Should Law Schools Drop the LSAT Requirement? HuffPost Live Forum

[LSAT Blog]

From earlier today:

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segmen ... c66a0010c7

Two law schools will now accept a limited number of students who have not taken the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), and others may follow suit. What impact will this have on students, law schools and the profession?

I'm featured along with Elie Mystal from Above The Law and Kyle McEntee from Law School Transparency.

Relevant: Bloomberg, Above The Law

[sublime]

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[RZ5646]

I'm philosophically opposed to clicking on HuffPo links, but I don't think the LSAT is going away any time soon. Unless adcoms want to spend an enormous amount of time scrutinizing each applicant's file, they need some quick way to compare applicants' law school-related abilities. A standardized test is the only easy way to do that, and the LSAT is the best standardized test available to them for that purpose. They may change or replace the LSAT, but some LSAT-like test will always be used.

As the other poster suggested, undesirable law schools might remove the LSAT requirement as a desperate move to attract more customers. (And I feel like Northwestern using the GMAT for its AJD program is basically the same thing: they just want to make it easier for business students to pay them for a probably unnecessary degree.)

[GreenEggs]

Agree with the ABTL guy, LSAT is honestly not that rough of an experience and it's literally (minus a 2-page personal statement) the only thing between attending law school and not attending law school. The bar to entry is way to low. Doctors go through a grueling pre-med track + the MCAT which is way more difficult than the LSAT.

Not advocating any type of pre-law track, more remarking how ridiculous removing the LSAT would be.

[Louis1127]

Law school applications and enrollments plummeting, applicants getting wiser about negotiating scholarships------> Let's do away with the LSAT!

Hmmmmmmmm........

[jenesaislaw]

Had fun today with you on it! Good work, Steve.

[ltowns1]

Maybe I'm just "in my feelings" about this because I'm in the heat of the battle right now, but I would love for Mr.Mystal to come and take my test for me since its a just another test that you can take on Saturday! We look a little alike, he could pass for me if the proctor dosent have great vision! Lol

[Clyde Frog]

So there are a lack of jobs in the legal market but we should try to attract more applicants to law school by eliminating the LSAT. Makes sense.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

Get rid of the LSAT so that there is one factor for admissions: GPA
A freshman at UVA transfers to Manassas Community College
Gets a 4.0
Next stop HLS

[Nathanael]

Get rid of the LSAT so that there is one factor for admissions: GPA
A freshman at UVA transfers to Manassas Community College
Gets a 4.0
Next stop HLS

Without an LSAT, I think it's much more likely that the top schools would start really scrutinizing the quality of an applicant's undergraduate institution, but I guess it depends a bit on how the rankings worked post-LSAT.

[Deleterious]

to quote Nando, the law school pigs are getting desperate...

[TheodoreKGB]

.

[MeganCQ]

Get rid of the LSAT so that there is one factor for admissions: GPA
A freshman at UVA transfers to Manassas Community College
Gets a 4.0
Next stop HLS

Without an LSAT, I think it's much more likely that the top schools would start really scrutinizing the quality of an applicant's undergraduate institution, but I guess it depends a bit on how the rankings worked post-LSAT.

Agreed. And as someone who went to a (still highly respected) state school over other better out of state and private schools because of the sheer expense of going to undergrad there plus what I knew would be the added cost of law school, that would really blow. Barring state institutions like Michigan, UVA, UNC, etc. that are great schools, many states do not have great academic institutions that are public. So a potential law student who lives in a state like this would have to pay an exorbitant amount to go to a good undergrad institution (private or out of state) just to get into a good law school, should the LSAT be eliminated. This would add another financial barrier to getting into law school, on top of the already insane cost of law school itself. That is very uncool.