LSAT College Mean Too High? Forum

[yot11]

So the LSAT college mean listed on my academic summary report is a 164, which seems ABSURDLY high.

To confirm this, I calculated the mathematically best-case scenario, given the percentage distribution of the LSAT by assuming that every person in each bin received the highest score in their respective bin (ie assume all 20% of students 95 & up bin scored 180, etc). The highest value that could have been mathematically achieved with the listed binning was a 162.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something about what the LSAT college mean actually is?

[052220151]

Who cares

[Robert_Bert]

Who cares

+1

[DrStudMuffin]

Who cares

[dr123]

This is clearly an attempt at I went to a prestigious UG trolling

[Nooblarzlarz]

So the LSAT college mean listed on my academic summary report is a 164, which seems ABSURDLY high.

To confirm this, I calculated the mathematically best-case scenario, given the percentage distribution of the LSAT by assuming that every person in each bin received the highest score in their respective bin (ie assume all 20% of students 95 & up bin scored 180, etc). The highest value that could have been mathematically achieved with the listed binning was a 162.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something about what the LSAT college mean actually is?

The higher your school's average is, the better. 164 is REALLY good.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... =2&t=74320

There's a list with a bunch of the schools to get an idea of what the averages are. TL;DR version is that Harvard's is a 166 whereas less prestigious state schools are scoring in the high 140s-low 150s.

My guess is your math is off somehow. Maybe assuming no selection bias in your sample? Because the bottom quartile of your school may not even try to take the LSAT, the whole curve will become skewed.

As for what it is, the LSAT college mean is a way for Adcoms to discern some sort of equivalency between schools, i.e. if someone is coming from a Tiny Liberal Arts College that happens to have serious academic rigor, the Adcom may not have ever heard of the school or know how difficult it is, so seeing what the average graduate from Tiny Liberal Arts College got on the LSAT will give them some idea for how difficult the institution is. So a 3.9 from a school whose average LSAT score is a 142 isn't going to be as impressive as a 3.9 from a school w/ an average of 165. Also, Adcoms don't even see an average score unless the LSAC has at least 50 data points to draw the average from.

Basically it's another data point for adcoms to use in assessing candidates.

[052220151]

So the LSAT college mean listed on my academic summary report is a 164, which seems ABSURDLY high.

To confirm this, I calculated the mathematically best-case scenario, given the percentage distribution of the LSAT by assuming that every person in each bin received the highest score in their respective bin (ie assume all 20% of students 95 & up bin scored 180, etc). The highest value that could have been mathematically achieved with the listed binning was a 162.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something about what the LSAT college mean actually is?

The higher your school's average is, the better. 164 is REALLY good.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... =2&t=74320

There's a list with a bunch of the schools to get an idea of what the averages are. TL;DR version is that Harvard's is a 166 whereas less prestigious state schools are scoring in the high 140s-low 150s.

My guess is your math is off somehow. Maybe assuming no selection bias in your sample? Because the bottom quartile of your school may not even try to take the LSAT, the whole curve will become skewed.

As for what it is, the LSAT college mean is a way for Adcoms to discern some sort of equivalency between schools, i.e. if someone is coming from a Tiny Liberal Arts College that happens to have serious academic rigor, the Adcom may not have ever heard of the school or know how difficult it is, so seeing what the average graduate from Tiny Liberal Arts College got on the LSAT will give them some idea for how difficult the institution is. So a 3.9 from a school whose average LSAT score is a 142 isn't going to be as impressive as a 3.9 from a school w/ an average of 165. Also, Adcoms don't even see an average score unless the LSAC has at least 50 data points to draw the average from.

Basically it's another data point for adcoms to use in assessing candidates.

no one cares

[Dr. Dre]

So the LSAT college mean listed on my academic summary report is a 164, which seems ABSURDLY high.

To confirm this, I calculated the mathematically best-case scenario, given the percentage distribution of the LSAT by assuming that every person in each bin received the highest score in their respective bin (ie assume all 20% of students 95 & up bin scored 180, etc). The highest value that could have been mathematically achieved with the listed binning was a 162.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something about what the LSAT college mean actually is?

The higher your school's average is, the better. 164 is REALLY good.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... =2&t=74320

There's a list with a bunch of the schools to get an idea of what the averages are. TL;DR version is that Harvard's is a 166 whereas less prestigious state schools are scoring in the high 140s-low 150s.

My guess is your math is off somehow. Maybe assuming no selection bias in your sample? Because the bottom quartile of your school may not even try to take the LSAT, the whole curve will become skewed.

As for what it is, the LSAT college mean is a way for Adcoms to discern some sort of equivalency between schools, i.e. if someone is coming from a Tiny Liberal Arts College that happens to have serious academic rigor, the Adcom may not have ever heard of the school or know how difficult it is, so seeing what the average graduate from Tiny Liberal Arts College got on the LSAT will give them some idea for how difficult the institution is. So a 3.9 from a school whose average LSAT score is a 142 isn't going to be as impressive as a 3.9 from a school w/ an average of 165. Also, Adcoms don't even see an average score unless the LSAC has at least 50 data points to draw the average from.

Basically it's another data point for adcoms to use in assessing candidates.

no one cares

[enoca]

My guess is that the percentile ranks are based on more than one year, whereas the mean is just for your class.

My academic report had an INSF listed for the mean (means there were at most ~50 takers maybe many fewer) for my year. But they still had pretty fine percentile ranks which couldn't possible be calculated just on those numbers.