<p>In the average LSAT score list by major the Government/Service major seem to do much better than Political Science majors on average. Why is that? What is the difference in the two majors? My university offers Government but not Political Science. I have always assumed they were the same major called different names at differnet universities.</p>
<p>This is PURE SPECULATION. I think it’s because of which schools use which names. Harvard calls it government. Harvard has the highest median LSAT. It sends a LOT of people to law school. It may just be that as a group, the colleges using the term government have student bodies with higher SATs and LSATs than those of the group using the term poli sci.</p>
<p>Obviously many fine colleges DO use the term poli sci.</p>
<p>I would not be too concerned about it. For example, notice the sample size of the polisci majors vs the government majors for two of the year ranges. There were 15,000 polisci majors vs 800 gov majors in 94-95, and usually the larger the sample size, the closer their average becomes to the overall mean. For 03-04, the polisci sample is still twice as big as the gov sample. In a smaller sample, outliers affect the data more. Think about it, as an example, Berkeley will probably never be able to admit a freshman class with SATs as high as Caltech’s because Berkeley’s incoming class is much bigger than Caltech’s (don’t analyze this example too much, I know their admissions criteria and focuses are also different but you get the idea). </p>
<p>[Average</a> LSAT Scores for 29 Majors with over 400 Students Taking the Exam](<a href=“http://www.phil.ufl.edu/ugrad/whatis/LSATtable.html]Average”>http://www.phil.ufl.edu/ugrad/whatis/LSATtable.html)</p>
<p>And also add to the fact jonri’s point, if all the Harvard government majors were included in those 800 government majors, but none in the polisci sample, that could indeed affect the results.</p>
<p>I think jonri has it right. Harvard has something like 500 students major (“concentrate”) in government every year. If 10% of them take the LSAT, they’d make up almost 5% of the government majors counted in that list.</p>
<p>Bet you it’s a lot more than 10%.</p>
<p>I agree…that’s probably the Harvard College people skewing the sample. It’s definitely way more than 10% of Gov majors who take the LSAT. Something like a third of the college overall takes it at some point, and Gov majors are probably the most likely to do so of any group. I’d guess that a majority of them take the LSAT.</p>