Top Law Schools

A while ago in one of the applicant threads, there was a discussion regarding the value of a 170+ scorer with a high GPA. This got me thinking, how many of these high LSAT scorers are limited in their prospects due to their GPA? The following results are based on LSN from the 2012-13 cycle. I used 3.7 as a GPA cutoff, as this has traditionally been said to be the Harvard floor. The values are approximate.

Averages

• >170, GPA 3.64
• <170, GPA 3.38

GPA of >=175 LSAT:

• <3.7: 38%
• >3.7: 62%

GPA of 170-174 LSAT:

• <3.7: 44%
• >3.7: 56%

I know this is a very simple analysis/lots of limitations, but I think it's pretty telling. Of >170 LSAT scorers, roughly 42% may have a GPA less than 3.7. Now, floors may not be the same for all applicants, as it would make sense that this 'GPA floor' would move according to a corresponding high LSAT score. Also, it doesn't take into account how far applicants are from this 3.7. For example, a 3.5 or 3.6 applicant with a high 170s would still have a very good shot, so please take the above % with a massive grain of salt. This purpose of this was not to be able to infer something groundbreaking about chances for admissions, more just curiosity and a way to kill time while waiting to hear back from schools. Enjoy!

well as of March 7th, there are 42,068 applicants this cycle, so based off the score percentiles you can assume that there are ~850 170+ scorers and about half of that are 172+ scorers (although the actual number is probably a good bit higher because of retakers and people reapplying).

Then multiple this by your estimate of applicants with high GPAs, and you have your estimate.

Obviously there aren't that many 170+ scorers with high GPAs because only 6 schools can maintain a 170+ median.

Source: http://www.lsac.org/lsacresources/data/ ... ear-volume

Lol I guess I named the thread poorly, the purpose of the post was to answer: What percent of 170+ have >3.7 GPAs?

But thanks for the source! I didn't think of translating it to absolute numbers, as I wasn't sure how retake's are included. If anyone's curious though, it means roughly 350 people with LSAT >170 who applied this cycle have a GPA <3.7.

Yeah I don't there's anyway of getting that info besides the speculation you've done.

james.bungles wrote:well as of March 7th, there are 42,068 applicants this cycle, so based off the score percentiles you can assume that there are ~850 170+ scorers and about half of that are 172+ scorers (although the actual number is probably a good bit higher because of retakers and people reapplying).

Then multiple this by your estimate of applicants with high GPAs, and you have your estimate.

Obviously there aren't that many 170+ scorers with high GPAs because only 6 schools can maintain a 170+ median.

Source: http://www.lsac.org/lsacresources/data/ ... ear-volume

The top 7 schools all have a median of at least 170. Taking half of each entering class size (super rough estimates), at the minimum, that's 100 + 300 + 100 + 200 + 100 + 200 +100. In just the top 7 schools, that's more than 1100 170+ scores, all of which probably have GPAs that are decent (mostly 3.7+). I'm also underrepresenting the number of 170+ scores anyway, because several of those schools have a 25th percentile above 170 anyway.

Then you have to add to that all the 170 scores at all the other schools in the country. Plenty of T14s have at least a 75th percentile of 170+.

Cicero76 wrote:

james.bungles wrote:well as of March 7th, there are 42,068 applicants this cycle, so based off the score percentiles you can assume that there are ~850 170+ scorers and about half of that are 172+ scorers (although the actual number is probably a good bit higher because of retakers and people reapplying).

Then multiple this by your estimate of applicants with high GPAs, and you have your estimate.

Obviously there aren't that many 170+ scorers with high GPAs because only 6 schools can maintain a 170+ median.

Source: http://www.lsac.org/lsacresources/data/ ... ear-volume

The top 7 schools all have a median of at least 170. Taking half of each entering class size (super rough estimates), at the minimum, that's 100 + 300 + 100 + 200 + 100 + 200 +100. In just the top 7 schools, that's more than 1100 170+ scores, all of which probably have GPAs that are decent (mostly 3.7+). I'm also underrepresenting the number of 170+ scores anyway, because several of those schools have a 25th percentile above 170 anyway.

Then you have to add to that all the 170 scores at all the other schools in the country. Plenty of T14s have at least a 75th percentile of 170+.

Penn is actually 169 now btw.

You can't use score percentiles to figure out the number of people applying with 170+ jb. Most of the people with terrible LSAT scores won't apply.