Any advice for my graph?

[TheRealMongoose]

Hi there,

I know some of my users/supporters have probably made a bad name for me on this site, but I was wondering if you could help me.

My law school admissions calculator is up and running (www.lawschoolmongoose.com/admissions-calculator.html) and I was hoping some of you could check it out and report back with any problems/inaccuracies.  If you've looked at it before please know that I've made a few changes in the last hour or so that should correct some of the problems we had before.

The data is calculated using the 25th/75th percentiles for both GPA and LSAT.  Medians are off because we simply took the mean of both the 25th and 75th.  This is more to save time so we don't have to search for the medians on each law school website each year.  The difference between real and calculated shouldn't make too much of a difference though.

The actual algorithm is is sort of complicated, but it weighs LSAT and GPA differently, calculates an index and then makes adjustments to it based on a number of rules.

Any suggestions would be great.  I'm not doing this for myself, only to help students next cycle, so go easy on me - I'm really not a bad guy .  Thanks in advance and good luck with your apps!

[TheRealMongoose]

OK thanks!  That's what I want... what are your stats (if you don't mind)?

Also, the top 3 are really hard to get right without making exceptions for them.  I'm happy erring on the side of giving someone hope, though... but maybe I can fine-tune it a little.

[boilerguy84]

i think one improvement would be if you could get the schools all the way down through #100. i know many of the people on here are only interested in t14..but there ARE others who are looking at schools lower in the top 100.

[TheRealMongoose]

Thanks - there is a "next" button at the top, but it's not very clear (you're not the only one who didn't see it).  I'm going to see if I can get more on one page, though.

[hbb]

Although I think you underestimate the impact using the quartiles to generate a mean may have on your data, I do think it's pretty cool to see a positive association between GPA and LSAT at the top ranked schools, and a negative association at the lowest ranked schools.

Consider altering the scales somewhat - no need to have a scale that is so much larger than the data range.

Also, why 4 separate charts based upon rankings? Is there some sort of limit to the data points you can enter in the software you are using?

The actual algorithm is is sort of complicated, but it weighs LSAT and GPA differently, calculates an index and then makes adjustments to it based on a number of rules.

What in the world do you mean? How and why are you weighting the results? Something is very wrong: a 4.0 with a 170 is considered a reach (yellow) at schools 62-67 (which shows 10 data points? for 5 schools? WTF?) even though this is clearly a lock at all of these schools based upon the averages you've provided.

Give me a bit an I'll see if I can figure out a way for you to use the quartile data without screwing it up...

 

edit - Ah - several are tied in the rankings, leading to more schools than 5. Also, it may just be that the color is off - when moused over, a "Mongoose says you're in!" pops up.

[TheRealMongoose]

i would say lose the graph, it's kind of annoying to use. instead, output in text form.

Thanks - maybe I'll look into doing both.  I think the graph is nice to quickly see where your chances fall based on the rank of schools, but I agree text output would be nice.  I've just seen a lot of text outputs and figured this would be a little different.

[boilerguy84]

Thanks - there is a "next" button at the top, but it's not very clear (you're not the only one who didn't see it).  I'm going to see if I can get more on one page, though.

oh, i saw it. i just want to see some of the schools even lower (down to 100 or so). i like the format of it. i think it's really easy to understand what it's trying to tell the user. i'm not sure about the accuracy (i'm a splitter...so nothing is really all that accurate for me, anyway). if it's accurate, and has more schools, i think it can be a fantastic calculator because of the ease of use.

[TheRealMongoose]

Although I think you underestimate the impact using the quartiles to generate a mean may have on your data, I do think it's pretty cool to see a positive association between GPA and LSAT at the top ranked schools, and a negative association at the lowest ranked schools.

Consider altering the scales somewhat - no need to have a scale that is so much larger than the data range.

Also, why 4 separate charts based upon rankings? Is there some sort of limit to the data points you can enter in the software you are using?

Quote
The actual algorithm is is sort of complicated, but it weighs LSAT and GPA differently, calculates an index and then makes adjustments to it based on a number of rules.

What in the world do you mean? How and why are you weighting the results? Something is very wrong: a 4.0 with a 170 is considered a reach (yellow) at schools 62-67 (which shows 10 data points? for 5 schools? WTF?) even though this is clearly a lock at all of these schools based upon the averages you've provided.

Give me a bit an I'll see if I can figure out a way for you to use the quartile data without screwing it up...

Thanks a ton.

The data is 20 per page because we were playing with "Median Scores by Rank" section and 20 was all that it could handle.  I agree that we need more per page.

The weighting just means that a median LSAT isn't equal to a median GPA.  Someone with a median LSAT and a low GPA has a better chance than someone who has a median GPA and low LSAT at most schools. I'm not getting the 4.0/170 results you are.  Let me know if you keep getting them.

Thanks so much for your input.

[PABitz]

I know this would be a bit of extra work, but you can get the actual medians from the LSAC site (ABA data sheets).

[TheRealMongoose]

oh, i saw it. i just want to see some of the schools even lower (down to 100 or so). i like the format of it. i think it's really easy to understand what it's trying to tell the user. i'm not sure about the accuracy (i'm a splitter...so nothing is really all that accurate for me, anyway). if it's accurate, and has more schools, i think it can be a fantastic calculator because of the ease of use.

Thanks, I forgot to mention that I haven't added all the data.  It will be there in the next few days or so.