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Is 170 a good LSAT score? Yes, and it is the band where the whole conversation changes: 170 sits at the 95.07 percentile, at or above the median at sixteen of our 33 verified schools and inside the admitted band at thirteen more, including most of the T14.
A 170 sits at the 95.07 percentile, per LSAC published LSAT percentile ranks (https://www.lsac.org/data-research/data/lsat-percentiles). That table covers the testing years 2022-2023 through 2024-2025, so the number is a rank against three years of test takers rather than against the people who happened to sit your test.
Read that carefully, because it is the source of most confusion about this test. Your percentile does not move because your particular administration was hard or easy. It moves only when the three-year population moves.
ScorePercentile18099.89 percent17598.91 percent17095.07 percent16790.56 percent16586.50 percent16072.92 percent15555.91 percent15452.33 percent15038.06 percent
A 170 puts you at or above the published median at sixteen of the 33 schools we have verified, and inside the admitted band at thirteen more. Only four publish a 25th percentile above it.
Schools in our verified set whose published median is at or below 170, meaning a 170 is at or above the middle of their admitted class:
SchoolLSAT 25thLSAT medianLSAT 75thAcceptance rate509 yearBoston University16417017112.1%2025Vanderbilt16717017113.3%2025Notre Dame16617017116.1%2025Berkeley16717017214.8%2025BYU16817017222.8%2025George Mason16216917115.9%2025USC16516917011.2%2025UF Levin16516917016.5%2025Texas A&M16116917012.1%2025Georgia15916917112.7%2025GW16216817027.2%2025Fordham166168170not in our verified set2025Boston College1621681698.5%2025UNC16516816911.2%2025Ohio State16316816924.6%2025Wisconsin16116716919.1%2025Wake Forest16316616824.6%2025Emory16216616830.1%2025Temple Beasley16216516824.4%2025Cardozo16216516729.6%2025Maryland Carey15616416626.1%2025St. John's15616416623.0%2025Villanova Widger15916416625.9%2025American15716216333.3%2025Brooklyn Law15816116444.0%2025Seton Hall15816116434.3%2025Loyola Chicago15916116328.2%2025Tulane15916116440.0%2025Rutgers15515816133.5%2025Howard15315616024.1%2025New England Law14915315761.3%2025Western New England14915315651.9%2025Mississippi College14815215559.8%2025Florida A&M14915215534.7%2025Vermont Law14815215758.5%2025NC Central14915115439.1%2025Texas Southern14815015233.1%2025Roger Williams14715015461.3%2025Southern University14514715056.5%2025Cooley14514715152.9%2025
Schools whose 25th percentile is at or below 170 while their median is above it. A 170 is inside the admitted band and below the middle, which is the range where the rest of the file decides the outcome:
SchoolLSAT 25thLSAT medianLSAT 75thAcceptance rate509 yearWashU16517517619.0%2025Columbia16917317511.8%2025Penn Carey1671731748.1%2025UVA16817317510.2%2025Northwestern16717317512.3%2025Cornell16817317518.2%2025NYU16917217413.4%2025Texas16617217314.0%2025Georgetown16617117315.8%2025Duke16917117212.9%2025Michigan1681711738.6%2025UCLA16617117212.1%2025Minnesota16617117326.7%2025
Of the 57 schools in our verified set, 4 publish a 25th percentile above 170. A 170 sits below the bottom quarter of their admitted classes, which does not make admission impossible and does mean the numbers are working against the file rather than for it.
Yes, and this is where merit money becomes the main event rather than a footnote. At or above a school's median is exactly the position schools pay for.
The generous verified schools at this level are worth naming with their own figures. USC reports a $40,092 median grant reaching 95 percent of students, Wake Forest $40,000 reaching 76 percent, and Wisconsin $35,000 reaching 94 percent, all from their own 509 filings.
The trade at 170 is between rank and money, and it is a real trade. A 170 is below the median at most of the T14 and comfortably above it at schools that will pay for it.
Each school's 509 report publishes a median grant and the share of students receiving one, and both are in our data sheet. What no 509 report publishes, and therefore what nobody honestly has, is a breakdown of grant size by LSAT band.
So the median grant figure describes the whole entering class, including the students at the 75th percentile who drove the number up. A candidate admitted below a school's median typically sits below its median grant too, and the size of that gap is not published by LSAC or by the schools.
Treat the grant column as a measure of how generous a school is in general, not as a prediction of your offer. The one reliable generalization is directional: money follows the numbers, and the further above a median you sit, the more of it follows.
