Georgetown University Law Center said in a statement Monday that it will start accepting the Graduate Record Examination as well as the LSAT.
Prospective students for the 2018 entering class will be able to submit scores from either or both tests. In March, Harvard Law School announced that it would change admissions procedures and stop requiring the Law School Admission Test (LSAT).While the LSAT remains an important admissions tool, we also believe that it is well past time that the legal profession open wide the doors to an even more diverse population that better reflects American society as a whole,” Dean of Admissions Andy Cornblatt said in the release. “We think that allowing the use of the GRE will help us to accomplish that goal.”The Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law also announced on Monday a similar change. Its shift will begin in fall 2018 and impact students seeking admission for fall 2019. [caption id="attachment_3352" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
Testing requirements have changed for Georgetown Law School[/caption]
About 9,000 prospective students apply to Georgetown Law’s JD program each year, according to the school.
With the move, Georgetown Law said it was trying to make it easier for “highly-qualified applicants who might otherwise not apply” to the school. Previously, costs could be a concern for potential applicants, and the LSAT testing schedule is “far more restrictive than the GRE."
Harvard Law’s change was a pilot program. Harvard was not the first law school in the United States to make such a move. The University of Arizona College of Law let applicants send in GRE scores instead of LSAT scores last year. "The LSAT was developed by law schools and is designed specifically for the law school experience," said Kellye Testy, President and CEO of the Law School Admission Council. "It prioritizes the skills that one might need to succeed both in the law school classroom and in the legal profession, and emphasizes areas such as critical reasoning and reading comprehension. The GRE, on the other hand, was created for a general graduate audience. It tests verbal skills as well as math skills."