How reliable is LSN for AA aplicants? Forum

[jd21]

I was looking through mylsn and i noticed that there isn't much data for AA/black applicants to law schools. I searched for black applicants with a GPA range of 3.0-4.0 and a LSAT range of 160-180 for the 13-14, 14-15, 15-16, and 16-17 cycles. In that huge range and over 4 cycles, No school had more than 80 applicants who met the criteria. How reliable is a dataset of, essentially, 20 black applicants per cycle? After looking through this, it seems to me that LSN has little value to AA/black applicants because of the limited dataset.

Does anyone know (either factually or anecdotally) how well the LSN data correlates with actual AA/black cycles? Any thoughts?

This is the link to the search:
http://mylsn.info/8sbxpp/

[Barack O'Drama]

I was looking through mylsn and i noticed that there isn't much data for AA/black applicants to law schools. I searched for black applicants with a GPA range of 3.0-4.0 and a LSAT range of 160-180 for the 13-14, 14-15, 15-16, and 16-17 cycles. In that huge range and over 4 cycles, No school had more than 80 applicants who met the criteria. How reliable is a dataset of, essentially, 20 black applicants per cycle? After looking through this, it seems to me that LSN has little value to AA/black applicants because of the limited dataset.

Does anyone know (either factually or anecdotally) how well the LSN data correlates with actual AA/black cycles? Any thoughts?

It gives you a decent idea of what you'll need to get into certain ranges of schools, but because the dataset for AAs with high LSAT scores is so small, it's not the greatest.

It's better than nothing; but not great at all. I have 2-3 AA friends who in the past have gone on to way outperform the numbers on MYLSN for AAs.

[cdotson2]

numbers of that size will have predictive problems, but there isn't a great solution. The data set isn't actually that much bigger for AA applicant's in the top score ranges. According to an amicus brief in UT v. Fisher by LSAC generally less than 60 AA applicants a year have both a 3.5+ GPA and 165+ LSAT.

This is the table from the brief on page 11. The measurement is of applicants who have both a 3.5+ GPA and 165+ LSAT
Year | Total | AA | Hispanic
2010 | 7,789 | 63 (0.81%) | 236 (3.03%)
2009 | 6,276 | 57 (0.91%) | 160 (2.55%)
2008 | 5,691 | 42 (0.74%) | 129 (2.27%)
2007 | 5,837 | 43 (0.74%) | 141 (2.42%)
2006 | 5,950 | 47 (0.79%) | 150 (2.52%)

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/up ... s-LSAC.pdf

There is a great analysis on TLS about what this means for AA aplicants who are in that range. You can read it in the OP in the thread linked below. But the highlights are that if you fall in that range you are almost guaranteed a spot in the t14.
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... p?t=195443

[jd21]

Thanks. That's about what I expected. I guess I never considered how small the applicant pool in those ranges was. I read the article last year but I must have glossed over some of the numbers.