How rare is a 165 LSAT?

Asked by: Calista Schulist  |  Last update: November 12, 2025
Score: 4.5/5 (12 votes)

What Percent of Law School Applicants have an LSAT score of 165 or higher? Roughly 20% of applicants have a 165 or higher. So a 165 is about an 80th percentile score amongst applicants.

How hard is it to get a 165 LSAT?

A 165 is about a 90th percentile score, so, trivially speaking, you have about a 1 in 10 chance of getting such a score. However, that pool of test takers includes a number of people who don't bother to study for the exam or who don't put in much effort.

Can I get into Harvard law with a 165 LSAT?

So let's take a look at what it actually takes to have a chance of being admitted to the most prestigious and preeminent law school in the world. As you can see from these numbers, an LSAT score of 170 or higher and a GPA above 3.75 will give you a chance of gaining admission to Harvard Law School.

Will a 165 LSAT get me into law school?

Can I get admitted to law school with a 165 on the LSAT? Absolutely, yes. And you can get into good law schools too. If your LSAT score is above a school's median LSAT, that school is more likely to admit you.

What LSAT score did Elle Woods get?

When she applied to this school, she had a 4.0 GPA with a 179 on the LSAT, the two most important things when applying to law school. The average LSAT score for students applying to Harvard is 174, meaning she got above the average.

How to get a 165+ on the LSAT

42 related questions found

What is a bad LSAT score?

While you may be able to apply and even be accepted into a law school with a lower LSAT score, there is a cut-off for acceptable application scores. If you are consistently scoring lower than 145, you may need to consider significant studying and a retake before applying to law schools.

Can you get into UCLA with a 165 LSAT?

UCLA Law School Median LSAT Score: 170

There is no “required” LSAT score to gain admission at UCLA Law, but higher scores can boost your application. Consider the LSAT score percentiles of incoming J.D. students: 25th percentile LSAT: 165.

What is the hardest law school to get into?

According to Lawschooli, the ten hardest law schools with the lowest acceptance rates are:
  • Yale University: 6.9%
  • Stanford University: 9.72%
  • University of Pennsylvania: 14.6%
  • University of Virginia: 15.3%
  • Harvard University: 15.6%
  • Columbia University: 16.8%
  • University of Chicago: 17.5%
  • Duke University: 20.2%

Is 167 a bad LSAT score?

On a typical LSAT, you can still get around 18–19 questions wrong and still end up in the 160s—or around 10–12 wrong and get a 167, which is a 90th percentile score. Even a perfect score of 180 often allows you to miss a question or two.

Is 164 a bad LSAT score?

Generally speaking, a score of 160 and above is necessary to guarantee admission into top-100 schools like Tulane, UC Hastings, or Case Western Reserve. For top-50 law schools such as Fordham, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, or George Washington, 165 is a good number to reach for.

Does the LSAT get curved?

Answer: "It's not actually curved. It's equated." If you're especially savvy, you won't be satisfied with that. You'll look at my LSAT PrepTest Raw Score Conversion Charts and calculations of what it takes to get an LSAT score of 160 or 170.

Is 163 a bad LSAT score?

A 163 on the LSAT is a solid score - it places you in approximately the 86th percentile of LSAT takers.

How common is a 170 on the LSAT?

The LSAT is scored on a bell curve, ranging from 120 to 180. On recent tests, the hump of the curve has centered around 153. Percentiles vary slightly between tests, but generally around 25% of test-takers score 160 or higher, 5% score 170 or higher, and 1% score 175 or higher. Only one in 1,000 test-takers scores 180.

Is 165 a low LSAT score?

Typical LSAT score ranges include: 120-147 Low. 148-156 Mid. 157-164 High.

Is 166 a good LSAT score?

From your raw scores, the test is graded on an LSAT score scale from 120-180. The average LSAT score is about 150. To get into a top 14 law school, you need to score above 166, and to get into a top 50 law school, you need 153 or above.

What is a respectable LSAT score?

What do 150, 160 and 170 scores mean? According to U.S. News, law school admissions experts recommend striving for at least a 150; however, for a top-ranking law school, you should aim for a 160 or better. For a Top 10 law school, a 170 or more is desired.

Should I cancel my 148 LSAT score?

Remember, just because you feel you did poorly on the test does not necessarily mean you did. Some people may come out of the test feeling nervous or unhappy with how they did but end up scoring very well. You should only seriously consider canceling an LSAT score if you feel like you completely flunked the exam.

Will a 180 LSAT get you in anywhere?

Here is a breakdown of what counts as a good enough score for law schools based on the school's rank: Top-five law schools: 170 to 180. Schools like Harvard and Yale, which are the top two, rarely accept applicants with less than 172 on the LSAT. Law schools ranked between 5 and 10: 165 to 170.

What was Obama's LSAT score?

The easiest to predict, by far, is Barack Obama's score, mostly because we have some data. Based on admissions records, we can deduce — somewhat reliably — that Barry-O scored between the 94th and 98th percentile on his LSAT. Using today's grading system, that would place him somewhere around a 170.

Is legally blonde realistic?

OVERALL (fairly accurate!)

After going through it myself - overall impression of Legally Blonde? Not too shabby! I'd say the class/school scenes are pretty accurate, as well as Elle's transition from totally uncomfortable to realizing that she deserves to be at Harvard Law.

How rare is a 160 on the LSAT?

A student scoring a 180 is in the 99.9 percentile because the student scored better than 99.9% of test-takers. A student scoring a 160 is in the 74.8 percentile because the student scored better than 74.8% of test-takers. You can hover over the blue outline to see a tooltip for all each LSAT/percentile combinations.