Why the LSAT Should (or Shouldn’t) Be Removed & What to Replace It With

Joe Maney*

History of the LSAT

The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) will turn seventy-seven this year.¹ In 1947 at Cambridge University, the Deans of Rutgers, Northwestern, Syracuse, Stanford, Cornell, the University of Southern California, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, and Harvard, attended a meeting organized by Frank H. Bowles of Columbia University to create a standardized test meant to aid in law school admissions.² Bowles goals when creating the test were to create a standardized test that (1) had high predictive value (at least .70), (2) was a measure of capacity to study law, (3) was highly reliable, (4) was no more than one and a half hours in length, (5) had an observable relation to the study of law, (6) had easy-to-interpret results, and (7) was low cost.³ And thus the LSAT was created (kind of), the original test has since been revised.⁴ The form that most are familiar with today, consisting of logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, reading comprehension, and writing sections, was created in 1991.⁵ There is debate as to whether the LSAT has achieved Bowles’s goals.⁶ And beyond that, critics have argued that the LSAT inhibits diversity.⁷ Nonetheless, the LSAT has been a crucial part of the application process for law school for nearly eighty years. However, some schools, such as Harvard and Yale have moved away from the test.⁸ The question remains, should law schools get rid of the LSAT?

Argument for the LSAT

In evaluating the LSAT under the criteria it set out to achieve, it has done well. The LSAT was meant to evaluate students’ aptitude for law.⁹ However, it does not evaluate the capacity or willingness to do the work of law school.¹⁰ The LSAT is often taken together with undergraduate GPA because, together law schools can, in two numbers, have an idea of a student’s likelihood of success in law school.

Correlation to law school success – The LSAT never reached Bowles’s lofty goal of a correlation coefficient of .70, but the LSAT does have the highest correlation coefficient of any individual statistic that is used in admissions, .41.¹¹ The LSAT does seem to have some ability to predict law school success.

Administrability – The LSAT is easily administered. While many would scoff at a three-hour exam, it is an exceedingly short test to determine aptitude when compared to an undergraduate GPA or accumulating work experience and letters of recommendation for a holistic admissions standard.

Easy-to-interpret results – The LSAT also provides universal results that all law schools can interpret. LSAT scores increase in comparison to law schools’ national rankings.¹² For better or worse, law schools have placed weight on the LSAT and that shows in their admissions. The LSAT produces a single number that schools can assess aptitude with in a relatively predictable manner.

Cost – The LSAT costs $222.¹³ While expensive for a single test, it is a reasonable cost for those with aspirations of attending law school. Acknowledging that the price of the LSAT can be prohibitive, the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) has created a fee waiver program as well to ensure the cost of the test is not a barrier.¹⁴ If anything, there is a concern that the LSAC has created a business out of law school applications by monopolizing applications through their program.

While the LSAT never became the end-all-be-all test for evaluating applicants it hoped to be, it has proven to be a helpful data point in applications and a predictable indicator for aptitude to practice law. The LSAT should, as it is, be taken with other data points to ensure that students also have the capacity and willingness to do the work of law school, but for its current purpose the LSAT seems to be the most effective tool available to law schools.

The Argument Against the LSAT

Holistic evaluation – While GPA is widely used in addition to the LSAT, admissions’ considerations often stop there. Proponents of doing away with the LSAT see benefit in not reducing applicants to two numbers. The University of Massachusetts interviews every applicant to their law school.¹⁵ Processes that forego the LSAT can focus on evaluating drive, dedication, perseverance, and heart—a focus on the willingness and capacity for law school over aptitude.

Accommodating non-traditional candidates – While the LSAT has the highest correlation to first year success in law school of any single number, it still has a relatively low correlation (only .41). There are many potentially successful candidates who do not get into law school because of the LSAT. The United States is founded on the constitution, the law, and it is a disservice to have the legal profession be unrepresentative of the people of America. Removing the LSAT will permit applicants from all walks of life to enter law school.

