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Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:30 pm
by Lwschkmabe11
I know a lot of 0Ls rely on law school numbers to check what their chance are but does anyone else feel like it's super unreliable? First, in LSAT terms, it's a super small sample size for whatever numbers you're searching for. Second, people, granted people with too much time on their hands, could be creating fake profiles with fake numbers. Just saw today that someone made an account with an LSAT of 120 and gpa of 2.0 I highly doubt that's a real thing (but if it is they should retake) and you can look at all the info on the site without making an account so it's also pointless. So how much on lsn do you guys read with a grain of salt? Is anyone taking this site completely seriously?
Not referring to the articles on the page which are super helpful.

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:35 pm
by cavalier1138
If you don't have a large sample size for your number range, it isn't the most reliable source. But it's better than any available alternative, and when there are enough samples in the group, it's usually quite accurate.

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:41 pm
by jbagelboy
the biggest problem with LSN aside from the blatantly fake accounts is that people stop reporting once they choose a school, and rarely ever come back to update with information from waitlists or denials after about May.

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 4:43 am
by enoca
There is big gap between "should-be-taken-as-gospel" and "waste of time." It's a valuable tool for setting expectations, but obviously there is no guarantee of anything.

There are over 10,000 datapoints for some schools. Even if some small percentage of those are lying trolls, the overall picture should be pretty on point.

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 9:24 am
by bitter_melon
It was fairly accurate for me.

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 9:32 am
by Future Ex-Engineer
I outperformed acceptances and outperformed scholarships (minus two schools) for similar numbers to me this cycle according to LSN.

I think it is useful for giving a rough picture of what you could be expecting. Aside from that, T14 admissions really are more than just a cut and dried numbers game, so results there shouldn't be taken as definitive.

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2017 6:42 am
by AJordan
There are typically some broad generalizations that can be made by looking at the graphs. For instance, this year WashU is considering pretty much everyone at 168+, Virginia seems to be splitter friendly this cycle, and Cornell certainly pivoted strategies to focus on giving acceptances to high GPAs. Smaller things too, like GPA and LSAT floors are evident.

Where LSN is undoubtedly pretty damn valuable is in seeing red dots. Seeing people who did get rejected at least gives an idea of when one's numbers probably aren't good enough. Clusters of yellow and red should lead anybody with comparable numbers to assure themselves that they are most likely not special and also are unlikely to be accepted.

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2017 9:43 am
by etramak
Can't figure out if this is a fake profile or if the URM bump is this real

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/Flokk

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2017 9:57 am
by Veil of Ignorance
etramak wrote:Can't figure out if this is a fake profile or if the URM bump is this real

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/Flokk
It has to be fake.

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 1:40 pm
by enoca
It's obviously fake. And based on the comments the profile has probably been changed from what it used to say.

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 3:41 pm
by Pomeranian
^ LOL. LSN is fake as hell!

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 7:58 pm
by gwillygecko
I agree it's largely a waste of time because people don't update it, especailly if their cycle doesnt go the way they want it to

Re: Law school numbers- waste of time?

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 9:56 pm
by Nonconsecutive
Just to add to the above, I know a lot of people abandoned their account mid-cycle and now don't even remember their login information.

Also I know from some other law school related forums that fake accounts are quite common.

I used LSN, it was "generally" accurate, but it was just one piece of my thought process. I definitely wouldn't exclusively - or overly - rely on it.