How will Harvard accepting the GRE affect prospects for URMs this upcoming year? Forum

[diamondlaw21]

Just curious to see what people think. I know some people in my circles think the switch will mostly be favorable to URMs with high GPAs, and others think the influx of high-scoring STEM/dual degree applicants will push otherwise competitive URMs out of the running (unless you're both URM + STEM, in which case this looks good for you).

[grades??]

I think this will hurt URMs insofar as the theorizing over this is to get rid of splitters. URMs tend to be splitters and the belief is that this will get rid of splitters. How it will actually affect anyone, let alone URM is impossible to know yet

[Mr_Chukes]

I think this will hurt URMs insofar as the theorizing over this is to get rid of splitters. URMs tend to be splitters and the belief is that this will get rid of splitters. How it will actually affect anyone, let alone URM is impossible to know yet

How will it get rid of splitters?

[dietcoke1]

I don't think it will affect URMs all that much. Harvard tends to take more reverse splitters URMs and I think that will stay the same.

[grades??]

I think this will hurt URMs insofar as the theorizing over this is to get rid of splitters. URMs tend to be splitters and the belief is that this will get rid of splitters. How it will actually affect anyone, let alone URM is impossible to know yet

How will it get rid of splitters?

Go look at the harvard gre thread but essentially now there will be more applicants with high gpas, gre scores, and no lsat. Regardless of whether high gre scores are actually needed, it will drastically increase the applicant pool of high gpa students without lsat scores, making a high lsat/lower gpa splitter worthless. It seems like it will be clearly a game to increase high gpas with nothing to lose, other than splitters are boned. If this catches on to the t13 in total, splitters are in serious trouble.

[Hikikomorist]

I think this will hurt URMs insofar as the theorizing over this is to get rid of splitters. URMs tend to be splitters and the belief is that this will get rid of splitters. How it will actually affect anyone, let alone URM is impossible to know yet

How will it get rid of splitters?

Go look at the harvard gre thread but essentially now there will be more applicants with high gpas, gre scores, and no lsat. Regardless of whether high gre scores are actually needed, it will drastically increase the applicant pool of high gpa students without lsat scores, making a high lsat/lower gpa splitter worthless. It seems like it will be clearly a game to increase high gpas with nothing to lose, other than splitters are boned. If this catches on to the t13 in total, splitters are in serious trouble.

Pretty sure URMs tend to be reverse splitters, though.

[Npret]

I think this will hurt URMs insofar as the theorizing over this is to get rid of splitters. URMs tend to be splitters and the belief is that this will get rid of splitters. How it will actually affect anyone, let alone URM is impossible to know yet

How will it get rid of splitters?

Go look at the harvard gre thread but essentially now there will be more applicants with high gpas, gre scores, and no lsat. Regardless of whether high gre scores are actually needed, it will drastically increase the applicant pool of high gpa students without lsat scores, making a high lsat/lower gpa splitter worthless. It seems like it will be clearly a game to increase high gpas with nothing to lose, other than splitters are boned. If this catches on to the t13 in total, splitters are in serious trouble.

Well yes it will increase the applicant pool with no LSAT who are only applying to Harvard and using their GRE score because right now that pool is zero.

I think people should calm down.

[Mr_Chukes]

I think this will hurt URMs insofar as the theorizing over this is to get rid of splitters. URMs tend to be splitters and the belief is that this will get rid of splitters. How it will actually affect anyone, let alone URM is impossible to know yet

How will it get rid of splitters?

Go look at the harvard gre thread but essentially now there will be more applicants with high gpas, gre scores, and no lsat. Regardless of whether high gre scores are actually needed, it will drastically increase the applicant pool of high gpa students without lsat scores, making a high lsat/lower gpa splitter worthless. It seems like it will be clearly a game to increase high gpas with nothing to lose, other than splitters are boned. If this catches on to the t13 in total, splitters are in serious trouble.

Well yes it will increase the applicant pool with no LSAT who are only applying to Harvard and using their GRE score because right now that pool is zero.

I think people should calm down.

What if Harvard is more favorable to people with High LSATs. What if they only take GRE students with 3.8 and above.
Plus how many people are going to just apply to Harvard. Will that many more people really come? Just to get a shot at one of the hardest schools to get into?

[grades??]

I think this will hurt URMs insofar as the theorizing over this is to get rid of splitters. URMs tend to be splitters and the belief is that this will get rid of splitters. How it will actually affect anyone, let alone URM is impossible to know yet

How will it get rid of splitters?

Go look at the harvard gre thread but essentially now there will be more applicants with high gpas, gre scores, and no lsat. Regardless of whether high gre scores are actually needed, it will drastically increase the applicant pool of high gpa students without lsat scores, making a high lsat/lower gpa splitter worthless. It seems like it will be clearly a game to increase high gpas with nothing to lose, other than splitters are boned. If this catches on to the t13 in total, splitters are in serious trouble.

Well yes it will increase the applicant pool with no LSAT who are only applying to Harvard and using their GRE score because right now that pool is zero.

I think people should calm down.

Oh I agree, just explaining the line of thinking. Also, I have no idea whether URMs tend to be reverse splitters or splitters. Just pointing out the possibility.

To the poster above- the point is they might not care anymore about a 3.6 student with a 172 lsat when they can get a 3.9 student with a GRE score (that may or may not be required to be disclosed). That is the going assumption anyway.