Weighing GPA vs. LSAT?

[Winnie]

The official line I have heard is that admission committees weigh your GPA and LSAT equally.  However, after talking to several friends that are lawyers, they said if you have a strong LSAT and a average/weak GPA, then they want to know why you haven't applied yourself in college.  On the other hand, they said if you have a low LSAT and a high GPA then conditions are more favorable for admission.  Has anyone else have any information/thoughts on the matter?  I guess I am just trying to come to grips with how 4 years of work can be weighed equally with 4 hours of test.  I'd appreciate your input!

[nekko]

I'm sure it depends on the school but generally speaking LSAT is as important as UGPA and often times weighed more heavily. I think for a lot of schools it's easier for them to find higher GPAs then it is for them to find higher LSAT scores if they want to beef up their numbers.

[penultimatelama]

I'm not sure where you got your info from but there's a big difference in lsat vs. gpa depending on school, gpa is between 15-30% of index scores on average with most school around 20%, the rest is lsat.  Although even with a great lsat I would imagine a very poor gpa would have to be explained in order to be accepted.

[legallyliz]

Im not sure if the index percentage difference LSAT and GPA is that large, but I do think that for many law schools, the LSAT is weighed just as heavily as the GPA (if not more).  I think the reasoning behind this is that a high GPA from one school may be equivalent to a low GPA from another school due to the "difficulty" of the school and also to whether or not the school is known for having inflated GPAs. 

Because of the discrepancies between GPAs from different schools, the LSAT may seem like a more dependable reflection of a person's potential success during law school.  In fact, I have heard that some school do take the GPA discrepancy into consideration and give "boost" to GPAs from schools that are known from their harsh grade curves.

[Lulu]

Also people get their GPAs from different classes, and you could theoretically not ever have taken a class taht would "test" your reasoning ability or whatever it is they test on the LSAT. It's also, like everyone else has mentioned, a standardized test that everyone takes on an equal playing field, regardless of difficulty of college, major, etc.
A really low GPA though could mean you're not a hard worker, which is why it's looked upon negatively, whereas a really high GPA could mean you're somewhat of a slacker that took easy classes, profs, easy major, etc.

[mrdino]

I'm not sure where you got your info from but there's a big difference in lsat vs. gpa depending on school, gpa is between 15-30% of index scores on average with most school around 20%, the rest is lsat.  Although even with a great lsat I would imagine a very poor gpa would have to be explained in order to be accepted.

Where did you get YOUR info from??? this is news to me

[absy]

this has been discussed before:

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,7197.msg101283.html#msg101283


it includes a table showing the percentage that top schools use GPA/LSAT, based on their LSAC formula.

[grizzly]

While some schools may weigh them equally, certainly not all schools do.  Go to the LSAC site and you can print out the index formula for just about every school.  With relatively simple math you can calculate which school cares more about the LSAT.  For example, by plugging in numbers you will see that at some schools an increase in LSAT is worth more than an increase in GPA compared to another school.  

Take UArk-F and UArk-LR for example.  It is clear by their formulas that Fayetteville puts more emphasis on Grades (or Little Rock puts more emphasis on LSAT) than Little Rock.  (Plug in the numbers and you'll see that a 2.8/162 beats a 3.0/160 at Little Rock but at Fayetteville the 3.0/160 wins.)

And after all, your question suggests you are looking for schools that emphasize one or the other.  

While most schools won't tell you what the magic number is (although the Arkansas schools actually do), rest assured there is a number.  Hope this helps.

[absy]

While some schools may weigh them equally, certainly not all schools do.  Go to the LSAC site and you can print out the index formula for just about every school.  With relatively simple math...

well, for data from the top 15 (those that use a formula), just look at the table in the above link.  but yeah, the math is pretty easy.  just remember that LSAT varies by 60 and GPA varied by 2.

[crimedog]

correct

I'm not sure where you got your info from but there's a big difference in lsat vs. gpa depending on school, gpa is between 15-30% of index scores on average with most school around 20%, the rest is lsat.  Although even with a great lsat I would imagine a very poor gpa would have to be explained in order to be accepted.