Law Schools

Raising The Stakes In The Fight Over The LSAT

The people who really lose are the students applying to law school.

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I was told there'd be no crim pro...The LSAT may not be the rite of passage all lawyers share much longer, but LSAC, the organization that administers the exam, is not going to take that lying down.

You may recall Arizona Law has decided to accept the GRE in lieu of the LSAT. They claim it is a move designed to increase diversity, but some see increasing the school’s applicants as another nifty benefit. While most schools aren’t ready to make the move to the GRE just yet, the LSAT’s dominance may be in jeopardy. The first move LSAC made to stem the tide was to threaten to take away Arizona Law’s membership (and the application data that comes with it), but that move was wildly unpopular with law school deans, and LSAC backed off.

Now LSAC has announced another ramification of moving away from the LSAT.

In a letter sent to admissions professionals at all law schools yesterday, LSAC announced it intends to stop certifying matriculant admissions data. Amid concerns about the accuracy of law school admissions data, beginning in 2011, LSAC began certifying the accuracy of the data (i.e., average LSAT scores). Now LSAC intends to stop that:

Consistent with LSAC’s mission, the goal of this service is to provide accurate and reliable information about the LSAT/UGPA profile of a law school’s matriculants. Given the current uncertainty about the Section’s position on the use of admission tests other than the LSAT, and the current or potential use by some law schools of admission tests other than the LSAT, we no longer believe that this goal can be met. Moreover, the reporting of LSAT scores to US News without similarly reporting other test scores that may be used by some law schools in the admission process has the potential to disadvantage many of our member schools. Because the US News rankings are so volatile, the nonreporting of selected test scores could provide a significant advantage to certain law schools and would reduce the reliability of the certification of matriculant data.

Certainly the potential for law schools to accept the GRE in order to (at least temporarily) game the U.S. News rankings is real — 70% of law school admissions professionals admitted as much in a recent Kaplan survey. But completely ending the certification process only seems to exacerbate the potential for rigging the rankings. The move feels like a dated plot device from a vaguely sexist sitcom where the wife “goes on strike” to prove to how much work she does for her husband.

And if this really happens, and law school admissions data is released without being certified, the people who really lose are the students applying to law school. These are the players with the least ability to suss out the truth behind any uncertified claims — that’s a lot of debt to take on based on the honor system.

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Read the full letter from the LSAC below.

Earlier: Arizona Law Picked A Fight With A Big Dog
Law School Deans Fight Back Against The Tyranny Of The LSAT
LSAC Is Backing Off Arizona Law School, For Now
Law Schools Reveal Their Future Plans For The LSAT And GRE

Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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