Dat Fully Scholly Forum

[180orRetake]

Why don't these percentages add up to 100? They don't even come close. What am I missing?

not sure if srs

I'm probably an idiot and overlooking something obvious but I was serious. What do those percentages mean? Percentage increase/decrease since last cycle?

correct.

[180orRetake]

oops. delete repost

[180orRetake]

The binding early decision raises the bar because of the full scholarship attached. Why do you want to go to BU?

the "bar" i was referring to was that which is normally expected to be competitive for full scholarship consideration anyway (irrespective of applying ED).


why BU?

1) the binding early decision thing is interesting.
2) its in boston
3) im not competitive for t14

[jumbocolumbo]

Why don't these percentages add up to 100? They don't even come close. What am I missing?

Not sure if you've figured this out yet but these numbers are the percentage changes for each score band compared to the previous application cycle. So there was a 6.4% increase in the number of LSAT takers who scored less than 140, 7.2% increase in test-takers who scored between a 140-144 etc... There are negative percentages in the higher score bands indicating a decrease in the percentage of test-takers who scored in those ranges for the 2014-15 application cycle. These numbers very likely should not equal 100% percent.

Hope that clarifies things.

[ms9]

I don't see where you got these particular numbers from. Please provide link.

Source.

I don't think those numbers are from the June '15 test, but from the 2014-2015 cycle through 7/03/2015.

This above is correct. Indeed, LSAC does not give LSAT test-data, but rather cycle data. So the next update we get will have to wait for some 2015/2016 applicant data, which will be in awhile now. I suspect applicants and top scorers to be up this coming cycle.

[180orRetake]

I don't see where you got these particular numbers from. Please provide link.

Source.

I don't think those numbers are from the June '15 test, but from the 2014-2015 cycle through 7/03/2015.

This above is correct. Indeed, LSAC does not give LSAT test-data, but rather cycle data. So the next update we get will have to wait for some 2015/2016 applicant data, which will be in awhile now. I suspect applicants and top scorers to be up this coming cycle.

hey mike,

what gives you that suspicion? have you noticed any trends, or do you think things simply cant go down any further / the inevitable rebound is starting to occur?

[Tiago Splitter]

I don't see where you got these particular numbers from. Please provide link.

Source.

I don't think those numbers are from the June '15 test, but from the 2014-2015 cycle through 7/03/2015.

This above is correct. Indeed, LSAC does not give LSAT test-data, but rather cycle data. So the next update we get will have to wait for some 2015/2016 applicant data, which will be in awhile now. I suspect applicants and top scorers to be up this coming cycle.

hey mike,

what gives you that suspicion? have you noticed any trends, or do you think things simply cant go down any further / the inevitable rebound is starting to occur?

The number of LSAT takers has gone up slightly in each of the last three administrations. Nothing to be alarmed about; next cycle will still be one of the easiest ever, but the ridiculous drop in applicants in recent years appears to finally be slowing down.

[barley]

Anyone have any idea what kind of numbers are needed to be competitive for BU's binding early decision program?

Also, I saw that the number of LSAT takers has started to spike - does anyone have any info regarding how this group scored? Are scores still trending downward overall? I read an article about how "the wrong applicants have stopped applying to law school" (ie those with high lsat scores); is this still the case?

You need to be over both 75 percentiles. But more realistically, it looks like 3.75+/167+ at the very minimum.

Just curious - is this something you know about BU specifically, or do most schools follow that trend when awarding full rides?

[ScottRiqui]

Why don't these percentages add up to 100? They don't even come close. What am I missing?

Not sure if you've figured this out yet but these numbers are the percentage changes for each score band compared to the previous application cycle. So there was a 6.4% increase in the number of LSAT takers who scored less than 140, 7.2% increase in test-takers who scored between a 140-144 etc... There are negative percentages in the higher score bands indicating a decrease in the percentage of test-takers who scored in those ranges for the 2014-15 application cycle. These numbers very likely should not equal 100% percent.

Hope that clarifies things.

No. Those aren't the percent changes for all LSAT takers, those are the percent changes for people who took the LSAT **and then applied to law school**. The percentage of people scoring at or above any particular score on the LSAT has remained pretty consistent over the years, and cycle-to-cycle differences are almost non-existent.

