You can get into law school with almost any bachelor’s degree. The American Bar Association, which accredits nearly every U.S. law school, requires applicants to hold a bachelor’s degree but doesn’t specify a major or field of study. A diploma in philosophy, engineering, music, or biology qualifies you to apply on equal footing. What decides whether you actually get in is your GPA, your LSAT or GRE score, and the strength of your overall application — not the words printed on your degree.
What the ABA Actually Requires
ABA Standard 502 governs who can enroll in an accredited Juris Doctor program. It requires applicants to have earned a bachelor’s degree from a college or university accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.1American Bar Association. Standards – Accreditation The standard says nothing about which bachelor’s degree. A degree in art history checks the same box as a degree in economics.
There is no “pre-law” major that law schools expect or prefer. Admissions offices know the J.D. curriculum teaches legal reasoning from scratch, so they aren’t looking for applicants who’ve already studied law. They’re looking for applicants who can handle demanding reading, write clearly, and think analytically under pressure.
Does Your Major Give You Any Edge?
What admissions committees care about is the rigor of your coursework and how well you did in it. A high GPA in a demanding program signals that you can handle the reading load and analytical pressure of law school. Different undergraduate backgrounds bring different strengths:
- Humanities majors often arrive with strong writing and close-reading skills.
- STEM graduates bring structured problem-solving and sometimes a direct path into specialized practice areas like patent or environmental law.
- Social science majors tend to have a head start on understanding how legal systems interact with institutions and communities.
None of these is inherently preferred. Pick a major you’ll do well in, because a strong GPA in a subject you love will serve your application better than a mediocre GPA in a subject you chose because you thought it looked lawyerly.
The Accreditation That Does Matter
Your major is flexible. The school that granted your degree is not. The bachelor’s must come from an institution accredited by an agency the U.S. Department of Education recognizes.2U.S. Department of Education. Institutional Accrediting Agencies Most traditional four-year colleges and universities hold regional accreditation, which is the standard law school admissions offices expect. A degree from an unaccredited institution will almost certainly disqualify you.
You can check a school’s status through the Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs, a federal tool maintained by the Department of Education. If you attended multiple schools before transferring and graduating, the accreditation status of each institution matters, because law schools will see transcripts from all of them.
What If You Don’t Have a Bachelor’s Degree?
There is a narrow exception to the bachelor’s requirement. A small number of ABA-accredited schools admit students who have completed at least 60 undergraduate credits (roughly two years of coursework) or earned an associate’s degree without finishing a four-year program. These applicants face a more demanding review, and the school typically expects a strong GPA and a high LSAT score to compensate for the missing credential. This path exists, but it’s rare enough that most applicants should plan on finishing their bachelor’s degree first.
What Actually Decides Whether You Get In
If your degree is from an accredited school, the major question is settled and the real admissions competition begins. Two numbers do most of the work: your undergraduate GPA and your standardized test score.
How LSAC Calculates Your GPA
The GPA law schools see is not necessarily the one on your diploma. LSAC converts all your undergraduate grades to a standard 4.0 scale and computes a cumulative GPA across every undergraduate institution where you earned credits.3LawHub. LSAC GPA Calculation for Law School Admission That number can differ from your school’s GPA, sometimes significantly.
The biggest surprise involves repeated courses. If you retook a class to replace a bad grade, many colleges only count the higher grade in their own GPA calculation. LSAC counts both attempts. That original D or F doesn’t disappear from your LSAC GPA even if your school wiped it from yours.3LawHub. LSAC GPA Calculation for Law School Admission LSAC also uses grades and credits for every course that can be converted to the 4.0 scale, even if the institution excluded some from its own calculation. Only coursework completed toward your first undergraduate degree is included; graduate school grades are separate.
The LSAT, the GRE, and Test-Optional Admission
Most law schools require either the LSAT or the GRE General Test. The LSAT dominates by a wide margin: among students entering ABA-accredited schools in fall 2025, roughly 41,850 had LSAT scores compared to about 530 with GRE scores.4American Bar Association. Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Releases Annual Law School Data A growing number of schools accept the GRE as an alternative, though not all do, so check each school’s policy before committing to one test.
A handful of programs have moved toward test-optional admission. ABA data shows 312 students enrolled in fall 2025 without any standardized test score.4American Bar Association. Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Releases Annual Law School Data Test-optional does not mean test-blind. Schools that waive the requirement still expect a strong overall application, and going without a score can limit your scholarship leverage.
For the 2025–2026 testing year, LSAT registration costs $248.5The Law School Admission Council. LSAT and CAS Fees A strong score is also the single biggest lever for merit scholarship money; even a few points can translate into tens of thousands of dollars over three years.
Character and Fitness Questions Apply to Everyone
Nearly every law school application includes a character and fitness section that asks about your history with academic discipline, criminal charges, and professional misconduct. These questions exist because bar examiners will ask the same things years later when you apply for a law license, and inconsistencies between your law school application and your bar application create serious problems.
Academic discipline covers more than you might expect. Being placed on academic probation for low grades, facing allegations of plagiarism, or receiving a written warning from a dean’s office all count. Non-academic discipline, such as a dorm violation that led to a formal sanction, also counts. The requirement applies even if the school no longer has a record of the incident.
On the criminal side, you generally must disclose any arrest, charge, or citation, including offenses that were dismissed, resulted in deferred adjudication, or ended in acquittal. Minor traffic tickets are usually excluded, but anything involving alcohol, drugs, or a suspended license is not. Sealed or expunged records typically don’t need to be disclosed, but an order of non-disclosure is not the same as an expungement in many states, and the underlying offense may still require reporting.
The worst mistake here is omitting something and hoping nobody notices. A past misdemeanor disclosed upfront rarely torpedoes an application. The same misdemeanor discovered later, when it looks like you tried to hide it, can result in expulsion from law school or denial of your bar license.
If Your Degree Is From Outside the United States
If you earned your bachelor’s degree outside the U.S., you can still apply to American law schools, but you’ll need your credentials evaluated through LSAC’s International Transcript Authentication and Evaluation Service. This service verifies that your degree is equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree and converts your academic record into a format American law schools can assess. The evaluation fee is $156, on top of a $62 Document Assembly Service fee and a $44 Electronic Application Service fee.6Law School Admission Council. LLM Credential Assembly Service (LLM CAS) No fee waivers are available for these international processing charges.
International applicants should allow extra time for document processing, since foreign transcripts often require additional authentication steps. You’ll still need to take the LSAT or GRE and submit the same application materials as domestic applicants.
The Short Version
Any accredited bachelor’s degree qualifies you to apply. Study what you can excel in, protect your GPA, and give the LSAT the preparation it demands. The major on your diploma won’t open or close the door to law school. The numbers underneath it will.