Frequently Asked Questions

Watch this short video to get a quick overview of the application process at Texas Law.

The Admissions Committee evaluates candidates the same regardless of whether the candidate applies Early or Regular Decision. The advantages of applying Early Decision are that applicants receive a decision earlier than those applying under Regular Decision and successful Early Decision applicants receive a competitive scholarship offer. To learn more visit Early Decision Admissions Program.

We only offer a full-time program that begins in the fall.

While some courses may be held virtually, our JD program is fully in-person and we do not offer an online JD program.

You have to apply independently to Texas Law and the other program you are interested in as our admissions processes, requirements, and offices are entirely separate.

Create a visitor profile and use our automated system to schedule a tour. We look forward to seeing you!

The law school is only accessible during normal business hours 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday with the exception of our Law Day and other special events that are on weekends or after hours. If you would like to do self-guided tour, you may request a copy of the tour at admissions@law.utexas.edu.

It depends. Read more information about auditing a course and the requirements.

We welcome the opportunity to speak with you over the phone, in-person, or setup a virtual meeting at a time that is convenient for you. The best way to schedule a meeting is to use our Scheduling Assistant.

We offer application fee waivers only for (1) recipients of LSAC’s need-based waivers; (2) applicants who’ve participated in AmeriCorps, Teach for America, Peace Corps, or other similarly situated public service organizations; and (3) applicants who are serving or have served in any branch of the US military. Merit-based fee waivers are offered on a limited basis and applicants must first register with LSAC’s Candidate Referral Service. If eligible, the applicant will receive an email from us with the fee waiver information.  For more information, please visit Application Fee Waiver.

Generally, an applicant must reside and establish a domicile in the state of Texas for a period of one year prior to enrolling as a student. The University’s Residency Officer (not the law school) makes determinations of residency status. Questions concerning a candidate’s classification as a resident or as a nonresident should be directed to the Office of Graduate Admissions at residency@austin.utexas.edu or 512-475-7391. Visit Office of Admissions for additional information.

There are no residency requirements to apply to Texas Law. We welcome resident, nonresident, international applicants each year.

Texas Law and other law schools in the state of Texas are required to enroll a class of at least 65% resident students. This, however, should not impact your decision to apply to Texas Law. In fact, the majority of our applicants come from outside the state of Texas.

You should register for the CAS first and submit the required transcripts that are available. LSAC will automatically send us your CAS Report when your LORs have been received, you’ve paid your Report fee, and at least 60 credit hours are earned and reflected on your transcripts. We strongly encourage you to submit updated transcripts to LSAC to incorporate any new grades in your CAS Report. LSAC will automatically send us the updated reports when they are ready.

Submit all required transcripts including foreign transcripts directly to LSAC to incorporate in your CAS Report.

Only the two letters of recommendation submitted through LSAC’s LOR will be part of an applicant’s record and considered during the admission process.

While it is entirely up to you, we encourage you to submit your application beforehand so that our staff can begin processing your application. Your application will be held incomplete and when your LSAT/GRE score is released, our staff can quickly update your record and submit your file for review.

If you indicate on your application that you plan to or have registered to take a future LSAT/GRE, then we will automatically hold onto your application until we receive the new score. You have the option to complete your application with existing scores at any time or if you change your mind about taking a future exam. Just let us know at admissions@law.utexas.edu and we’ll continue processing your application.

We strongly encourage you to complete the LSAT Writing as soon as possible. Without a valid LSAT score and any Writing Sample, your CAS Report remains incomplete and your application will not be completed until we receive all required documents.

After you submit an application through LSAC, you’ll receive an initial acknowledgement email. Only after we have initially processed your application will you receive an email with information on how to access the Applicant Dashboard. Depending on when you submit your application, it may take 3-5 business days to receive the secondary email.

You can check the status of your application using the Applicant Dashboard, which will reflect the most recent activity.