In short, people aren't doing significantly worse or better on the LSAT, but there are significantly fewer high scorers who end up actually applying to law school.

[stego]

Why don't these percentages add up to 100? They don't even come close. What am I missing?

Not sure if you've figured this out yet but these numbers are the percentage changes for each score band compared to the previous application cycle. So there was a 6.4% increase in the number of LSAT takers who scored less than 140, 7.2% increase in test-takers who scored between a 140-144 etc... There are negative percentages in the higher score bands indicating a decrease in the percentage of test-takers who scored in those ranges for the 2014-15 application cycle. These numbers very likely should not equal 100% percent.

Hope that clarifies things.

No. Those aren't the percent changes for all LSAT takers, those are the percent changes for people who took the LSAT **and then applied to law school**. The percentage of people scoring at or above any particular score on the LSAT has remained pretty consistent over the years, and cycle-to-cycle differences are almost non-existent.

In short, people aren't doing any worse or better on the LSAT, there are just fewer high scorers who end up actually applying to law school.

Isn't that basically guaranteed to be the case, given the way LSAC converts the raw scores into the official scores?

[ScottRiqui]

Why don't these percentages add up to 100? They don't even come close. What am I missing?

Not sure if you've figured this out yet but these numbers are the percentage changes for each score band compared to the previous application cycle. So there was a 6.4% increase in the number of LSAT takers who scored less than 140, 7.2% increase in test-takers who scored between a 140-144 etc... There are negative percentages in the higher score bands indicating a decrease in the percentage of test-takers who scored in those ranges for the 2014-15 application cycle. These numbers very likely should not equal 100% percent.

Hope that clarifies things.

No. Those aren't the percent changes for all LSAT takers, those are the percent changes for people who took the LSAT **and then applied to law school**. The percentage of people scoring at or above any particular score on the LSAT has remained pretty consistent over the years, and cycle-to-cycle differences are almost non-existent.

In short, people aren't doing any worse or better on the LSAT, there are just fewer high scorers who end up actually applying to law school.

Isn't that basically guaranteed to be the case, given the way LSAC converts the raw scores into the official scores?

There's still *some* variation over the years, since there's not a set formula that directly translates a scaled LSAT score into a percentile. Check out this page for some historical numbers. As an example, a 170 scaled score was at the 97.8 percentile during the 2003-2006 cycles, but was only a 97.4 percentile for the 2011-2014 cycles. Likewise, a 160 has gone from being at the 81.7 percentile to being at the 80.2 percentile over the same time frame. So over the years, LSAT takers as a whole have been getting slightly better scores, but the cycle-to-cycle changes are very small.

[Zero99]

Anyone have any idea what kind of numbers are needed to be competitive for BU's binding early decision program?

Also, I saw that the number of LSAT takers has started to spike - does anyone have any info regarding how this group scored? Are scores still trending downward overall? I read an article about how "the wrong applicants have stopped applying to law school" (ie those with high lsat scores); is this still the case?

You need to be over both 75 percentiles. But more realistically, it looks like 3.75+/167+ at the very minimum.

Just curious - is this something you know about BU specifically, or do most schools follow that trend when awarding full rides?

Both.

[ms9]

I don't see where you got these particular numbers from. Please provide link.

Source.

I don't think those numbers are from the June '15 test, but from the 2014-2015 cycle through 7/03/2015.

This above is correct. Indeed, LSAC does not give LSAT test-data, but rather cycle data. So the next update we get will have to wait for some 2015/2016 applicant data, which will be in awhile now. I suspect applicants and top scorers to be up this coming cycle.

hey mike,

what gives you that suspicion? have you noticed any trends, or do you think things simply cant go down any further / the inevitable rebound is starting to occur?

Back in march I took a look at a number of variables, some of which I reported on here:

http://spiveyconsulting.com/blog/predic ... ons-cycle/

Others were more anecdotal, mostly from talking to various LSAT prep company heads. Even back then it seemed like this would bounce back, and the top band widths seem to ebb then flow each year. The 10% first time test-taker increase in June is more compelling, of course.

That said, Tiago Splitter is spot-on right. It may be a tougher cycle by a small bit but versus the go-go years in the mid 2000's it will be much easier. ALSO, I think many law schools would like to enroll more students this coming cycle.