Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law is a private law school in Davie, Florida, with full-time and evening JD programs. Its offerings include health law, intellectual property, international law, and clinics serving families, veterans, and entrepreneurs.
This guide walks you through how to get into Nova Southeastern Law.
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1. Nova Southeastern Law Admissions Numbers and Statistics
Nova Southeastern Law Class of 2029:
- LSAT: 75th: 158 | Median: 156 | 25th: 153
- GPA: 75th: 3.72 | Median: 3.55 | 25th: 3.35
Nova Southeastern Law Class of 2028:
- LSAT: 75th: 158 | Median: 155 | 25th: 152
- GPA: 75th: 3.71 | Median: 3.52 | 25th: 3.34
Between the fall 2025 and fall 2026 entering classes, the median LSAT rose one point and the median GPA increased from 3.52 to 3.55. The traditional entering class grew from 225 to 246 students. These combined figures cover day and evening students.
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. Nova Southeastern Law Application Essays
Personal Statement (required)
The school's instructions:
“Submit a typed, double-spaced, Personal Statement, of your own work, which should not exceed two pages. Keeping in mind that LSAT scores and undergraduate GPAs are only a part of what the Admissions Committee will consider, take this opportunity to explain to the Committee why you should be selected for admission to NSU Law. Topics that the Committee considers helpful in evaluating qualifications include: Significant personal experiences beyond what may be reflected in the transcripts and on the resume, especially experiences associated with the law. Characteristics and experiences that you will bring to NSU Law and the legal profession that distinguish you from other applicants. Long-range career plans and goals that you intend to pursue with your law degree. The intellectual contribution you will make to the classroom.”
For more on how to write a personal statement, see my Personal Statement Examples and Personal Statement Guide.
For more on explaining why you should be selected for admission to NSU Law within this personal statement, see my Why X Essay Guide.
For more on discussing the experiences and intellectual contribution you would bring within this personal statement, see my Diversity Statement Examples and Diversity Statement Guide.
Statement of Success (academic-dismissal applicants)
Applicants previously academically dismissed from law school must also submit a detailed Statement of Success. Address the earlier academic difficulty and the concrete changes supporting your ability to succeed now.
For more on making all of these essays work together, see my Cohesive Narrative Guide.
Addenda and Character & Fitness Resources
I'll be publishing a guide to addenda and character and fitness.
3. Nova Southeastern Law Resume Requirements
Include your postsecondary education, attendance dates, degrees, employment dates and responsibilities, activities, public-interest work, honors, publications, and professional credentials. Make sustained commitments and specific accomplishments easy to find. Include work outside the legal field rather than treating it as irrelevant.
For more on preparing your resume, see my Resume Examples and Resume Guide.
4. Nova Southeastern Law Letters of Recommendation
Submit two letters of recommendation through CAS. Professors are preferred. If you are still in college or graduated within the past year, at least one academic letter is required. Applicants farther removed from school can use professional recommenders who know their work well.
For more on recommendations, see my LOR Guide (Applicants) and LOR Guide (Writers).
5. Nova Southeastern Law Interview Process
NSU's standard JD application requirements do not include a required interview.
6. Nova Southeastern Law Deadlines and Decision Options
Application Dates and Fees
Applications open September 1 for fall admission. December 15 is the scholarship-priority date for a complete application, and June 15 is the final deadline. NSU charges no JD application fee. Scholarships are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, making completeness by the priority date consequential.
Program Formats and Testing
Apply to either the full-time or evening program, not both. The evening JD runs eight academic semesters over four years. Both divisions require the LSAT, with scores no more than five years old, an LSAT writing sample, and a complete CAS report. Your bachelor's degree must be completed before the fall semester begins.
7. Nova Southeastern Law Scholarships and Financial Aid
For 2026-2027, annual fall-and-winter tuition is $50,831 full-time or $38,110 evening. First-year institutional fees add $2,040 in either division. Summer tuition is separate. Housing, food, transportation, insurance, and other expenses substantially increase the amount beyond tuition; the full-time first-year listed budget components total $105,099 before the separately listed one-time charges.
All admitted applicants receive automatic merit-scholarship consideration based on LSAT and LSAC-calculated GPA. No separate scholarship application is required. File the FAFSA using school code 001509 for federal and other financial-aid consideration. Renewal depends on the academic and enrollment terms in the award agreement. The 2025 ABA disclosure reports no scholarships conditioned on academic performance beyond maintaining good academic standing.
The Dean's Excellence Program offers another route: students earning at least a 3.50 in their first semester may qualify for a significant tuition award for the remainder of their legal studies. Build your financing plan around the award you actually receive, not an assumed future upgrade. Compare the evening program's additional year of expenses with the income you could retain while working.
For more on scholarship strategy, see How to Negotiate Law School Scholarships.
8. Nova Southeastern Law Joint Degrees
NSU offers JD/MBA, JD/Master of Accounting, and JD/MS in Real Estate Development combinations with its H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship. Admission to each program is separate; eligible students can begin business-college coursework in the summer after their first law-school year. Depending on the combination, nine to twelve approved graduate credits can count toward the JD; graduate work completed before JD matriculation cannot supply that credit.
International dual degrees include a Charles University LLM route and an Italian law degree through Roma Tre. Charles University's program combines a semester during the JD with post-JD coursework and a thesis. Roma Tre requires Italian-language study during the JD and a further year in Rome after graduation. These are different commitments from a semester abroad. Choose the second credential for a defined professional purpose.
