Law Schools, LSAT, Rankings, U.S. News

The Law Schools With The Highest LSAT Scores

Not all law schools in the Top 14 are on this list. Why?

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If you’re still searching for a law school to call your home for the next three years, then it would be wise to try to get one where you’ll be surrounded by the best of the best, academically speaking. If possible, you’ll want to attend a law school that’s located at the tippy top of the U.S. News law school rankings — one where those applying have high GPAs and even higher LSAT scores.

For those new to the law school game, the schools with the very best applicants are generally located in the Top 14 of the U.S. News rankings (and in the Above the Law rankings, too).

But which of those schools has the highest median LSAT scores? As it turns out, U.S. News has a handy dandy list, but not all law schools in the T14 are on this list. Why? Let’s check it out…

Here’s the Top 12 list, courtesy of the Short List blog of U.S. News:

What’s shocking about this list isn’t the schools that are on it, but the order they’re listed, as well as the schools that aren’t on it. It’s easy to see that in the case of a tie, schools are listed alphabetically, as opposed to their U.S. News rank. Duke stands out among the rest, though, because despite its tie for tenth place with Michigan in the U.S. News rankings, it’s hanging out with the big boys on this list, like Penn and UVA, with a median LSAT score of 169, surpassing Michigan by a full point. Nice work.

Strangely absent from this list are UC Berkeley (ranked #9 by U.S. News; ranked #12 by ATL) and Cornell (ranked #13 by U.S. News and ATL). It strikes us as odd that such highly ranked law schools would have median LSAT scores below 168. For the sake of reference, both Berkeley’s and Cornell’s median LSAT score was 167 for the class entering in Fall 2013. As we all know, one point can mean worlds of difference in law school admissions, and later on the bar exam and employment market.

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Was U.S. News trying to prove a point by limiting the list of the schools with the highest LSAT scores to just 12? Perhaps. It may be a foreboding sign of things to come for Berkeley and Cornell in future iterations of the rankings. We suppose we’ll see what happens next spring when the 2016 rankings arrive.

Law Schools With the Highest LSAT Scores [Short List / U.S. News & World Report]

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