Law Schools

Another Elite Law School Eyes Accepting The GRE

The dominos keep falling as more law schools consider the GRE.

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test-anxietyPerhaps there’s still something of an “as goes Harvard, so goes the nation’s law schools” complex out there. After Harvard shocked the legal academy and announced that it would accept GRE scores as an alternative to the LSAT for future law school applications, it was only a matter of time before other elite schools jumped on the bandwagon. At the time, Jeff Thomas of Kaplan Test Prep suggested a “domino effect” after Harvard’s announcement, which was a much more polite phrasing than when I said that Harvard “broke the seal.”

Now we’re seeing the next step in the GRE revolution, with Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law taking a hard look at joining Harvard, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“This is a new world. Law schools are looking at much more sophisticated data,” said Daniel Rodriguez, dean of Northwestern’s law school. “It’s just simply a matter of time, and probably a short amount of time, before the hegemony of the LSAT will destabilize and law schools will be looking at other criteria for admission.

“The question is, Who wants to be the first movers?”

While the ABA hasn’t officially opened the door to the GRE yet, Northwestern compiled data from its own student body, demonstrating that the GRE reliably predicted law school success — the key to the ABA’s testing standards — based on Northwestern students who had taken both tests. And the organization that administers the GRE is working on a nationwide test to show the same thing.

This is bad news for LSAC, which earlier announced a number of reforms to LSAT administration in a move that they honestly swear has nothing to do with Harvard poking them in the eye. With law schools complaining about the LSAT’s inconvenient schedule — as opposed to the GRE’s near constant run of administrations via computer — driving down the numbers of quality students considering law school, LSAC says it will offer more opportunities to take the test and lift the cap on the number of tests a student can take in a two-year span.

But making up the gap they have with the GRE doesn’t necessarily get the LSAT out of the woods. And it’s not just that some deans have raised additional concerns — such as attracting math and science students who have to take the GRE anyway and might consider law school if they can apply with the same test — if law schools decide, based on these studies, that there’s no deficit in accepting the GRE, then there’s simply no reason not to accept both tests.

Come to think of it, that sounds an awful lot like one of the tests of logical reasoning that the LSAT might ask.

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Chicago law schools consider accepting GRE as test alternative to LSAT [Chicago Tribune]

Earlier: Harvard Law School To LSAT: Drop Dead
Law Schools Reveal Their Future Plans For The LSAT And GRE
The LSAT Tries To Be More Competitive With The GRE

HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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