State Guide · 1 ABA School · 509 data 2025
South Dakota law school requirements
South Dakota has 1 ABA-approved law school, reporting an LSAT median of 152. Together they took 405 completed applications, made 253 offers and filled 88 first-year seats in 2025. Every number on this page comes from those schools' own ABA Standard 509 reports.
ABA schools
1
1 public, 0 private
LSAT median range
152 to 152
across the state
First-year seats
88
from 405 applications
Tuition range
$32,184 to $32,184
full time, non-resident
The 1 ABA-approved South Dakota law school
| School | Type | LSAT | GPA | Accept | 1L | Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of South DakotaVermillion | Public | 152 | 3.47 | 62.5% | 88 | $32,184 |
What the state data shows
University of South Dakota reports the highest LSAT median in the state at 152, with a 3.47 GPA median and a 62.5% acceptance rate on 405 applications. The national median of school medians is 159, so South Dakota's strongest reported median sits 7 points below it.
1 of the 1 schools charge residents less than non-residents, so residency status is worth checking before you apply. The lowest published resident tuition belongs to University of South Dakota at $12,076 a year, where the median full-time grant is $5,000.
0 of the 1 schools reporting bar outcomes beat the weighted average pass rate in the jurisdictions where their graduates sat. University of South Dakota reports the state's highest first-time pass rate at 72.60% from 73 first-time takers, against a 78.62% jurisdiction average. Bar admission is granted state by state, so the jurisdiction you intend to practise in matters as much as the school.
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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, with bar passage figures from the same portal's Bar Passage Outcomes report for the class of 2024. Restated in our own structure; no ABA document or file is reproduced here.