Southern University Law Center: admission requirements and 509 data

What the 2025 numbers say about Southern University

Southern University received 1,153 completed applications for the 2025 entering class and made 652 offers of admission, an acceptance rate of 56.5%. 297 of those admitted enrolled, a yield of 45.6%. Counting deferred admits and part-time entrants, the first-year class came to 300 students: 239 full time and 61 part time. Total JD enrollment across all years is 809.

Enrolled students posted a median LSAT of 147, with a 25th percentile of 145 and a 75th of 150. That is 12 points below the 159 median across the 196 ABA-approved schools in this data. It ranks 192 of 196 on LSAT median. Undergraduate GPA ran 2.86 at the 25th percentile, 3.15 at the median and 3.48 at the 75th.

Full-time tuition is $11,338 a year at a single rate for residents and non-residents. Mandatory fees add $22,994. The school's own living-expense estimate for a single student off campus is $32,262. Tuition, fees and that living estimate add up to $66,594 for one year, or $199,782 across three, before any grant. 163 JD students hold a grant or scholarship, 20% of the student body, and the median full-time award is $11,000. 3 awards cover full tuition or more. The school reports conditional scholarships: 21 entering students held one and 8 had it reduced or eliminated.

Of the graduating class that sat a bar exam for the first time, 73 of 121 passed, a rate of 60.33%. The weighted average across the jurisdictions where those graduates sat was 75.91%, so the school ran 15.58 points behind the jurisdictions it feeds. Ten months after graduation, 102 of 231 graduates (44.2%) held a job requiring bar admission. 6 joined law firms of 251 lawyers or more (2.6% of the class), of whom 2 went to firms of 501 or more. The largest single destination was Louisiana with 94 graduates, followed by Texas with 10.

Southern University has been approved by the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education since 1953. It is a public school based in Baton Rouge, LA. 30 first-year students left for academic reasons, 10.0% of the class.

The full 509 record

Louisiana has 4 ABA-approved law schools. The Louisiana 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 Southern University Law Center 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.