for federal judicial clerkships
Latest completed applications	568 (Fall 2025, 2025 509 report)
Latest acceptance rate	51.4% (Fall 2025)
Latest LSAT median	156 (Fall 2025)
Latest GPA median	3.64 (Fall 2025)
Latest entering class	95 (Fall 2025, all full-time)
Current tuition	$28,018 resident / $55,610 non-resident (2026–27, based on 30 credits)
Current estimated cost of attendance	$56,509 resident / $85,325 non-resident (full-time, fall and spring)
Latest first-time bar passage	82.1% first-time Montana (2024 takers), versus 80.7% statewide (+1.4 points); 82.5% (2025 first-time, LawHub)
Latest bar-required employment	91.0% full-time, long-term bar-required (Class of 2024, ranked #25 of 196 nationally); 9.0% federal clerkships (ranked #14 of 196)
Current dean	Elaine Gagliardi

The admissions figures are drawn from the 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report as compiled and published by independent databases (568 completed applications, 292 offers, 51.4% acceptance rate, 95 enrolled with a 32.53% yield). The school's own admissions materials describe "approximately 90 incoming law students each year," which is consistent with the certified figure and reflects rounding and year-to-year variation. Tuition figures are from the law school's Paying for Law School page; cost-of-attendance totals are from the University of Montana Student Financial Services law school COA pages. Elaine Gagliardi has served as dean since 2023, having first led the school as interim dean beginning July 1, 2022; she was previously a member of the law faculty. She succeeded Paul Kirgis.

Introduction

The Alexander Blewett III School of Law, established in 1911, is the law school of the University of Montana and the only law school in the state of Montana. It was admitted to the Association of American Law Schools in 1914 and approved by the American Bar Association in 1923, and it was renamed in May 2015 in honor of Alexander Blewett III, a Montana lawyer and alumnus whose family endowed the school. It is located on the University of Montana campus in Missoula, a city of roughly 75,000 in the northern Rockies, and its facilities include the William J. Jameson Law Library, which occupies more than 20,060 square feet and holds over 100,000 print volumes. The law building underwent a $14.8 million renovation and addition in 2008 that expanded clinical space, small and mid-sized classrooms, and technology.

With a first-year class of about 95 and total enrollment of roughly 250 to 280 students across all programs, Blewett is among the smaller law schools in the country. That smallness is a function of its market rather than its ambitions: Montana's entire legal community is served by one law school, and the school's graduates largely staff the state's judiciary, its federal district court, its prosecutors' and public defenders' offices, its legislature, and its small and mid-size firms.

Blewett's identity rests on three pillars. First, practical skills training: skills instruction begins in the first year and culminates in a required clinical experience, with more than thirty clinical options available to third-year students. Second, a nationally recognized concentration in American Indian law, drawing on the seven tribal reservations within Montana and supported by a Native American law clinic; the school's American Indian law program is one of the oldest in the country. Third, environmental and natural resources law, supported by a certificate program and by the Public Land and Resources Law Review — a natural fit for a state dominated by federal land, water rights, and public-lands litigation.

The principal trade-off is geography and national reach. Montana's legal market is one of the smallest in the United States, with no large-firm hiring market and salaries that reflect a low cost of living: the reported median starting salary for the Class of 2025 is $59,094. For a Montana resident, the arithmetic is compelling — $28,018 in annual tuition, near-total in-state hiring, a 91.0% bar-required employment rate ranked #25 nationally, and a 9.0% federal clerkship rate ranked #14 nationally, the school's single most impressive metric. For a non-resident, the calculus is hard: Montana's Board of Regents residency rule requires twelve consecutive months of Montana residence and Montana documentation prior to the first day of class, and the policy explicitly bars most professional students from reclassifying after the first year, so out-of-state students should assume they will pay non-resident tuition for all three years.

Rankings and Reputation

The Blewett School of Law is ranked #90 in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, placing it inside the top 100 for the current cycle. Its reputation is considerably stronger than that overall position suggests in two specific dimensions: federal clerkship placement and bar-required employment.

