Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law: admission requirements and 509 data

What the 2025 numbers say about Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase

Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase received 661 completed applications for the 2025 entering class and made 388 offers of admission, an acceptance rate of 58.7%. 150 of those admitted enrolled, a yield of 38.7%. Counting deferred admits and part-time entrants, the first-year class came to 155 students: 128 full time and 27 part time. Total JD enrollment across all years is 412.

Enrolled students posted a median LSAT of 154, with a 25th percentile of 152 and a 75th of 157. That is 5 points below the 159 median across the 196 ABA-approved schools in this data. It ranks 148 of 196 on LSAT median. Undergraduate GPA ran 3.15 at the 25th percentile, 3.41 at the median and 3.68 at the 75th. 4 of the entering class were admitted on a GRE score rather than an LSAT score.

Full-time tuition is $24,388 for residents and $38,454 for non-residents, a gap of $14,066 a year. Mandatory fees add $1,004. The school's own living-expense estimate for a single student off campus is $20,932. Tuition, fees and that living estimate add up to $60,390 for one year, or $181,170 across three, before any grant. 228 JD students hold a grant or scholarship, 58% of the student body, and the median full-time award is $18,000. 4 awards cover full tuition or more.

Of the graduating class that sat a bar exam for the first time, 96 of 130 passed, a rate of 73.85%. The weighted average across the jurisdictions where those graduates sat was 79.50%, so the school ran 5.65 points behind the jurisdictions it feeds. Ten months after graduation, 66 of 96 graduates (68.8%) held a job requiring bar admission. 11 joined law firms of 251 lawyers or more (11.5% of the class), of whom 11 went to firms of 501 or more. 2 took federal clerkships. The largest single destination was Kentucky with 41 graduates, followed by Ohio with 37.

Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase has been approved by the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education since 1954. It is a public school based in Highland Heights, KY. 10 first-year students left for academic reasons, 6.0% of the class.

The full 509 record

Kentucky has 3 ABA-approved law schools. The Kentucky guide compares them on LSAT median, cost and bar passage, and covers the state's admission rules.

Data: ABA Standard 509 Information Report (2025), published for consumer disclosure, retrieved from the ABA Required Disclosures portal on 2026-09-01. Bar passage and employment figures come from the same portal's Bar Passage Outcomes and Employment Summary reports for the class of 2024. Figures describe the 2025 to 2026 reporting cycle for Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law and are restated in our own structure; no ABA document or file is reproduced here. Verify anything decision-critical with the school.

Related reading: LSAT score guide, GPA benchmarks, law school cost and ROI, application timeline, all 196 ABA-approved schools, and the Yale profile for the top of the range.