The ABA regularly holds meetings to consider changes to its requirements for law schools. After all, law schools must meet certain requirements in order to be ABA-approved.
The ABA recently proposed allowing law schools to admit 10% of their students without taking the LSAT. That's right - if this proposal passes, you'd be able to get into an ABA-approved law school without having to take the LSAT at all.
Why would the ABA do this?
Maybe it has something to do with the low number of LSAT takers these days, even though that number
increased slightly in February.
For those of you who can't stand the LSAT, this probably sounds too good to be true.
Well, it may be. First of all, keep in mind that this change may not become reality. If it does, though, you'd have to fall into one of two groups in order to get out of the LSAT requirement. You'd have to:
1. Be an undergrad at the same university as the law school you're applying to, or
2. Get another degree
while you're in law school
So, these changes would only apply to an incredibly small number of people. Or they could have the effect of changing applicants' behavior. Maybe they'd incentivize you to go to law school at the same university where you do your undergrad. Or to go for multiple degrees simultaneously (and it's not easy to do anything else while you're in law school).
Neither is necessarily a good idea, but I'm guessing that some people really do want to avoid taking the LSAT that much.
There are a few other requirements, too. All are included below, in the actual text from the ABA document.
It's from the American Bar Association, Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Interpretation 503-3, Explanation of Changes (
PDF, page 4):
The proposed Interpretation provides that a law school may admit no more than 10% of an
entering class without requiring the LSAT from students in an undergraduate program of the same institution as the J.D. program; and/or students seeking the J.D. degree in combination with a degree in a different discipline. Applicants admitted must have scored at the 85th percentile nationally, or above, on a standardized college or graduate admissions test, specifically the ACT, SAT, GRE, or GMAT; and must have ranked in the top 10% of their undergraduate class through six semesters of academic work, or achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above through six semesters of academic work.