Overall ranking

U.S. News edition	Blewett rank
2025	99 (tie)
2024	96

Earlier ranks were not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed. The school publicly describes itself as "a top 100 school and a top 14 school for prestigious Federal judicial clerkships," and Princeton Review has ranked it a top 10 school for state and local clerkships in recent years. preLaw magazine has ranked it among the top 20 best-value law schools, and National Jurist ranked it #6 nationally for best value in 2009. On independent composite measures drawn from the same 509 dataset, Blewett ranks #25 nationally in bar-required employment (91.0%), #14 in federal clerkship rate (9.0%), #27 in female faculty representation (52.2%), #62 in overall employment (94.9%), #99 in first-time bar passage (82.1%), #114 in GPA composite (3.59), #129 in LSAT composite (156.0), #151 in selectivity (51.4% acceptance), #156 in student-to-faculty ratio (15.6:1), #176 in minority faculty representation (10.9%), and #260 in tuition among 275 distinct rates.

Specialty rankings

Federal judicial clerkships — the school's signature distinction, with a 9.0% federal clerkship rate ranked #14 of 196 nationally, a figure that exceeds those of many schools ranked far above it overall. The school describes itself as a top-14 school for federal clerkships.
American Indian law — one of the oldest and most comprehensive programs in the country, supported by dedicated courses and a Native American law clinic, and connected to Montana's seven tribal reservations and the Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck, and Little Shell communities. Specific U.S. News specialty ranks for this program were not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed.
Environmental and natural resources law — a certificate program supported by natural resources clinics and the Public Land and Resources Law Review. Montana does not appear among the top-ranked programs in the 2025–26 U.S. News environmental law specialty list reviewed, so no specialty rank is asserted here.
State and local clerkships — a top-10 placement on Princeton Review's ranking in recent years.
Faculty composition — 52.2% female faculty (tied #27 nationally) against 10.9% racial or ethnic minority faculty (#176 of 196), on a base of 46 total faculty.

Admissions: What It Takes to Get In

Entering class (Fall 2025)

Admissions metric	Fall 2025
Completed applications	568
Offers of admission	292
Acceptance rate	51.4%
Enrollees	95
Yield (enrollees / offers)	32.53%

The 2025 Standard 509 report records a single full-time cohort with no part-time division; the law school states that it offers "a full-time in-person program with a fall start for all incoming cohorts." The school's own description of "approximately 90 incoming law students each year" and the certified figure of 95 are consistent within normal reporting variation. Because the class is small and the market is closed, yield is a less meaningful selectivity signal here than the residency-adjusted admissions pattern: the University of Montana's pre-law advising office notes that in-state residency materially improves an applicant's chances, which is consistent with a public law school whose mission is to serve its state.

LSAT and GPA

Statistic	25th percentile	Median	75th percentile
LSAT	153	156	159
Undergraduate GPA	3.33	3.64	3.80

These percentiles reflect the Fall 2025 entering class, as published in the December 2025 ABA 509 disclosures. The school's admissions materials do not publish a separate GRE pathway; applicants intending to rely on a GRE score should confirm current policy with the admissions office.

Interpreting the numbers

Blewett's median LSAT has moved only modestly over six years — from 155 in 2019 to 156 in 2025 — but its median GPA has climbed sharply, from 3.37 to 3.64, and its acceptance rate has tightened from 62.4% to 51.4%. That pattern is characteristic of a public law school whose applicant pool has strengthened at the transcript level while test scores remain anchored by its regional draw and by in-state admissions expectations. The 25th-percentile LSAT of 153 is among the lower floors at ABA-approved schools, which means applicants near that score with a strong GPA and Montana ties have a genuine chance. The 15.6:1 student-to-faculty ratio sits mid-pack nationally (#156), but with a class of 95 and roughly 46 faculty, seminars are small in practice and individualized instruction is the norm. The school's own framing — "collegiality over competition" — is a fair description of a class that small.

