URM LSAT Boost? Forum

Share experiences and seek insight regarding your experience as an underrepresented minority within the legal community.
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting

Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about bar exam prep. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.

Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."
Locked
Miznitic

Bronze
Posts: 124
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:53 pm

URM LSAT Boost?

Post by Miznitic » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:51 pm

Dumb question I'm sure, but I haven't been able to find an answer in my searching.

Upon scoring the LSAT, is there an actual Points boost if one is a URM? E.g., Person gets a 159, but because they are an URM, they get that bumped up a few points to a 165? Or is it only in the actual admittance process where a URM will get that bump?

Anastasia Dee Dualla

Silver
Posts: 942
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 2:03 am

Re: URM LSAT Boost?

Post by Anastasia Dee Dualla » Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:55 pm

Miznitic wrote:Dumb question I'm sure, but I haven't been able to find an answer in my searching.

Upon scoring the LSAT, is there an actual Points boost if one is a URM? E.g., Person gets a 159, but because they are an URM, they get that bumped up a few points to a 165? Or is it only in the actual admittance process where a URM will get that bump?
There is (with rare exception) no specific number of points that can be paired with an applicant based solely on race. I am generally unwilling to engage in any sort of conjecture on this matter but for the sake of answering the question, I turned to Anna Ivey’s “The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions: Straight Advice on Essays, Resumes, Interviews, and More”. In it, Ivey (a former admissions director, contends that schools may give as much as a ten point boost in the LSAT score to URMs. However, she fails to differentiate between the various URM’s. However, before counting up your LSAT points with a boost, I have to admonish that, universally, there is limited empirical data regarding a general boost at all schools .
Last edited by Anastasia Dee Dualla on Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Richie Tenenbaum

Gold
Posts: 2118
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:17 am

Re: URM LSAT Boost?

Post by Richie Tenenbaum » Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:01 pm

Miznitic wrote:Dumb question I'm sure, but I haven't been able to find an answer in my searching.

Upon scoring the LSAT, is there an actual Points boost if one is a URM? E.g., Person gets a 159, but because they are an URM, they get that bumped up a few points to a 165? Or is it only in the actual admittance process where a URM will get that bump?
The bump only happens in the actual admittance process and there is no hard and fast rule to what the actual bump is.

I would venture a guess that qualifying Hispanic can get a bump of around 5pts, AA can get a bump of around 10 pts, and NA can get a bump of 10+ pts. That is just a guess on my part, anyone can feel free to correct any of those numbers if you think I'm off. Keep in mind too that just b/c an URM can get a bump that means they are guaranteed to get such a bump. I think softs play a bigger role in an URM's application cycle.

lgsb2014

New
Posts: 45
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 4:41 pm

Re: URM LSAT Boost?

Post by lgsb2014 » Tue Mar 27, 2018 3:07 pm

There IS no boost with LSAT score.
What we get is simply more consideration of our scores. It has been proven that URMs score lower in standardized testing-- we often come from under served backgrounds and lack a good quality education. Admissions committee consider this.

Hoosier2

New
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2012 11:54 am

Re: URM LSAT Boost?

Post by Hoosier2 » Tue Mar 27, 2018 8:39 pm

lgsb2014 wrote:There IS no boost with LSAT score.
What we get is simply more consideration of our scores. It has been proven that URMs score lower in standardized testing-- we often come from under served backgrounds and lack a good quality education. Admissions committee consider this.
lol so yes

lgsb2014

New
Posts: 45
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 4:41 pm

Re: URM LSAT Boost?

Post by lgsb2014 » Wed Mar 28, 2018 1:03 pm

Hoosier2 wrote:
lgsb2014 wrote:There IS no boost with LSAT score.
What we get is simply more consideration of our scores. It has been proven that URMs score lower in standardized testing-- we often come from under served backgrounds and lack a good quality education. Admissions committee consider this.
lol so yes
It isn't a boost. It's something they just consider. It's not like they'll see my score and give me +3 points because of the hood I come from, or my race, or anything else.

Hoosier2

New
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2012 11:54 am

Re: URM LSAT Boost?

Post by Hoosier2 » Wed Mar 28, 2018 2:16 pm

lgsb2014 wrote:
Hoosier2 wrote:
lgsb2014 wrote:There IS no boost with LSAT score.
What we get is simply more consideration of our scores. It has been proven that URMs score lower in standardized testing-- we often come from under served backgrounds and lack a good quality education. Admissions committee consider this.
lol so yes
It isn't a boost. It's something they just consider. It's not like they'll see my score and give me +3 points because of the hood I come from, or my race, or anything else.
Do you think it would be considered if the applicant were asian?

L_William_W

Bronze
Posts: 304
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 12:20 am

Re: URM LSAT Boost?

Post by L_William_W » Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:34 pm

lgsb2014 wrote:There IS no boost with LSAT score.
What we get is simply more consideration of our scores. It has been proven that URMs score lower in standardized testing-- we often come from under served backgrounds and lack a good quality education. Admissions committee consider this.
Mods, please lock this thread

Locked

Return to “Underrepresented Law Students”