What Does the Index # on LSAC report mean?

[LawyersGunnersnMoney]

I realize what it is, but where do you see the number that the school is looking for?

[merkina]

great f-ing question.  i've been wondering this myself for SOOOO long.  anyone know?

[zenpeaceofmind]

Since the Index number is calculated differently for every school, it's not on the report that is visible to us, it's only on the reports as they are sent out to schools.

The LSAC does publish the index calculations, and they are also done automatically, from those figures, on LSN.

HTH   

[molly2004]

How does the index get used?  Does the school have a minimum cutoff and if you're below that, you're toast? 

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

How does the index get used?  Does the school have a minimum cutoff and if you're below that, you're toast? 

Most schools officially say that no, there isn't.  But there's probably a cutoff below which you need to have some pretty damn special "extras" to be considered, depending on the school.

[zenpeaceofmind]

From what I know, not all schools have Index #s, first of all ... and of the ones that do, almost none will cop to using them as a definitive cutoff. They basically use the numbers, I think, to stack people's files in order of "Almost Definite/Unless Mass Murderer - 10 sec review" / "Maybe, We Actually Need to Read the File - 10 min review" and / "Almost Absolutely Not/Unless Prez of the USA - 10 sec review" ... or something like that.

At least, that's what I've read/heard.