Application timing

The application fee is $75 and is non-refundable. Montana accepts applications from September 1 through July 15, with an early deadline for some special programs; applicants should consult the Application Instructions page for program-specific dates. The FAFSA becomes available October 1 and should be submitted by February 15. Seat deposits total $750 and are non-refundable: $500 due by the deadline stated in the acceptance letter and an additional $250 by July 1, or a one-time $750 deposit for applicants admitted after July 1. The deposit is credited toward tuition and fees at registration, and accepted applicants who miss the deposit deadline are treated as having declined admission and any scholarship awarded. Scholarships are considered automatically at the time of admission, with no separate application required for 1L applicants.

Cost, Scholarships, and Debt

Tuition

Montana's tuition structure separates University graduate tuition and fees from a law school program fee, and the split produces one of the widest resident-to-non-resident gaps in the country because the $16,710 program fee is identical for both groups.

2026–27 academic year (30 credits)	Resident	Non-resident
UM graduate tuition and fees	$11,308	$38,900
Law school program fee	$16,710	$16,710
Total tuition and fees	$28,018	$55,610

For comparison, the 2025–26 schedule was $10,802 in graduate tuition and fees plus the same $16,710 program fee, for totals of $27,512 resident and $55,084 non-resident. Tuition and fees are subject to modification by the Board of Regents and the university without notice. An independent ranking database lists Blewett's in-state tuition at $24,582 and out-of-state at $51,582 — figures that differ from the school's published schedule, most likely because they exclude a portion of fees or reflect a different reporting year; the school's own schedule is used throughout this profile. Because the program fee is not residency-sensitive, the entire $27,592 resident-versus-non-resident differential sits in the graduate tuition line.

Residency is the decisive financial variable at Montana, and it is more restrictive than at most public law schools. Under Board of Regents Policy 940.1, an entering student generally must have maintained a primary Montana residence for twelve consecutive months immediately before the first day of class, with Montana-issued identification, voter registration, vehicle registration, and tax documentation all in place for that full period. Reclassification after the first year is available only in narrow circumstances: the student must have lived in Montana for the twelve months preceding the first day of law school and must have moved there for reasons other than attending school, and must then obtain all required documentation and wait an additional twelve months. In practice, most non-resident professional students cannot reclassify. The policy provides exceptions for certain qualifying military personnel and their families, veterans, and persons with full-time Montana employment.

Cost of attendance

Expense	Resident	Non-resident
Full-time cost of attendance, fall and spring	$56,509	$85,325

These totals, published by University of Montana Student Financial Services for full-time students taking at least 12 credits per semester, reflect the cost of living in university residence halls with a university dining plan. The line-item breakdown was not machine-readable in the sources reviewed; the school publishes separate in-state and out-of-state COA detail pages, including an off-campus/no-dependents budget. The living-expense component has risen steeply: an independent database reports room and board moving from $12,480 in 2019 to $35,371 in 2025, a near-tripling that has outpaced tuition growth and partially eroded Montana's cost advantage. Mandatory health insurance coverage, with the right of waiver, is required for all students, and parking is separately priced. A reasonable computer allowance may be added to the financial aid budget on request.

Financial aid

The Blewett School of Law awards scholarships at the time of admission, and 1L applicants are considered automatically without a separate application. The school maintains a list of external scholarships and writing competitions for continuing students. The total number of grant recipients and the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile grant amounts for the current reporting year were not confirmed in the sources reviewed; these figures appear in the school's ABA Standard 509 report and should be pulled from that document before publication. Likewise, whether Blewett awards conditional scholarships that can be reduced or eliminated based on academic performance — and its retention rates if so — was not confirmed, and applicants should verify this directly, since conditional awards are the most common hidden cost of a public law school scholarship.

Debt perspective

Average graduate indebtedness and the share of J.D. borrowers at Blewett were not confirmed in the sources reviewed, and no institutional loan repayment assistance program (LRAP) for Blewett graduates was confirmed in the school's published materials; applicants should ask the financial aid office directly. The practical arithmetic, however, is favorable for residents and harsh for non-residents. A Montana resident borrowing the full resident cost of attendance of $56,509 a year would incur roughly $170,000 of total borrowing across three years; a resident living with family or off campus on a leaner budget would borrow substantially less, and the $28,018 tuition line itself is low enough that many residents can fund a meaningful share of it through scholarship, assistantships, and earnings. A non-resident borrowing the full $85,325 annual budget faces roughly $256,000 in total borrowing — a figure that is difficult to justify against a median reported starting salary of $59,094, especially given that reclassification to resident status is effectively unavailable. Non-resident applicants should therefore treat scholarship offers as close to determinative, and should compare a Blewett award against offers from schools in larger markets where the salary ceiling is higher.

