Question regarding medians (numbers confuse me.)

gettysburg

I was talking to an LSAT tutor on instagram and they told me that there is no meaningful difference between having an LSAT between the 25th and 50th percentile and having an LSAT that is at or below the 25th. In their opinion, the only thing that matters is that you have an LSAT that is at or above median.

To me, that doesn't seem to make sense mathematically. But, also, I am bad at math, so very little makes sense to me mathematically.

Lets say there's a law school with this LSAT breakdown.

25th percentile: 160
50th percentile: 165
75th percentile: 167

In the view of the tutor, there is no difference between a 164 and a 160 because both are below median -- but is that really the case?

Leah M B

Well... I think the answer is yes and no.

The median isn’t an average. The median is the middle number in a set of numbers. Let’s say, you’re an admissions officer at a law school and you have 5 total applicants. Their LSAT scores are:

168
166
164
160
158

The median score would be 164, because when you line them up, it’s the one right in the middle. 25th and 75th percentile numbers are similar - it means that 25% of the scores are below that 25th mark, and 25% are above the 75th.

Schools do have to report their 25th, median, and 75th scores. But I believe that the median is the only one that actually counts toward their ranking. That’s why schools are very invested in keeping or raising their medians.

So to some degree, yes your friend is right. Because I do believe that the medians are the most important number to a school. And once you are below the median, they only have to make sure to keep their 25th from dropping too low but since it’s about number distribution, any number below the 25th has the same effect on it.

However, schools do have an interest in only accepting students that they believe will thrive there. There have been studies that show a correlation with LSAT and GPA combined to be predictive of 1L success. (It’s not a perfect correlation by any means, but suggests that there is at least a significant one.) I am sure, for example, that Harvard does not look at a 148 and a 167 the same way, despite the fact that both are below the 25th. You will always be in a slightly better position if your LSAT is closer to their typical range that they accept. It’s of course always best to be at least at median. Any amount below, even 1 point, can mean significantly less chance of getting in. But I don’t think it’s accurate to say that once you are below median, it doesn’t matter at all what your score is. And definitely it makes a difference if you are at or below the 25th - the range between the 25th and median accounts for 25% of their admits. Meaning, that is still a typical range of scores they admit. There’s a reason that elite schools have higher 25ths. They typically do not dip down as low in LSAT scores for selecting their classes.

studyingandrestudying

I can kind of see what they're seeing, but at the same time, four points sounds like a lot to me.

studyingandrestudying

*Saying, not seeing.