Top Law Schools

This is a method of estimating your class rank based off of various data points. Linked below is an online calculator that should be fairly intuitive to use, and I have also left formulas behind which can be plugged into Excel (in case the calculator goes down).

Estimator mechanics:

This is an estimate based off the assumption that your school's GPA distribution is roughly "normal" ("normal" distributions being a specific, common type of distribution whose characteristics are likely to match your school's grade distribution). The estimator utilizes two data points to figure out what your school's grade distribution looks like, and then uses that estimate of your school's grade distribution to tell you where you rank, based upon your GPA.

The first data point the estimator needs can be any ranked data point except for the median (e.g. 3.5 is top 25%, or 3.1 is bottom 25%). The second data point the estimator needs is the median GPA (if you don't have the median GPA, the mean should be pretty much the same number, assuming your school has a normal distribution).

I should stress that this will yield only an estimate, though I think it should be fairly accurate (unless you're an outlier of sorts, either high or low. It is likely to be less accurate for outliers).



Online Calculator, graciously made by LSATSCORES2012

http://mylsn.info/class_rank.php



Excel code:

Open excel and follow these directions:

Cell A1: enter your GPA
Cell A2: enter the median gpa at your school.
Cell A3: enter the GPA of a certain ranked data point (e.g. 3.7 is ~ top 6.8% at UVA, so someone from UVA would enter 3.7)
Cell A4: enter the rank of that GPA (e.g. enter 6.8 if you're at UVA).
Cell A5: copy and paste this formula:

=(1 - NORMDIST(A1, A2, (A3 - A2)/NORMSINV(1-(A4/100)), TRUE))*100

Press enter. Whatever comes up in A5, you're in the top that percentile. You can save the sheet and use it later, as well.





The majority of the replies below are people I estimated for using the manual workaround, until we figured out a way to just put the calculator online. After that there's a little discussion about the calculator and various requests for estimation.

I'll give it a go.

Mean: 2.91
Top 33%: 3.06

Estimate: 3.35, 3.21, and 3.56

Let's see what you got, you math magicians, you!

Median: 3.3
37.5%: 3.42
12.5%: 3.68

Estimate the following GPAs: 3.49, 3.73, 3.81.

I wish I could partake in this.

PolemisLopez wrote:I'll give it a go.

Mean: 2.91
Top 33%: 3.06

Estimate: 3.35, 3.21, and 3.56

Let's see what you got, you math magicians, you!

Top 9.8%, 18.9%, and 2.8%.

great thanks

traehekat wrote:Median: 3.3
37.5%: 3.42
12.5%: 3.68

Estimate the following GPAs: 3.49, 3.73, 3.81.

Top 30.7 (28.3), 12.7 (9.7), and 8.8 (6.1).

The grade distribution at your school isn't perfectly normally distributed, so the number in parenthesis is the estimation based off the 12.5 percentile. I'd probably trust the 12.5% estimator for the grades near it, while I'd trust the 37.5 estimate for the grades near that.

3.33 median
top 10% 3.71

estimate 3.727

thanks so much for this!

shadow. wrote:3.33 median
top 10% 3.71

estimate 3.727

thanks so much for this!

Top 9%. No problem.

10% 3.612
25% 3.370
33% 3.212
50% 3.064

Where would 3.819 fall? Approx Class size: 240

squ1rtle wrote:10% 3.612
25% 3.370
33% 3.212
50% 3.064

Where would 3.819 fall? Approx Class size: 240

Top 3.9% using the 10% as an estimator. Awesome job, congrats.

Class Size = 250
Median = 3.09
Top 33% = 3.30
Top 25% = 3.37
Top 20% = 3.49
Top 10% = 3.71

Guess:

3.28
3.76
3.45
3.92

Thanks for this public service.

Last year's #s at UC-Tenderloin:
top 15% 3.542
top 20% 3.458
top 25% 3.396
top 30% 3.335
top 35% 3.281
top 40% 3.223
top 45% 3.173
top 50% 3.131
top 75% 2.858

I don't know the mean. If it helps, that year's class had ~470 students. This year's has ~370.

How about 3.704?

FireNextTime wrote:Thanks for this public service.

Last year's #s at UC-Tenderloin:
top 15% 3.542
top 20% 3.458
top 25% 3.396
top 30% 3.335
top 35% 3.281
top 40% 3.223
top 45% 3.173
top 50% 3.131
top 75% 2.858

I don't know the mean. If it helps, that year's class had ~470 students. This year's has ~370.