9. Nova Southeastern Law Employment Outcomes (Class of 2025)
Nova Southeastern's Class of 2025 employment outcomes (reported to the ABA, measured 10 months after graduation):
- Full-time, long-term bar-passage-required employment (ABA): 69.5%
- BigLaw (firms with 101+ attorneys): 17.7%
- Federal clerkships: 0.0%
- Public service (including government): 15.8%
Florida overwhelmingly leads the employment destinations. Small firms account for a substantial part of the law-firm picture, while larger firms and government provide additional routes. Treat NSU primarily as a Florida legal-market choice. Your borrowing decision should work for the regional practice you are actually targeting, rather than depending on a large-firm salary or a move to an unfamiliar market.
10. Nova Southeastern Law Areas of Study and Specializations
Health Law: The Health Law Concentration combines administrative law with health-care regulation or health policy and bioethics. Approved clinical work and related electives let students connect institutional rules with problems involving access, professional responsibilities, and the delivery of care.
Intellectual Property, Technology, and Cybersecurity: This concentration includes copyright, patents, trademarks, and privacy, alongside an experiential requirement. Options such as Drafting and Negotiating Intellectual Property Licenses connect the doctrinal courses to the agreements lawyers actually negotiate.
International Law: The International Law Concentration includes international business transactions, human rights, trade, and comparative study. Approved international placements and partner-school coursework provide ways to build the concentration around either commercial practice or public international law.
Business and Entrepreneurship: The Sharon and Mitchell W. Berger Entrepreneur Law Clinic gives transactional interests a concrete outlet. Entity formation, contracts, intellectual property, and financing connect classroom business-law study with the needs of early-stage businesses and underserved entrepreneurs.
Advocacy and Dispute Resolution: Trial advocacy training, the NSU Trial Association, and the Dispute Resolution Clinic offer different approaches to resolving disputes. Students can develop courtroom presentation or mediation skills rather than treating litigation and negotiation as the same professional task.
11. Nova Southeastern Law Clinics and Experiential Learning
In-House Clinics
- Children and Families Law Clinic: Students assist economically disadvantaged clients with matters involving custody, divorce, paternity, dependency, and teenagers. Work includes interviewing, managing files, drafting documents and motions, and preparing courtroom presentations.
- Dispute Resolution Clinic: Students mediate or arbitrate juvenile diversion, county-court, and community disputes. Opportunities also include restorative-justice circles, Housing Authority hearings, and eldercaring coordination, with an emphasis on communication and managing conflict.
- Sharon and Mitchell W. Berger Entrepreneur Law Clinic: Students provide early-stage transactional assistance to entrepreneurs and startups. Tasks include entity selection, contracts, intellectual-property protection, financing questions, and regulatory compliance, along with community workshops.
- Veterans Law Clinic: Students help veterans and families with benefits, health-care eligibility, and discharge-related issues. They interview clients, analyze records, draft motions and briefs, and work on matters involving VA administrative proceedings and veterans' claims appeals.
Pro Bono and Experiential Learning
The Civil Field Placement places students with practicing lawyers in firms, agencies, nonprofits, and corporate departments. Criminal Justice Field Placement students work full-time in prosecution or public-defense offices, preparing witnesses and cases and participating in proceedings as Certified Legal Interns. That route requires specified coursework and initial Florida bar-examiner clearance.
The Judicial Field Placement involves research-clerk work with state trial and appellate judges, federal magistrates, and federal judges. NSU's Juvenile Mediation Program also provides pro bono mediation for first-time misdemeanor cases. Plan prerequisites around the work you want to do, especially when combining an evening schedule with daytime legal placements.
12. Nova Southeastern Law Notable Faculty and Journals
Faculty
- Timothy Arcaro: Professor and Vice Dean whose teaching includes family law and evidence. He directs the Children and Families Law Clinic and has received State Department recognition for work involving children's matters.
- Fran Tetunic: Professor focused on mediation and elder law. She created the Juvenile Mediation Program and directs clinical dispute-resolution work, connecting classroom instruction with community mediation.
- Jon Garon: Professor whose work covers privacy, intellectual property, entertainment, and technology. He directs the Goodwin Program for Society, Technology, and the Law and was named a 2026 CALI Fellow in Constitutional Law.
- Joseph Lester: Associate Professor and Director of Trial Advocacy, with scholarship in evidence and criminal procedure. He authors the Alabama Practice Series on Evidence and has led advocacy programs at several law schools.
Journals
- Nova Law Review: Members combine editing with a student note or comment, developing legal research, analysis, and revision skills.
- Journal of International Law and Comparative Studies: An additional student publication focused on international and comparative legal questions.
13. Nova Southeastern Law Culture and Student Life
NSU's day and evening divisions bring students with different schedules and professional histories into the same law school. The Evening Law Students Association and First Generation Professionals Legal Society provide communities organized around those experiences. The Caribbean Law Student Association and Hispanic Student Bar Association add opportunities for connection and professional engagement.
The suburban Davie location makes your daily schedule worth thinking through. Work, classes, and a legal placement may take you to different parts of South Florida. Talk to students in your intended division about how they participate in clinics, organizations, and advocacy competitions alongside their other commitments.
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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 Nova Southeastern 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.
