The Volokh Conspiracy - Some Data on Law School Applicants and Matriculants:

For applicants to law school for Fall 2007, the average "Caucasian/White" applicant to law school had an LSAT score of 154.9, and an undergraduate GPA of 3.32. The average "Black/African American" applicant had a LSAT score of 143.7 and an undergraduate GPA of 2.96. The standard deviation for LSAT scores is 9.97.

For law school matriculants in Fall 2007, the averages were 158/3.40 for whites, and 150/3.16 for African Americans.

Asian Americans had very similar scores to whites, on average, and Hispanics' scores were very close to midpoint between the scores of whites/Asians and African Americans.

What's the point? For this post, I don't have a specific point. I think it's obvious that one could use this data, if one were so inclined, to argue that law school affirmative action that insists on something approaching proportional representation in each law school for different ethnic groups is doomed to fail, and one could also use this data, if one were so inclined, to argue that law school affirmative action is absolutely necessary.

But the debates one hears and reads over these issues often seem to me to occur in a data vacuum, so I thought it was a contribution just to provide it.

	[David Bernstein, February 5, 2009 at 9:37am] Trackbacks Some Data on Law School Applicants and Matriculants: For applicants to law school for Fall 2007, the average "Caucasian/White" applicant to law school had an LSAT score of 154.9, and an undergraduate GPA of 3.32. The average "Black/African American" applicant had a LSAT score of 143.7 and an undergraduate GPA of 2.96. The standard deviation for LSAT scores is 9.97. For law school matriculants in Fall 2007, the averages were 158/3.40 for whites, and 150/3.16 for African Americans. Asian Americans had very similar scores to whites, on average, and Hispanics' scores were very close to midpoint between the scores of whites/Asians and African Americans. What's the point? For this post, I don't have a specific point. I think it's obvious that one could use this data, if one were so inclined, to argue that law school affirmative action that insists on something approaching proportional representation in each law school for different ethnic groups is doomed to fail, and one could also use this data, if one were so inclined, to argue that law school affirmative action is absolutely necessary. But the debates one hears and reads over these issues often seem to me to occur in a data vacuum, so I thought it was a contribution just to provide it.