Harvard Law School will no longer require the LSAT for admission

By Susan Svrluga March 8 at 7:20 PM

A bicyclist walks by Langdell Hall, the HarvardLaw Library, on the campus of the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass., in 2005. (Charles Krupa/AP)

For 70 years, the LSAT has been a rite of passage to legal education, a test designed to gauge students’ ability to learn the law.

But its dominance could change. Beginning this fall, Harvard Law School will allow applicants to submit their scores from either the Graduate Record Examination or the Law School Admissions Test.

The dramatic change in admissions, a pilot program at Harvard, is part of a broader strategy at the school to expand access. Because many students consider graduate school as well as law school, and because the GRE is offered often and in many places around the world, the decision could make it easier and less expensive for people to apply, school officials said.

Harvard’s decision was announced just days before a council of the American Bar Association (ABA), which accredits the nation’s law schools, considers changing its standards to allow tests other than the LSAT.

Last year, the University of Arizona College of Law became the first law school in the country to allow applicants to submit GRE scores rather than LSAT scores. Two other schools followed. But for Harvard, one of the best law schools in the world, to do so could upend the admissions process for legal education.

“Will other schools follow? Probably,” said Kyle McEntee, executive director of Law School Transparency. He thinks many law schools have already been considering this change “because schools across the board have been struggling with applications – not only applications, but the quality of applicants.”

The other schools “have come under criticism for basically just trying to expand their consumer base,” by not requiring the LSAT, McEntee said. “That criticism is clearly not going to apply to Harvard.”

Nationally, he said, law schools have struggled in recent years in the wake of the great recession as people learned job prospects were threatened. “Schools are trying to find new ways to find people.”

By the end of last week there were more than 42,000 applicants for the 2017–2018 academic year, a decrease of 1.5 percent from the year before, according to the Law School Admission Council.

That is less than half the number who applied in 2004.

At Harvard, by contrast, they have seen a 5 percent increase in applicant volume both last year and this year, said Jessica Soban, associate dean for admissions and strategic initiatives.

“Regardless of the number of applicants we have, this initiative is about making sure the most qualified candidates continue to consider us,” she said. “We have been out pretty publicly with a message that some of the cutting-edge legal issues rely on an understanding of science and techonology and engineering problems; these are the questions that require not only great legal training but the technical underpinnings really do help to understand the issues.” She said the school is now “up to double digits” in people coming with science and technical backgrounds, and many of them may have initially considered other graduate degrees.

Their current first-year class is 17 percent international students, she said, so broader access to the GRE was a significant factor.

A study by the school examined the GRE scores of current and former students who took both the GRE and the LSAT, and determined that the GRE is an equally valid predictor of first-year grades.

“Harvard Law School is continually working to eliminate barriers as we search for the most talented candidates for law and leadership,” Dean Martha Minow said in a statement. “For many students, preparing for and taking both the GRE and the LSAT is unaffordable.

“All students benefit when we can diversify our community in terms of academic background, country of origin, and financial circumstances. Also, given the promise of the revolutions in biology, computer science, and engineering, law needs students with science, technology, engineering and math backgrounds. For these students, international students, multidisciplinary scholars, and joint-degree students, the GRE is a familiar and accessible test, and using it is a great way to reach candidates not only for law school, but for tackling the issues and opportunities society will be facing.”

It’s all part of broader efforts, Soban said, to make the school more accesible. Some of the changes include using Skype for interviews, wiping out the requirement of a deposit for accepted students, and beginning a deferred-admissions pilot program to encourage applications from juniors at Harvard College who commit to two years of work experience before law school.

The council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, an agency of the ABA, has a planned meeting from Thursday through Saturday in California at which the question of whether the LSAT is fundamental will be considered.

Barry Currier, managing director, ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, said in a statement Wednesday afternoon, “The Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar will consider changes to Standard 503 dealing with admission tests at its meeting this weekend and whether to put these changes out for notice and comment. For that reason, at this point we will defer for now any comment on any individual law school’s proposal or pilot program on testing of prospective students.”

Minow said in a statement, “We look forward to working with the American Bar Association on finding the most effective ways to encourage the best students to enter the legal profession.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/03/08/harvard-law-school-will-no-longer-require-the-lsat-for-admission/?utm_term=.84a1500df17c

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32785653)

could be they're trying to lower standards, could be they're putting on a show of being more accessible to URMs but not actually making it easier except for the tiny fraction of them who are smart enough to dominate the GRE (and probably also the LSAT if they took it) but can't be bothered to take the LSAT for whatever reason

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32785682)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32786013)

I'm a fucking shoe in HLS

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32785794)

for non-URM those stats aren't a guarantee for t50

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32791047)

https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table1a.pdf

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32786485)

Holy shit HLS first years already give dumb enough answers to prof questions as it is. Listening to some dumb gre taker answer legreg hypos is going feel like water boarding

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32786544)

guess it's Columbia for me now

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32789454)

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/gre_validitystudy_arizona.pdf

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32786553)

My (admittedly dated) understanding was that HYS is able to get the lion's share of URM admits with high LSATs/GPAs.

And let's be honest, Harvard given its size has zero chance of being ranked #1. Everyone knows YLS is tops. Harvard basically fights it out every year for the #2 spot with Stanford. So what does it have to gain by laundering minorities from a rankings standpoint? Unless the school wants to skew even more liberal and become even more heavily minority/SJW-driven without taking a CCN-like ranking hit?

I personally would have thought a school like Penn or Duke or Cornell would have blinked first here. Seems like schools on that level have more of an incentive to launder minorities in order to hit that CCN level.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32789815)

So YHS together need 100 Blacks, yet only 15 score 168+ each year.

There really is a deficit, and URMs do hurt their LSAT median.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32789828)

How much does that help Harvard?

They're not overtaking Yale given the disparity in class size. Why do this just to possibly lock down #2 vs #3, especially when SLS can just go out and do the same thing?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32789836)

i doubt they are losing many to CCN, and the ones who take SLS probably just prefer it to H. And YLS is #1.

So what's the boost here? 5 more quality black admits?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32791142)

They've taken the position that they want to be big, which gives them a huge amount of influence in the legal world because they get what, 60% of the HYS students?

The tradeoff is they have a bit lower selectivity and probably lose a few tippy top students who go to Yale.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32791232)

if anything, perhaps they are preparing to increase the class size!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32794527)

Maybe if Harvard cut one-third of its class, its median would rise to 175.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32791172)

Before:

{160, 161, 162, 172, 173, 174, 175}

After:

{173, 174, 175}

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32791264)

{?, ?, 162, 172, 173, 174, 175}

my way is more defensible, but your way is what they'll do because that's the point-to be deceptive

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#34381507)

and some of them will want to stay close to home, presumably, even if they go to law school

what % of black do you have to be to be considered black for these purposes?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32791228)

it's also a horrible reason.

law school is for people who want to be attorneys, not people looking for something to do

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32791653)

No one should care how many long-shot applications get tossed in the trash after Harvard processes the application fee.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3547482&forum_id=2#32794301)