Is is true?? Forum

[umichgrad]

I'm pretty sure the idea of the ten point boost comes from lawschoolnumbers.com, where with many schools (especially top tier) you can see pretty clearly marked LSAT cutoff lines (between admit and waitlist, for example) for non-URM and URM applicants. There appears on many of these graphs to be roughly a ten point difference in the cutoff for URM vs. non-URM.

[06132010]

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[merichard87]

Yea so 2 months later I'm coming back to this post. I realize my last post looked a little naive so I'm going to try to clarify. Based on comparable numbers URM's who score 165+ are being accepted to T-14s where non-URM students with the same creditionals are being rejected or waitlisted. I am sure adcoms arent literally adding 10 pts to URM LSAT scores but I think its clear that they consider the scores differently.

[luhrenzo]

the degree of the "bump" also depends largely on the type of URM you are.

[Ben Reilly]

I've read that research shows that URMs typically score 10 points below their non URM counter-parts on the LSAT, even when compared with similar GPAs. I am sure there isn't a written rule anywhere on this, but is is true that adcoms will "compensate" by bumping the LSAT when considering?

Just wondering because I am *almost* at the 25th percentile for a couple of schools, but with a "bump" I would be well above range..

From what I heard about it, URMs are being considered against other URMs. They don't compete with non-URMs. So yea, effectively they get a ~10 point boost.

Wasn't the notion of an isolated URM pool ruled out by the Supreme Court?

[stillflybri616]

avg. black score 143, avg. white score 153 (hispanics were lower then blacks)...when u start lookin at the top schools though little tends to differ and URMS do just as well as everyone else

[hellokitty]

I'm a URM, here's the LSP predictions and what actually happened. Not bad at all really. Nothing is 100% predictable but LSP does a great job at giving you an idea of what will happen. No real shocks here.

When LSP said 'Deny' I was rejected in two cases.
When LSP said 'Weak Consider' I was admitted.
When LSP said 'Consider' I was IN at one school, WL at 2 schools.
When LSP said 'Strong Consider' I was WL.
When LSP said 'Admit' I was admitted.

[vanwinkle]

I've read that research shows that URMs typically score 10 points below their non URM counter-parts on the LSAT, even when compared with similar GPAs. I am sure there isn't a written rule anywhere on this, but is is true that adcoms will "compensate" by bumping the LSAT when considering?

Just wondering because I am *almost* at the 25th percentile for a couple of schools, but with a "bump" I would be well above range..

URMs compete with other URMs essentially. Schools want increased diversity, and that means trying to accept at least a small number of URMs every year. They'll accept whoever's at the top of their applicant pool, enough to give them the representation they want. Because of the scarcity of high-LSAT URMs, this does mean they end up admitting URMs on some occasions with significantly lower than normal LSAT scores, sometimes 10 points lower or more.

It's not that they give a bump, but it is true that it ends up working out about that way. If you're almost 25th LSAT for some schools, and especially if you're at/above median GPA for them, you should most definitely apply.