LSAT Minority Statistics

[awesomepossum]

The south wasn't doing so hot either .

And those 'others'.  Are the others the "they" or "them"?

[TallisUmbras]

It is upsetting all around. Where do you think the problem stems from? Lack of resources to hire a tutor or take a prep-course? The prep-course itself? Or is the LSAT really that hard?

[dashrashi]

One more thing about Puerto Ricans and the LSAT: ABA-accreditation (sp?) requires that entering law students have taken the LSAT. The University of Puerto Rico law school is ABA accredited, but I believe conducts its classes in Spanish, presumably for Spanish-speaking native Puerto Ricans. As I understand it, UPR requires the LSAT but doesn't give a *&^% about the scores, because obviously an English-language test isn't helpful for assessing most of their potential students. Accordingly, people who want to go to UPR probably don't bother studying and/or have major league language difficulties. I'd say the usual SES suspects combined with general language barrier issues and the UPR confounding factor probably account for the PR avg score.

[vajze]

I don't think that African Americans average is that bad, afterall caucasians don't score that much higher 150 is not really that much better than 147. What is more interesting is that women score lower than men. Why is that?

[Wunjin]

Other than the information here:

Does anyone know of more information regarding minority performance on the LSAT?

The single worst thing I read today. Did you see the Hispanic, Mexican-American average? Jesus christ I felt bad for not putting Mexican-American just to help with the stats.

The most disturbing part to me:

Canadian and foreign test takers have had slightly higher mean LSAT scores than test takers from the United States.

 

My guess would be because only the cream of the crop, relatively speaking, of Canadians and foreign students either A. want to go to law school here or B. are in a position to do it (academically or financially).  You're not getting a representative sample.

[Diosa-Nefer]

In order to be admitted to the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, applicants must take the LSAT and the EXADEP (a Spanish version of the GRE). The LSAT, the EXADEP, and the graduating index are converted into the student’s admission index. From 1,000 to 1,100 applicants, only 200 are admitted (the ones with the higher indexes).

In Puerto Rico we have 3 ABA approved law schools. The best one and the cheapest ($100 per credit) is the University of Puerto Rico. Everyone here wants to get into UPR! (Except those who decide to study at a US or foreign University) This means that LSAT DOES count and we DO have to study for this test. It is really hard to study because of the language barrier and because of this, our average score is lower than english native speakers. Just because our average score is lower it doesn't mean that the LSAT doesn't count.

If this test was available in Spanish I'm sure that our average score would be much better.

I was accepted into UPR with 3.90, 650 (EXADEP) and 153 (LSAT) and I know about lots of good students with similar scores to mine that were rejected because of their performance at the LSAT.

The only thing UPR does not evaluate is the Writing Sample part of the LSAT because they ask for a Monograph and a Personal Statement to evaluate your writing skills.

Conclusion: At UPR, LSAT does count and studying for this test is really hard for Puerto Ricans, almost painful, because of the language barrier and the time restriction of the test.

[flacagym]

I heard that law schools add a certain number of points to your lsat if you are a minority - does anyone know of hte number? Or which schools add on points?

[BikePilot]

They don't add on points, but most all schools do strongly value a diverse student body and are willing to accept students that would further that goal even if they have lower than normal lsat/gpa's. Look at students accepted to a given school on lsn, sort by gpa and/or lsat, note where the urm tags fall. All else equal urm status it would seem will get you into a better/higher ranked school.

[Amy Winehouse]

I heard that law schools add a certain number of points to your lsat if you are a minority - does anyone know of hte number? Or which schools add on points?

I'd say that there isn't a concrete number that a school tacks on to a minority's LSAT score.  You can have two minority candidates with the same LSAT score and similar GPA, but the first student's personal statement is the written equivalent of a finger-painting while the second student's PS is like a Kandinsky.  Bottomline, the written components of the application are very important for showing that you are "better" than the LSAT score indicates.  It would seem to me that your writing ability (as far as it expresses intelligence, level of education, organization, etc.) would have to be very similar to, if not the equivalent of, that of the higher-scoring applicants. 

[biomed engineer]

I heard that law schools add a certain number of points to your lsat if you are a minority - does anyone know of hte number? Or which schools add on points?

It really depends on the school.  Some states have outlawed affirmative action.  If you want a more detailed discussion about admission formulas, factors, patterns, etc., then this link explains a lot.  However, the data as presented is highly controversial.  If there is a disagreement, it is best to contact the author.  I just saw it while browsing about information for law schools and minorities.  I am Native American.  In my state, Florida, affirmative action was outlawed.  It still exists in my previous state, Colorado.  I am just being factual.

http://www.law.ucla.edu/sander/Systemic/final/SanderFINAL.pdf

The general formulas for admission are given in this link.  Each school multiplies the g.p.a. by a multiplication factor and adds the result to the LSAT score.  The overall summation gives an index, and general cutoffs for such indices are shown. 

http://www.deloggio.com/admproc/getin05.htm