{"id":107,"date":"2009-08-31T11:10:04","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T17:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/?p=107"},"modified":"2009-08-31T14:34:18","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T20:34:18","slug":"lsats-by-majors-2007-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/2009\/08\/31\/lsats-by-majors-2007-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"LSATs by Majors, 2007-2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a working paper on SSRN,\u00a0LSAT Scores of Economics Majors: The 2008-2009 Class Update<\/em><\/a>, Michael Nieswiadomy (North Texas, Economics) looks at average 2007-2008 LSAT scores by undergraduate major.\u00a0 The table below is from Table 2 of the\u00a0paper (p. 6), which lists a total of 29 majors with at least 450 LSAT takers in 2007-2008:<\/p>\n

Top 10 Majors by 2007-2008 LSAT Average<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\nRank<\/strong><\/td>\n
\nMajor<\/strong><\/td>\n		Average
\nScore<\/strong><\/td>\n		No. of
\nStudents<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nPhysics\/Math<\/td>\n160.0<\/td>\n577<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nEconomics<\/td>\n157.4<\/td>\n3,047<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nPhilosophy\/Theology<\/td>\n157.4<\/td>\n2,581<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nInternational Relations<\/td>\n156.5<\/td>\n1,520<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nEngineering<\/td>\n156.2<\/td>\n2,197<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nGovernment\/Service<\/td>\n156.1<\/td>\n578<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nChemistry<\/td>\n156.1<\/td>\n632<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nHistory<\/td>\n155.9<\/td>\n4,169<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nInterdisciplinary Studies<\/td>\n155.5<\/td>\n652<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nForeign Languages<\/td>\n155.3<\/td>\n1,084<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Note:\u00a0 <\/strong>Majors with at least 450 takers.<\/p>\n

The paper does not tell us whether (or when) the differences in means are statistically<\/em> significant.\u00a0 In terms of practical<\/em> significance,\u00a0is the average\u00a0engineeering major (156.2) that much stronger than the average Government\/Service or Chemistry major (156.1)?\u00a0<\/p>\n

In terms of getting into law school, consider the\u00a0distribution of the 75th and 25th LSAT percentiles of the Fall 2008 entering law-school classes (as reported in the 2010 Official Guide).\u00a0 An average Physics\/Math major,\u00a0with a 160.0,\u00a0would have\u00a0fallen in the top<\/p>\n

    \n
  • quarter\u00a0(75th percentile) at 60% of law schools, and<\/li>\n
  • three<\/em> quarters (25th percentile) at 85% of law-schools.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Certainly, the average<\/em> Physics\/Math student\u00a0has\u00a0a good chance of getting into law school, but not necessarily one of the top 50 law schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    It also would be interesting to know how widely the scores vary within each major (the standard deviation).<\/p>\n

    Gary Rosin<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In a working paper on SSRN,\u00a0LSAT Scores of Economics Majors: The 2008-2009 Class Update, Michael Nieswiadomy (North Texas, Economics) looks at average 2007-2008 LSAT scores by undergraduate major.\u00a0 The table below is from Table 2 of the\u00a0paper (p. 6), which lists a total of 29 majors with at least 450 LSAT takers in 2007-2008: Top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[22,23],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law-schools","tag-lsat","tag-undergraduate-majors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uberlaw.net\/LawNumbers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}