How about 3.704?

No problem. I'm just going to guess that your mean is the same as the median, which is a fairly sound assumption.

Using the top 15% as the estimator, you are in the top 7.4%. Congrats!

mebeSajid wrote:Class Size = 250
Median = 3.09
Top 33% = 3.30
Top 25% = 3.37
Top 20% = 3.49
Top 10% = 3.71

Guess:

3.28
3.76
3.45
3.92

34.5%
8.3%
22.4%
4.3%

I started making an excel spreadsheet for kicks, but I hit a speed bump at the final step. Is there a way to calculate the p from the z score with a formula in excel? My stats memory is a little fuzzy...

Heres what I have so far
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... n_US#gid=0

NYC Law wrote:I started making an excel spreadsheet for kicks, but I hit a speed bump at the final step. Is there a way to calculate the p from the z score with a formula in excel? My stats memory is a little fuzzy...

Heres what I have so far
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... n_US#gid=0

Very nice. This is actually how I've been doing it, but I wasn't sure on how to put it in an online format. If you use the norminv function you'll be able to do everything else easily.

dailygrind wrote:

NYC Law wrote:I started making an excel spreadsheet for kicks, but I hit a speed bump at the final step. Is there a way to calculate the p from the z score with a formula in excel? My stats memory is a little fuzzy...

Heres what I have so far
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... n_US#gid=0

Very nice. This is actually how I've been doing it, but I wasn't sure on how to put it in an online format. If you use the norminv function you'll be able to do everything else easily.

Thanks, the spreadsheet should be able to tell you your rank now.

edit

NYC Law wrote:

dailygrind wrote:

NYC Law wrote:I started making an excel spreadsheet for kicks, but I hit a speed bump at the final step. Is there a way to calculate the p from the z score with a formula in excel? My stats memory is a little fuzzy...

Heres what I have so far
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... n_US#gid=0

Very nice. This is actually how I've been doing it, but I wasn't sure on how to put it in an online format. If you use the norminv function you'll be able to do everything else easily.

Thanks, the spreadsheet should be able to tell you your rank now.

You sure? I was messing around with random UVA numbers and it kinda died on me. The major problem occurred when I tried to use a top 6.8% cutoff rather than a whole number.

dailygrind wrote:

NYC Law wrote:

dailygrind wrote:

NYC Law wrote:I started making an excel spreadsheet for kicks, but I hit a speed bump at the final step. Is there a way to calculate the p from the z score with a formula in excel? My stats memory is a little fuzzy...

Heres what I have so far
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... n_US#gid=0

Very nice. This is actually how I've been doing it, but I wasn't sure on how to put it in an online format. If you use the norminv function you'll be able to do everything else easily.

Thanks, the spreadsheet should be able to tell you your rank now.

You sure? I was messing around with random UVA numbers and it kinda died on me. The major problem occurred when I tried to use a top 6.8% cutoff rather than a whole number.

I used a mini z table and 6.8 wasn't included. 6.8 has been added, so try it now.

timertimer61 wrote:class size: about 450
median: 3.3
1/3: 3.41
25%: 3.46
10%: 3.61

3.49; 3.59; 3.69.

also would i be able to know what rank # i am?

21.2%
11.5%
5.3%

and yeah. Take the class size and estimate from the percentage.

dailygrind wrote:

timertimer61 wrote:class size: about 450
median: 3.3
1/3: 3.41
25%: 3.46
10%: 3.61

3.49; 3.59; 3.69.

also would i be able to know what rank # i am?

21.2%
11.5%
5.3%

and yeah. Take the class size and estimate from the percentage.

oh yea duh...i suck at math as you can see lol

NYC Law wrote: I used a mini z table and 6.8 wasn't included. 6.8 has been added, so try it now.

Oh, I think I see how you're doing it. Did you use normsinv? I forgot to include the "S" when I posted about it, so I'd understand if you didn't. The formula's straightforward:

=(data point gpa - mean gpa)/normsinv(1-(data point rank/100)

NYC Law wrote:I started making an excel spreadsheet for kicks, but I hit a speed bump at the final step. Is there a way to calculate the p from the z score with a formula in excel? My stats memory is a little fuzzy...

Heres what I have so far
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... n_US#gid=0

haha cool