Law School Admission Test - Use of Scores in Law School Admissions

Use of Scores in Law School Admissions

The LSAT is considered a critical part of the law school admissions process, along with GPA. Most law schools are selective in their choice, and the LSAT is one method of differentiating candidates.

Additionally, the LSAT, like the SAT and ACT at the undergraduate level, allegedly serves as a standardized measure of one's ability to succeed during law school. Undergraduate grade points can vary significantly due to choices in course load as well as grade inflation, which may be pervasive at one applicant's undergraduate institution, but almost nonexistent at that of another. Although one's LSAT score is extremely important for admittance into Law School, some law centers such as Georgetown University and top law schools like The University Of Michigan have added programs designed to waive the LSAT for selected students who have maintained a 3.8 undergraduate GPA at the same universities. LSAC claims that their own research supports the use of the LSAT as a major factor in admissions, saying the median validity for LSAT alone is .41 (2001) and .40 (2002) in regards to the first year of law school. Although the correlation varies from school to school, LSAC claims that test scores are far more strongly correlated to first year law school performance than undergraduate GPA. LSAC claims that a more strongly correlated single-factor measure does not currently exist, that GPA is difficult to use because it is influenced by the school and the courses taken by the student, and that the LSAT can serve as a yardstick of student ability because it is statistically normed. The American Bar Association may end the requirement for law schools to use the LSAT as an admission requirement, as law school obsession with LSAT scores is detrimental to the promotion of diversity among applicants .

Most admission boards use an admission index, which is a formula that applies different weight to the LSAT and undergraduate GPA and adds the results. This composite statistic can have a stronger correlation to first year performance than either GPA or LSAT score alone, depending on the weighting used. The amount of weight assigned to LSAT score versus undergraduate GPA varies from school to school, as almost all law programs employ a different admission index formula.