Employment Outcomes

Employment (Class of 2025)

The school's Career Development office surveys recent graduates annually and publishes both ABA and NALP employment reports for each class, with reports available from 2017 through 2025 on its placement page. The Class of 2025 ABA Employment Report was published in June 2026, and the corresponding NALP salary report is published alongside it. The standardized comparison figures below reflect the Class of 2024 reporting year, which is the data underlying the 2025 ABA 509 disclosures:

Employment metric	Class of 2024
Overall employment 10 months after graduation	94.9% (ranked #62 of 196)
Full-time, long-term bar-required employment	91.0% (ranked #25 of 196)
Federal judicial clerkships	9.0% (ranked #14 of 196)
Primary market	Montana

The Class of 2025 data published by an independent aggregator drawing on the ABA filings reports that 80% of 2025 graduates held long-term full-time bar-passage-required jobs, with a median salary of $59,094. The difference between that 80% figure and the 91.0% bar-required rate for the Class of 2024 reflects a different reporting year, a different cohort size in a class of roughly 95, and the aggregator's treatment of long-term/full-time designations; both figures are attributed here rather than blended. The detailed ABA category table for the Class of 2025 (firm-size distribution, sector counts, clerkship totals, school-funded positions, and unemployment figures) is published as a PDF on the school's placement page and was not machine-readable in the sources reviewed.

What these numbers mean

The single most important fact in Blewett's employment profile is that its bar-required employment rate — 91.0%, ranked #25 nationally — is roughly sixty places better than its overall U.S. News ranking. That is the signature of a school with a closed market: Montana has one law school, its graduates are the primary supply of new lawyers for the state's courts, agencies, prosecutors, and firms, and there is essentially no out-of-state competition for those positions. The 9.0% federal clerkship rate, ranked #14 nationally, is the strongest single metric the school can claim; Montana's federal district court, the Ninth Circuit, and federal agencies with regional offices in the state all draw on Blewett graduates, and the school's alumni roster is dense with federal judges and Ninth Circuit judges. The 94.9% overall employment rate ranks #62. The counterweight is salary: a median reported starting salary of $59,094 is low in absolute terms and reflects Montana's small-firm, government, and nonprofit employment base rather than any weakness in placement. For an applicant who wants to practice in Montana, these numbers are excellent. For one who wants a national firm or a coastal market, the low salary ceiling and the absence of a large-firm recruiting pipeline are the binding constraints, and the school's clerkship strength does not by itself create that pipeline.

Bar passage

Bar statistic	Figure
First-time Montana bar passage (2024 takers)	82.1% (ILRG/ABA-based; Wikipedia also cites 84.13%), versus 80.7% Montana statewide (+1.4 points)
First-time passage, all jurisdictions (2025 takers)	82.5% (LawHub profile)
2019 first-time passage	84.8%, versus 82.6% statewide (+2.2 points)
Two-year ultimate passage	Published in the school's ABA Bar Passage Reports and on its "Employment and 2-year bar passage" outcomes pages

Two observations. First, Blewett has consistently outperformed the Montana statewide rate — by 1.4 points in 2024 and by 2.2 points in 2019 — which is the most meaningful comparison for a school whose graduates sit overwhelmingly for one state's exam. Second, the absolute rate in the low 80s is a mid-pack national figure (#99 of 196 on first-time passage), and the school's own materials emphasize both employment and two-year bar passage rates as its headline outcomes. The school publishes ABA Bar Passage Reports for 2022 through 2026 on its placement page, so an applicant can verify a full multi-year series by administration rather than relying on a single number. A historical 95% passage rate cited from a 2009 National Jurist ranking reflects a different era of bar examination and should not be read as current.

