<p>blossom, I love your discussion distinguishing between causation and corelation. Sadly, even under the LSAC’s own numbers,which I don’t trust at all, the corelation between the LSAT and law school performace is between .09 to .51 with an average of .3 if I remember correctly. A 1.0 would be a perfect corelation. Thus, their are more outlyers than those that fell within the prediction.</p>
<p>As for bar results, there are PLENTY of school with lower LSATs that have high bar passage rates such as Nova Southeastern and others. I think even Florida Coastal has a fairly high bar passage rate.</p>
<p>The problem is that law school deans are , in your words, " ranking whores." As long as the LSAT is a high factor in the rankings, the law schools will do anything to raise the median scores. Heck as many as 15 schools are being sued for false data concerning jobs. Sadly, many admission officers will do anything to get more applicants.</p>
<p>Also , everyone seems to be focusing on location. Yes, Syracuse is in a bad location but so is RIT and Univeristy of Rochester, Geneseo, USC, Cincinnati, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and many others who have done well and have attracted some top faculty.</p>