Cambridge Law acceptance rate and LNAT admissions

Cambridge Law acceptance rate

15.8% of applications to Cambridge Law got an offer for 2026 entry: 291 offers from 1,843 applications.

Cambridge's published success rate counts only the applications that ended in a place: 14.0% for 2025 entry (232 of 1,654). The offer rate on this page is offers divided by applications.

Cambridge makes a similar number of Law offers every year: between 245 and 292 from 2014 to 2026. So the offer rate falls as applications rise.

Applications rose from 933 for 2013 entry to a peak of 1,870 for 2021 entry, eased to 1,580 for 2023 entry and were 1,843 for 2026. The offer rate fell from 25.3% for 2015 entry to a low of 13.3% for 2022 entry.

Cambridge's dashboard for 2026 entry, whose figures are not yet final, shows 1,843 applications, up 11.4% on 2025, and 291 offers (15.8%). It records no acceptances for 2026 yet.

About 1 in 10 applications names no college: 161 open applications of 1,654 for 2025 entry (9.7%), and 158 of 1,843 for 2026.

What LNAT score do you need for Cambridge Law?

Cambridge has released no offer rates by LNAT score. Offer holders for 2025 entry averaged 30.1 out of 42 on the multiple choice, against 24.8 for applicants.

The LNAT multiple-choice section is scored out of 42 and the essay from 1 to 10. Cambridge has released averages for three groups: applicants, offer holders and accepted students.

For 2025 entry, offer holders averaged 30.12 on the multiple choice, with a lowest of 18 and a highest of 39, against 24.76 for applicants. Their essay average was 7.59, against 5.5.

Offer holders averaged more than applicants in every year: 5.08 marks more for 2023 entry, 4.27 for 2024 and 5.36 for 2025. These are raw marks, so compare each year's average with that year's.

An average for offer holders cannot give your chance at a particular score, because it does not say how many applicants scored the same and missed out.

Accepted students averaged about the same as offer holders: 29.49, 30.02 and 30.57 for 2023, 2024 and 2025 entry.

One pooled table, for 2023 to 2025 entry together, covers only applicants who declared an existing degree. Their lowest multiple-choice score was 9, their average 26.68 and their highest 37. That is a different group from all applicants, so it does not compare with the averages above.

Cambridge's replies also give a lowest, average and highest score for each of its 29 colleges. A college made about 10 Law offers on average for 2025 entry (291 across 29 colleges), so one college's average rests on few people and is left out here.

For how the universities that use the LNAT differ, see our guide to LNAT requirements by university.

Do predicted grades matter for Cambridge Law?

Applications predicted A*A*A* got an offer 27.5% of the time over 2023 to 2025 entry, against 11.1% at A*A*A and 4.5% at A*AA.

Cambridge released offers by predicted A-level grades for applications with three or more predicted A-levels: 3,065 of the 4,838 Law applications over 2023 to 2025 entry. Grades are the three highest predicted, in Cambridge's own categories.

Applications predicted A*A*A* were 44% of that group and received 74% of its offers (373 of 507).

The pattern held in single years. For 2025 entry, 27.8% of applications predicted A*A*A* got an offer (134 of 482), against 9.1% at A*A*A (27 of 297) and 6.1% at A*AA (13 of 212). For 2024 entry the rates were 27.5% (123 of 448), 13.3% (41 of 308) and 1.9% (4 of 210).

The rows for A*A*B, A*AB, AAA and below AAA hold 168 applications between them, and 5 of those got an offer, 4 of them predicted AAA. Predicted grades can differ from achieved grades, and the table does not separate grades from other things that differ between applicants, such as LNAT score.

The winter pool and offers from other colleges

139 of the 859 offers for 2023 to 2025 entry (16.2%) came from a college other than the one applied to.

Applications can be placed in the winter pool, where colleges other than the one applied to can make an offer. Over 2023 to 2025 entry, 874 of the 4,838 Law applications (18.1%) were placed in the pool, and 139 offers came from it: 15.9% of the placed applications.

Over 2020 to 2022 entry the pool held 1,153 of 5,253 applications (21.9%) and produced 103 offers (8.9%).

The pool's share of offers moved a good deal: 25.1% for 2017 entry (69 of 275), 9.8% for 2022 entry (24 of 245) and 18.9% for 2026 entry (55 of 291), the last from the dashboard and not yet final.

Applications placed in the pool ranged from 270 (2025 entry) to 408 (2021) a year, and offers from the pool from 24 (2022) to 49 (2024).

Applying from the UK or from abroad

International applications had a slightly higher offer rate than Home applications in both years Cambridge released: 18.5% against 17.2% for 2025 entry.

Cambridge released Home and International applications and offers by college for 2024 and 2025 entry. We worked out International offers by taking Home offers away from Cambridge's total offers, because International cells of fewer than 3 are hidden at college level.

International applications were about 3 in 10 of the total: 30.1% for 2025 entry (498 of 1,654).

The gap is about a point in both years. Two years of figures show no trend.

State and independent schools

Independent schools sent 16.5% of Home applications from UK schools for 2025 entry and received 20.3% of the offers.

Cambridge publishes the share of Home applications from UK schools that came from maintained (state-funded) schools. For 2025 entry it was 83.5% of applications and 79.7% of offers.

Worked out from those shares, which Cambridge prints to one decimal place, independent-school applications had an offer rate of about 21% for 2025 entry, against about 16% for maintained schools.

Maintained schools' share of offers was below their share of applications in six of the eight years from 2018 to 2025, and above it in 2019 and 2022.

Cambridge counts Home applications from UK schools only here, so overseas schools and Home applicants outside UK schools are not in these shares.

Entry requirements

Cambridge asks for A*AA at A-level for 2027 entry, or 41 to 42 IB points with 776 at Higher Level, and the LNAT.

Cambridge names no required subjects for Law. It says the LNAT helps it decide whom to invite to interview, where a strong performance is usually needed, and is then read with the rest of the application.

Shortlisted applicants are interviewed in December. Cambridge's course page gives 7 applications per place and 232 students accepted for the 2025 cycle, and says 67% of its A-level entrants who started in 2018, 2019 and 2023 had at least A*A*A.

Questions about Cambridge Law admissions