What LSAT Score Do You Need for Every T14 Law School? (2026 Data)

"What LSAT score do I need for a T14 school?" is the wrong question, but it's the one everyone asks first — so let's answer it properly, with real numbers, before getting into why "the median" isn't actually the number that matters most.

All figures below are from each school's Fall 2025 ABA Standard 509 Required Disclosure — the official, audited data every accredited law school has to report. Not a rumor, not a forum estimate.

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T14 LSAT Scores (Fall 2025 Entering Class)

School	25th Percentile	Median	75th Percentile
Yale	171	174	177
Harvard	171	174	176
Stanford	172	174	176
Columbia	172	174	175
University of Chicago	171	174	176
NYU	170	173	175
Penn Carey	170	172	174
University of Michigan	169	172	173
Virginia	169	171	173
Duke	169	171	173
Northwestern Pritzker	169	171	173
UC Berkeley	168	170	172
Cornell	167	169	171
Georgetown	166	169	171
UCLA	166	169	171

A few things jump out immediately: the gap between #1 (Yale) and #14 (Georgetown/UCLA) is only 5 points at the median. And within the T14, the 25th-to-75th percentile spread at any single school is usually just 3-5 points — meaning the range of scores a school actually admits is much narrower than people assume.

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Why the Median Is the Wrong Number to Fixate On

A school's median LSAT is the score where half of admitted students scored higher and half scored lower. It gets treated like a pass/fail line, but that's not how it works.

The 25th percentile matters more than most applicants think. If you're at a school's 25th percentile, you're not "barely in" — you're inside a range the school deliberately admits from every single cycle, in meaningful numbers, every year. The existence of a 25th percentile is the school telling you these scores get in.

What actually shifts your odds within that range is everything the LSAT number doesn't capture: GPA, the "index" combination of the two, softs, and how your file compares to the specific applicant pool that cycle. The LSAT number is a gate, not a lock.

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Reading Your Position Honestly

Where you land	What it generally means
At or above the 75th percentile	Your LSAT is a strength in your file — the rest of your application carries more relative weight
Between median and 75th	Solidly competitive on the numeric side at most schools in this range
Between 25th and median	Admission is realistic but not assured — a strong GPA and softs matter more here
Below the 25th percentile	Possible ("splitters" with high GPA get in below the 25th every cycle) but you're leaning harder on the rest of your file

None of this is a guarantee in either direction — a 178 with a weak file can still get rejected, and a 25th-percentile LSAT with an exceptional GPA and file gets in every cycle. Admissions committees read full files, not just one number. Treat this table as calibration, not a verdict.

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What This Means for Your Prep

If your target school's median is 8+ points above your current practice score, that's not a reason to give up on the school — but it is useful information for how much runway you need. Closing an 8-10 point gap typically takes 3-6 months of consistent, structured practice, not a weekend of cramming.

The more useful move than memorizing one target number: track your actual practice accuracy against your specific target schools' ranges as you go, so you know in real time whether you're trending toward the 25th percentile or the 75th — not just on test day.

CogentLSAT's School Targets tool tracks your practice score against any school's real p25/median/p75 range as you study — set your target schools and see exactly where you stand.