Ease on applicants – While it takes years to accumulate, filling out a resume places less emphasis on a single test for applicants. In fact, the emphasis on the LSAT undermines applicants’ past accomplishments and reduces them to a couple of numbers, one of which—the LSAT—is acquired in one day. The LSAT is also administered only a handful of times per year.¹⁶ Removing the LSAT creates less barriers for applicants and reduces the stress of applying to law school.

The LSAT by its own creation only indicates an aptitude for law and not a capacity or willingness to work. Law schools have become too reliant on the LSAT, sacrificing more thorough processes for filling their schools with students who will succeed, and more importantly, are representative of the country.

A Note on Diversity

The ABA resubmitted a proposal to end the LSAT requirement or any other standardized test by the end of 2025. Proponents of ending the testing requirement claim that the LSAT reduces diversity as white and Asian students do better than other races on the test.¹⁷ Those for keeping the LSAT claim that diversity would suffer if the LSAT requirement were removed. It is unclear which side is right and, in the face of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFFA) v. President & Fellows of Harvard College,¹⁸ the debate will likely continue for many years. This blog does not attempt to determine whether the LSAT promotes or harms diversity, but it is clear that diversity is a core issue when evaluating whether to keep the LSAT.

Alternatives to the LSAT

The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) – The GRE is accepted by several law schools in place of the LSAT. The GRE evaluates testers’ analytical writing, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning.¹⁹ The GRE takes approximately two hours while the LSAT takes approximately three hours. The GRE costs $220 to take²⁰— two dollars less than the LSAT. The GRE however, has less of a correlation to first year success in law school²¹ and is not designed specifically for law school admissions.²² The GRE does however offer one benefit to applicants; they may take one test that can be used to apply to other graduate programs, including law school.²³

Undergraduate GPA – It is slightly deceiving to list this as an alternative, as undergraduate GPA is already one of the most highly weighted factors in law school admissions processes.²⁴ Schools have not disclosed how much weight they place on GPA and the LSAT,²⁵ but GPA is very important in the application process and was used since before the LSAT was created.²⁶ Undergraduate GPA varies widely by school and major and has a lower correlation between first year success at law school than the LSAT.²⁷ GPA will always be a relevant consideration as an indicator of capacity and willingness to work and that is why it is already considered in admissions.

Interviews – The University of Massachusetts opts to interview every applicant and does not require an LSAT score to apply. The goal is to gain a broader view of applicants and attempt to discern whether students will have success in law school. Interviewing students may provide an admissions process that more strongly predicts law school success than the LSAT, and if so then it should become the norm. Interviewing all applicants is, however, more difficult and time-consuming. There is no indication that it is a better method for identifying successful applicants.

Apprenticeships – How about an alternative to law school entirely? There are many professions that utilize apprenticeships in which people can demonstrate competency and develop skills on the job.²⁸ Law firms could bring in young people (with or without a college education) to work as paralegals or legal assistants and those who excel would be able to participate in apprenticeships to become attorneys. This system would allow law firms to evaluate potential lawyers first-hand and determine who truly has the aptitude, capacity for work, and willingness to work as a lawyer and not just law school.

Conclusion

The LSAT has been around for nearly eighty years and appears as though it will last at least a little while longer. There are already law schools that have begun moving away from the LSAT and more could follow suit.²⁹ Perhaps schools should not so readily discard the test because it has flaws. Or maybe it is time to rethink the law school admissions process. Time will tell, but before making any changes the law profession should be sure that they have considered the pros, cons, and alternatives to the LSAT.

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* Joe Maney, J.D. Candidate, University of St. Thomas School of Law Class of 2025 (Associate Editor).

