11 Law Schools With the Highest LSAT Scores

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Law school applicants can use impressive letters of recommendation or stellar grades to boost their chances of admission, but their LSAT scores can often make or break their fate.

It's rare for prospective students to achieve the test's highest score -- 180 -- but applicants at a few schools come close.

At Harvard Law School and Yale Law School, the median LSAT score for full-time students entering in fall 2015 was 173. The two schools had the highest median score among 196 ranked law schools that submitted data to U.S. News in an annual survey.

[See the top 20 law schools.]

Among the 11 schools with the most competitive median LSAT scores, the average score was 170; among all schools, it was 155.

All of the schools ranked in the top 10 of the U.S. News Best Law Schools rankings for 2017 made it on the list of schools with the highest LSAT scores, except for the University of California--Berkeley, which had a median LSAT score of 166.

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The Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University and the Charlotte School of Law in North Carolina had the lowest median LSAT score: 143.

Below is a list of the 11 schools with the highest median LSAT score for full-time students who started in fall 2015. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

Don't see your school in the top 11? Access the U.S. News Law School Compass to find LSAT data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed 205 schools for our 2015 survey of law programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Law Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The LSAT data above are correct as of March 22, 2016.

Delece Smith-Barrow is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering graduate schools. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at dsmithbarrow@usnews.com.