Date: February 12th, 2016 7:51 AM
Author: Sable Exciting Den
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/02/arizona-is-first-law-school-to-admit-students-based-on-gre-instead-of-lsat.html
No LSAT score? No problem—at least at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.
The law school in Tucson will become the first to accept applications from prospective students who have taken the GRE General Test instead of the LSAT, administrators announced Wednesday.
Effectively immediately, the school will consider either LSAT or GRE scores in admissions, a move the law school’s dean, Marc Miller, said would help it reach a broader pool of would-be applicants. That, in turn, should result in a stronger student body, he added. ...
The school made the decision to accept the GRE after a study conducted by Educational Testing Services, which administers the GRE, concluded that the test, coupled with undergraduate grade-point average, is as reliable as the LSAT in predicting the taker’s success in the first year of law school. ...
Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean David Yellen predicted that other law schools will follow Arizona’s lead if the school is able to bring in a larger—and stronger—applicant pool as a result of accepting the alternative test.
“I think this will potentially be a major change in legal education,” Yellen said. “If Arizona is successful using a different test, there will be a lot of pressure on other schools to move in that direction.”
Nearly 100 current Arizona law students and recent graduates took the GRE in November. Educational Testing Services analyzed their scores, along with their LSAT scores and law school grades, and found that the GRE did slightly better than the LSAT in predicting first-year grades. ...
Any mass move away from the LSAT by law schools would create headaches for both the Law School Admission Council and U.S. News & World Report, which heavily weights LSAT scores in its annual law school rankings, Yellen said. Moreover, Arizona’s move to accept the GRE raises questions about the why the ABA is essentially mandating the LSAT at all, he said.
“The ABA is the only accrediting body in the U.S. that requires the use of a standardized test,” Yellen said. “I’m not sure why legal education is so unique in that regard. All medical schools may use the MCAT, but not because they are required to.”
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3127598&forum_id=2#29810932)