A report released Tuesday by Testing for the Public, a Berkeley, Calif.-based think-tank showed large differences between the LSAT scores of minority and white students with identical GPAs.

The study revealed that, on average, minority students from five prestigious colleges-Harvard included-who applied to the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law fared worse on the LSAT than their white counterparts who received nearly identical grades for their undergraduate coursework.

"Students who have achieved the same success in college should theoretically earn approximately the same scores on the LSAT," said David M. White, director of the institute.

"Unfortunately, the results of this study demonstrate that this is far from true," he said.

In order to conduct the study, Testing for the Public took a sample of students from the five schools who took the LSAT from 1996-1998 and subsequently applied to Boalt.

William C. Kidder, a first-year student at Boalt, actually compiled the data this summer.

On average, black students scored 9.30 points lower on the LSAT than white students; Latino students, 6.87 points lower; Native American students, 3.77 points lower; and Asian-American students, 2.48 points behind.

The possible range of scores on the LSAT is between 120-180 points.

"Since the study controls for college performance," Kidder said, "there is some combination of cultural bias on the test and atmospheric bias."

Kidder explained that stereotypes and other influences in the testing milieu may artificially depress the performance of minority students.

But many say the results of the study do notnecessarily indicate bias and are not necessarilysurprising.

Winthrop Professor of History Stephan A.Thernstrom said, "The percentage ofAfrican-American students at the top of the LSATcurve is traditionally low."

"The question you have to ask is, were thestudents taking essentially the same courses?" hesaid.

Thernstrom also said grade inflation has to betaken into account when considering students fromdifferent schools.

"At Stanford the median grade is said to be anA-. At Harvard it's a B+. So grades are not a verydiscriminating indicator of excellence in academicperformance," he said.

David Murray, director of research andstatistics at Washington, D.C. think-tankStatistical Assessment Service agrees that gradesalone are not always reliable.