Most prospective law school applicants know that the LSAT is the single most important factor in determining admission, but very few applicants know why that is the case. In this week’s post, I’ll discuss the LSAT from the perspective of the admissions committee and cover why they value it, how admissions committees view multiple LSAT scores and how this information might affect an applicant.
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— Why do admissions committees value the LSAT? Admissions committees value the LSAT for two completely different purposes. First, they consider the LSAT to be helpful indication of an applicant’s potential as a law student. Second, they know that LSAT scores for their incoming classes are used to evaluate the law schools themselves.
There is considerable debate with respect to whether the LSAT is an accurate indication of a law student’s future academic success. Whether or not it is, admissions committees consider it to be, and applicants must play by their rules.
Law schools don’t just use the LSAT to determine success, though. Prior academic success is the other important indicator of law school academic success. So admissions committees will take into account undergraduate GPA, letters of recommendation from professors, the quality of an applicant’s undergraduate academic program and other soft factors as well as the LSAT.
The statistical purpose of the LSAT, however, is different. The median LSAT score for incoming classes is an important factor in determining a law school’s U.S. News rank, which is very important to many schools. For this purpose, admissions committees cannot combine the LSAT with any other factors, which is part of what makes it so important to them.
This means that new applicants who have an LSAT score lower than the range for a school to which they are applying should be sure to emphasize academic successes, since admissions committees will likely want reassurance that they have what it takes to succeed at their school.
For example, a recent client of mine scored 10 points lower than the average score taken by her dream school. Together, we focused on sharing her academic success in her personal statement. One excellent way to do this is to use your personal statement to discuss large projects or other long-term academic work you did either as an undergraduate or in graduate school.
— Do admissions committees average multiple LSAT scores? Each school has its own policy with respect to averaging multiple LSAT scores. In general, though, there are two important guidelines that give schools reason to consider only the highest of two or more LSAT scores.
The Law School Admission Council’s position on multiple LSAT scores is to average two scores that have a difference of five points or fewer and to take the higher of two scores that have a difference of six points or more.
[Learn more about how law schools evaluate LSAT scores.]
The reason behind this is that the LSAT creators view an LSAT score as placing someone within a five-point range, not defining them as a single number. When two scores are outside of that statistical range, it suggests that the lower score was either an aberration or the applicant improved his or her ability on the test.
From a statistical perspective, schools are now required to report to the American Bar Association only the highest LSAT score for their admitted applicants. This means that schools will be more likely to only consider — or give more weight to — the highest score for applicants with multiple scores.
If you are considering retaking the LSAT because you did significantly worse than you know you can do, then you have more reason to retake the test because schools are more likely to consider only the higher score.
If you are only trying to squeeze out a few more points from a score that was already close to your maximum score, you should be more cautious. If you get a slightly worse score, schools might average those two scores, leaving you with a worse composite LSAT score than you would have had if you hadn’t retaken the test.
How are you preparing for the LSAT? Let me know in an email or tweet me.
More from U.S. News
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Get Insight Into How Law Schools View LSAT Scores originally appeared on usnews.com
