Capital University Law School is based in downtown Columbus, Ohio, near the state legislature and major courts. Its strengths include litigation, family law, dispute resolution, and public law, with full-time and part-time JD options.
This guide walks you through how to get into Capital Law.
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1. Capital Law Admissions Numbers and Statistics
Capital Law Class of 2028:
- LSAT: 75th: 157 | Median: 151 | 25th: 148
- GPA: 75th: 3.66 | Median: 3.44 | 25th: 3.07
Capital Law Class of 2027:
- LSAT: 75th: 155 | Median: 151 | 25th: 148
- GPA: 75th: 3.72 | Median: 3.39 | 25th: 3.07
These figures cover the combined full-time and part-time entering classes of fall 2025 and fall 2024. Enrollment increased from 178 to 180, including 143 full-time and 37 part-time students in 2025. The LSAT median stayed at 151 while the upper quartile rose two points. The GPA median increased by 0.05.
Aim to be at or above at least one median to be competitive. Above both puts you in a stronger position. Below both medians, this is a prayer, not a reach.
For context on how medians affect your strategy, see How to Build a Smart Law School List.
2. Capital Law Application Essays
Personal Statement (required)
Capital's prompt is open-ended. Submit no more than two double-spaced pages explaining the experiences and perspective that distinguish you.
For more on how to write a personal statement, see my Personal Statement Examples and Personal Statement Guide.
Diversity / Perspective / Identity Statement (optional)
Capital permits supplemental statements about a unique perspective or other information supporting your candidacy. The recommended length is no more than one double-spaced page per statement.
For more on how to write a diversity or perspective statement, see my Diversity Statement Examples and Diversity Statement Guide.
Why Capital Statement (optional)
A supplemental statement may explain why you want to attend Capital. Follow the same recommended one-page, double-spaced format.
For more on how to write a Why X essay, see my Why X Essay Guide.
For more on making all of these essays work together, see my Cohesive Narrative Guide.
Addenda and Character & Fitness (if applicable)
Applicants academically disqualified from another law school face a two-year waiting rule and must explain their prior performance and changed circumstances. Capital also permits supplemental explanations of grades or LSAT results.
I'll be publishing a guide to addenda and character and fitness.
3. Capital Law Resume Requirements
A resume is required. Capital sets no page limit but requires at least the previous five years, including employment, unpaid work, volunteer service, and extracurricular activities. Make the chronology easy to follow.
For more on preparing your resume, see my Resume Examples and Resume Guide.
4. Capital Law Letters of Recommendation
Capital University Law School requires two letters of recommendation submitted through LSAC's Credential Assembly Service.
For more on recommendations, see my LOR Guide (Applicants) and LOR Guide (Writers).
5. Capital Law Interview Process
Capital offers individual visits with a one-on-one admissions meeting, a tour, and a class visit. Use the meeting to discuss your reasons for Capital and the practical demands of your intended schedule. Bring focused questions about the program you would actually attend.
6. Capital Law Deadlines and Decision Options
Testing Policy
Capital requires the LSAT and a CAS report. You may submit the application before taking the LSAT by identifying your planned test date.
Application Dates and Fees
- Priority Application Deadline: March 31.
- Final Undergraduate Transcript: Submit the degree-granting transcript before classes begin.
- Enrollment Deposits: Follow the dates assigned in your admission materials.
- Deferral Requests: Submit a written explanation before the admitted term's add/drop period ends. Deferrals ordinarily cover one academic year.
Complete the application with enough time for LSAC to process the transcript and recommendations. After admission, the transcript requirement remains important: failure to supply the certified final degree-granting transcript by October 15 results in administrative withdrawal, subject to a narrowly approved extraordinary-circumstances extension. A deferral does not preserve the original scholarship automatically.
Program Formats
The full-time JD normally takes three years. The part-time day program takes four to five years depending on summer enrollment. The part-time evening program can be completed in four years with summer study; core classes generally meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. Plan for daytime clinical or externship responsibilities as well as class meetings.
7. Capital Law Scholarships and Financial Aid
Merit Scholarships
All admitted JD applicants receive automatic consideration for institutional scholarships, primarily based on undergraduate performance and LSAT scores. Capital lists annual awards from $3,000 to $30,000. For entering classes beginning in fall 2024, renewal lasts up to three full-time or four part-time years, provided the student is not dismissed. Good academic standing requires a 2.0 GPA.
Awards pay toward fall and spring tuition, not summer. Moving from full-time to part-time reduces the award proportionally; moving the other way does not increase it.
Endowed Scholarships
Continuing students may apply during the spring for awards including the Bricker & Eckler Merit Scholarship and Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc. Energy Scholarship. Donor criteria control selection, and these awards are not renewable. Submit the FAFSA for awards that consider financial need.
Cost of Attendance
For 2026-27, tuition is $1,600 per credit. Capital's typical 29-credit first-year calculation is $46,400 in tuition plus $400 in fees. Living expenses, books, transportation, and any summer tuition are additional costs. Compare the full program price, not just the annual scholarship headline.
For more on scholarship strategy, see How to Negotiate Law School Scholarships.
8. Capital Law Joint Degree Programs
Capital identifies three joint-degree pathways with other parts of the university:
- JD/MBA with the School of Management and Leadership.
- JD/MSN with the School of Nursing.
