Law School Medians Just Went Up Again (2026)

0:00Law schools just released the numbers on the class that started this fall and at Harvard, even the bottom quarter of the class now starts at a 172 LSAT. And the rest of the list moved to. Of the first 107 law schools to post their numbers, 84 of them raised their LSAT medians and only three of them lowered it. And so if your LSAT score is the same as last year's applicants, you're already behind this year's cohort. Now, most people see that and they decide the bar is just out of reach for them now, but I see it differently. The people you're competing with are pushing their scores up and so you've got to push yours up to. And it's worth doing so because a few extra points on the LSAT change where you work when you get out of law school and how much of the tuition you actually pay. Now, I've been teaching the LSAT since 2005. I've never seen the scale move quite like it has over the past few years. But first, you might be wondering what is a median? If you were to line up every new first year law student at a school by their LSAT score,

1:05the median is the person standing in the exact middle. Half the class scored above them, half scored at or below their number. Schools also report the 25th percentile. That is the score that blocks off or marks off the bottom quarter, one in four students scored at or below it. And this year, the numbers went up. And things were not really moving up evenly either. At the very top, things barely moved because there isn't much room to go up. They're already pretty high. Harvard held their median at a 174. The bigger jump was in the middle of the pack. Look, for example, at the schools that had a median between a 160 and a 164 last year. 35 of the schools have posted and 31 of them went up. And that's the range where I know a lot of you are applying. The schools you think of as your safest beds are actually climbing the fastest. Now, if there was only one year of increases, it's kind of easy to shrug it off, a point here, a point there who really cares. And so I actually went back over the past 10 years to look at the data.

2:06Because every accredited law school files a report with the ABA every year. It's called the 509 report. And it lists these numbers for every entering class. It's public and most applicants never even open one. Now, here's what 10 years of one point moves looks like. Wake Forests, LSAT median in 2015 was a 161. This fall, it's a 167. You see Irván went from 162 to 170. Villanova went from a 156 to a 166. That's 10 points. Now, here's the one that really gets me. Villanova's bottom quarter, this fall, starts out of 161. Their median back in 2015 was a 156. And this is apples to oranges, of course. A student at the bottom of this year's class scored five points higher than the student in the exact middle of the class 10 years ago. Wake Forests same thing. This year's bottom quarter starts at a 166. Their median in 2015 was a 161. So the bottom of the class today beats the old middle of the class 10 years ago.

3:10George Townsend Good One, too, in 2015, their bottom quarter started at a 161. Last year, it started at a 166. So a score that put you comfortably inside George Townsend's class 10 years ago would leave you under their bottom quarter now. And so when somebody older, your uncle, your parents, their lawyers at your law firm, where you work, if they tell you they got into a great school with a 163, believe them because it was true back then, but it wouldn't get them in today. And you might be wondering why does it keep climbing? It's because of a rule change, in part at least. In 2006, the ABA changed their rules, so schools report your highest LSAT score. Before that, schools would average your LSAT scores. So think about what that does. Say you take it three times and you score 161 of 164 of 167. Yes, this school will see all three of those, but the number they report, the one that counts towards their median is the 167.

4:10That makes retaking low risk for you. It's pure upside for everybody for you and for the school. And so people retake. And the median's go up as a result, as a consequence. The applicants see the higher median and decide they're perfectly good. 165 isn't good enough, so they retake also. And the median's go up again. It's a vicious cycle that never really ends. I don't see it stopping anytime. Student feeds itself. And GPAs are doing the same thing. Of the schools that have posted so far for this cycle, 79 raise their GPA median and only 12 of them lowered it. So look at every school with an LSAT median of 167 or higher this fall. The lowest GPA median in that whole group is a 3.70. So if you're at a 36 or a 37, you are under the GPA median at every single one of them. If you're a senior in college or you already graduated, the number is pretty much done. Nothing you're going to do is going to change him up much if at all. The LSAT is the only number in your application you can still change for this cycle. So my answer to rise in median is simple.

5:10It's fight fire with fire. Everybody else is pushing their scores up. If you sit still, you're going to fall behind. So say you have a 165 you're looking at four schools. And these are the falls numbers. Bottom quarter line first and the median. UC Irvon 164 and 170. Villanovo 161 and 166. William & Mary 163 167. Wake Forest 166 and 167. So Wake Forest median is three points lower than Irvon's and the 165 still looks worse there. Almost everyone at Wake is kind of bunched up type because they're bottom quarter of median are only one point apart. At Irvon, there are six points apart. Now you add in three points. You now have a 168. You're now above the median at Villanovo. William & Mary and Wake Forest at Irvon, you're comfortably in play. So three points on the LSAT. Might not sound like much, but it takes you from below the floor at one school to above the median at three out of those four. And at the very top, it gets even tighter. Harvard's bottom quarter is a 172.

6:11Their median is a 174. That's only two points. A pretty small gap. There is almost no room under the mill at all. So a lot of schools, not applicants, they have a GPA well above the schools GPA median. Schools report both numbers. So a student who lifts one can still come in if they're under the other. That's why you have splitters and reverse splitters. It's great if you've got a 395 GPA. But if your GPA is under the school's median also, you need your LSAT score to carry you. And the median's of course are not a hard cutoff. Because after we're all by definition, half of every class is at or below it. And people get in below the bottom quarter every year. But you don't want to hope for that to be you. It's the exception not the rule by definition. If you're above the median, schools will start chasing you. And that's where you can get real scholarship money. Maybe even a fall ride. Maybe even a fall ride with this stipend. Meaning you'd be literally getting paid to go to law school. Pretty cool outcome. And we're talking about six figures here.

7:12It's significant money. Sticker price tuition for three years at top law schools, including cost of attendance could be over $300,000. Obviously that's for the top schools. But there's no reason to take on depth to go to law school. Given that it's pretty mathematical, you don't have to apply separately for scholarships. It's just a function of the strength of your numbers. And your GPA, like I said, might already be pretty fixed at this point. But your LSAT score is still plenty of room to improve on it significantly. No downside to retaking. If you do better, great. If not, no big deal. If you want my help, getting a better LSAT score, getting to better law schools, getting more scholarship money, I'm happy to help you out. I'm offering free LSAT tutoring for everybody watching this now or later. You can book that free LSAT tutoring lesson with me personally. at unpluggedprep.com slash start. The link is below the video on YouTube pinned in the chat on YouTube in my bio on TikTok and IG. I've also put together a free LSAT cheat sheet to help you jump start your LSAT prep. It's a quick reference PDF on everything logical reasoning and reading comprehension. You can grab that free cheat sheet at unpluggedprep.com slash cheat sheet.

8:14In the meantime, all the best. Take care. Thanks for joining.