Santa Clara University Law School: admission requirements and 509 data

What the 2025 numbers say about Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University received 2,575 completed applications for the 2025 entering class and made 1,354 offers of admission, an acceptance rate of 52.6%. 253 of those admitted enrolled, a yield of 18.7%. Counting deferred admits and part-time entrants, the first-year class came to 256 students: 206 full time and 50 part time. Total JD enrollment across all years is 746.

Enrolled students posted a median LSAT of 159, with a 25th percentile of 157 and a 75th of 162. That median matches the 159 median across the 196 ABA-approved schools in this data. It ranks 92 of 196 on LSAT median. Undergraduate GPA ran 3.21 at the 25th percentile, 3.50 at the median and 3.74 at the 75th. 18 of the entering class were admitted on a GRE score rather than an LSAT score.

The school bills tuition by the credit hour rather than by the year, at $2,260 a credit, against the 86 credits the JD requires. The school's own living-expense estimate for a single student off campus is $35,618. 426 JD students hold a grant or scholarship, 61% of the student body, and the median full-time award is $40,000. 138 awards cover full tuition or more. The school reports conditional scholarships: 110 entering students held one and 32 had it reduced or eliminated.

Of the graduating class that sat a bar exam for the first time, 160 of 214 passed, a rate of 74.77%. The weighted average across the jurisdictions where those graduates sat was 77.97%, so the school ran 3.20 points behind the jurisdictions it feeds. Ten months after graduation, 149 of 198 graduates (75.3%) held a job requiring bar admission. 38 joined law firms of 251 lawyers or more (19.2% of the class), of whom 33 went to firms of 501 or more. 1 took federal clerkships. The largest single destination was California with 153 graduates, followed by New York with 2.

Santa Clara University has been approved by the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education since 1937. It is a private school based in Santa Clara, CA. 3 first-year students left for academic reasons, 1.0% of the class. 4 students transferred in from other law schools.

The full 509 record

California has 17 ABA-approved law schools. The California 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 Santa Clara University Law School 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.