T14 Law Schools 2026 - Medians, Admit Rates, Essays

T14 Law Schools 2026 - Medians, Admit Rates, Essays

The "T14" are Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, Penn, NYU, Virginia, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Berkeley, Cornell and Georgetown. In their 2025 ABA reports, admit rates run from 4.06% (Yale) to 18.19% (Cornell), and every median LSAT falls between 170 and 174. The numbers below come from each school's ABA Standard 509 report, not a ranking site.

"T14" is not an official category. The American Bar Association doesn't publish it, and neither do LSAC or the schools. The label comes from the US News law school ranking, and it has outlived that ranking. In US News's own 2026 edition, Vanderbilt is #12, and Cornell, UCLA and WashU tie at #13. Berkeley ties at #16 and Georgetown at #18. So the group people call the T14 no longer matches the top 14 of the list that named it. We use the traditional fourteen because that's what people mean when they search the term. For your own list, though, the 509 data below does more work than the label.

The 2025 numbers, from each school's 509 report

Every row comes from the school's 2025 Standard 509 Information Report, published on the ABA's required-disclosures site. "2025" means the first-year class that entered in fall 2025, whose application window the report gives as October 6, 2024 to October 5, 2025. As of September 24, 2026, the ABA site has no 2026 reports yet. Rows are sorted by admit rate, and the 2024 report's rate is in brackets.

LSAT and GPA percentiles cover the whole first-year class (full-time plus part-time). Georgetown is the only school here that reports a part-time division. "None awarded" means the school's 2025 report says it "does not award scholarships that may be reduced or eliminated based on law school academic performance other than failure to maintain good academic standing." All fourteen say this.

What the table says, and what it doesn't

1. Applications rose sharply and offers didn't. Across the fourteen, completed applications went from 89,040 in the 2024 reports to 109,650 in 2025, up 23%. Offers went from 12,546 to 12,447. Thirteen of the fourteen admit rates fell, and Columbia's was essentially flat. These are counts of applications, not applicants, because everyone applies to several schools. Still, a 2024-era sense of how hard these schools are is out of date.

2. The medians describe the enrolled class, not the admits. The 509 percentiles cover people who enrolled, and that group includes students admitted in an earlier cycle who deferred. Harvard's 2025 first-year class of 579 includes 96 students "who deferred admission from a previous year and were not part of the current-year applicant pool." Yale's 204 includes 29, and Georgetown's 672 includes 43. The 509 doesn't report medians for admitted applicants. When a forum post says "you need a 174 for Harvard," it's quoting a matriculant statistic as if it were an admission threshold.

3. The 25th percentile tells you more than the median. The medians fall within five LSAT points of each other (170 to 174). The 25th percentiles spread more: 166 at Georgetown, 167 at Penn, Northwestern and Berkeley, 171 at Yale, Stanford, Harvard and Chicago. Penn's and Northwestern's 25th-to-75th LSAT ranges each span 7 to 8 points, while Duke's and Berkeley's span 3 and 5. A wide range means the enrolled class came in with more varied scores. That describes the class. It doesn't predict any individual file.

4. Admit rate is partly a measure of who applies. Georgetown made 2,193 offers, which is more than Yale, Stanford and Chicago combined (1,204). Its numbers are broken down on Georgetown Law's acceptance rate and medians. Cornell's 18.19% and Yale's 4.06% come from very different applicant pools. Absolute seats and the score ranges above tell you more than the percentage does.

5. Scholarship terms are mostly the same across the group. How many students get grants isn't. No school here reports a conditional scholarship. The grants section of the same reports (academic year 2024-25, all J.D. students) shows 38% of Harvard students receiving grants, 50% at Stanford, 63% at Yale, 91% at Michigan and Cornell, and 94% at Duke. If the cost of attendance decides where you enroll, this is the column to read. What "conditional" means in an offer letter is covered in how to tell whether a law scholarship is actually conditional.

What each school asks you to write

When the medians sit this close together, much of what separates two files in the same range is the written part of the application. This table summarizes each school's written components for the 2026-27 cycle as published on September 24, 2026. The prompts themselves, quoted school by school, are in the 2026-27 law school essay prompt crosswalk. Every component, including letters, résumés and dean's certifications, is in the sibling page on T14 application requirements.

