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Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 4:24 pm
by thesealocust
OK, if you're going to do fancy, we can make this better. It's been way too long since I've done programming or web development, but if I lay out the algebra, could you program the tool to accept any two data points (i.e. "top 10% = 3.___ and top 15% = 3.____") instead of requiring one data point and the mean? Over the years I've cranked a lot of requests that didn't have the mean.

In order to do it we'd need a function that returned the Z-score for a given percentile, but I believe that has to already be baked in somewhere even if you are given the median?

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 7:41 pm
by LSATSCORES2012
thesealocust wrote:OK, if you're going to do fancy, we can make this better. It's been way too long since I've done programming or web development, but if I lay out the algebra, could you program the tool to accept any two data points (i.e. "top 10% = 3.___ and top 15% = 3.____") instead of requiring one data point and the mean? Over the years I've cranked a lot of requests that didn't have the mean.

In order to do it we'd need a function that returned the Z-score for a given percentile, but I believe that has to already be baked in somewhere even if you are given the median?
if you give me the equations I should be able to make it work... I don't really understand what's going on with the statistics, I just looked up the equations for the excel functions and put them into code, and it returns the same output as the spreadsheet. unfortunately that level of knowledge doesn't allow me to do much but take what you give me and put it into code.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 10:23 pm
by Geaux12
This may sound stupid, but how the hell am I supposed to enter a "known" GPA and percentile if nobody has their grades back?

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 10:51 pm
by atcushman
Geaux12 wrote:This may sound stupid, but how the hell am I supposed to enter a "known" GPA and percentile if nobody has their grades back?
you can try and find last years rankings they should be close

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:12 pm
by dailygrind
thesealocust wrote:OK, if you're going to do fancy, we can make this better. It's been way too long since I've done programming or web development, but if I lay out the algebra, could you program the tool to accept any two data points (i.e. "top 10% = 3.___ and top 15% = 3.____") instead of requiring one data point and the mean? Over the years I've cranked a lot of requests that didn't have the mean.

In order to do it we'd need a function that returned the Z-score for a given percentile, but I believe that has to already be baked in somewhere even if you are given the median?
Yeah. The formula for Z score for a given percentile is:

=NORMSINV(1-(A1/100))

where A1 = top whatever percentile, e.g. a 3.7 at UVA would enter 6.8.


The other formula I'm using to drive the estimator is called "NORM.DIST" and it requires the mean for estimation. There might be an Excel formula to calculate the mean given a ranked data point or two, but I need a bit of time to think on it.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 5:08 pm
by thesealocust
Aww yis. I'm busy now but will algebra this to pieces the next time I have a moment.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 6:36 pm
by maudio129
...

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:47 pm
by LSATSCORES2012
maudio129 wrote:Hey everybody, I was wondering if someone could help me estimate my GPA.

The quartiles are:

25%: 3.619
33%: 3.524
50%: 3.309
75%: 2.953

My GPA is 3.786

Thank you in advance
About top 15%. Nice work with the GPA! :)

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:35 pm
by 3|ink
Anyone have any recent GULC data points?

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 11:03 am
by Viper12
No data points....Curve is 3.0 and my GPA is 3.2....Any idea how to calculate/get a rough estimate?

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:51 pm
by Emma.
Trying to figure out my graduation ranking.

179 = top 22.8%
180.5 = top 7.9%

My GPA = 181.25

Thanks for the help.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 2:33 pm
by LSATSCORES2012
Emma. wrote:Trying to figure out my graduation ranking.

179 = top 22.8%
180.5 = top 7.9%

My GPA = 181.25

Thanks for the help.
So, this is totally winging it, but I plugged in 179/22.8% and then kept inputting means to find the percentile for a GPA of 180.5 until it came out to about 8%. This happened with a mean GPA of 177.3, so I'm assuming that's somewhere around Chicago's mean.

If you plug in your GPA with the 177.3 as the mean, that puts you at about top 4%.

ETA: I also added this estimating ability to the calculator on my website... no guarantees of accuracy, though. The only school I know of with a unique GPA range is UChicago, so I added a checkbox that you need to click if you're estimating a UChicago GPA. (If you go to a school that has a weird GPA besides UChicago and you need to use that feature because you don't know the median GPA, let me know and I'll add you in.)

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:10 pm
by ColtsFan88
3|ink wrote:Anyone have any recent GULC data points?
I can give you top 33, 15, 10%

But they don't release the mean, for whatever stupid reason.

