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So I'm trying to decide if I should throw an app at Stanford next year. Let's say I'm a MA URM, have >75% LSAT and a 3.3-3.4 gpa, excellent personal statement, letter of recommendation from a recent professor that was a Stanford alumni (including the Stanford specific evaluation), slightly above average softs, 1 year work experience. Would the low GPA immediately send my application to the reject bin?

you are a strange animal.

exactly two URM-but-not-AA lsn users have applied with anything close to your stats (3.2-3.5, 174-180) going back to 2008. check it out:

http://mylsn.info/5cydst/

one got in, one was waitlisted. both had at least a 179 (christ.)

not much else to say, but clearly it's worth a shot with what must be an excellent lsat.

Also, don't forget that LSN only accounts for a small fraction of a schools' overall applicant pool, AND the people who post on LSN are accepted at a higher rate than the school's overall applicant pool, so just going off of LSN can give you an inflated sense of what it takes to be admitted.

ScottRiqui wrote:Also, don't forget that LSN only accounts for a small fraction of a schools' overall applicant pool, AND the people who post on LSN are accepted at a higher rate than the school's overall applicant pool, so just going off of LSN can give you an inflated sense of what it takes to be admitted.

Although I agree LSN isn't representative of the entire pool, why is the bolded the case?

pylon wrote:

ScottRiqui wrote:Also, don't forget that LSN only accounts for a small fraction of a schools' overall applicant pool, AND the people who post on LSN are accepted at a higher rate than the school's overall applicant pool, so just going off of LSN can give you an inflated sense of what it takes to be admitted.

Although I agree LSN isn't representative of the entire pool, why is the bolded the case?

I think a small part is people on LSN are on average probably more educated/aware/prepared while applying. On a more concrete level you are more likely to report successes than rejection.

Auxilio wrote:

pylon wrote:

ScottRiqui wrote:Also, don't forget that LSN only accounts for a small fraction of a schools' overall applicant pool, AND the people who post on LSN are accepted at a higher rate than the school's overall applicant pool, so just going off of LSN can give you an inflated sense of what it takes to be admitted.

Although I agree LSN isn't representative of the entire pool, why is the bolded the case?

I think a small part is people on LSN are on average probably more educated/aware/prepared while applying. On a more concrete level you are more likely to report successes than rejection.

That's probably it. This spreadsheet has the data for the T14 (at least through the Class of 2015). To use Virginia c/o 2010 as a random example, applicants on LSN only made up 13.18% of the school's total applicant pool, but they accounted for 21.78% of the admitted students. Further, the overall admittance rate for Virginia's total applicant pool was 23.98%, but for the applicants who were on LSN, it was 39.61%. Other schools' trends are similar. Clearly, the people who are self-reporting on LSN are a "higher caliber" of applicant compared to the applicant pool as a whole.

Fair enough. In this situation though, OP is already factoring for LSAT and GPA. So the 'higher caliber' of applicants would have to come from information outside those two predictive measures.

People being more likely to report successes than rejections could definitely be it.

why not apply? can't hurt.

I remember a few years back Stanford posted their lowest and highest GPA and LSATs in their class profile. IIRC - there was a 3.2 and a 158 LSAT. Anything is possible.

Don't quote me on this but I think I saw in some literature passed out at the NY LSAC Forum that Stanford went as low as 3.15 for the most recent cycle.

Post removed.

santoki wrote:

JFO1833 wrote:Don't quote me on this but I think I saw in some literature passed out at the NY LSAC Forum that Stanford went as low as 3.15 for the most recent cycle.

quoted for funsies

You can now quote me, I found the material. For the class of 2016 (so cycle before last) GPA range was 3.18 - 4.12. LSAT range was 161-180.