Where graduates go

Blewett's graduates stay in Montana. Placement concentrates in the state's small and mid-size firms, the Montana Supreme Court and district courts, the federal District of Montana, county prosecutors' and public defenders' offices, state agencies, tribal governments and tribal courts, and nonprofit and environmental organizations, with a secondary concentration in nearby Rocky Mountain states. The school's alumni roster illustrates the depth of that network: it includes Montana governors, multiple U.S. Attorneys and U.S. District Judges for Montana, at least two Ninth Circuit judges (including James R. Browning, who served as Clerk of the United States Supreme Court and Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit, and Sidney R. Thomas, Chief United States Circuit Judge of the Ninth Circuit), a director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the first female Chief Justice of the Crow Nation, and a long line of state legislators, attorneys general, and Supreme Court justices. Sector percentages and the full state-by-state distribution for the Class of 2025 are published in the school's ABA and NALP employment reports and were not machine-readable in the sources reviewed.

Academics and Programs

Blewett's academic model is deliberately practice-first. Skills training begins in the first year rather than in upper-level electives, and it culminates in a clinical experience; the school states that third-year students may choose from more than thirty clinical options. Class sizes of roughly 90 to 95 allow small seminars and individualized instruction throughout, and the faculty is recruited for substantial practice experience rather than academic output alone.

Curriculum and special strengths

The school's distinguishing academic programs are American Indian law and environmental and natural resources law. The American Indian law program is one of the oldest in the United States and is unusual in its breadth: it draws on Montana's seven tribal reservations and on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck, and Little Shell communities, and it is supported by dedicated coursework and a Native American law clinic. Environmental and natural resources law is anchored by a certificate program, by natural-resource clinics, and by the Public Land and Resources Law Review — a publication that reflects Montana's status as a state where roughly a third of the land is federally owned and where water rights, public access, and public-lands litigation are everyday practice. The school also publishes the Montana Law Review.

Beyond the J.D., Blewett offers dual-degree programs combining the J.D. with a Master of Social Work, an M.B.A., a Master of Public Administration, and a Master of Science in Environmental Studies. The school notes that the J.D./M.S.W. program carries a separate professional licensure disclosure, and that the J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.P.A., and J.D./M.S. Environmental Studies programs do not lead to licensure on their own. The school's extensive pro bono program is a formal part of the academic experience rather than an extracurricular.

Clinics and experiential learning

Clinical education is the structural core of a Blewett degree. The school requires a clinical experience, provides more than thirty clinical options in the third year, and devotes dedicated physical space — client interview rooms, student workrooms, and offices — to the clinical program as part of the 2008 building renovation. The published clinic roster includes a Native American law clinic, natural resources clinics, a land use clinic, a criminal defense clinic, and a mediation clinic. Because the clinical roster is updated annually and the school describes it as expanding, applicants should confirm current offerings against the school's academic pages. The combination of a small class, a mandatory clinical requirement, and a state with limited legal-services capacity means that Blewett students routinely handle real client matters early — which is precisely the outcome the school markets, and which is consistent with its 91.0% bar-required employment rate.

Student Life and Location

Living in Missoula

Blewett sits on the University of Montana campus in Missoula, a city of roughly 75,000 in western Montana at the confluence of five valleys, surrounded by the Bitterroot, Sapphire, and Mission mountain ranges. The school describes the setting as a distinguishing feature of the student experience — "Montana's physical beauty provides a spectacular setting" — and that is a genuine and quantifiable advantage for students who ski, hike, fish, hunt, or climb: Missoula offers immediate access to wilderness, a major river running through town, and a university town culture with a low cost of living by national standards. The law building's 2008 renovation added modern classrooms and dedicated clinical space, and the William J. Jameson Law Library provides over 20,000 square feet of study space and more than 100,000 print volumes.

