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I'm in the exact same boat as you are. I'd like to hear people's opinions on this. I emailed my pre-law advisor to see what he thinks too.

One cancellation does not hurt your admission chances in the slightest.

As for your other questions, depends on GPA, softs, etc.

Play with the numbers at http://www.lawschoolpredictor.com to see what you need.

-Steve

I'm considering canceling. How does that look, as compared to a lower score with a higher later on? LG and and Mexican Labor Unions killed me... (If the second is too much, please edit it and don't ban me. I've seen others mention it already)

I've heard that one cancellation doesn't hurt that much, but two does. Which do you guys think is worse: canceling twice or having a low and then higher score?

SLEEEP ON IT

I know enough people who were on the verge of canceling and ended up doing very well to say that you should sleep on it and evaluate it as rationally as possible once you have settled down before canceling.

chaofun wrote:I've heard that one cancellation doesn't hurt that much, but two does. Which do you guys think is worse: canceling twice or having a low and then higher score?

I'd pick a 2nd cancel over a significantly lower score, but as other posters said, it's possible that you did better than you think. Take a few days to decide.

I know several people who've gotten in everywhere (YHS included) who retook after a much-less-than-ideal first score (lower than what you're contemplating). I honestly think most schools these days just care about your highest score.

Here's a list of schools and their policies on averaging:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=107648

I wouldn't cancel. You may have done better than you thought. Besides any retakes probably won't hurt you near as bad considering your original score was in the 170's to begin with.

LSAT Blog wrote:

chaofun wrote:I've heard that one cancellation doesn't hurt that much, but two does. Which do you guys think is worse: canceling twice or having a low and then higher score?

I'd pick a 2nd cancel over a significantly lower score, but as other posters said, it's possible that you did better than you think. Take a few days to decide.

Thanks for the advice. I think it would be a significantly lower score.

LSAT Blog wrote:Here's a list of schools and their policies on averaging:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=107648

Those are helpful, but is there good reason to trust the highest-score-only responses in most of those cases? See, for instance, Connecticut and UNC:

University of Connecticut – "We use the higher LSAT score in our analysis, but we do see all scores. If there is a significant difference between two scores, an applicant can provide an explanatory addendum, especially if he or she can point to substantive and valid reasons for the difference."

They claim to use the higher score; why mention they addendum except in passing (like UGA, though even that one makes me wonder a little bit)?

University of North Carolina – “For applicants who have multiple LSAT scores, the policy at Carolina Law is to base our admissions decisions on the highest score. Despite this, we generally advise prospective students against taking the LSAT more than once, unless there are extenuating circumstances which caused the student to perform poorly during the first LSAT.”

Now, they might have a reason for advising against that, but none is given. My guess is that, perhaps, not all members of all admissions committees are really evaluating candidates on precisely the same criteria; it would hardly be surprising for a member to believe he or she is going by the highest score, but has just a twinge of doubt over the lower score(s).

This is speculation, of course, but I think some level of speculation is in order.