The seemingly inevitable roll of the GRE into the once hallowed space of law school admissions has taken another step forward. Today, University of Georgia School of law has announced they’ll be accepting students that have only taken the GRE starting in the Fall of 2019 class — but not so fast, there’s a catch.
Students can only avoid the LSAT if they are enrolled in a dual degree program at the university. A law school spokesperson had this to say about the move:
The school believes this will allow both a first hand opportunity to test the effectiveness of the GRE as a predictor of success and to reduce the burden on those students pursing dual degrees.
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They aren’t the first school to move forward with a “split the baby” approach — both UCLA and the University of Chicago have embraced a similar middle road aimed at dual degree students. But despite this cautious approach, there are a lot of schools that have embraced the alternate law school admissions exam. Law schools currently accepting the GRE are: Harvard, Columbia, St. John’s, Brooklyn, Northwestern, Arizona, Georgetown, Hawaii, Washington University in St. Louis, Wake Forest, Cardozo School of Law, Texas A&M, BYU, John Marshall Law School, Florida State, Chicago-Kent College of Law and Pace. And according to a survey by Kaplan Test Prep, a full 25 percent of law schools have plans in the works to accept the GRE.
While the move to take the GRE is gaining steam in the legal education community, there may be some reason for concern. The American Bar Association, the body responsible for law school accreditation, still hasn’t officially weighed in on the validity of the GRE as an alternative to the LSAT. ABA Standard 503 requires admissions tests be “valid and reliable,” and whether or not the GRE meets that requirement is an open question. However, several law schools as well as the Educational Testing Service — the makers of the GRE — have done their own studies, which, unsurprisingly, affirm the validity of the exam.
A recent proposal from the ABA’s Standards Review Committee recommended eliminating the accreditation standard mandating that schools use a standardized test in admissions. The move must still be approved by the ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and the ABA’s House of Delegates, but it sure looks like full steam ahead for the good ship GRE.
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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).