Columbia University

NY · Private · Mid-Atlantic

Acceptance rate: 12% (9,463 applicants)
Median LSAT: 173 (middle 50%: 169–175)
Median GPA: 3.92 (middle 50%: 3.85–3.98)
Tuition: $85,368 (per year)
Bar passage: 94.7% (+8.1 pts vs. state average)

Deadlines

Application deadline: Feb. 15, 2027

Essays

Personal statement (About 2 pages, double-spaced)

Candidates to Columbia Law School are required to submit a personal statement supplementing required application materials. We are curious about your interests, goals, and aspirations and how the J.D. program at Columbia can help you achieve these. You are encouraged to think about the contributions you hope to make to both the Columbia community and the legal profession while considering your personal, intellectual, and professional experiences and any relevant information that you may not have conveyed through your other application materials.

Supplemental 1: perspective (500 words (choose one supplemental at most))

A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia's collaborative community.

Supplemental 2: difference (500 words)

Describe a time when you engaged with someone whose beliefs or experiences differed from your own. What did you learn, and how did it shape your perspective?

Supplemental 3: adversity (500 words)

We recognize that many applicants have faced adversity in myriad ways and to varying extents throughout their lives. Tell us about an example of adversity or a challenging circumstance in your own life and describe how you overcame it and how that experience has shaped your life and your own perspective.

Supplemental 4: leadership (500 words)

Columbia Law School aims to prepare its students to be advocates as well as effective leaders. Tell us about an example of leadership in your own life whether in an educational, professional, or personal setting and how those leadership skills and qualities would contribute to your legal education and the profession.

Supplemental 5: public service (500 words)

Columbia Law School's mandatory pro bono program requires that every student devote at least 40 hours to public interest law service during their time in law school. Tell us about your own commitment to public service and describe how volunteer work, advocacy, community service, pro bono work, and/or extra-curricular activities have shaped who you are today and how you want to continue serving the public good during law school.

Supplemental 6: why Columbia (500 words)

Tell us why you are applying to Columbia Law School and how the Law School's programs, faculty, curricular and extracurricular offerings, location, and/or community would be a good fit for your legal education given your own academic, professional, or personal goals.

Bridge to Opportunity Scholarship statement (500 words)

Submit a statement (500 words or less) that discusses the contributions you will make to the Columbia Law community and beyond as a first generation college graduate.

Greene Scholarship/Public Interest Fellowship statement (800 words, double-spaced)

In the statement, kindly address your public interest and/or public service experience and motivations, your career goals and aspirations in the public interest/public service field, and the ways in which a law degree from Columbia would advance those goals. As recipients of the Greene Scholarship/PIF gain automatic admission into the Berger Public Interest/Public Service Fellows Program, please also identify what you hope to contribute to the Berger Fellows Program and the broader public interest/public service community at Columbia Law School.

Editor's notes

Read the rules on help before you draft. Columbia bans assistance from AI tools, agents, vendors and consultants on any part of the application, and you certify that no such tool or person wrote or modified your essays. Plan to write and revise every word yourself.
Early decision is binding and the file must be complete by Nov. 15, 2026, which means an October LSAT at the latest. If you're choosing between ED and regular, remember that ED admits don't see a financial aid package until late March at the earliest.
Pick at most one supplemental statement, and pick the one that adds something new. The six prompts overlap with typical personal statement topics, so decide your personal statement first and choose the supplement that covers what it leaves out.
Check the letter rule for your graduation year. Anyone who graduated in 2025 or later needs two academic letters, and Columbia means it. Line up two professors early.