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The best law schools for reverse splitters, ranked by the gap between each school's LSAT median and its LSAT 25th percentile. WashU leads at 10 points, meaning a quarter of its class enrolled at 165 or below against a 175 median. That spread is where a high GPA can carry a lower score.
A wide LSAT gap means the school regularly enrolls students well below its own LSAT midpoint, which is the only structural evidence that a lower score can survive there.
#SchoolLSAT 25thLSAT medianGapGPA medianAcceptance1Georgia159169103.9212.7%2WashU165175103.9619.0%3Texas A&M16116984.0012.1%4Penn16717363.958.1%5Boston College16216863.838.5%6BU16417063.8812.1%7Northwestern16717363.9612.3%8Texas16617263.8914.0%9Wisconsin16116763.8119.1%10GW16216863.8627.2%11UVA16817353.9910.2%12UCLA16617153.9512.1%13Georgetown16617153.9315.8%14Cornell16817353.9218.2%15Ohio State16316853.9124.6%16Minnesota16617153.8826.7%17USC16516943.9111.2%18Columbia16917343.9211.8%19Notre Dame16617043.8916.1%20Yale17117433.964.1%21Michigan16817133.888.6%22Harvard17117433.969.2%23UChicago17117433.979.7%24UNC16516833.8911.2%25Vanderbilt16717033.9113.3%26NYU16917233.9213.4%27Berkeley16717033.9214.8%28Wake Forest16316633.7924.6%29Stanford17117323.966.1%30Duke16917123.9112.9%31BYU16817023.9522.8%
Sources: each school's 2025 ABA 509 report and class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary, verified July 26, 2026. The gap column is our arithmetic from the two disclosed percentiles.
WashU at 10 points, Georgia at 10 and Texas A&M at 8 run the widest LSAT spreads in this set. Texas at 6 and Berkeley at 3 sit at opposite ends of the same tier.
Read those numbers against the GPA column and the picture sharpens. Georgia posts a 3.92 GPA median with a 159 LSAT 25th percentile, which is a school buying academic records and tolerating scores.
The narrow end is where reverse splitters should not spend applications. Duke at 2 points, Vanderbilt at 3 and Yale at 3 barely move off their LSAT medians, and a file five points under is not close.
Less often than a splitter can, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of taste. The LSAT is one scale administered identically to everyone with a published percentile conversion; a GPA is produced by an institution with its own grading culture, major mix and inflation history.
That makes the LSAT the cleaner signal and the GPA the more contextualizable one. A committee can read a 3.95 from a grade-inflated program and discount it; a 162 reads as a 162 everywhere.
So the honest answer is that reverse splitters get in at schools with wide LSAT spreads, and mostly do not at schools with narrow ones. The fix is almost always the retake rather than the addendum.
Reverse splitters have the single strongest retake case in admissions, because their movable number is the one that is capping the file.
Percentile math shows why. A 161 sits near the 75th percentile and a 165 near the 86.5th, so four points moves you eleven and a half percentile points and crosses the 25th percentile line at several schools in the table above.
The base rate to plan around: the mean second-attempt gain was 2.39 points in 2024-25 and 49.1 percent of test takers now test more than once (LSAC TR 26-01, https://www.lsac.org/sites/default/files/research/TR-26-01.pdf). Plan for two to three points, and if you need six, plan for two administrations.
Do not spend the cycle applying to narrow-spread schools and hoping. A 3.95 with a 162 sent to Duke and Vanderbilt is twelve applications purchased at long odds.
Build the list from the gap column instead, weight it toward the top eight rows, and add reaches only where you would attend at the price offered. Then decide about the retake on evidence: if your practice-test average sits meaningfully above your official score, the gap is executional and usually recoverable, which our plateau guide covers.
One more thing worth naming: your GPA is genuinely valuable and schools with wide LSAT spreads want it. You are not a weak applicant, you are a specific kind of applicant with a specific kind of list.
WashU leads at 10 points, with a 165 twenty-fifth percentile under a 175 median. That is the largest LSAT tolerance in this set by a clear margin, and it pairs with a $48,000 median grant to 94 percent of students.
Georgia is also 10 points, at 159 under 169, and it posts a 3.92 GPA median. A school with that combination is explicitly buying academic records and tolerating test scores, which is the reverse splitter's ideal counterparty.
Texas A&M at 8 points, from 161 to 169, is the third, and its 4.00 GPA median tells the same story. Berkeley at 3 and Duke at 2 anchor the narrow end and should be treated as reaches by anyone materially below the median.
One caution on the wide-spread schools: a low LSAT twenty-fifth percentile often reflects a small number of admits with unusual files rather than a broad willingness. Treat the spread as evidence the door exists, not that it is wide open.
Two tests decide it. First, is your practice-test average meaningfully above your official score? If yes, the gap is executional rather than knowledge-based and a retake usually captures it.
Second, where does the gain land on the percentile curve? Moving from 161 to 165 crosses roughly from the 75th to the 86.5th percentile, which changes which schools are live; moving from 172 to 176 changes almost nothing about your list.
Calibrate to the base rate rather than to outlier stories: the mean second-attempt gain was 2.39 points in 2024-25, and third attempts still averaged 2.03. If you need six points, plan two administrations rather than hoping for one large jump.
And set a decision date in advance for each score release. The most expensive thing a reverse splitter can do is spend six weeks deciding whether to retake while the cycle fills.
Every number in the table comes from a primary disclosure: each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for admissions, cost and aid, and its class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary for outcomes. Both are filed annually and both are free to read.
We did not use rankings, surveys or reputation. Where a figure required arithmetic, such as a percentage or a net cost, we state that it is our arithmetic and give the inputs so you can check it.
Where we could not verify something, the table says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate. That is why some rows read not published or not verified instead of carrying a number that would look more complete and mean less.
It cannot tell you your outcome. Every figure here describes a class of several hundred people, and your position inside that distribution is set by first-year grades that have not happened yet.
It cannot price your offer, because aid depends on where your numbers sit against each school's medians rather than on the median award. Half of every school's grant recipients got less than the figure shown.
And it cannot capture fit, culture, or whether you will do your best work in that building for three years. Those are discoverable only by visiting and asking current students specific questions, which is worth more than any table on this site.
Spending the cycle on narrow-spread schools. A 3.95 with a 162 sent to Duke and Vanderbilt is applications purchased at long odds, and the money would have been better spent on a retake.
Assuming the GPA speaks for itself. It does, and what it says is that you can do coursework, which is not the same as what the LSAT says. Both numbers answer different questions and schools want both answered.
Treating a retake as an admission of failure. Almost half of test takers now sit the exam more than once, and schools see the pattern constantly. The only cost of a second attempt is time.
Ranked by LSAT spread, WashU at 10 points, Georgia at 10 and Texas A&M at 8 run the widest gaps between LSAT median and LSAT 25th percentile, which is where a lower score has the most room.
At schools with wide LSAT spreads, yes. At narrow-spread schools such as Duke at 2 points, Vanderbilt at 3 and Yale at 3, a file five points under the median is not competitive.
The LSAT is a single national scale with a published percentile conversion, while a GPA reflects one institution's grading culture. The LSAT is therefore the cleaner signal and the harder one to argue around.
Usually yes. It is the only movable number and it is the one capping the file. Mean second-attempt gains ran 2.39 points in 2024-25, so plan for two to three points per attempt.
Yes, at schools that need GPA medians. Schools with wide LSAT spreads and high GPA medians, such as Georgia and WashU, are the ones most likely to pay for a strong transcript.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
July 30, 2026
July 30, 2026