University of Tennessee Winston College of Law
early decision Dec 1, 2026
0 of 4 required items complete· next deadline in 45 days
Your numbers against the class of 2025
This is a comparison against published numbers, not a prediction. Admissions committees weigh essays, letters, and experience that no percentile captures.
2,176 applications, 539 offers, 140 enrolled · Verified 2026-08-18 · view source
What it costs, how graduates fare
- Tuition2025-26
$16,696–$35,140 full-time · resident to non-resident · plus $3,866 annual fees
Living expenses $26,216 on campus
Tuition and the fees the school certifies alongside it — not a full cost of attendance.
Verified 2026-08-27 · ABA Standard 509 report
- Bar passageclass of 2025
85.6%first-time+5.6
80.0% is the average for all ABA-accredited schools’ graduates in the same jurisdictions this school’s graduates sat in · 107 of 125 first-time takers passed
92.8% of the class of 2023 were admitted within two years of graduating
A pass rate on its own says as much about which states a school feeds as about the school, so the ABA’s own like-for-like average is shown with it.
Verified 2026-08-27 · ABA bar passage report
- Employmentclass of 2025
110 of 124 (88.7%) in full-time, long-term jobs requiring bar admission
Ten months after graduation · 3 more in JD-advantage jobs · 2 still seeking
The ABA collects employment status and job type only. It collects no salary, so no salary figure comes from this filing.
Verified 2026-08-27 · ABA employment summary
- First-year attrition2024-25
1.0% of the first-year class · 1 student
No law school publishes a graduation rate, so this is not one. It is the students who left in their first year, academic and other, as filed. Transfers out are reported separately and are not counted here.
Verified 2026-08-27 · ABA Standard 509 report
- EarningsCollege Scorecard
Not a starting salary.
$65,905 median one year after finishing · $103,272 after four
$107,773 is the national median at four years for the same credential
A College Scorecard median for 2017-18 and 2018-19 completers who received federal aid, measured a fixed number of years after they finished — not what this year’s graduates are being paid, and not a figure the school or the ABA publishes. The ABA collects no salary data at all.
Verified 2026-08-27 · College Scorecard
Essays
- Personal statementRequired · 2 pgstart by Nov 10, 2026
A personal statement allows you to present information on your life experiences that have shaped and formed your view of the world around you, your motivation to join the legal profession, and/or any other pertinent information about you that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee that is not available elsewhere in your application. This statement should be approximately two, double-spaced pages in length and composed by you.
Notes & source
Length is stated as approximate ('approximately two, double-spaced pages'), not a hard cap. The page also says the statement must be 'composed by you'; it does not otherwise mention generative AI. Font and margin requirements are not published.
Verified 2026-08-31 · source page
- Perspective statementOptional · 2 pgstart by Nov 17, 2026
The Winston College of Law is committed to achieving an expansive, inclusive, and collaborative law school community that brings a diverse range of ideas, experiences, and perspectives to our classrooms. Please describe how your lived experience informs who you are today and how it will contribute to our community.
Notes & source
IMPORTANT — this is one of three alternative prompts for a SINGLE optional statement, not a separate essay. The apply page says: 'We invite applicants to complete one optional statement from the list of prompts below. This optional statement should be approximately two, double-spaced pages in length, and composed by you.' The three prompts are split across this entry and the 'optional_essay' entry in this file so each can be matched against comparable essays at other schools; an applicant submits only one of them. Separately, the nondiscrimination/diversity block at the bottom of the same page carries an older invitation: 'We encourage you to attach a brief (optional) statement that may be helpful to us in reaching a thoughtful and informed decision on how your personal background will contribute to the diversity at UT Law.' The page does not say how that older invitation relates to the optional-statement list above it.
