Chicago Law Schools Consider Accepting GRE As Test Alternative To LSAT

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Chicago Tribune, Chicago Law Schools Consider Accepting GRE as Test Alternative to LSAT:

In a move that shirks a tradition as old as baby boomers, law schools around the country are starting to consider accepting an admission test other than the LSAT. And Chicago-area schools are watching closely. ... 

Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law in Chicago is studying the possibility of accepting the GRE. "This is a new world. Law schools are looking at much more sophisticated data," said Daniel Rodriguez, dean of Northwestern's law school. "It's just simply a matter of time, and probably a short amount of time, before the hegemony of the LSAT will destabilize and law schools will be looking at other criteria for admission.

For law schools, accepting another, more user-friendly admission test in addition to the LSAT could mean more applicants and a more diverse class — ethnically and academically.

But it could also mean teetering on the brink of noncompliance with standards from the legal education section of the American Bar Association, which contracts with the U.S. Department of Education to accredit law schools. ...

Northwestern's law school had enough students who had taken both tests to gather data, and it hired an outside firm to conduct a study, Rodriguez said. Educational Testing Service, the Princeton, N.J.-based nonprofit that administers the GRE, is conducting a national validity study, which it plans to complete by August, involving more than a dozen law schools, including John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

But many schools, some of which don't have the resources or data to conduct their own studies, are waiting to see what changes the bar association makes in its requirements. ... "Why undertake a somewhat primitive study on our own if a professional one is forthcoming?" said Harold Krent, dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law. ...

Reconsidering how things are done is "appropriate, considering the pace of change today," said University of Illinois College of Law Dean Vikram Amar, whose college is not on the verge of changing any policies. But trepidation can be just as appropriate. "The legal profession is changing, and law schools are adapting to it," Amar said. "But change isn't always progress. ... Law is a discipline that values tradition, and I think there are some good things about that."

• ABA Journal, Northwestern May Consider Accepting GRE Scores As An Alternative To The LSAT
• Above the Law, Another Elite Law School Eyes Accepting The GRE

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• Is Wake Forest Law School's Offer To Pay Students To Take The GRE A U.S. News Rankings Ploy? (Jan. 30, 2016)
• Christine Hurt (BYU), Could The GRE Replace The LSAT? (Feb. 6, 2016)
• Arizona Is First Law School To Admit Students Based On GRE Instead Of LSAT (Feb. 11, 2016)
• WSJ: Law Schools Replace LSAT With GRE To Goose Enrollment (Feb. 23, 2016)
• The First Two Law Schools to Drop the LSAT Could Be Just the Beginning (Feb. 25, 2016)
• The Empire Strikes Back: LSAC Threatens To Expel University Of Arizona Over Use Of GRE In Law School Admissions (May 1, 2016)
• 148 Deans Demand LSAC Rescind Threat To Expel University Of Arizona Over Use Of GRE In Law School Admissions (May 5, 2016)
• The Antitrust Implications Of LSAC's Threatened Expulsion Of University Of Arizona Over Use Of GRE In Law School Admissions (May 8, 2016)
• LSAC Backs Down (For Now) On Threat To Expel University Of Arizona For Use Of GRE In Law School Admissions (May 9, 2016)
• Poll: Majority Of Law Schools Are Not Racing To Follow Arizona In Replacing LSAT With GRE (June 6, 2016)
• Taylor: The GRE Is No Law School Diversity Tool (June 16, 2016)
• University Of Arizona Is 'Preying On Low-Information Prospective Law Students' (June 21, 2016)
• Rick Bales (Dean, Ohio Northern),75% Of Law School Deans Support Arizona's Use Of GRE As Substitute For LSAT, Not Its Use Of 'Misleading Employment Stats' (June 23, 2016)
• The Empire Strikes Back, Part II: LSAC Stops Certifying Matriculant Admissions Data In Response To Law Schools' Use Of GRE (Aug. 4, 2016)
• LSAC Rescinds Threat (For One Year) To Stop Certifying Matriculant Admissions Data In Response To Law Schools' Use Of GRE (Sept. 25, 2016)
• Proposed ABA Accreditation Rule Sets Process To Determine Validity Of GRE, Other LSAT Alternatives In Law School Admissions (Feb. 15, 2017)
• Khan Academy Offers Free LSAT Prep; Is Free Bar Exam Prep Next? (Mar. 3, 2017)
• Harvard Is Second Law School To Admit 1Ls Based On GRE Rather Than LSAT (Mar. 9, 2017)
• NY Times, Will Dropping The LSAT Requirement Create More Miserable Lawyers? (Mar. 19, 2017)
• Bill Henderson (Indiana), U.S. News Eliminates The Rankings Advantage Of The GRE, But Harvard Has Started A 'Quant' Arms Race For Diverse Students Who Will Thrive In A Transformed, Tech-Driven, Disrupted Legal Profession (Apr. 11, 2017)
• LSAC Moves Toward Digital LSAT (Ten Years After MCAT), Says It Was Not Due To Growing Use Of GRE In Law School Admissions (Apr. 20, 2017)
• Harvard Law School, The GRE, And Moneyball (Apr. 26, 2017)
• Facing Competition From GRE, LSAC Allows Applicants To Take LSAT An Unlimited Number Of Times (May 20, 2017)