In Law School Admissions, What Is A Splitter? What Is A Reverse-splitter?

If you are starting to research the law school admissions process, or are looking into your chances at a given school, you may have come across some unfamiliar admissions lingo: “splitter.” It’s not a sports term. Let’s familiarize you with “splitters” and “reverse-splitters” and find out if you are one.

What is a splitter?

A splitter is what we call a law school applicant that has a high LSAT, but a relatively low GPA to go with it. In terms of how we define “low” and “high”, a high LSAT, for example, would be over the 75th percentile for a school. For an example, let’s look at UChicago’s admissions profile:

For The University of Chicago, someone with an LSAT of 173 or better and a GPA of 3.73 or lower would be considered a “splitter.”

What is a reverse splitter?

A “reverse-splitter,” as you might have guessed, is someone with a 75th percentile or better GPA, and a 25th percentile or lower LSAT. In my observation reverse-splitters are considerably more common than traditional splitters.

What is a super splitter?

You may also hear the term “super-splitters.” These are a people with a very large disparity is scores, like a 2.3 GPA with a 176. In an upcoming post, we will discuss how splitters are likely to fare in the admissions process. I will say now that traditional high LSAT splitters tend to fare very well in the admissions process.

Low GPA? You need to be a High LSAT Splitter!

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