Law School research databases
Once you have your LSAT score and have your current undergraduate GPA (even if it is only through your Junior year, which is ideally ALL you’ll have if you’re applying to Law School early enough if planning to attend right after your senior year) then you can start researching schools to get an accurate sense of where you have a likelihood of being admitted.
There is an ‘official’ database with all of last year’s information accurately up-to-date, and there is also an unofficial - yet equally informative - website to turn to to get an idea of your chances.
The first and best source of information is of course the online version of the “Official Guide to ABA Approved Law Schools“.
When going to the official database, which is a searchable edition of the paperback version, you can search in any number of ways. When researching schools of course, there are a number of different priorities that should be foremost in your mind. The quality of education at that school, bar passage rates, attrition rates, region, cost, student life, internship and clinic opportunities, career planning and placement to name a few. Many of these factors can be searched for via the “ABA Data Detailed Search“. A good way to start your searching using this aspect of the database is to simply select a state as your search input. You’ll get a list of ALL the schools in that state, which is a great way to get started. From there you simply click on the school you’re interested in learning more about and you can look at statistics and number (the Data sheet) or learn more about the school’s education and possibly an admission matrix (in the description form).
However, if you want a quick and easy glance over what your admittance chances are from a scale of 0 - 100 based on your actual UGPA and LSAT score, the “Data Search” is a good first stop. Here you’ll get a scale indicating the range for LSAT and GPA scores of admitted students from last year at that school and show where you would fall within that range. Additionally, a summary calculation out of 100 is also given. Bear in mind that since there are many factors that go into the application process, you shouldn’t base your admission chances just on this scale. However, it will give you a “quick and dirty” look at your chances, which is in itself very accurate given how important your LSAT and GPA numbers are in the admissions process.
In my next post, I’ll mention some unofficial resources that you also without question want to check out as well, which include user-submitted data and their rates of admission at particular law schools.
or by stopping by the Kaplan Center located in the UB Commons in Suite 201. We only have rooms that can accommodate about 35 students for each test so sign ups are limited and on a first come first serve basis.