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difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 11:53 pm
by senorhosh
Is there a major difference between a 171 and 170? Or a 172 and 173? For example, I know for the mcat a 39 and a 40 are very different. I was wondering if it's the same thing for the LSAT. (This is in terms of how admissions looks at it)

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 12:01 am
by Jeffort
senorhosh wrote:Is there a major difference between a 171 and 170? Or a 172 and 173? For example, I know for the mcat a 39 and a 40 are very different. I was wondering if it's the same thing for the LSAT. (This is in terms of how admissions looks at it)
For the top 10-14 schools it does make a difference.

For schools with a 75th percentile LSAT score below 170, it doesn't matter as much for admission but might help with scholarship money.

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:36 pm
by miobrien
Law school admissions is somewhat of a balancing act of these two numbers: UGPA and LSAT. For the top schools, having a 171 instead of a 170 could matter. In my case, it does. But my UGPA is a bit low for these schools (3.68).

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:36 pm
by Hannibal
One.

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:50 pm
by Jeffort
Hannibal wrote:One.
Excellent succinct logical response :wink: , but you only answered half of the question.

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 9:33 pm
by dr123
Hannibal wrote:One.
Tcr

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 9:43 pm
by jpSartre
Hannibal wrote:One.
ran here to post this

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:05 pm
by fatduck
Hannibal wrote:One.
no. 144.

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:30 pm
by albanach
A 170 recently seems to be 97th percentile. 173 being the 99th percentile.

There are about 150,000 test takers per year. Guessing 30,000 of those are retakes, so 120,000 folk with scores in any given admissions year. One percent is 1,200 candidates.

So, the difference between a 170 and 171 is about half a percent, or 600 people. Enough to fill the entire class at Chicago, Cornell and Yale. The difference between a 171 and a 173 is 1,800 people enough to fill Harvard, Georgetown and NYU, the three biggest classes in the T14.

The entire T14 takes <4,500 students per year.

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:59 pm
by youknowryan
senorhosh wrote:Is there a major difference between a 171 and 170? Or a 172 and 173? For example, I know for the mcat a 39 and a 40 are very different. I was wondering if it's the same thing for the LSAT. (This is in terms of how admissions looks at it)
if you have a 170 and 3.9 GPA, you're better off than with a 171 and 2.9 GPA.

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:48 am
by Corwin
Depends on the median LSAT and admission practices of the school. NU ED with sub 3.0 GPA expects a 172+ for example.

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 1:08 am
by suspicious android
In a perfectly typical group of 1000 LSAT scorers,

26 people get 170+
20 people get 171+
14 people get 172+
10 people get 173+
8 people get 174+
6 people get 175+
4 people get 176+
2 people get 177+

And of those two, just one pretentious asshole gets either a 178, 179 or 180.

Of all the people who score in the 170's, just about half of them get either a 170 or 171. Makes the mid 170's feel like a very exclusive club.:)

Re: difference between a 170 and 171

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 3:12 am
by Nulli Secundus
fatduck wrote:
Hannibal wrote:One.
no. 144.
ITT: Fatduck teaches proportion. :P :lol: