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Law schools can be sorted by their median LSAT, which each ABA-approved school reports in its Standard 509 report. Medians run from roughly the 140s at the most accessible schools to the high 160s and 170s at the T14 each school's median LSAT (see its 509 report). Your position against a school's median drives your odds.
By Ali Unar, JD candidate at Georgetown Law and founder of Lovare Institut. Last updated August 2026. Figures on this page were verified in August 2026 or point readers to the current source.
Law schools can be ordered by the median LSAT score of their entering class, a figure each ABA-approved school reports every year in its Standard 509 report. Medians run from roughly the 140s at the most accessible schools to the high 160s and 170s at the T14 each school's median LSAT (see its 509 report). The median is the 50th percentile score, meaning half of enrolled students scored at or above it.
The current ranking is best read directly from the source. See the U.S. News Best Law Schools list for the up-to-date order, and each school's ABA Standard 509 report for its median LSAT, GPA, and acceptance rate.
A school's median LSAT is one of the best predictors of your admission odds there, because schools protect their reported medians to hold their ranking. Scoring above a school's median makes you a strong candidate and a scholarship target, while scoring below it means your GPA and the rest of your file must compensate each school's median LSAT (see its 509 report). Medians often matter more than a school's overall acceptance rate.
Use median LSAT data to sort schools into reach, target, and likely tiers relative to your own score. A school where your LSAT sits at or above the 75th percentile is a likely admit; at the median it is a target; below the 25th percentile it is a reach see the linked source (see the linked source). Balance your list across all three tiers.
A good LSAT score is one at or above the median of the schools you are targeting. Because school medians range from the 140s to the 170s, the same score can be strong at one school and a reach at another each school's median LSAT (see its 509 report). Compare your score to each target's median.
The average LSAT score across all test-takers is in the low 150s on the 120 to 180 scale the low-to-mid 150s (LSAC does not publish a single headline average; the median falls near 152 on the percentile tables). Individual school medians spread widely around this figure, so the national average is only a rough benchmark for building a school list.
The LSAT is scored by converting your raw number of correct answers into a 120 to 180 scaled score through a per-form equating curve, with no penalty for wrong answers. Schools report the median of their entering class on this same 120 to 180 scale in their annual ABA Standard 509 reports.
Verified August 2026.
August 21, 2026
August 21, 2026