More Law Schools Could Stop Requiring LSAT for Admission

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Summary: Two law schools have dropped the LSAT as a requirement for admission after the ABA changed its rules regarding the test. 

Earlier this month two law schools announced they would start accepting applicants who have yet to take the Law School Admissions Test, according to Bloomberg.

  

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The two schools are the University of Iowa College of Law and the State University of New York Buffalo Law School.

To read more law school news stories, click here.

The schools said they would admit undergraduates based on scores from standardized tests other than the LSAT and their grade point average.

James Gardner, the dean from SUNY Buffalo’s law school, said, “Taking the LSAT is a pain, and it is expensive. This is just a way to identify strong-performing students based on perfectly rational criteria that don’t involve the LSAT.”

Gardner does admit that the change could help law schools increase their enrollment.

“It does address that problem to the extent that they remove what is, for some students, an obstacle for applying to law school,” he said.

Since 2011, first-year enrollment at SUNY Buffalo dropped by 20 percent and at the University of Iowa.

To read more articles about the LSAT, click here.

The American Bar Association changed its rule in August to allow law schools to fill 10 percent of their class with students who have never taken the LSAT, so long as they were from the top of their college class and scored highly on the ACT and SAT or GMAT or GRE graduate exams.

Prior to the ABA changing its rule, 15 law schools successfully applied for special dispensation to admit some students who do not have the LSAT on their record. This shows that there could be more schools to follow SUNY Buffalo and Iowa.

How many more law schools will follow suit? Cast your vote below.

Source: Bloomberg