Chances? cGPA 3.95, 162 LSAT

[cactus]

I'm in my fourth year of my undergrad and applying for the 2022 cycle. My cGPA and L2 is 3.95 on the OLSAS scale, and my B3 GPA is 3.97. I scored a 162 on the August 2021 LSAT. EC experience all throughout undergrad, culminating in three key leadership positions for my fourth year, as well as a couple other volunteer positions for organizations I'm interested in. Ideally, I would want to go to U of T, but I'm unsure if my LSAT score is competitive enough. I'm also highly interested in Osgoode, UBC, and Queen's. Also wondering what kind of scholarships I might be eligible for. Thank you !!

Edited September 15, 2021 by aj1004

[Telephantasm]

I wouldn't stress too much about your LSAT for U of T. I know people with worse who got in. Your grades are awesome and they can likely carry you.

[Rashabon]

28 minutes ago, Telephantasm said:

I wouldn't stress too much about your LSAT for U of T. I know people with worse who got in. Your grades are awesome and they can likely carry you.

I think OP's grades are great and they have a solid chance at U of T, but I wouldn't put it so definitively. 162 is below the median and is beneath the 25th percentile for admissions to U of T's class:

https://www.law.utoronto.ca/jd-admissions-policies#ApplicationofAdmissionPolicy

OP is just beneath the competitive criteria, so with those grades, they may have a shot. Their ECs, however, appear fairly typical and absent something else notable that they did not mention, they are relying on their GPA and LSAT generally. The advantage for them is that U of T shifted their calculation to weight GPA more heavily than LSAT, but if the OP had the time and money, rewriting is not a bad idea. A score of 165+ with those grades is more likely to be a shoo-in.

From the Tumblr (https://tmblr.co/ZQ4Z7q2mm1YTq😞

SHOULD I RE-WRITE THE  LSAT?

That decision is yours entirely to make, not ours.

UofT Law takes a holistic approach to admissions, so no single metric (LSAT score, post-secondary academic record or personal profile) will determine admissibility.

We do not set any metric cutoff, since, by definition, this implies that all candidates who meet a cutoff will be offered admission. Based on the combination of the metrics, we are selecting the strongest candidates from the applicant pool for the limited number of spaces available. Thus, in addition to your performance, where you are relative to other applicants is important.

Additionally, we do not use the LSAT score for administering entering awards and our comprehensive financial aid program. Therefore, those should not be considerations for re-writing the test.

The recent competitive LSAT score ranges are published on our website. As you can see, over the years, the ranges have been fairly stable. Your percentile score, not the raw score, is the better indicator of how well you scored relative to fellow test takers, and consequently, it is the better indicator of whether the test should be re-written.

Please understand what a median is. It is not a minimum. It is not the average. It’s always the mid-point score, from which half the candidates scored higher and half scored lower. Everyone cannot be on the higher half, otherwise the score will no longer be the mid-point. The median is the 50th percentile.

If you are within the listed recent 25th to 75th percentile ranges, then with a solid academic record and personal profile you should have some confidence in your competitiveness for admission. 

In general, for candidates already in a healthy percentile range (85th and higher) who re-write, tend to only score 2-3 points higher on their raw scores, which doesn’t normally represent a significant increase in the performance,  Again, by definition, half of the admits will always score lower than the median, therefore a re-write may not be worth the effort and expense.

If you believe that you are significantly lower than the percentile ranges listed on our website, then re-writing the LSAT may be worth considering.