CLASS OF 2018 MEDIANS! (LSAT/GPA/Class Size) Forum

[Fiddlesticks]

Actually amazed at how well Gtown held with that massive class size while others above dropped. Did they finally start shelling out cash? Very interesting.

Assuming this anonymous poster actually got the admissions staff to divulge their information to him, over the phone, before releasing it to anyone else. Even their students.

[urbanist11]

Post removed.

[Fiddlesticks]

2017 U.S. News Rankings
1. Yale
2. Harvard
2. Stanford
4. Columbia
4. Chicago
6. NYU
7. Penn
8. Duke
9. UVA
10. Michigan
10. Berkeley UCLA
12. Northwestern
13. Cornell
14. Georgetown

This is seriously gonna happen. USNews told me over the phone, but didn't tell anyone else, and I'm here to report it to you select few.

[benwyatt]

Post removed.

[JurisDoctorSeuss]

Georgetown Admissions Office - 202.662.9015
The office was happy to provide the information. If one of those individuals in doubt would like to call, they should be open for another hour or two. Before spreading doubt and paranoid distrust, I suggest you try confirming for yourself. The person handling the phone call really was quite kind.

[basedvulpes]

Post removed.

[benwyatt]

Post removed.

[SPerez]

Everyone releases by October 15 I believe. But it's one of those things that if the #s are outstanding (or up relative to other schools), you'd release ASAP.

Understood; however, I think the top schools where the medians are most likely to remain relatively similar to previous years-the ones who I believe most people are still waiting for- are the numbers that are least likely to have large changes.

Minus GULC and NW. With that being said, you could certainly be correct about the others and, like you said, my guess is if your numbers are much higher than previous years you would want to release that sooner rather than later.

Another potential reason is that some schools just don't like releasing non-"official" information. During the fall is when schools go back over their database and re-check all their records as part of the preparation of the ABA numbers. This can cause small changes in things like the total number of apps (only "completed" apps are allowed to be counted), as well as the final medians (b/c every school loses students between the start of school and October). Many schools are perfectly happy holding back their numbers until the ABA releases them rather than take a risk that some random blogger will see a discrepancy and try to make clickbait out of it by suggesting the error was purposeful.

However, I bet if a "prospective student" called an admissions office directly many law schools would give them at least preliminary numbers.

Dean Perez
Texas Tech Law

[TheodoreKGB]

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[Huskies13!]

But why don't schools do what many already do and place an * next to the numbers saying "As of first day of Orientation" and then say something like "Data will be final in October"...or something?

[Harry_Pluxen]

Who put the Boston College numbers into the spreadsheet? They are the EXACT same as last year; LSAT, GPA and class size. I doubt that this years class is exactly the same as 2017.

[chuckbass]

But why don't schools do what many already do and place an * next to the numbers saying "As of first day of Orientation" and then say something like "Data will be final in October"...or something?

Again, they already have to release these numbers in October anyways. There's not really a huge incentive to release them earlier.

[Aquila]

But why don't schools do what many already do and place an * next to the numbers saying "As of first day of Orientation" and then say something like "Data will be final in October"...or something?

Again, they already have to release these numbers in October anyways. There's NO incentive to release them earlier.

[Huskies13!]

But why don't schools do what many already do and place an * next to the numbers saying "As of first day of Orientation" and then say something like "Data will be final in October"...or something?

Again, they already have to release these numbers in October anyways. There's not really a huge incentive to release them earlier.

Not quite. Schools don't have to "report" until December. They get their numbers vetted in October but they don't have to release. What seems unfair is that schools are recruiting students as of Sept. 1 but many are doing so by publishing numbers that may not reflect that year's reality...discussion about this last year on this thread...

[Tiago Splitter]

But why don't schools do what many already do and place an * next to the numbers saying "As of first day of Orientation" and then say something like "Data will be final in October"...or something?

Again, they already have to release these numbers in October anyways. There's not really a huge incentive to release them earlier.

Not quite. Schools don't have to "report" until December. They get their numbers vetted in October but they don't have to release. What seems unfair is that schools are recruiting students as of Sept. 1 but many are doing so by publishing numbers that may not reflect that year's reality...discussion about this last year on this thread...

The numbers are purely for our enjoyment. They shouldn't be impacting application decisions. And even if they do someone can just toss out an extra app in December.

[Rigo]

Who put the Boston College numbers into the spreadsheet? They are the EXACT same as last year; LSAT, GPA and class size. I doubt that this years class is exactly the same as 2017.

