51 states and territories · 196 ABA schools
Law schools by state
Bar admission happens state by state, in-state tuition is decided by residency, and law firm hiring follows regional networks. Those three facts make geography one of the largest variables in a law school decision. Below is where the 196 ABA-approved schools actually are, with the LSAT and tuition range each state covers.
California holds the most ABA-approved law schools at 17, followed by New York (15), Florida (11), Texas (10), Illinois (9). 13 states or territories have exactly one ABA-approved school, which makes the in-state choice a single option rather than a comparison.
The national picture: 42,812 first-year seats, a median LSAT of 159 and a median GPA of 3.67 across school medians, and median full-time non-resident tuition of $54,932.
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Data: ABA Standard 509 Information Report (2025), published for consumer disclosure, retrieved from the ABA Required Disclosures portal on 2026-09-01. School locations are taken from the address block each school prints on its own report.