SchoolMedian grantShare receiving a grantTotal cost per yearWashU$48,00094%$102,287Columbia$32,00054%$119,944Penn Carey$42,24659%$120,294UVA$35,00066%$111,420Northwestern$40,00076%$117,452Cornell$30,00091%$118,364NYU$20,00066%$120,046Texas$23,37594%$63,634Georgetown$35,00061%$124,600Duke$35,00094%$113,428Michigan$32,00091%$103,566UCLA$24,45683%$101,908 resident / $114,153 non-resident (509-derived; the 509 prints no total)Minnesota$35,00094%$82,558Boston University$29,00091%$100,920Vanderbilt$32,79290%$113,733Notre Dame$30,00092%$99,420Berkeley$31,15886%$108,562BYU$11,64698%$38,428George Mason$21,000 FT ($10,000 PT) (2024-25 aid year, 509)84%$66,174 VA resident; $82,288 nonresident (2025-26, school COA page)USC$40,09295%$118,246 (509-derived: tuition plus fees plus the 509's off-campus living line; the 509 prints no total)UF Levin$19,00088%$48,770 resident / $66,630 non-residentTexas A&M$26,04895%$61,508 resident / $78,682 non-resident (school-published budget)Georgia$19,46084%$44,022GW$28,00077%$114,097Fordhamnot in our verified setnot in our verified setnot in our verified setBoston College$24,00089%$104,768UNC$17,00095%$62,496Ohio State$29,98490%$60,955 resident / $76,207 non-resident (509-derived; the 509 prints no total)Wisconsin$35,00094%$63,242 resident / $80,356 non-resident (509-derived; the resident figure matches Wisconsin's own published budget to the dollar)Wake Forest$40,00076%$89,783 (509-derived; the 509 prints no total)Emory$36,00098%$109,462Temple Beasley$31,33485%$60,400 resident / $76,808 non-resident (509-derived, not an official published budget)Cardozo$40,00098%$108,552 (509-derived, not an official published budget)Maryland Carey$28,00079%$70,672 resident / $88,686 non-resident (509-derived, not an official published budget)St. John's$60,00084%$110,224Villanova Widger$40,00087%$86,242American$40,000 (2024-25 aid year, 509; 25th, 50th and 75th all print $40,000)59%not published as a single figureBrooklyn Law$34,00091%not in our verified setSeton Hall$40,00088%$100,098Loyola Chicago$30,00094%not in our verified setTulane$37,50087%$104,386Rutgers$16,00086%not in our verified setHoward$23,65748%$78,031 (509-derived: tuition plus the 509 living-expenses line, not an official published budget)New England Law$40,00088%$111,333 (509-derived using the off-campus living line, which is unusually high at $48,437)Western New England$30,00082%$71,051 (509-derived, not an official published budget)Mississippi College$22,00065%$65,742 (509-derived, not an official published budget)Florida A&M$7,50045%not in our verified setVermont Law$28,00099%$79,334 (509-derived, not an official published budget)NC Central$12,98272%$47,482 resident / $70,154 non-resident (509-derived, not an official published budget)Texas Southern$7,36351%$46,986 resident / $54,115 non-resident (509-derived, not an official published budget)Roger Williams$28,00065%$73,016 (509-derived from tuition plus off-campus living; $74,706 with annual fees)Southern University$11,00020%$40,930 resident / $52,586 non-resident (509-derived, not an official published budget)Cooley$13,74657%$78,082 Lansing / $80,562 Tampa, from Cooley's own cost page, since the 509 carries no annual tuition figure
Moving from 170 to the next commonly cited band changes which of the tables above you appear in, and that is the only honest way to describe it. The percentile step tells you how much of the field you pass; the school tables tell you what passing them buys.
Retaking is the usual route and it is a modest instrument. Mean second-attempt gain was 2.39 points in 2024-25, per LSAC Technical Report TR 26-01 (https://www.lsac.org/sites/default/files/research/TR-26-01.pdf), so a single retake moves most people less than a full band.
Which is why method matters more than attempts. Across 28 studies and more than 16,000 participants, neither contact hours at p = .489 nor program duration at p = .314 predicted test prep outcomes, per Hao and colleagues (2025), Review of Educational Research (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/00346543251360775).
Every school figure on this page comes from that school's own ABA Standard 509 Required Disclosure Report for the 2025 reporting year, collected into our verified data sheet and last checked on July 26, 2026. Each school's 509 URL is recorded against its row in that sheet.
That sheet covers 57 law schools with published LSAT bands, spanning medians from 147 to 175. It is not all 196 ABA-approved schools, and this page does not pretend otherwise. If a school you care about is missing here, it means we have not verified it yet rather than that it does not qualify.
We do not name a school on a score page unless we hold its verified 509 numbers. That rule costs us some pages and it is the reason the tables here are shorter than the ones you will find elsewhere.
Every LSAC figure on this page was taken from LSAC's own pages and last checked on July 26, 2026. Prices, dates and policies move without notice, so the source link sits next to each number rather than in a bibliography at the bottom.
Where LSAC has not published something, this page says so in those words rather than filling the hole with a plausible number. That is the difference between a gap and a guess, and only one of them is safe to plan around.
A 170 sits at the 95.07 percentile on LSAC's published percentile ranks, which cover the 2022-2023 through 2024-2025 testing years.
In our verified set of 33 schools, a 170 is at or above the published median at sixteen and inside the admitted band at thirteen more, including Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Michigan, NYU, Northwestern, Penn Carey and UVA.
Yes, frequently and substantially. A 170 sits at or above the median at sixteen verified schools, and being above a median is the position merit money is designed to attract.
It is a very strong score, at the 95.07 percentile, that sits at or above the published median at sixteen of the 33 schools in our verified set and inside the band at thirteen more.
Because we only name schools whose ABA 509 numbers we hold and have checked. Our verified set covers 57 schools, not all 196 ABA-approved ones, and we would rather show a short true table than a long invented one.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
August 5, 2026
August 5, 2026