Law Schools

5 Percent Of Law Schools Now Accept GRE

The GRE's quest for law school domination continues.

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Five percent may not seem like a large amount, but with today’s announcement that Brigham Young University Law School will accept the GRE in lieu of the formerly ubiquitous LSAT for admissions — beginning in Fall 2018 — we may have reached a crucial tipping point. BYU Law joins Harvard, Columbia, Northwestern, Arizona, Georgetown, Hawaii, Washington University in St. Louis, St. John’s, Wake Forest, and Texas A&M in accepting the GRE. Additionally, a recent survey by Kaplan Test Prep found that 25 percent of law schools have plans in the works to accept the GRE, so more school are sure to follow these 11.

Like the other schools that have gone down the GRE rabbit hole, BYU’s administration touts the diverse educational backgrounds of students they hope to attract with this change:

BYU Law Dean Gordon Smith explained that many potential law students have completed or are considering graduate programs that already require or recommend the GRE test. “By accepting the GRE as an admission test for BYU Law School,” Dean Smith observed, “we hope to facilitate entry to law school by students who would otherwise be required to prepare and pay for two admission tests.”

….

“A legal education teaches students to analyze and solve complex problems across all fields, from science and technology to business to international relations. By expanding our admissions policy to allow for the GRE, we are encouraging greater diversity on all measures, including disciplinary diversity,” adds Dean Smith. “This is a positive step that will improve legal education and the legal profession.”

Of course, the move is not completely risk free. The ABA has yet to weigh in on whether the GRE meets accreditation standard 503, which requires alternatives to the LSAT be “valid and reliable.” BYU’s decision to accept the GRE relies on a study they participated in by the  Educational Testing Service — the makers of the GRE — that affirmed the validity of the exam.

Congrats to prospective BYU Law students, looks like you can cross “study for the LSAT” off your to-do list.

[pdfjs-viewer url=”https://abovethelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BYULaw_CorpusFellowsrelease_101817final.pdf”]

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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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