How bad do two cancelations look to t-14 admissions?

[CuriousDinnerFork]

I'll keep this as short as possible! I graduated with a 4.1 GPA and hope to get into the t-14s.

Took the October and November LSAT and underperformed both times. I canceled the October score because I encountered proctor and tech issues, which ultimately impacted my performance in two sections. I got my November score (156), which is about 10 points lower than where I was PT-ing. I plan on reevaluating my entire approach to studying before taking it again; hopefully next June.

With my GPA, I'm aiming to apply to t-14s, specifically NYU, UCLA, Columbia, Georgetown, and UPenn. I'm confident that the next time I take the LSAT, I'll be better prepared and hit my goal score of 170. That said, I'm wondering how bad would it look to admissions if I canceled my second LSAT score? As dumb as it sounds, I didn't realize that having more than one cancelation would appear as a red flag to admissions. The last time I spoke to admissions at NYU, they mentioned that cancelations didn't impact a candidate's admission, so I figured that, although not ideal, it wasn't something that largely impacted applicants. As insane as it sounds, I'm now getting worried that I've ruined my chances of attending my dream schools after scrolling on Reddit because it appears that Redditors are extremely against cancelations, especially more than one cancelation as it allows admissions to leave the canceled score up to their interpretation. I don't like having a 156 on my record even if I were to score extremely high the next I take it since I'll have to likely provide addendums and explain the huge jump in scores, but I'm worried that two cancelations look worse on my record.

I have a few days to decide whether I want to keep the score. Kindly asking for some guidance and advice, thank you.

[Dave Killoran]

I'll keep this as short as possible! I graduated with a 4.1 GPA and hope to get into the t-14s.

Took the October and November LSAT and underperformed both times. I canceled the October score because I encountered proctor and tech issues, which ultimately impacted my performance in two sections. I got my November score (156), which is about 10 points lower than where I was PT-ing. I plan on reevaluating my entire approach to studying before taking it again; hopefully next June.

With my GPA, I'm aiming to apply to t-14s, specifically NYU, UCLA, Columbia, Georgetown, and UPenn. I'm confident that the next time I take the LSAT, I'll be better prepared and hit my goal score of 170. That said, I'm wondering how bad would it look to admissions if I canceled my second LSAT score? As dumb as it sounds, I didn't realize that having more than one cancelation would appear as a red flag to admissions. The last time I spoke to admissions at NYU, they mentioned that cancelations didn't impact a candidate's admission, so I figured that, although not ideal, it wasn't something that largely impacted applicants. As insane as it sounds, I'm now getting worried that I've ruined my chances of attending my dream schools after scrolling on Reddit because it appears that Redditors are extremely against cancelations, especially more than one cancelation as it allows admissions to leave the canceled score up to their interpretation. I don't like having a 156 on my record even if I were to score extremely high the next I take it since I'll have to likely provide addendums and explain the huge jump in scores, but I'm worried that two cancelations look worse on my record.

I have a few days to decide whether I want to keep the score. Kindly asking for some guidance and advice, thank you.

Hi Curious,

Thanks for the question! We've covered this multiple times on our podcast and they simply won't worry about two cancellations. Three would be an issue however, so keep that in mind.

I'd cancel here based on your PT performance, and not worry about it after that

Thanks!