The LSAT/GPA Paradigm

Whenever you apply for an academic program, you have to take into consideration whether or not you are qualified for it. I don't mean the out-and-out "bare minimum, graduated from a four-year university" qualifications, I mean whether or not the facts on you provide a strong enough basis for that program to accept you.

For us lawyer-hopefuls, those facts pretty much come down to our LSAT scores and our GPAs. It only takes a Google search to find the statistics on a school's admitted applicants, but sometimes it can be hard to properly understand how that criteria is applied. Does a 25th percentile GPA mean that you only have a chance of admission if your LSAT score is in the 75th percentile? Or is there still hope?

I found a program that tracks applicants' LSAT scores and GPAs together, and catalogues whether or not they were admitted. See an example below:

I picked Georgetown after reading that it is one of the most applied-to schools in America, so I figured that it would be the most relevant. You can check out the stats on your dream school here. 

It's good to know about where other applicants were in terms of both their scores, not just one or the other, so that we can be realistic about our prospects. For Georgetown, at least, a 25th percentile LSAT score (161) doesn't do you much good if you've also got a 25th percentile GPA (3.52).

Even though some of the data you may find could be disheartening, it's better to know than to blow the $50 on an application fee for a school where you don't have a chance. Then again, maybe you do. After all, there's almost always that one, hopeful little green dot in the lower or left-hand reaches of the screen. Maybe you could be that dot.