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Can someone explain the median?

MonkeyMammoth24MonkeyMammoth24 Member
in Law School Admissions 790 karma

I understand it’s the 50th percentile. Some schools have weird numbers thought. GWU has a range of 159 (25th percentile) to 167 (75th percentile). But for some reason their median is a 166. How is the median one point from the 75th and 7 points from the 25th. Shouldn’t it be 163?

I don’t get it lol. Can someone explain?

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Comments

  • sarakimmelsarakimmel Member ⭐
    1488 karma

    The median is the middle value when a data set is ordered from least to greatest, so it is the the score of the person in the absolute middle of the pack, and it could be any number so long as an equal number of people scored higher and lower, again, regardless of how much higher or lower. The mean is the average of a data set, which I think is what you were referring to.

  • jsphpardojsphpardo Free Trial Member
    edited November 2021 23 karma

    Think of percentiles not as averages but as values at which a certain percentage of a data set is included (and thus a comparable percentage excluded). Percentiles simply separate values below a certain value from those above it. At GWU, this means that 25% of students scored below 159 and the remaining 75% scored at or above it. Similarly, the 75th percentile shows that 75% of students scored below 167 and the remaining 25% scored at or above it. From just these two values, you cannot accurately know the 50th percentile because you know nothing about the actual scores of everybody between the 25th and 75th percentiles. You just know that 50% of students scored above a 159 and below a 167. So while the 50th percentile will be the median of all the scores, it is not the average of the 25th and 75th percentiles (it could be, but that is not what it is intended to represent).

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