While all decisions are final, if there has been a substantive and/or material change in your application since your decision, you may submit a reconsideration appeal to admissions@law.utexas.edu. An example of a substantive and/or material change is an improved LSAT/GRE score.

Deferrals are considered on an individual case-by-case basis. A deferral request can be sent to admissions@law.utexas.edu no later than July 1.

You can submit your enrollment deposit and view the other enrollment requirements in your Applicant Dashboard—Hook ‘Em!

We strongly discourage “double-depositing” with other schools prior to our LOI deadline, but prohibit it after that date, barring exceptional circumstances. After the LOI deadline, the Law School reserves the right to cancel the matriculation of any student who is reserving seats in both our entering class and the entering class of another law school.

The Committee is interested in an applicant’s performance in their overall academic record, not just in one isolated term as part of our holistic review process. Notwithstanding the impact of COVID-19, students could choose to take pass/fail courses for a number of reasons (e.g., some courses are only offered pass/fail), for any given term. While the Committee will be keenly aware of the circumstances surrounding grading policies for the terms impacted by COVID-19, the applicant may wish to submit an addendum as part of their application to notate additional information.

Yes, all applicants will receive an email after their application has been initially processed with instructions to complete a virtual interview.

We do not have a preference for either exam. Several factors may influence which standardized test to submit as part of your application, including whether you intend to apply to other law schools that only accept the LSAT, and whether you have plans to apply to a graduate program that may only accept the GRE.

LSAC offers fee waivers for the LSAT and the Credential Assembly Service (CAS) and Educational Testing Service (ETS) offers a limited number of GRE Fee Reduction Certificates. Please reach out to them directly regarding their fee waiver program.

LSAC administers the LSAT several times a year. For Early Decision applicants, you should take the LSAT no later than the October administration. Regular Decision applicants should plan to take the LSAT no later than the February administration in the year they are applying.
ETS administers the GRE year-round. If you’re applying under Early Decision, you should have a score in no later than November 1. If you’re applying to Regular Decision, you should plan to take the GRE so that you have a reportable score in by March 1.

Early Decision applicants should take the LSAT no later than the October administration and applicants submitting a GRE should have a score on file no later than November 1. Early Decision applicants who have registered for a future exam will have their applications submitted to the Admissions Committee based on the current score(s) on file.

Yes, as long as your application is submitted by the application deadline your application will be considered. Once we receive your score and your file is complete, we will place your application in review.

All applicants must register for LSAC’s CAS and submit their letters of recommendations and transcripts through LSAC.

GRE only applicants must instruct ETS to send all GRE test scores from the previous five years to Texas Law. Those who have taken the GRE can login to their ETS account and select Texas Law as a recipient using school code 2717. We will then request a CAS Report from LSAC.

We’ll evaluate all reported standardized test scores. LSAC will send any and all of your reportable LSAT scores for the past five years automatically and we’ll include them in our evaluation regardless of whether your intention was to be evaluated only with your GRE score(s).

It depends. You are only required to submit GRE scores if you would like Texas Law to consider them in the admission evaluation.

No, Texas Law accepts both LSAT and GRE scores and does not have a preference for one exam over the other.

No, you should take the test that best suits your circumstances. Several factors may influence which test to submit as part of your application, including whether you intend to apply to other law schools that only accept the LSAT, and whether you have other plans for graduate study.

We will consider all reportable GRE scores and will evaluate each section of the GRE independently. We are required to report to the ABA the highest score achieved.

We will consider only LSAT/GRE score(s) within the last five years. Your most recent score must still be valid at the time you submit your application. As an example, if you plan to enroll in Fall 2025 and submit your application October 1st, your most recent score cannot be from before October 2019.

While we are not accepting JD Next scores at this time, we (and the American Bar Association) are continuously monitoring the program to assess its validity and reliability as compared to the traditional standardized tests, e.g., the LSAT and GRE.

It varies each year and past trends do not inform nor predict how many students we plan to admit off of the waiting list in the current year. The goal of the Committee is to maintain our enrollment targets until Orientation. As seats become available, we will admit students off of the waiting list.

