Can Someone Explain the Stats in Law School Transparency??? Forum

[Splitter710]

I posted a couple weeks ago with a different question about LST in comparing schools, but now I have a question with just straight stats.

When LST says that x number of known graduates from a school make $y at median, does this mean that 50% of grads that report an income make that much money or more?

Hypothetically, if the 25%/med/75% numbers are 100k/160k/160k, and 54% of the graduates of 09 have a known salary in a class of say, 500, does this mean 135 kids make 160k? (135 by finding 54% of 500 (270) and then halving that to represent the median)?

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm pretty far removed from math classes and am trying to make sense of the information.

[minnbills]

Yeah the 25/50/75 figures LST lists is for graduates whose salaries they know and can report.

So, if 50% of the class reports salary info, and the median is 100k, then 25% of the class is confirmed to be making 100k or more.

LST has a note right under the 25/50/75 figures where they hell you what percentage of the total class that figure represents.

Hope that helps.

[PinkCow]

Not necessarily. It only means that 54% are known. Of the remaining 46%, the salaries could be high, low, or across the board. We don't know, and that's why the stats are fundamentally misleading. Some schools are much worse than 54% (like median of 100k with 15% reporting).

The less that report, the more useless the stats are. Plus, the general thought is that people who don't get a job (or get a crappy one) are less likely to report, so the true stats are likely slanted lower than what is shown by the reporting portion.

[thelawyler]

It does but I think you should be looking at those stats as a glass half empty and not one that is half full.

[23402385985]

The way to really utilize the site, IMO, is to look at the amount reporting salary. The more reporting, the rosier the school begins to look.