If anyone can figure this out without the mean, I would be appreciative:

Top 33: 3.43
Top 15: 3.62
Top 10: 3.70
My GPA: 3.39

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:26 pm
by LSATSCORES2012
ColtsFan88 wrote:
3|ink wrote:Anyone have any recent GULC data points?
I can give you top 33, 15, 10%

But they don't release the mean, for whatever stupid reason.

If anyone can figure this out without the mean, I would be appreciative:

Top 33: 3.43
Top 15: 3.62
Top 10: 3.70
My GPA: 3.39
About top 37%.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2013 5:17 pm
by Emma.
LSATSCORES2012 wrote:
Emma. wrote:Trying to figure out my graduation ranking.

179 = top 22.8%
180.5 = top 7.9%

My GPA = 181.25

Thanks for the help.
So, this is totally winging it, but I plugged in 179/22.8% and then kept inputting means to find the percentile for a GPA of 180.5 until it came out to about 8%. This happened with a mean GPA of 177.3, so I'm assuming that's somewhere around Chicago's mean.

If you plug in your GPA with the 177.3 as the mean, that puts you at about top 4%.

ETA: I also added this estimating ability to the calculator on my website... no guarantees of accuracy, though. The only school I know of with a unique GPA range is UChicago, so I added a checkbox that you need to click if you're estimating a UChicago GPA. (If you go to a school that has a weird GPA besides UChicago and you need to use that feature because you don't know the median GPA, let me know and I'll add you in.)
Sounds about right to me. Thanks for your help!!

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 3:47 pm
by WheninLaw
Class rank indicator doesn't seem to be working. Says page temporarily moved but doesn't redirect anywhere.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:11 pm
by LSATSCORES2012
WheninLaw wrote:Class rank indicator doesn't seem to be working. Says page temporarily moved but doesn't redirect anywhere.
Is it still not working? I was switching servers right around the time of your post and that may have contributed to it. If it's not working I would recommend clearing your cache/trying a different browser. (Sorry for the trouble! The old server was being pesky and I wanted to investigate without risking the stability of my sites...)

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 3:05 am
by superpippo
Would love some help trying to figure out this model.

top 15% 3.590
top 20% 3.548
top 25% 3.483
top 30% 3.421
top 35% 3.379

My grade: 3.673

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:52 pm
by romanticegotist
atcushman wrote:
Geaux12 wrote:This may sound stupid, but how the hell am I supposed to enter a "known" GPA and percentile if nobody has their grades back?
you can try and find last years rankings they should be close
Any advice from anyone on how to do this?

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:09 pm
by thesealocust
"known percentile" means a lot of school publish things like "top X% of the class [historically] requires Y GPA" - coupled with information like "median GPA is Z" you can calculate fairly accurate class ranks assuming a normal distribution.

How you actually get that data is entirely school dependant and TLS can't really help. It will be in materials you received, on private school web interfaces, emailed to the class, posted in the library, whatever.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 2:08 am
by Leprechaun
Can someone run mine please?

Top 10%: 3.61 
Top 25%: 3.36 
Top 33%: 3.28 
Top 50%: 3.07 
Top 75%: 2.79 

My GPA 3.88

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 3:17 pm
by LSATSCORES2012
redid the estimator a little bit, should now estimate medians more accurately and is a bit easier to understand, also added dailygrind to the credits page for doing the equation stuff
Leprechaun wrote:Can someone run mine please?

Top 10%: 3.61 
Top 25%: 3.36 
Top 33%: 3.28 
Top 50%: 3.07 
Top 75%: 2.79 

My GPA 3.88
About top 2-3%.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 2:14 am
by Leprechaun
LSATSCORES2012 wrote: About top 2-3%.

Thanks for the help.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 6:01 pm
by fallingup
Is there a way to find out what the median GPA is at your school if your school doesn't release rankings? I know that for individual 1L classes, the median is set to 3.3, and for upper-level courses, 3.5. But I am curious to know the median cumulative GPA.

Re: Class Rank Estimator

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:10 pm
by Wearthewildthingsr
this is probably a dumb question and answered previously (didn't go through 4 pgs) but how do we know what the rank of a set gpa is when the law school goes off a range from 0-5% for a 4.3? I would think it highly unlikely for the school's distribution to be such that 5% of ppl got 4.3's