1. William P. LaPiana, A History of the Law School Admissions Council and the LSAT, Keynote Address at 1998 LSAC Annual Meeting, 6 (1998). ↩︎
2. Id. ↩︎
3. Id. at 1. ↩︎
4. History of the LSAT, Manhattan Review, https://www.manhattanreview.com/lsat-history/ (last visited Feb. 16, 2024). ↩︎
5. Types of LSAT Questions, LSAC, https://www.lsac.org/lsat/prepare/types-lsat-questions (last visited Feb. 16, 2024). ↩︎
6. Interview Lani Guinier, Frontline, PBS, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/interviews/guinier.html (last visited Feb. 16, 2024). ↩︎
7. Karen Sloan, ABA Will Try yet Again to Eliminate LSAT Rule, Reuters (Feb. 17, 2023, 5:22 PM CST), https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/aba-will-try-yet-again-eliminate-lsat-rule-2023-02-17/#:~:text=That%20could%20disadvantage%20minority%20applicants,too%20heavily%20on%20those%20scores. ↩︎
8. David Merson, Law Schools That Don’t Require the LSAT in 2024, Juris Education (Jan. 29, 2024), https://www.juriseducation.com/blog/law-schools-that-dont-require-the-lsat#p2. ↩︎
9. LaPiana, supra note 1 at 2. ↩︎
10. LaPiana, supra note 1 at 2. ↩︎
11. Lisa Anthony Stilwell, Susan P. Dalessandro, & Lynda M. Reese, Predictive Validity of the LSAT: A National Summary of the 2001–2002 Correlation Studies 5 (2003), https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20070621083035/http://www.lsacnet.org/research/Predictive-Validity-of-the-LSAT-National-Summary-of-the-2001%962002-Correlation-Studies.pdf. ↩︎
12. David Merson, Top 100 Law Schools | Average LSAT Scores & GPA, Juris Education (Oct. 2, 2023), https://www.juriseducation.com/blog/lsat-scores-for-law-school#:~:text=a%20competitive%20applicant.-,What%20Is%20the%20Average%20LSAT%20Score%20for%20Law%20School%3F,schools%20is%20about%20151%2D152. ↩︎
13. About the LSAT, The Princeton Review, https://www.princetonreview.com/law/lsat-information#:~:text=It%20costs%20%24222%20to%20take,Additional%20score%20reports%20cost%20%2445 (last visited Feb. 16, 2024). ↩︎
14. Staff Writers, You Don’t Have to Pay for Law School Prep, Affordable Colleges (May 18, 2023), https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/affordable-lsat-prep-resources/#:~:text=LSAT%20Fee%20Waiver&text=The%20waivers%20cover%20both%20the,have%20applied%20for%20DACA%20protections. ↩︎
15. No LSAT Required, Massachusetts School of Law, https://www.mslaw.edu/no-lsat-required/ (last visited Feb. 16, 2024). ↩︎
16. The Princeton Review, supra note 13. ↩︎
17. Sloan, supra note 7. ↩︎
18. See Students for Fair Admissions, Inc v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023) (finding that affirmative action in college admissions is unconstitutional in a consolidated appeal). ↩︎
19. What is the GRE?, Kaplan, https://www.kaptest.com/gre/what-is-the-gre (last visited Feb. 16, 2024). ↩︎
20. Id. ↩︎
21. David M. Klieger, Brent Bridgeman, Richard J. Tannenbaum, Frederick A. Cline, & Margarita Olivera-Aguilar, The Validity of GRE General Test Scores for Predicting Academic Performance at U. S. Law Schools 9 (2018). ↩︎
22. Kaplan, supra note 19. ↩︎
23. Kaplan, supra note 19. ↩︎
24. Gabriel Kuris, 6 Deciding Factors in Law School Admissions, U.S. News (Jan. 17, 2022), https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/law-admissions-lowdown/articles/deciding-factors-in-law-school-admissions. ↩︎
25. The Weight of the LSAT in Law School Applications, Manhattan Review, https://www.manhattanreview.com/lsat-role-in-application/ (last visited Feb. 16, 2024). ↩︎
26. LaPiana, supra note 1 at 5. ↩︎
27. Stilwell, supra note 11. ↩︎
28. See APPRENTICESHIP INDUSTRIES, U.S. Dept. of Labor, https://www.apprenticeship.gov/apprenticeship-industries (last visited Feb. 16, 2024). ↩︎
29. Merson, supra note 8. ↩︎