Over 3 years ago, I was fortunate enough to get into Harvard Law. While I’ll never know exactly what part of my application pushed me over the edge, my conversations with admissions officers (both at Harvard and other schools) and other admitted students since then have revealed just how much my LSAT score likely helped. Here, I’ll break down everything I learned about how Harvard Law and other AdComs look at your LSAT score.
Medians:
When talking about how your LSAT score plays into your admission chances, our most important guide is a law school’s LSAT median. The median represents the “middle” LSAT score of a school’s first-year class.
Let’s say the Apollo School of Law had 3 incoming students with LSAT scores of 153, 155, and 156. If we put those scores in order from lowest to higher, the “middle”, or median, score would be 155. Now, if Apollo admitted 2 more students with a 151 and a 152, their incoming class now looks like this:
151, 152, 153, 155, 156
The median (middle score) is now 153. By admitting those 2 new students, Apollo Law has lowered its median score by 2 points. This is very bad news for Apollo Law, mainly because it may decrease their ranking, which they care about A LOT. For this reason, Apollo Law strongly prefers to accept students with LSAT scores at or above their median. (learn all about why law schools care so much about medians here).
Note that it doesn’t actually matter how far below median the accepted students are - even if both scored 130, the middle (median) number would still be 153:
130, 130, 153, 155, 156
As you can see, schools have a very strong reason to care if you’re above or below median, and a weaker one to care how far above or below median you are.
Therefore, the simplest answer to the question posed in the title of this post is found by looking at Harvard Law’s median LSAT score. As of the most recent application cycle, Harvard Law’s median LSAT score is 174. Assuming the rest of your application is perfectly “average” for Harvard Law, if your LSAT score is below 174, your chances of getting in are below average. If it’s above 174, your chances are above average. This process obviously doesn’t just apply to Harvard Law - you can find out any ABA-accredited law school’s medians with a quick Google search.
25th and 75th percentiles
In addition to their medians, every law school also publishes their 25th and 75th percentile LSAT scores. If a school’s 25th percentile LSAT score is 158, for example, that means that 25% of their incoming class has a score at or below 158. If their 75th percentile score is 164, that means 75% of their incoming class has a score at or below 164. As of this year, Harvard’s 25th percentile LSAT score is 170, and their 75% percentile LSAT score is 176.
If your score is above the 75th percentile, your application will be very competitive (assuming the rest of your application is strong). If it’s below the 25th, you’re in the bottom quarter of matriculating students, which means the rest of your application will need to be much stronger to make up for it.
What’s the minimum LSAT score you need to get into Harvard Law?
We’ve already established that if your score is below 174, you’ll have a harder than average time getting in, and if it’s below 170, you’re facing an especially uphill battle. Once your score is below 170, though, things get muddier.
Just like medians, 25th percentiles aren’t affected by outliers - meaning that accepting a 140 will pull down Harvard’s 25th percentile LSAT score just as much as accepting a 169. This means that when considering its group of sub-170 applicants, Harvard Law is using LSAT scores less as a tool for moving up in the rankings and more as predictors of law school success. Because of this, things get far more unpredictable in this pool. I know students in my class with scores in the mid-160s who got in on the strength of their GPAs and/or incredible personal stories.
So, the short answer to the above question is that there is no “hard” minimum. The lowest scores I’ve heard of getting into Harvard Law tend to be around the mid-160s, but there’s no reason they can’t dip below that for a truly once-in-a-lifetime candidate.
How does GPA play into this?/ What GPA do you need to get into Harvard Law?
Stories of students with “lower” (by HLS standards) LSAT scores getting into Harvard Law are real, inspiring, and surprisingly common. After all, 25% of Harvard’s incoming class has a score at or below 170, by definition. However, keep in mind that these students got in despite their LSAT scores, not because of them. Barring those students with incredible personal stories or accomplishments, the one thing that the vast majority of sub-170 scorers admitted to Harvard Law have in common is exceptional GPAs.
Here’s the golden rule of law school admissions:
If both your LSAT and your GPA are above the medians at a certain school, you have a great shot at getting in. If only one of them is above the median and the other is below, it’s a toss-up. If both your LSAT and your GPA are below the median, your chances of getting in are slim.
Bringing it back to Harvard: if your undergrad GPA is above 3.92 (median GPA at Harvard Law), you have some leeway on your LSAT, meaning you can fall in the 25th percentile to median range (170-174) and still have a strong chance at getting in.
If your GPA is below 3.92, your LSAT should ideally be above median to keep you competitive - 174+.
Ultimately, while law school admissions are very numbers-driven, remember that admissions committees aren’t vending machines - you can’t put in a certain combination of numbers and get a guaranteed outcome. The best you can do is get the highest LSAT score (and GPA) possible, then craft a compelling application around it that showcases your unique personality and strengths to the admission committee.
Want help finding your own path to Harvard Law? We can help!
