Georgetown Is Fourth Law School To Accept GRE For Admissions, Finds It Is Just As Accurate As LSAT In Predicting 1L Grades; LSAC Disagrees, Says 'The Rest Of The Top 14 Will Go Like Lemmings Off The Cliff'

Following up on yesterday's post, Northwestern Is Third Law School To Accept GRE For Admissions, Finds It Is Just As Accurate As LSAT In Predicting 1L Grades:

Don’t Let the LSAT Get You Down — Georgetown Law Admissions Now Accepts the GRE:

You would like to apply to law school, but for whatever reason, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) process is not serving you well. Maybe the LSAT test dates — four dates per year — aren’t ideal. Maybe the problem is financial. You’d also like to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), and the cost of prep classes and fees for multiple standardized tests, on top of applications and other expenses, is a burden. Or maybe you feel that the LSAT does not reflect your skills, in a competitive law school admissions process, as well as the GRE. For some, the dream of Georgetown Law and its peer schools may appear, perhaps unfairly, out of reach. 

Or is it? Georgetown Law hopefuls facing this dilemma may see some relief, since the Law Center will now consider GRE scores — in addition to the LSAT or in place of the LSAT — if applicants wish to submit them.  

“We did a correlation study, which tells us that the GRE is an equally reliable indicator of academic success, if not more predictive than the LSAT,” said Georgetown Law Dean of Admissions Andy Cornblatt.

Georgetown Law Will Accept GRE Scores from Applicants:

Prior to changing its admission policy, Georgetown Law conducted a correlation study that analyzed more than a decade worth of its students’ academic results in relation to test scores. The school found that GRE scores are equally strong predictors of academic success at Georgetown Law as LSAT scores.

Legal Times, Georgetown Joins List of Top Law Schools Using GRE for Admissions:

Kellye Testy, president of the Law School Admission Council, which administers the LSAT, said in an interview Monday that she expects other law schools to follow suit, especially elite ones.

“I think the rest of the top 14 will go like lemmings off the cliff,” she said. “[The council] is in an awkward position because we look defensive of the LSAT in calling for greater quality on the GRE and more process before law schools make the jump. We support innovation, but we want it to be of sound quality, we want it to be fair to students, and we want it to enhance diversity.”

Testy said the law school studies that purport to show that the GRE is just as good of a predictor of first-year law school grades as the LSAT have numerous flaws. Those studies compare the GRE and LSAT scores of law students and graduates who took both tests, along with their first-year grades. But those who gained admission to Harvard, Georgetown or Northwestern’s law schools are already high achievers and likely would perform well on any standardized test, Testy said. Thus it’s unclear, she said, how the existing pool of GRE takers—who have not yet been admitted to law school—would actually fare.

Georgetown said its GRE study looked at more than a decade of student test scores and law school grades and found the alternative test to be an “equally strong predictor” of academic success as the LSAT.