Verified 2026-08-31 · source page
- Optional essayOptional · 2 pgschool-specificstart by Nov 24, 2026
Please describe any experience you have had in your own life in which you have overcome disadvantage or performed well in the face of challenges or adversity (for example, heavy work responsibilities, family responsibilities, health issues, economic hardship, experiences as a first-generation college student, etc.). Civil dialogue and reasoned debate over contested ideas are core values both for the practice of law and in legal education. Please describe any experiences you may have had engaging with ideas with which you disagreed, and how such experiences have impacted you.
Notes & source
IMPORTANT — these are two of the three alternative prompts for a SINGLE optional statement, quoted verbatim and separated by a blank line. The apply page says: 'We invite applicants to complete one optional statement from the list of prompts below. This optional statement should be approximately two, double-spaced pages in length, and composed by you.' The third prompt is recorded under 'perspective_statement' in this file; an applicant submits only one statement in total. Length is approximate, not a hard cap.
Verified 2026-08-31 · source page
- AddendumOptionalstart by Nov 28, 2026
Notes & source
The apply page does not use the word 'addendum' and invites no GPA, test-score, or gap explanations. It does require character-and-fitness documentation: 'Please be sure to provide documentation pertaining to character and fitness if relevant,' and applicants 'are required to update the application form if information they have certified as correct changes during the admission process.' The school's Character and Fitness page (winston.utk.edu/admissions/apply/character-fitness/) specifies what that documentation must contain: 'If you must answer "yes" to any character and fitness issues, you will be asked to provide documentation concerning the matter... Proper documentation includes a detailed explanation (including the dates, locations, and nature of the charges), the disposition of the case, and any sanctions imposed.' Disclosure is required even for expunged, sealed, dismissed, or juvenile matters and for acquittals. No length limit is published. For TED applicants this documentation must be received by the December 1 deadline.
Verified 2026-08-31 · source page
Letters & documents
- Letter of recommendationRequiredstart by Nov 3, 2026
Notes & source
Required, submitted through LSAC: 'The required recommendations must be submitted through the LSAC Credential Assembly Service. Please choose recommenders who have known you long enough and well enough to make a sound evaluation of your abilities.' The plural 'recommendations' implies more than one, but the page does not state how many are required or how many are accepted, so no count is recorded here — this is the page's silence, not a statement that any number is acceptable. (The school does publish counts for other programs — two letters for the Master of Legal Studies, one preferred faculty letter for transfer applicants — but neither figure governs first-year JD admission.) For TED applicants, recommendations must be received by the December 1 deadline.
Verified 2026-08-31 · source page
- Transcripts via LSAC CASRequiredstart by Nov 10, 2026
Notes & source
'Please submit all transcripts, undergraduate and graduate (if applicable), as part of your application.' The CAS report 'will be ordered when you apply for admission and will be updated as academic transcripts, letters of recommendation, and writing samples are added.' Winston Law's application form and instructions are distributed through LSAC. The page does not state a minimum GPA or a degree-completion requirement for JD applicants, and does not mention TOEFL/IELTS or international credential evaluation.
Verified 2026-08-31 · source page
- LSAT or GRERequiredstart by Oct 2, 2026
Notes & source
Both tests accepted: 'We accept either the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) or the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) as part of the requirement for a standardized test.' The page publishes no score-validity window, no policy on multiple scores (highest vs. average), and no GRE reporting code. TED applicants submitting an LSAT 'should take the LSAT no later than the November test administration'; no corresponding latest-test guidance is published for regular applicants. In the school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report all 140 first-year enrollees are reported under LSAT and no GRE percentile block appears.
Verified 2026-08-31 · source page
Administrative
- Application feeOptionalat submission
Notes & source
No application fee: the school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (generated 12-17-2025) reports 'Application fee — $0'. The admissions site is silent on the subject — neither the apply page nor the financial aid page mentions an application fee or fee waivers — so the 509 is the only source for this fact and is cited here directly.
Verified 2026-08-31 · source page
Every item above was verified against winston.utk.edu on 2026-08-31. Expand any item for its own source. Always confirm against the school before you submit — and if we have something wrong, report an error.