This article was last updated June 2024.
Today, we at Blueprint LSAT are starting something special: a new series of blog posts. Please, hold your applause, we’re sure you’re just as excited as we are. In this series, we’re going to take a closer look into what different LSAT scores mean for you – the types of law schools (and law school scholarships) you might want to aim for, and how those factors can have an impact on your later job prospects and potential salary range. Take a fortifying sip of whatever you’re drinking (we won’t judge) and let’s jump in.
First up: 165-172. We’re starting at a pretty intense score range, but we know our Most Strongly Supported readers and you’re a pretty intense lot. Within this score range, you’re besting 93-99 percent of your peers – congrats in advance! So, what does that mean in practical terms?
Top-Tier Law School Admission
Let’s start with the good news: Scoring in this range puts you in an excellent position to earn admission to a top-tier law school. In fact, this score range puts you within the median range at some of the top 14 law schools in the country.
The following table represents the school with median LSAT scores in the 165-172 range for admitted full-time student populations at these schools as of Fall 2024. The University of Chicago and Stanford University are in sight for you if you’re near the top of this range, while several other top 20 schools are reachable if you’ve cracked the LSAT 170 score.
However, there’s no need to stress. If you’re below that point, you still have quite a few options. Don’t forget, this list isn’t exclusive or exhaustive—for the most part, if it’s not here, it’s because a good LSAT score is below 165! There are only 3 programs that have median scores above this list: Yale, Columbia, and Harvard.
Schools with Median LSAT Scores Between 165-172
| Law School | Median LSAT Score |
| University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill | 166 |
| Emory University | 166 |
| UC Irvine | 167 |
| ASU | 167 |
| Fordham University | 167 |
| University of Alabama | 167 |
| Boston College | 167 |
| Brigham Young | 168 |
| University of Minnesota | 168 |
| University of Southern California (Gould) | 169 |
| University of Notre Dame | 169 |
| University of Florida | 169 |
| George Washington University | 169 |
| University of Georgia | 169 |
| Duke University | 170 |
| UCLA | 170 |
| Boston University | 170 |
| Vanderbilt U | 170 |
| UC Berkeley | 170 |
| University of Michigan — Ann Arbor | 171 |
| Georgetown University | 171 |
| UT Austin | 171 |
| University of Virginia | 171 |
| New York University | 172 |
| University of Pennsylvania (Carey) | 172 |
| Cornell University | 172 |
| Northwestern University | 172 |
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, U.S. News & World Report.
Higher Salary Potential
But what about that sweet, sweet cash awaiting you at the far end of the law school rainbow? In addition to money, job security is a big issue — how do these scores and schools correlate to immediate employment at graduation? Let’s take a deep dive into some of the schools listed above:
| School | Employed Immediately | Median Private Salary | Median Public Salary |
| Wash U | 88.5% | $205,000 | $65,000 |
| Boston U | 78% | $215,000 | $62,250 |
| UT Austin | 83.4% | $215,000 | $67,696 |
| USC (Gould) | 85.8% | $215,000 | $64,000 |
| University of Notre Dame | 83.8% | $190,000 | $69,000 |
| University of Florida | 77.9% | $122,500 | $56,453 |
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, U.S. News & World Report.
Note that if you’re planning to go into public sector work, higher LSAT scores and more prestigious schools start to make more of a difference in your prospects. There’s some variance, but employment right after graduation and salary (public and private) do trend with LSAT score and school.
Keep in mind that $5,000 in public sector salary may not feel like much if you’re looking at private sector data, but a shift of income from $60,000 to $75,000 does make some difference in quality of life (or, let’s face it, could provide an extra $10,000 to put towards those student loans).
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Scholarship Opportunities
Speaking of student loans: what about your LSAT score and scholarships? This data gets a lot more complex, as most scholarships (both those specific to a program and those not associated with a specific school) rely on several metrics outside of LSAT score. However, we do know that, even with competitive law school admissions, schools have reason to heavily incentivize high-scoring applicants to attend their programs, as it helps with their statistics and, therefore, their rankings.
Additionally, schools that offer full rides often lean heavily on LSAT scores as a deciding factor in awarding those scholarships. With a score in the 165-172 range, you will be a competitive candidate for scholarships at many programs. However, you should expect that the most competitive individuals will have LSAT scores significantly higher than the admissions median for a given program.
So, if you’re in this range of scores, you should be feeling pretty good about yourself and your odds of admission to most programs. Your LSAT score isn’t quite high enough to forgive every type of gap you could have in your application, but it will help out if you’ve got a slightly less-than-shiny GPA weighing you down.
Furthermore, a 165-172 will make you competitive at many top programs if combined with a good GPA, as well as put you in the running for some substantial scholarship dollars. After you graduate, you’ve got better odds at getting a job right out of the gate, and you’ve got some pretty decent salary potential to look forward to!
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