How Many 170+ Applicants per cycle Forum

[Zooey]

How many 170+ applicants are there per admissions cycle?
And between them how many places are they contesting for? Are they mostly expecting T6? T14? or perhaps lower?

[rinkrat19]

The math isn't that hard.

If around 140,000 people (is that a good ballpark number?) take the test in a cycle, and 2.6% of those people score 170+, that's around 3,640 people with 170+. From incoming class sizes and LSAT medians, my rough guess is that almost 2,000 of those are at HYSCCN, accounting for the bulk of the incoming classes (close to 100% at HY).

That leaves ~1600-1800 170+ scores outside the T6. Obviously, the percentage of the incoming class with a score above 170 will fall as you move down the rankings. I haven't done the math, but my guess is that the number of 170+ scores outside the T100 is statistically negligible--a few outliers who attend low-ranked schools for reasons of their own (finances, location, etc.) There are probably also a certain number of 170s who end up not attending law school at all, for various reasons, but I have no idea how many that is in a given year.

[bigkahuna2020]

Your math is pretty off because it doesn't account for retakes. I would guess around 1500-2200 take it, get above a 170 and attend

[rinkrat19]

Your math is pretty off because it doesn't account for retakes. I would guess around 1500-2200 take it, get above a 170 and attend

Willing to admit I wasn't accounting for retakes, but I'm not entirely sure which step, if any, they should be included in.

I was under the impression that the test is taken 140,000 times (or whatever the number is in a given year) by fewer than 140,000 people, because the 140K counts people taking it more than once. Does a score's percentile mean the score was better than X% of 140,000 total tests taken, or X% of number of discrete test-takers, only counting their best score?

Also, if HLSCCN's reported LSAT stats and incoming class sizes are correct, there have to be at least ~1700-1800 170+ scores matriculating just at those six schools. Your total would barely account for those, let alone any at the rest of the T14 or T50 or T100.

[CanadianWolf]

As a side note: There are approximately 4,412 first year spots at the Top 14. Add about 1,923 for 15 through 20 = 6,335 first years at the Top 20 law schools.

[JJDancer]

Many people might wait a cycle/2/more to apply after getting their score.

Some 170+ never apply. (Personally know someone who scored a 170 in 2009 and has no intention of ever pursuing law - it was his backup plan.)

[Ragged]

Too many.

[mikeman]

Looks like the number of LSATs taken has jumped up significantly since 2007/2008 when it was still around 140,000... for the 2009/2010 cycle there were 171,514. So that might affect the T14 statistics too.

http://www.lsac.org/LSACResources/Data/ ... stered.asp