The pattern is clear. A single reusable personal statement covers most of the long-form requirement at all fourteen schools. Harvard's two statements and Stanford's required essay are the exceptions. The pieces that can't be reused are the required short ones: Yale's 250 words, Stanford's 250 words, and Duke's short essay. Draft those as their own documents. A trimmed paragraph from your personal statement won't do the job. For the why-this-school options (Duke Essay #1, Cornell's "Why Cornell," Michigan Essay One), see why-this-law-school essays.

Which numbers matter for your list

Opinion, with the data above behind it:

• Build your list from 25th percentiles and absolute offers, not from the label. Georgetown's 2,193 offers and 166 25th-percentile LSAT make it a different kind of application from Yale's 226 offers and 171. Both are called "T14."
• Don't use the label to rule schools in or out. Vanderbilt, UCLA and WashU placed inside US News's current top 14, so if the ranking matters to you, read their 509 reports too. Their 2025 admit rates were 13.26%, 12.05% and 18.96%.
• If you're applying with the GRE, look at the GRE counts. In the 2025 reports, Columbia and Harvard each enrolled 37 GRE admits, while Michigan reported none. Whether a GRE can stand in for a reportable LSAT depends on the school's policy.
• Budget the fees before you write. Application fees, fee waivers and early-decision contracts for these schools are on the deadlines and fees page. Who waives what is on the LSAC and school fee-waiver page.

Run this this week

1. Pull the 2025 509 report for every school on your list and write down applications, offers, and the 25th and 50th LSAT and GPA percentiles. Don't take them from a secondary table, this one included, without checking the report.
2. Mark any school whose 509 lists deferred enrollees, and read its medians as matriculant figures.
3. List each school's required written pieces from the table above and count how many distinct documents you actually have to write.
4. Draft the personal statement first, then each required short piece as a separate document.
5. Have each piece read against the document it's meant to be.

GradPilot's law school personal statement review reads a draft against the law personal statement rubric, or against the why-school essay rubric for a school-specific piece. The free review gives qualitative feedback on the draft you paste in. It doesn't estimate admission chances. Read each school's certification about outside help before you use any review. Columbia's Fall 2027 preview application, for one, prohibits assistance "including but not limited to using the services of an agent, third party vendor, educational consultant, or artificial intelligence (AI) tool or service."

Outside the fourteen, the same 509 method applies school by school; see Boston University Law. If business school is also on the table, compare JD/MBA programs at T14 and M7 schools.

FAQ

What are the T14 law schools?

By convention: Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, Penn, NYU, Virginia, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Berkeley, Cornell and Georgetown. The list comes from past editions of the US News ranking. In the 2026 edition, Vanderbilt, UCLA and WashU rank inside the top 14, and Berkeley and Georgetown rank outside it.

Which T14 law school has the highest acceptance rate?

In the 2025 ABA 509 reports, Cornell had the highest at 18.19% (838 offers from 4,608 completed applications), followed by Georgetown at 15.75%. Yale had the lowest at 4.06%.

Do T14 law schools offer conditional scholarships?

None of the fourteen does, according to its 2025 509 report. Each says it does not award scholarships that can be reduced for academic performance other than failing to maintain good academic standing. Read your own offer letter for its terms.

Are the 509 medians the scores of admitted students?

No. They describe the enrolled first-year class, which includes students deferred from earlier cycles: 96 of Harvard's 579 in 2025. Schools don't publish admitted-student medians in the 509.

When do the 2026 numbers come out?

As of September 24, 2026, the ABA's site doesn't list 2026 reports. Some schools post their new class's numbers first. Cornell's FAQ, for example, gives a fall 2026 median LSAT of 173 and GPA of 3.94. Check the report when it posts.

Sources

All retrieved September 24, 2026.

1. ABA Standard 509 Information Reports, 2025 and 2024 compilations ("First Year Class," "Grants and Scholarships," "Conditional Scholarships") and individual 2025 school reports: abarequireddisclosures.org. Individual reports are linked in the first table.
2. US News, 2026 Best Law Schools. Cited only for which schools the 2026 edition places at #12-#18.
3. Schools' own application pages, linked in the second table, plus Columbia's Fall 2027 preview application, Chicago's personal statement FAQ and Northwestern's interview program.