Georgetown Joins The List Of Law Schools Accepting The GRE

They may not be in the T14 anymore, but Georgetown still knows how to spot a good trend.

Wow. Not even an hour after Above the Law published a story about Northwestern Law accepting the GRE, and predicting that the “list [of schools accepting the GRE] should grow soon,” we’ve gotten word that Georgetown has decided to follow suit.

“Georgetown Law is committed to attracting the best and the brightest students of all backgrounds,” said Dean William M. Treanor. “We believe this change will make the admissions process more accessible to students who have great potential to make a mark here at Georgetown Law and in successful legal careers, but who might find the LSAT to be a barrier for whatever reason.”

They may not be in the T14 anymore, but GULC still knows how to spot a good trend.

With two T15 schools announcing they will accept something besides the LSAT for admissions on the same day, it is clear that change is in the air. The GRE train was first piloted by Arizona Law, but it was Harvard’s blessing of the GRE that really paved the way for wider acceptance.

And it seems that moves by LSAC (the organization that administers the LSAT) to become more user-friendly (read: like the GRE) — which included eliminating the cap on the number of times a student could take the test in a two-year period, and upping the number of yearly testings — haven’t made much of a difference. Elite schools are clearly still seeing a benefit to the test alternative.

One criticism that has been leveled against schools that take the GRE is that they are attempting to fill seats with students who aren’t as interested in becoming lawyers, potentially saddling the uninformed with no more than a promise of a good career and mountains of student debt. But in their announcement, Georgetown was quick to point out that that application numbers are increasing, shortcircuiting the complaint they are just making the switch for easier tuition dollars:

The nation’s largest law school, Georgetown Law, has seen applications to its J.D. program rise in recent years, to approximately 9,000 annually. It said the decision to accept the GRE is aimed at removing barriers for highly-qualified applicants who might otherwise not apply.

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Going forward, the LSAT will no longer be a rite of passage all lawyers share. The jury’s still out as to whether that’s a good thing.

Earlier: Northwestern Officially Accepting The GRE
Harvard’s Accepting The GRE — How Much Should You Freak Out?
The LSAT Tries To Be More Competitive With The GRE


headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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