GRE Claims Another New York Law School
What this says about the future of law schools... #FOLS17
Mark St. John’s School of Law as Team GRE. Today, the school announced it would begin accepting the GRE in lieu of the traditional law school admissions test, the LSAT, starting in Fall 2018.
It’s not really a surprise that another law school is accepting the GRE — a recent survey by Kaplan Test Prep found that 25 percent of law schools plan to accept the test. St. John’s becomes number eight on the big board, joining Harvard, Columbia, Northwestern, Arizona, Georgetown, Hawaii, and Washington University in St. Louis, all who’ve already announced plans to take the GRE for the next crop of law school hopefuls.
The ABA currently requires accredited law schools to accept a “valid and reliable” standardized test, though they haven’t weighed in on whether the GRE meets that criteria. In making the decision to accept the GRE, St. John’s is relying on a study by the maker of the GRE, Educational Testing Service (ETS), with the cooperation of 21 law schools that found the GRE is a valid law school entrance exam.
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In a statement, Vice Dean Larry Cunningham indicated a motivating factor was making law school an attractive option for quality candidates who may not have previously considered a legal education:
The GRE also opens the Law School’s doors to a broader, more diverse set of applicants, increasing access to legal education. Not only is the GRE offered throughout the year at an extensive network of locations, it meets the needs of a growing number of applicants who pursue a law degree after obtaining a graduate or doctorate degree in another field, and who have already taken the GRE.
This sentiment is mirrored in a lot of other law schools around the country, and is a big motivating factor for all of those law schools looking to the future. At a recent conference on the Future of Law Schools, the first panel was on Legal Education at the Crossroads, and as you might imagine, the GRE came up. The panelists (Mark C. Alexander, Dean of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law; Danielle R. Holley-Walker, Dean of Howard University School of Law; Laura Rosenbury, Dean of University of Florida Frederic G. Levin College of Law; Deanell Reece Tacha, Dean of Pepperdine Law School) linked the acceptance of the GRE to legal education’s PR problem.
Where once law school seemed like an obvious choice to many talented students, now schools have to make the case for attendance. Dean Rosenbury said that law schools used to think they existed outside of the market forces in an ivory tower, but the economic crisis proved them wrong. The panel agreed that the move towards accepting GRE is driven by market forces, trying to get talented students to seriously consider law school. Dean Holley-Walker indicated the relevant question for law schools is whether allowing applicants to take the GRE instead of the LSAT put the school in the conversation with other graduate programs for highly qualified students.
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The answer for an increasing number of law schools appears to be yes.
Kathryn 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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