The trade-offs are scale and distance. Missoula's legal market is small, the nearest major metropolitan legal markets are several hours away by air or a long drive, and the city's isolation means that out-of-state recruiting is minimal. Winters are long and cold, the nearest commercial airport offers limited direct service, and travel to interviews or family events outside the region is expensive. The school's own living-expense assumptions have grown sharply — an independent database reports room and board rising from $12,480 in 2019 to $35,371 in 2025 — so applicants should budget for Missoula housing rather than assuming that a small mountain town is cheap. Health insurance is mandatory with a waiver right, and parking is separately priced. Because the J.D. is offered only as a full-time, in-person, fall-start program, there is no commuter or evening cohort shaping the student culture; the community is residential and geographically concentrated.

Student body

Category	Percentage / figure
Total enrollment (all programs, per Wikipedia)	247
Total student body counted for the 2025 data cycle	280
Women	50.0%
Men	42.1%
Non-binary / other	7.8%
First-year class (Fall 2025)	95 (all full-time)

The student body is evenly split by gender and contains an unusually large share of non-binary students relative to national law school averages (7.8%), a figure reported in the 2025 data cycle. The class is small enough that students describe a close, mutually supportive culture; the school formally frames its community as built on "mutual respect and support," drawing students from eastern Montana's plains, the mountains along the Continental Divide, Montana's seven tribal reservations, and out of state. With roughly 95 students per cohort and about 46 faculty, no student is anonymous, and the school's small size makes individualized advising and clinic placement administratively simple. The corollary is a thin network outside Montana: graduates who leave the state are not joining a large national alumni base.

How University of Montana (Blewett) Compares

Choose Blewett if

You are a Montana resident. At $28,018 in annual tuition and fees — roughly half the non-resident rate and among the lowest resident tuitions of any ABA-approved school — with a 91.0% bar-required employment rate (#25 nationally) and near-total in-state hiring, Blewett is one of the strongest value propositions in American legal education.
You want a federal clerkship. A 9.0% federal clerkship rate ranked #14 nationally is the school's signature outcome, and its alumni network includes multiple Ninth Circuit judges and U.S. District Judges for Montana.
You want American Indian law. The program is among the oldest in the country, backed by a Native American law clinic and proximity to seven tribal reservations.
You want environmental and public-lands law. A certificate program, natural resources clinics, and the Public Land and Resources Law Review sit inside a state where public-lands litigation is routine.
You want practice training from day one. Skills instruction starts in the first year, a clinical experience is required, more than thirty clinical options are available in the third year, and the class is small enough that everyone participates.
You value a mountain-town life. Missoula's outdoor access and low cost of living by national standards are genuine and hard to replicate.

Consider alternatives if

You are a non-resident and cannot establish residency. Montana's Board of Regents policy requires twelve consecutive months of prior Montana residence with Montana documentation, and it bars most professional students from reclassifying after the first year, so plan on $55,610 in tuition and an $85,325 cost of attendance for all three years.
You want a large-firm or coastal-market career. Montana has no large-firm hiring market, and the reported median starting salary of $59,094 reflects that.
You need national portability. Blewett's pipeline is Montana, and its alumni network outside the state is thin.
Salary-to-debt ratio is your primary concern. A non-resident borrowing the full $85,325 annual budget faces roughly $256,000 of debt against a median starting salary under $60,000.
You need a part-time or evening J.D. The program is full-time, in-person, and fall-start only.
Faculty diversity is a priority in measurable terms. Blewett ranks #176 of 196 in minority faculty representation (10.9%), though it ranks #27 nationally in female faculty representation (52.2%).

The TLS Verdict

The Alexander Blewett III School of Law is the clearest case in American legal education of a school whose value is almost entirely a function of residency. It is Montana's only law school, ranked #99 overall, and yet it posts a 91.0% full-time, long-term bar-required employment rate ranked #25 nationally and a 9.0% federal clerkship rate ranked #14 nationally — outcomes that no school with its overall rank achieves in a competitive market. That is possible because there is no competition: Blewett supplies Montana's judiciary, federal district court, prosecutors, agencies, tribal courts, and firms, and its graduates do not have to out-compete anyone for those positions. For a Montana resident paying $28,018 a year, that is close to an unqualified recommendation, and the required clinical experience, thirty-plus third-year clinical options, American Indian law program, and Public Land and Resources Law Review give it substantive depth beyond the pricing advantage. For a non-resident, the school demands a hard look: $55,610 in tuition, an $85,325 cost of attendance, roughly $256,000 of potential debt against a $59,094 median starting salary, and a residency policy that explicitly forecloses the usual escape hatch of reclassifying after the first year. Blewett does exactly what a state law school should do — train the lawyers for one state and place nearly all of them. Applicants whose lives and careers point outside Montana should weigh that honestly before accepting the offer.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Moderately selective, and more competitive than it was: for Fall 2025, Blewett accepted 51.4% of applicants (292 offers from 568 completed applications), compared with 62.4% in 2019. In-state residency improves an applicant's chances.

