Which Law Schools Have the Most Competitive LSAT Scores?

Summary: The schools with the most competitive scores are in the top 12 schools ranked by U.S. News and World Report.

US News has revealed its U.S. News Short List, which is separate from its overall rankings of schools and universities. The list magnifies individual data points to provide students and parents a way to find out which school may be right for them.

Although law school applicants send in a significant amount of information, one of the primary focuses of the application packet is the student’s LSAT score. Recently, many schools have loosened their LSAT score requirements in light of a decline in applications. According to TippingtheScales.com, even just a decent LSAT score may be more attractive to admissions offices now. Some schools are even taking applications from students who have not taken the test. However, for most of the law schools in the country, the test is still required.

Many feel the release of the U.S. News rankings are not the biggest threat to law schools.

If you want to attend Harvard or Yale, you better start studying—students who attend these schools have closer to perfect LSAT scores. The median score at these schools for the fall of 2014 was 173. A 180 is the highest score possible on the test.

Read about the relaxed LSAT requirements here.

Many schools who had top scores in 2013 also were at the top of the list in 2014. For example, Columbia University and Stanford University reported median LSAT scores of 172 for the entering class of 2014.

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Yale is the top law school in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report.

The Law Center at Georgetown University made the 2013 list, but not the 2014 list, as its LSAT scores dropped from 168 to 167.

Schools with the lowest median LSAT scores were the Charlotte School of Law and Ave Maria School of Law, both of which report a median LSAT score of 143.

All of the schools in the new list are in the top 12 schools according to U.S. News.

The schools with the most competitive median LSAT scores are:

Harvard University

LSAT Score: 173

U.S. News rank: 2

Yale University

LSAT Score: 173

U.S. News Rank: 1

Columbia University

LSAT Score: 172

U.S. News Rank: 4 (tie)

Stanford University