- JD/MTS with Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
The university is revising the policies governing these combinations. Capital's standard JD is 89 credits, with full-time and part-time sequences; participation in a joint pathway requires coordination with the other academic unit.
9. Capital Law Employment Outcomes (Class of 2025)
Capital Class of 2025 employment outcomes (reported to the ABA, measured 10 months after graduation):
- Full-time, long-term bar-passage-required employment (ABA): 71.9%
- BigLaw (firms with 101+ attorneys): 6.6%
- Federal clerkships: 0.0%
- Public service (including government): 25.6%
Ohio dominates Capital's placement, and firms with one to ten attorneys form the largest law-firm category. Government is another substantial destination. Build your plans around the Ohio employers and practice settings you would genuinely pursue. The BigLaw figure points toward a selective path, not the ordinary outcome, so a large debt load needs a realistic repayment plan that works outside a large firm.
10. Capital Law Areas of Study and Specializations
Litigation and Client Advocacy: The General Litigation Clinic combines client interviews, investigation, drafting, negotiation, and courtroom work. Its Franklin County cases connect classroom procedure to actual representation, including misdemeanor defense, domestic relations, and civil disputes for people unable to afford counsel.
Family Law: Mark Strasser's scholarship and Capital's Family Law and Children, Families and the State courses support work involving parents and children. Domestic-relations clinic matters add experience with divorce and dissolution proceedings in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.
Dispute Resolution: The Mediation Clinic places students in live disputes at the Franklin County Municipal Court and juvenile court. The Mediation prerequisite provides the foundation; supervised practice develops neutral questioning, issue identification, and the ability to help parties reach workable agreements.
Constitutional and Public Law: Mark Brown's constitutional-litigation work and Capital's Local Government Law course support public-law study. The latter draws on practitioners from the Columbus City Attorney's Office and other agencies, connecting local-government doctrine with the documents and arguments public lawyers use.
Tax and General Practice: The Volunteer Income Tax Association gives students experience preparing returns and counseling taxpayers. Federal Personal Income Tax and Estates and Trusts provide complementary foundations for lawyers whose clients need help with recurring personal and financial matters.
11. Capital Law Clinics and Experiential Learning
Capital combines supervised representation, mediation, and tax assistance:
- General Litigation Clinic: Students interview clients, investigate facts, negotiate, draft documents, and appear in court. Case assignments include misdemeanor defense in Franklin County Municipal Court, prosecution in mayors' courts, divorce and dissolution, eviction and housing disputes, wills and powers of attorney, and consumer matters. The clinic requires 59 completed credits and eligibility for Ohio's legal-intern license.
- Mediation Clinic: After Mediation and the required foundational courses, students co-mediate live disputes involving small claims, housing, and juvenile matters. The work focuses on helping the parties develop their own resolutions.
- Volunteer Income Tax Association: Students train to prepare income-tax returns and provide free assistance to community members while developing client-counseling skills.
Pro Bono and Experiential Learning
The Pro Bono Honors Program recognizes 50 hours of approved service, with no more than ten hours permitted in the first semester. Externships provide two to four credits per semester, with 50 site hours per credit and six total externship credits available. Preapproved sites using their own selection processes include the U.S. Attorney's Office and Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Ohio, Ohio Public Defender, Supreme Court of Ohio, and Ohio Attorney General. Full-time students become eligible after their first year; part-time students ordinarily complete their second spring first.
12. Capital Law Notable Faculty and Journals
Faculty
- Mark Brown: Newton D. Baker/Baker & Hostetler Chair. His fields include constitutional law and constitutional litigation. He served as a U.S. Supreme Court Fellow and writes on civil-rights litigation.
- Peggy Cordray: Professor of Law teaching Evidence, Contracts, and Interviewing & Counseling. Her scholarship examines Supreme Court case selection; she established Capital's Foreclosure Mediation Preparation Project.
- Mark Strasser: Trustees Professor of Law. His work spans family law, bioethics, and constitutional law, including books on the legal recognition of family relationships.
- Marc D. Falkoff: Dean, appointed in 2026, and faculty member in civil rights and criminal law and procedure. He previously helped establish Northern Illinois University's Prisoners' Rights Project and later directed it.
Journals
- Capital University Law Review: The student-edited flagship publishes four issues annually and sponsors scholarly symposia, including the Sullivan Lecture. It publishes scholarship on contemporary legal issues.
13. Capital Law Culture and Student Life
Capital's downtown law campus brings together full-time students and classmates balancing legal study with outside responsibilities. The Student Bar Association includes representatives from both divisions. Organizations such as the First Generation Law Student Society, Children & Family Law Advocates, and Black Law Students Association provide smaller communities within the school.
Columbus gives that community a practical orientation. The Statehouse, Supreme Court of Ohio, government offices, and local courts are nearby. Use that access deliberately through externships, professional events, and sustained relationships with lawyers working in the Ohio practice areas that interest you.
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Related Reading
→ How to Build a Smart Law School List
→ Should You Apply Early Decision to Law School?
→ How to Negotiate Law School Scholarships
→ 6 Proven Steps to Get Off a Law School Waitlist
→ How to Get Into Law School Below Both Medians
→ What Holistic Law School Admissions Really Means
→ Blog Directory
Note: While I try to keep this guide up to date, always verify deadlines, requirements, and policies at the Capital Law website before applying.
Think you spotted an outdated requirement or something that doesn't look right? Email moshe@sharperstatements.com with the school and a link to the current information.
