Top Law Schools

hwmyones wrote:This is just showing that schools like UCLA and Penn inflate their grades just a tad (Highest percentage of students between 3.6-3.79, really? REALLY?) So while it may not matter where you went to undergrad to the adcomms, if you're positive you want to go to law school you may be better suited choosing an undergrad that inflates grades ridiculously (like most Ivy's or top rated schools) or go somewhere with much less prestige, that costs less, has a higher quality of life and puts you up against a bunch of less qualified competition. Because it's been proven time and time again, your 3.9 from ABC State University is worth a hell of a lot more than a 3.3-3.4 from some school ranked between 5-30 on the US News World Report rankings.

i understand what you're saying, and the data seems to support it, but aren't these numbers just from people taking the LSAT? isn't it possible (if not even highly likely) that students considering law school would have higher gpas anyway? i guess what i'm missing is the small school data that shows how their grades hover lower on the scale than these top schools listed.

i'm sorry if i may be missing something obvious...it's early in the morning for me here...

tha trev wrote:i understand what you're saying, and the data seems to support it, but aren't these numbers just from people taking the LSAT? isn't it possible (if not even highly likely) that students considering law school would have higher gpas anyway? i guess what i'm missing is the small school data that shows how their grades hover lower on the scale than these top schools listed.

If this was the major factor, then we'd expect the GPA curve to look pretty much the same from every school (i.e., no matter what the school, just loads of people with 3.8+, for instance). In fact a pretty big cross section of the class will apply to law schools from each undergrad, although the curve from every school will be weighted toward the top of the class. There is still a difference between schools where median is 3.5 and those where the median is 2.5, and that shows in the GPA curves. The bigger question is how a 3.5 at one school relates to a 3.5 from another. You can get some sense of that by looking at the proportion in the LSAT 95th vs. the proportion of the class with 3.4/6/8+. If you can figure out what mean GPA corresponds to the % rank in the class equal to the percent that hit 95th percentile on the LSAT, then that's roughly the GPA that will give a "national grade" or standardized GPA of 950 (this is based on the UCLA system for GPA scaling). That's not always easy, because the percentages don't line up neatly. But you can figure upper and lower bounds for each school.

right, i see what you are saying. again, i guess i need to see the info that shows smaller and less prestigious schools having a lower mean gpa compared to similar lsat scores to agree with what hansborough said.

Kent State University (Tier III ftw):

LSAT
Mean: 148

95 & up : 1 <--me
90-94 : 2
85-89 : 3
80-84 : 4
75-79 : 4
70-74 : 5
65-69 : 4
60-64 : 5
55-59 : 6
50-54 : 5
45-49 : 6
40-44 : 6
35-39 : 5
30-34 : 7
25-29 : 7
20-24 : 7
0-19 : 25

My 173 on TLS = Nothing special
My 173 at KSU = King of the LSAT!

GPA
Mean: 3.32

4+ : 3
3.8-3.99 : 10
3.6-3.79 : 20 <--me
3.4-3.59 : 15
3.2-3.39 : 13
3.0-3.19 : 14
2.8-2.99 : 9
2.6-2.79 : 5
2.4-2.59 : 6
2.2-2.39 : 3
2.0-2.19 : 1
1.8-1.99 : 0
all of the rest : 0

I'm pretty sure the GPA data that LSAC uses is from the school, not the students from the school taking the LSAT. Because then you'd have to ask, which years do they include? How far back? It couldn't possibly be just this years because we all send in our transcripts at different points. I'm pretty sure it's some sort of average of the entire school over some time period, although not sure what that period is. I was just pointing out that some schools have huge discrepancies regarding where the median GPA is and what the mode GPA range is. For instance, the example above me, the mode is at 3.6; That is kind of ridiculous, is it not?

hwmyones wrote:I'm pretty sure the GPA data that LSAC uses is from the school, not the students from the school taking the LSAT. Because then you'd have to ask, which years do they include? How far back? It couldn't possibly be just this years because we all send in our transcripts at different points. I'm pretty sure it's some sort of average of the entire school over some time period, although not sure what that period is. I was just pointing out that some schools have huge discrepancies regarding where the median GPA is and what the mode GPA range is. For instance, the example above me, the mode is at 3.6; That is kind of ridiculous, is it not?

The summary data does not come from the colleges. It is based on LSAC's records of all people whose data they have processed over the prior X years. It might say somewhere on the summary report or their website how many X is, or it may just be all data that they have forever.

isn't it entirely possible that at one school only generally the bottom half of the class takes the lsat, while at another school generally the top half takes it? it should be a comparison of GPAs of those who choose to take the LSAT

Reviving a decade old thread but does anybody have a Percentage Distribution of GPAs from Northwestern University? Thanks.

re-bumping and adding, as this seems like a useful exercise.

Oberlin College:

MEAN GPA: 3.16
4+ 1
3.8-3.99 3
3.6-3.79 8
3.4-3.59 14
3.2-3.39 20
3.0-3.19 23
2.8-2.99 18
2.6-2.79 9
2.4-2.59 5
2.2-2.39 1
2.0-2.19 0
1.8-2 0
1.6-1.8 0
<1.59 0

MEAN LSAT: 158
95+ 21
90-94 11
85-89 13
80-84 9
75-79 7
65-69 3
60-64 4
55-59 2
50-54 6
45-49 7
40-44 2
35-39 1
30-34 3
25-29 0
20-24 3
0-19 6

Johns Hopkins

MEAN GPA: 3.52

4+: 5
3.8-3.99: 26
3.6-3.79: 19
3.4-3.59: 20
3.2-3.39: 10
3.0-3.19: 9
2.8-2.99: 6
2.6-2.79: 4
2.4-2.59: 1
2.2-2.39: 1
2.0-2.19: 0
1.8-2: 0

MEAN LSAT: 162

95+: 28
90-94: 14
85-89: 11
80-84: 11
75-79: 7
70-74: 6
65-69: 5
60-64: 2
55-59: 5
50-54: 2
45-49: 2
40-44: 1
35-39: 1
30-34: 1
25-29: 0
20-24: 1
0-19 4