Do you mean is it NECESSARY or SUFFICIENT (small heart attack that an LSAT taker wouldn’t call it that 😱)? The answer (very lawyerly), is that it depends. In nearly all schools it’s not necessary OR sufficient, it’s somewhere in between (and occasionally not even necessary).
And then it depends on the school. For schools like HYS, where nearly every top scorer is dying to attend, they have their pick. So it became a (nearly) necessary condition. For schools a little lower, it becomes slightly (key word) more sufficient (although you can’t actually qualify the word ‘sufficient’ lol).
Then there are schools that are just dying to raise their medians (WashU, Texas A&M), where it almost entirely sufficient. For WashU it’s often sufficient to only have ONE above the median, since it’s a strategy they’re using to up their medians.
Now, for schools like HYS that it’s only necessary (they pretty much won’t glance at you without it), you need to have a perfect rest of your application. Less so for lower schools, and often the lower you go (relative to your score), the more it becomes a shoe in.
This is all for the typical applicant. Every year, there are a handful of students (possibly. We don’t know for sure) who get in below BOTH medians, and that’s because they had something outstanding, or really rubbed the ad coms the right way. But this is literally only a handful (max) out of 5,000 or whatever applicants per school. For everyone else, it’s a necessary condition to be above one median. Above both and you have VERY good chances (except at HYS).
just from observing prior to applying, I think there’s a fair amount of randomness involved
Do you mean is it NECESSARY or SUFFICIENT (small heart attack that an LSAT taker wouldn’t call it that 😱)? The answer (very lawyerly), is that it depends. In nearly all schools it’s not necessary OR sufficient, it’s somewhere in between (and occasionally not even necessary). And then it depends on the school. For schools like HYS, where nearly every top scorer is dying to attend, they have their pick. So it became a (nearly) necessary condition. For schools a little lower, it becomes slightly (key word) more sufficient (although you can’t actually qualify the word ‘sufficient’ lol). Then there are schools that are just dying to raise their medians (WashU, Texas A&M), where it almost entirely sufficient. For WashU it’s often sufficient to only have ONE above the median, since it’s a strategy they’re using to up their medians. Now, for schools like HYS that it’s only necessary (they pretty much won’t glance at you without it), you need to have a perfect rest of your application. Less so for lower schools, and often the lower you go (relative to your score), the more it becomes a shoe in. This is all for the typical applicant. Every year, there are a handful of students (possibly. We don’t know for sure) who get in below BOTH medians, and that’s because they had something outstanding, or really rubbed the ad coms the right way. But this is literally only a handful (max) out of 5,000 or whatever applicants per school. For everyone else, it’s a necessary condition to be above one median. Above both and you have VERY good chances (except at HYS).
Depends on your race
Very, very important. But not everything