You probably know someone who went to law school. You may know someone who graduated from one of the best law schools. This person might be making lots of money. Maybe they work on interesting cases for high-profile clients. Now, you’re wondering if this is right for you. You aren’t sure if you can get in because you haven’t been planning all your life for a good LSAT score like some other people you know. Thus, you may be wondering if there is any way to maximize your chances of admittance to a top law school.
How Can I Maximize My Chances of Going to Law School?
The answer is simple! There are only two ways to maximize your chances of going to law schools.
How to Maximize Chances of Going to Law School?
- Increase your GPA
- Increase your LSAT Score
Increasing your chances of admission is really that simple! Why? Because law schools basically only care about two things (and they are related). The two things law schools care about are money and rankings. Law schools make money by having students attend their school and pay tuition. They get students to attend and pay tuition by having a great ranking compared to other law schools.
The only two factors that matter for a law school’s ranking are the GPA and LSAT score stats for the incoming class. Don’t believe it? Look at the top 14 law schools LSAT scores for the incoming class for the past five years. Pull up the LSAT score percentiles of the incoming class. Look how closely the 25th percentile is for LSAT and GPA between each year.
Harvard Incoming Law School Class LSAT Percentiles 2022 – 2023
This image shows that for Harvard Law School’s incoming class the academic percentiles were extremely tight. Scoring a 173 on the LSAT meant you were a median score for Harvard, but scoring just four points lower at a 169 on the LSAT meant you were below the 25th percentile and are unlikely to be admitting. This is wild because a 169, although not enough for Harvard, is a very good LSAT score.
The good news is that these types of percentiles are only this tight and competitive at the top law schools. At a lower ranked school, there will be much more than a five point spread between the 25th percentile and the 75th percentile. Additionally, test takers will be happy to know that at other scores, the LSAT score that land within the average LSAT scores is much lower. This means that a good LSAT score depends on the school.
Each year the LSAT percentiles are super close to others years at the same school because the rankings game depends on these LSAT percentiles. So, the more people they admit with high GPA and LSAT scores, the better for the law schools because it improves or maintains their school ranking! Why would they let someone in that would lower the average LSAT score? They don’t want to ever, but they do sometimes to fill seats and hit other quotas.
The point is, for the most part law schools only care about your GPA and your LSAT score. This is unwelcome news for everyone who thinks they are unique and special. But, it is good news for test takers with time to improve their GPA and LSAT scores.
How do I Improve My GPA?
| Letter Grade | Percent Grade | GPA |
|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97 – 100 | 4.0 |
| A | 93 – 96 | 4.0 |
| A- | 90 – 92 | 3.7 |
| B+ | 87 – 89 | 3.3 |
| B | 83 – 86 | 3.0 |
| B- | 80 – 82 | 2.7 |
| C+ | 77 – 79 | 2.3 |
| C | 73 – 76 | 2.0 |
| C- | 70 – 72 | 1.7 |
| D+ | 67 – 69 | 1.3 |
| D | 63 – 66 | 1.0 |
| D- | 60 – 62 | 0.7 |
| F | 59 – 0 | 0 |
Get good grades in undergraduate! This will require attending your classes, doing homework, going to teaching assistant sessions if necessary. There are many other strategies to improve your grades in undergraduate. For example, you can take easy classes. You can also research which professors give out the highest percentage of A’s and then sign up for that professor’s course.
If your undergrad grades are really bad, try to retake classes to improve your scores or get a masters degree so you have more opportunity to have a higher GPA. Law school admissions committees do not distinguish between undergraduate GPA and Masters or PhD GPA. They simply average all your GPAs together.
How do I Improve My LSAT Score to higher LSAT score percentiles?
Take a prep course to improve your LSAT score. Do dozens of practice test to improve your LSAT scores. Learn the format of the game types for the logic section. Successful test takers hire a tutor. All of these things can help improve your average LSAT score. Maybe you only improve your raw score a few points on test day, but that could be the difference between getting in to your target school.
The reason it is so important to practice is because you can easily improve your LSAT score by becoming familiar with the law school admissions test. Other LSAT test takers are practicing and improving their LSAT score, so should you! Test takers become very nervous on test day. Especially if they have not practiced much. Nerves are normal when you take the LSAT, but you don’t want to be scored lower than you otherwise would if you have practiced dozens of tests and mastered a large number of questions. In fact, the greater number of questions you practice on standardized tests, the more likely you feel comfortable and achieve a high LSAT score on the test date.
Will most law schools take my highest LSAT score?
If you take the LSAT multiple times, your law school application will show your LSAT scaled score report which will include each LSAT score. However, your chosen law school program will likely only care about your highest LSAT score. The LSAT test is difficult and admissions will usually reward you for your highest LSAT scaled score.
Conclusion: Maximize Chances of Going to Law School with GPA and LSAT Scores
Getting your GPA as high as possible and improving your LSAT score as much as you can are the two guaranteed ways to maximize your chance of getting into law school. The reason for this is because LSAT scores are one of two factors that LSAT takers can control. Law school admissions council want admitted students that fall within desired LSAT percentiles. These LSAT percentiles represent test takers that achieve a test score typical of the average score for admitted students. A perfect LSAT score is certainly not required. But, you probably want to do better than a 144 scaled score. Simply understand LSAT scores for your desired school and aim to get an LSAT score that is at least at the median LSAT scores for that school’s law school applicants.