Sorting law school matriculants by major, LSAT, & UGPA
UPDATE: For the latest data, with an interactive visualization, please see this post about applicants, and this post about matriculants.
My previous post on the LSAT and UGPA of law school applicants generated a lot of discussion, both here and elsewhere at places like the TaxProf and Above the Law.
It's almost certainly the case that some majors overrepresent certain groups, schools, or privileges. "Policy studies," for instance, is an interdisciplinary major found at places like Duke, Rice, and Syracuse--it is probably not overly common elsewhere. The same goes for a major like Classics. And, of course, absent any other controls, these are, as Ted Seto noted in a comment, little more than "cocktail-party interesting."
But I've got more.
Here are the LSAT and UGPA for matriculants to law school. As with the applicants post, majors with at least 150 self-reported matriculants are included. And, of course, these are self-identified and may include multiple majors. Per a suggestion in one of the comments, I made the size of the bubbles correlate to the number of matriculants per major. I squeezed in labels for each one, too.
As you can see, the top performers overall are the Economics and Philosophy majors, given the relatively high number in both. A few niche areas like Policy studies, International relations, and Music do well. Political science is the giant circle in the middle. The actual figures are listed in the table below.
| Major | n≥150 | LSAT | UGPA |
| POLICY STUDIES | 151 | 161.8 | 3.461 |
| INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS | 605 | 159.5 | 3.410 |
| GOVERNMENT/SERVICE | 298 | 159.5 | 3.417 |
| ECONOMICS | 1499 | 159.3 | 3.365 |
| BIOLOGY, SPECIALIZATION | 230 | 159.0 | 3.276 |
| LITERATURE | 154 | 159.0 | 3.391 |
| MUSIC | 175 | 158.9 | 3.486 |
| PHILOSOPHY | 1328 | 158.8 | 3.351 |
| INTERNATIONAL STUDIES | 369 | 158.6 | 3.469 |
| ANTHROPOLOGY | 253 | 158.5 | 3.419 |
| RELIGION/RELIGIOUS STUDIES | 150 | 158.2 | 3.474 |
| HISTORY | 2170 | 157.7 | 3.389 |
| ENGLISH | 2309 | 156.7 | 3.387 |
| INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | 328 | 156.5 | 3.330 |
| ARTS & HUMANITIES - OTHER | 1175 | 156.2 | 3.366 |
| FINANCE | 976 | 155.7 | 3.374 |
| BIOLOGY, GENERAL | 404 | 155.5 | 3.170 |
| ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES | 219 | 155.3 | 3.280 |
| POLITICAL SCIENCE | 8094 | 155.2 | 3.352 |
| SPANISH | 209 | 155.0 | 3.442 |
| SOCIAL SCIENCES - OTHER | 268 | 154.9 | 3.330 |
| PSYCHOLOGY | 2114 | 154.8 | 3.308 |
| JOURNALISM | 455 | 154.8 | 3.413 |
| INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS | 200 | 154.6 | 3.373 |
| ACCOUNTING | 618 | 154.3 | 3.378 |
| COMMUNICATIONS | 986 | 154.1 | 3.334 |
| BUSINESS MANAGEMENT | 714 | 153.7 | 3.256 |
| LIBERAL ARTS | 701 | 153.5 | 3.227 |
| BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | 808 | 153.4 | 3.199 |
| SOCIOLOGY | 880 | 153.2 | 3.271 |
| MARKETING | 539 | 152.9 | 3.228 |
| LAW | 221 | 152.3 | 3.335 |
| ANY AREA NOT LISTED - OTHER | 1957 | 152.1 | 3.254 |
| CRIMINOLOGY | 403 | 151.9 | 3.293 |
| PRE-LAW | 445 | 151.3 | 3.304 |
| BUSINESS MGMT./ADMIN. | 197 | 149.9 | 3.154 |
| CRIMINAL JUSTICE | 1632 | 149.2 | 3.267 |