George Washington Discontinues Use Of GRE In Admissions Because It Has Not Done A School-Specific Validation Study

At least 17 accept the GRE in lieu of the LSAT (Arizona, Brooklyn, BYU, Cardozo, Columbia, Florida State, George Washington, Georgetown, Harvard, Hawaii, John Marshall, Northwestern, Pace, St. John's, Texas A&M, Wake Forest, and Washington University), and two law schools allow the GRE in limited circumstances (Chicago (admissions committee may grant LSAT waiver), UCLA (students enrolled in, or applying to, another UCLA graduate program).  George Washington may be the first of these schools to change its mind and no longer accept the GRE:

Above the Law, LSAT Notches Unexpected Victory In Ongoing Slugfest With GRE:

Members of the administration at this law school have changed their minds about accepting the GRE for this application season. ...

We reached out to GW Law to find out what was being done to accommodate the students who relied on their December announcement and a spokesperson had this to say:

In terms of notifying students, we told everyone that applied in an email. We did announce it to all GRE applicants when we decided to discontinue the first week of January, less than four weeks after we started accepting (including the winter break). ...

[W]hy exactly did the school do an about face?

It seems ABA Standard 503 is to blame. Those following along with the ongoing LSAT/GRE saga will remember that ABA Standard 503 requires alternative admissions tests be “valid and reliable,” and whether or not the GRE meets that requirement is an open question. In making their initial announcement accepting the GRE, GW relied on the validity testing done by the Educational Testing Service — the makers of the GRE — which, unsurprisingly, affirmed the validity of the exam. But the school now believes they need to do a school specific validity test, as the GW spokesperson told Above the Law:

[W]e did change our position to accept the GRE in addition to the LSAT because of the ABA requirement to do a school specific site survey. We had not had one done before we made the announcement because ETS had done one and we were told that was okay to use. We then got word that we had to have a school specific study done to make sure we could accept that test. This was a few weeks after we made the initial announcement to accept the GRE. In an abundance of caution we decided we needed to do our own site survey, which we are doing at this moment, and stop accepting the GRE for this admissions cycle. We absolutely plan to accept it next year, provided we are permitted.

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)
• Chicago Law Schools Consider Accepting GRE As Test Alternative To LSAT (May 31, 2017)
• Northwestern Is Third Law School To Accept GRE For Admissions, Finds It Is Just As Accurate As LSAT In Predicting 1L Grades (Aug. 7, 2017)
• 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' (Aug. 8, 2017)
• The GRE Is Shaking Up Law School Admissions (Aug. 9, 2017)
• More On Using The GRE In Law School Admissions (Aug. 11, 2017)
• Do We Really Want To Make It Easier To Go To Law School? (Aug. 17, 2017)
• 25% Of Law Schools Plan To Accept The GRE (Sept. 19, 2017)
• Washington University Is Sixth Law School To Accept GRE For Admissions (Oct. 4, 2017)
• Columbia Is Seventh Law School To Accept GRE For Admissions (Oct. 17, 2017)
• Arizona Deans: It's Time To Rethink The Law School Entrance Exam Monopoly (Oct. 26, 2017)
• ETS Releases Study Establishing Validity Of GRE In Predicting Law School Success, Using Data On 1L Grades From 21 Law Schools (Nov. 1, 2017)
• ABA Council Clears The Way For All Law Schools To Admit Students Based On The GRE (Or To Ignore Admissions Tests Entirely) (Nov. 4, 2017)
• Texas A&M Is Ninth Law School To Accept GRE For Admissions (Nov. 16, 2017)
• Wake Forest Is Tenth Law School To Accept GRE For Admissions (Nov. 16, 2017)
• BYU Is Eleventh Law School To Accept GRE For Admissions (Nov. 21, 2017)
• Can The GRE Cure What Ails Law Schools? (Nov. 30, 2017)
• WSJ: Law Schools Say: Please Come, No LSAT Required (Dec. 6, 2017)
• Kent Syverud And Dan Rodriguez On The GRE/LSAT Debate (Dec. 13, 2017)
• Nick Allard And David Brennen Continue The GRE/LSAT Debate (Dec. 18, 2017)
• John Marshall Is Fifteenth Law School To Accept GRE For Admissions (Feb. 3, 2018)
• Two More Law Schools Admit 1Ls Based On GRE Rather Than LSAT (Feb. 25, 2018)