What LSAT score is competitive for Montana Law?

The median LSAT for the Fall 2025 entering class was 156, with a middle-50% range of 153 to 159. Scores at or above 156 are competitive, and applicants near 153 can be admitted with a strong GPA.

What GPA do Montana Law applicants typically have?

The median undergraduate GPA for the Fall 2025 entering class was 3.64, with a middle-50% range of 3.33 to 3.80.

How much does the Blewett School of Law cost?

For 2026–27, tuition and fees total $28,018 for Montana residents and $55,610 for non-residents, based on 30 credits. Full-time cost of attendance is $56,509 resident and $85,325 non-resident, based on living in university residence halls with a dining plan.

Can I become a Montana resident to get in-state tuition?

Generally no. Under Board of Regents Policy 940.1, you must have maintained a primary Montana residence for twelve consecutive months immediately before the first day of class, with Montana driver's license or ID, voter registration, vehicle registration, and tax documentation in place for that entire period, and you must have moved to Montana for reasons other than attending school. Reclassification after the first year is available only in narrow circumstances and requires an additional twelve months. Exceptions exist for certain qualifying military personnel and their families, veterans, and persons with full-time Montana employment.

Does Montana Law give scholarships?

Yes, and 1L applicants are considered automatically at the time of admission with no separate application. The number of recipients and the median award were not confirmed in the sources reviewed and should be taken from the school's ABA Standard 509 report; the school also maintains a list of external scholarships and writing competitions.

Are scholarships at Montana conditional?

Unconfirmed. Whether Blewett awards scholarships that can be reduced or eliminated based on academic performance, and its retention rates if so, was not established in the sources reviewed; applicants should verify this with the financial aid office before accepting an award.

What is Montana Law's bar passage rate?

For 2024 first-time takers, 82.1% passed the Montana bar versus an 80.7% statewide rate (+1.4 points). An independent profile reports an 82.5% first-time rate for 2025 takers. The school publishes ABA Bar Passage Reports for 2022 through 2026.

What percentage of Montana Law graduates get jobs?

Under the 2025 ABA 509 data for the Class of 2024, overall employment ten months after graduation was 94.9%, with 91.0% in full-time, long-term bar-required positions (ranked #25 nationally) and 9.0% in federal clerkships (ranked #14 nationally). For the Class of 2025, an independent aggregator reports 80% in long-term full-time bar-required jobs with a median salary of $59,094.

How good is Montana Law for federal clerkships?

Very good relative to its rank: a 9.0% federal clerkship rate places it #14 of 196 nationally, and the school describes itself as a top-14 school for federal judicial clerkships. Princeton Review has also ranked it a top 10 school for state and local clerkships.

Does Montana Law have a part-time program?

No. The school offers a full-time, in-person program with a fall start for all incoming cohorts.

Does Montana Law offer an American Indian law program?

Yes — one of the oldest in the country, supported by dedicated coursework and a Native American law clinic, and connected to Montana's seven tribal reservations.

Who is the dean of the Blewett School of Law?

Elaine Gagliardi has served as dean since 2023, after leading the school as interim dean beginning July 1, 2022. She previously served on the law faculty and succeeded Paul Kirgis.

Contact and Key Links

Alexander Blewett III School of Law
University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812

Admissions Phone: 406-243-4311

Admissions Email: [email protected]

Official links

TLS Forum Links

Sources

University of Montana School of Law

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