While the Committee has all the information they need to render a decision, there are ways you can strengthen your application. You can send your final undergraduate transcripts to LSAC to update your CAS Report. LSAC will automatically send us the updated Report once your transcripts have processed. Similarly, if you retook the LSAT, we will also receive an updated CAS Report automatically. You may send us substantive updates to your application or resume, or a letter of continued interest uploaded to the Applicant Status Online portal. Please do not send more than 3 letters of continued interest throughout the admission cycle.

In general, most of the wait list activity occurs between May 1 and July 15 with some activity after that date leading into our Orientation in August. Most students admitted off of the wait list will receive a phone call. We will send monthly updates so that students are informed of their status and of our timeline.
If you plan to be traveling abroad or you will not have ready access to your cellphone, please notify us at admissions@law.utexas.edu and provide an alternate form of contact. Similarly, if your contact information has changed, you can update that information in your Applicant Dashboard.

Deferrals are not available for students admitted off of the wait list.

We are unable to accommodate requests to meet with wait listed applicants. The Committee may invite selected candidates to interview during the wait list process.

While we’re not able to guarantee scholarship funding, if any funding remains available, students admitted from the waiting list will have access to it.

Unfortunately we do not offer any merit- or need-based application fee waivers for our transfer or transient applicants.

There is no advantage to submitting a transfer application early; you just have to submit an application by June 15. Applications are sent to the Committee for review only after all components of the application are received and your file is marked complete and ready for review. If you submit an application early, but you haven’t completed your spring term yet, or you don’t have all of your grades in or class ranking (if applicable), or your application is still pending other application requirements, your application will remain incomplete until everything else is in.

You will have to submit another CAS Report that reflects your law school transcripts and your letters of recommendation for your transfer application. The Committee will not have access to prior applications.

Unfortunately no, you will have to wait until you’ve received all of your first-year grades so that your letter of good standing and your 1L ranking is based on your entire first-year of law school. If you submitted a letter of good standing and rankings based only on one term, please request to have another letter of good standing and rankings based on the full first-year.

Unfortunately the Committee needs all components of the application in order to make an informed decision about your candidacy. But rest assured, as soon as we receive it, your application will be reviewed in a timely manner.

Your registrar or academic dean should notate the ranking requirements or policies for your school in the letter of good standing if it is not reflected on your transcripts.

Yes, we strongly encourage you to submit unofficial law school transcripts to complete your file, but any admission offer will be conditional until your official law school transcripts are received.

We’re only able to accept up to 32 credit hours (48 quarter hours). If you’ve achieved more than those credits at your current law school when you enroll, you will forego those credits at Texas Law unfortunately.

Because we’re only able to accept up to 32 credit hours (48 quarter hours), you will forego an entire year of credits. We would encourage you to consider applying as a transient applicant.

Unfortunately no. We require a full year of grades to be eligible to apply as a transfer applicant.

Yes, you should consider applying but keep the following in mind, we only consider transfer applicants to begin in the fall, no exceptions. The Committee will evaluate your application based on what you’ve completed during the first-year and if successful, our Dean for Students will indicate which 1L courses you will need to complete at Texas Law.

If admitted, our Student Affairs Office will review your law school transcripts and determine which of your completed credits will transfer. We are only able to grant up to 10 online credit hours towards your J.D. degree at Texas Law.

While we don’t have a separate pool of funding for successful transfer applicants, we encourage you to reach out to our Financial Aid Office to discuss funding opportunities once you’re a current student.

Potentially; however, it will largely depend on when an applicant is offered admission. The admissions office makes every effort to ensure students are provided decisions before the respective deadlines to participate in the write-on competition and the Summer Interview Program (the law school’s on-campus interview program). Typically when students are unable to participate it is due to incomplete applications (most often delayed transcripts).

Yes, all applicants will receive an email after their application has been initially processed with instructions to complete a virtual interview.