I didn't, but I just removed it.

[Rigo]

Actually amazed at how well Gtown held with that massive class size while others above dropped. Did they finally start shelling out cash? Very interesting.

They seemed to be more generous this past cycle.

[sox49]

NYU updated their class profile and their median is indeed 169, as I predicted. Please change the number on the spreadsheet.

I hope this means there's a focus on LSAT in this cycle

This x 1000

I'd expect it to go the other way unfortunately. Which is probably the right move if they're losing a disproportionate numbers of splitters to Columbia anyway.

Couldn't it be the case that there simply just aren't enough high scores to keep up the medians and so as a result the people they are admitting more are people with lower lsat scores and high gpa's not because they are valuing gpa more than before but simply because they are more qualified applicants than low lsat scores and lower gpa's ?

[basedvulpes]

Post removed.

[Tiago Splitter]

NYU updated their class profile and their median is indeed 169, as I predicted. Please change the number on the spreadsheet.

I hope this means there's a focus on LSAT in this cycle

This x 1000

I'd expect it to go the other way unfortunately. Which is probably the right move if they're losing a disproportionate numbers of splitters to Columbia anyway.

Couldn't it be the case that there simply just aren't enough high scores to keep up the medians and so as a result the people they are admitting more are people with lower lsat scores and high gpa's not because they are valuing gpa more than before but simply because they are more qualified applicants than low lsat scores and lower gpa's ?

Well yeah once you are willing to give up an LSAT point you get a whole new group of apps with high GPAs to choose from. Regardless of why they made the decision I think we can see from the year to year consistency in these numbers that schools are making a conscious decision. Whether they'll make the same decision next cycle, especially if apps tick back up, is obviously unknown. But to me it's always made sense for NYU to take a different approach from Columbia. Maybe this was just a one-off year, or maybe it's a trend and they'll push towards Penn/Chicago numbers going forward.

[sox49]

NYU updated their class profile and their median is indeed 169, as I predicted. Please change the number on the spreadsheet.

I hope this means there's a focus on LSAT in this cycle

This x 1000

I'd expect it to go the other way unfortunately. Which is probably the right move if they're losing a disproportionate numbers of splitters to Columbia anyway.

Couldn't it be the case that there simply just aren't enough high scores to keep up the medians and so as a result the people they are admitting more are people with lower lsat scores and high gpa's not because they are valuing gpa more than before but simply because they are more qualified applicants than low lsat scores and lower gpa's ?

Well yeah once you are willing to give up an LSAT point you get a whole new group of apps with high GPAs to choose from. Regardless of why they made the decision I think we can see from the year to year consistency in these numbers that schools are making a conscious decision. Whether they'll make the same decision next cycle, especially if apps tick back up, is obviously unknown. But to me it's always made sense for NYU to take a different approach from Columbia. Maybe this was just a one-off year, or maybe it's a trend and they'll push towards Penn/Chicago numbers going forward.

I just don't think that decision necessarily would be to value the lsat score less.

[Tiago Splitter]

If you don't think they valued the LSAT less (which I guess is what we call it when a school loses a point off of its median) then you have to assume this cycle was a mistake and they screwed up. I don't think that in the end they screwed up. They may have wanted a 170, but somewhere along the way realized it wasn't going to happen. If they decide from the get go next year to keep the 169 and the number of apps is similar, they can likely pull off an even higher median GPA.

[sox49]

I hear ya but why would they decide from the get go to give up a chance at increasing their median? Especially considering june numbers point to an app increase

[SPerez]

But why don't schools do what many already do and place an * next to the numbers saying "As of first day of Orientation" and then say something like "Data will be final in October"...or something?

Just fear...that's the kind of detail that the internet tends to strip out of things, from scamblogs to ATL to even traditional news sources. I can't tell you how many times I've been misquoted by journalists. I was on local TV a few years ago for a "Law School Apps are Down" story. The first thing I told the reporter is "Don't say "Enrollment is down"; it's not the same as applications being down." (At the time, we hadn't really shrunk yet.) The first words out of the anchor's mouth when the story aired? "Enrollment is down at the Texas Tech Law School..."

Law schools are a "little-C" conservative bunch. To a lot of people, it's not worth the risk.

That said, I agree with most folks on here. It's a small risk that everyone should take because when weighed against publishing last year's numbers during an entire recruiting season, not publishing is the greater negative, IMO.

Dean Perez

[bpolley0]

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