Law School Admission Calculator

Enter your LSAT score and undergraduate GPA to get rough admission-chance estimates across five school tiers: Top 3, T14, Top 50, Top 100, and regional schools, framed as reach, target, and safety. This is a simple heuristic for planning, not a data-driven predictor. Admissions are only half the battle: with three years of tuition ahead, use our best student loan calculator to compare what different financing options would actually cost you. To sanity-check the monthly reality after graduation, run your expected balance through the average student loan payment calculator. And if you are starting your savings from scratch, the college funding calculator shows how much to set aside and how early.

Quick Answer

Worked example, checked against this exact tool

LSAT 165, GPA 3.5: score = (165 ÷ 180) × 50 + (3.5 ÷ 4) × 50 = 45.83 + 43.75 = 89.58. Admission chances: Top 3 13.6% (reach), T14 23.1% (reach), Top 50 38.1% (target), Top 100 51.1% (target), Regional 64.1% (safety). The applicant profile sits between a T14 reach and a Top 50 target: a sensible list would include several schools from each band.

How to read reach, target, and safety

A reach is a school where your numbers sit below the medians and admission is a long shot; apply because the upside is worth the fee. A target is where your numbers are near the medians and you are genuinely competitive. A safety is where your numbers clear the medians and admission is likely, protecting you against a bad cycle. The tiers in this tool map roughly to those bands for a mid-range applicant; a stronger applicant’s targets become someone else’s reaches.

The tool benchmarks you against these typical medians per tier:

Tier	Typical LSAT median	Typical GPA median	Usual framing
Top 3 (Harvard, Yale, Stanford)	175	3.9	Reach
T14	171	3.8	Reach
Top 50	165	3.6	Target
Top 100	160	3.4	Target
Regional schools	155	3.2	Safety

Medians move a point or two each cycle; treat these as planning anchors, not cutoffs.

What the numbers cannot see

Admissions committees read the whole file: personal statement, letters of recommendation, work experience, resume, addenda explaining GPA trends, and diversity factors all move real outcomes. Splitters (high LSAT, low GPA) and reverse splitters face different odds than the formula assumes. This tool treats you as two numbers; schools do not.

And look past admission to outcomes: the ABA publishes employment and bar-passage statistics by school, and NALP’s annual survey tracks what new graduates actually earn. A target school with strong employment numbers beats a reach school where half the class struggles to find legal work, especially with three years of tuition on the line.

When to apply matters too

Most law schools use rolling admissions: applying in September or October means competing for full seats and full scholarship budgets, while a February application fights for what is left. The practical sequence is LSAT prep through spring and summer, test by early fall, applications out by November. A strong early application can be worth more than a point or two on a late one.

What competing calculators miss

The real predictors need your data or an account, and the simple ones give one tier at a time with no context. This page shows all five tiers at once with the reach/target/safety framing applicants actually plan around, and it is honest about what it is: a heuristic, not admitted-applicant data.

The splitter’s dilemma: when LSAT and GPA disagree

A splitter has a high LSAT and a low GPA; a reverse splitter has the reverse. Both face different odds than the formula assumes, because schools do not weigh the two numbers equally.

Splitters get the better end of the asymmetry. Rankings reward high LSAT medians, so a school may take a 172/3.2 over a 165/3.8 to protect its median, and some schools are known splitter havens. A short GPA addendum explaining the trend, a rough freshman year, a hard major, working through school, helps the file get a full read. Reverse splitters face the harder path: the LSAT is the great equalizer across undergraduate institutions, so a 158/3.9 has fewer doors open than the GPA suggests, and retaking the test is usually the highest-return move available. The tool averages both numbers into one score, so read its percentages as the middle of your range if you are a splitter.

Sticker price vs scholarship: the money math after admission

Admission is the headline; the financing is the story. Three years of tuition at a private law school can pass $200,000 before living costs, so a target school with a generous merit scholarship often beats a reach at full sticker price. Competing offers are leverage: schools negotiate, and a larger award from a peer school is the standard bargaining chip.

Weigh the debt against outcomes, not just rankings. The ABA publishes employment and bar-passage data by school, and NALP tracks what new graduates actually earn. A school where most graduates land legal jobs at salaries that service the debt beats a slightly higher-ranked school where they do not. Run the likely balance through the loan calculators linked at the top of this page before you commit.

Frequently asked questions

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