The ABA is one step closer to eliminating the entrance exam requirement for law school admissions. As we told you in April, an ABA committee recommended eliminating the accreditation standard mandating that schools use a standardized test in admissions. Now, the ABA Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has agreed to the change, but it still must be adopted by the ABA House of Delegates before it’s official.
This change is largely seen as rolling out the red carpet for the GRE’s takeover of the law school world. The LSAT was once the only option if you wanted to be a lawyer, but as law schools started looking into ways to make themselves more appealing to potential applicants, some schools began studying, and eventually accepting, the GRE in lieu of the LSAT. With more test dates and applicability to other graduate programs, the GRE has quickly become the new hotness. To date, 17 law schools have decided to accept a GRE score in admissions, and more are considering the change.
This move is important for the widespread adoption of the GRE as ABA Standard 503 currently requires admissions tests and that they be “valid and reliable.” Whether 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.
[QUIZ] Unlock More Time In Your Day With A Smarter Workflow
See how much time your firm could be saving. Use our free law firm time savings calculator to uncover efficiency gains and take control of your day.
Jeff Thomas, Kaplan Test Prep’s executive director of pre-law programs, says the most immediate impact for students applying to law school is the potential for real choice:
“It should also be noted that the ABA is relaxing requirements for vetting standardized tests besides the LSAT. Under the new rules, law schools that continue using standardized test(s) in the admissions process must simply state which tests they’ll use. This may speed up adoption of the GRE, which is now accepted by nearly 20 law schools, with many others considering the policy change, according to Kaplan Test Prep’s own research. This is where prospective students will most likely feel the impact fastest. It gives them more choices. The bottom line is that applicants will still almost certainly have to take an admissions test and that test will still likely be the LSAT, but with the GRE gaining ground. Irrespective of which test or tests candidates prepare for, it will always be important to put together as compelling an application as possible, inclusive of a high admissions test score.”
But though the proposed rule change eliminates the requirement for any standardized test, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to get into law school without any test at all. First of all, inertia means most schools probably won’t make any change at all to their admissions process — at least not right away. And Thomas breaks down three key reasons why law schools are almost certainly going to make you take some sort of test before you get in:
“First and importantly, the ABA is cautioning that should a law school choose not to require a standardized test and then find themselves admitting students incapable of completing legal education measured by high attrition rates and/or low bar passage rates, a ‘rebuttable presumption’ that they are out of compliance with ABA rules will exist, and schools will risk losing their accreditation. There’s a significant correlation between a law school’s median LSAT score for its matriculated students and its bar passage rate. In a sense, a standardized test score acts like a safeguard against bad admissions practices that can have long term ramifications for a law school.
“Second, law schools find a standardized test helpful in that it’s the common yardstick they use to measure applicants who come from colleges and universities of varying competitiveness. An ‘A’ at an Ivy League school, for example, is not the same as an ‘A’ at a lower ranked, less well-known school.
“Third, test scores are currently important factors in law school rankings calculations, which are heavily relied upon by students in deciding where to attend. Schools will continue to prefer high scores in as much as they boost their place in the rankings.”
Do Law School Rankings Affect Your Choice?
Share your insights in this brief survey.
So we’ll have to wait and see what the ABA House of Delegates thinks of moving to a post-LSAT world. But if you’re the GRE, thinks look mighty rosy.
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).