Law Schools Begin Accepting GMAT Scores

Question

Pretty rad development:

"Friday, August 30, 2019

As part of a three year pilot study beginning with the fall 2019-2020 application cycle, Berkeley Law will now allow certain applicants to be considered on the basis of a GRE or GMAT score without needing to take the LSAT.

Berkeley Law will accept the GRE and GMAT in some cases to make the process of applying to the J.D. program simpler for those interested in concurrent or combined degree programs, and for the candidates who are most likely to pursue specialized practice fields (for example, in patent law, start-up law, energy law, etc.). These are areas in which Berkeley Law excels, and our goal is to continue to attract top applicants from around the world.

“After careful examination, we determined that while the vast majority of applicants will (and should) take the LSAT, some applicants could reasonably be evaluated on the basis of alternative assessments,” said Kristin Theis-Alvarez, Asst. Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. “Berkeley Law is a public law school with a longstanding commitment to access, to serving the public good, and to developing lawyers and leaders who will tackle our society’s most pressing and complex challenges – now and in the future. This has always meant that we seek to enroll candidates who are outside-of-the-box thinkers, and who want to build a multi-disciplinary toolkit to take forward with them into their careers. As always, our application review remains holistic. Test scores – from any source – are important, but not dispositive.”

23NN · Answer

..COntinued..

Eligibility

Groups of eligible applicants are outlined below, along with examples: 
Concurrent and Combined Degree Program Applicants

Applicants to the J.D. program concurrently applying (in the same application cycle) to another U.C. Berkeley graduate or professional degree program.

Example: Applicant A is applying to both the J.D. program and the MPP program at Goldman for fall 2021, plans to pursue a J.D./MPP, but will (if admitted to both) begin in the MPP program and defer law until fall 2022. The J.D. program will accept the applicant’s GRE score.

Applicants to the J.D. program who, at the time of application submission, are currently enrolled in another U.C. Berkeley graduate or professional degree program and who seek to begin a concurrent degree program the following fall.

Example: Applicant B is a first-year MCP student in the Department of City and Regional Planning. They are applying to the J.D. program in order to begin a concurrent J.D./MCP degree program in fall 2020. The J.D. program will accept the applicant’s GRE score.

Applicants to the J.D. program who, at the time of application submission, are currently enrolled in a degree program eligible to be combined with a J.D. from Berkeley Law, and who seek to begin that combined degree program the following fall.

Example: Applicant C is a first-year Masters of Arts student in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. They are applying to the J.D. program in order to begin a combined J.D./M.A. degree program in fall 2020. The J.D. program will accept the applicant’s GRE score.

Note: An applicant applying to the J.D. program who simply declares an intent to pursue a combined or concurrent degree program, without either already having applied to the other program or without being enrolled in such a program, is not eligible to apply with a GRE or GMAT score.

nightblade354 · Answer

23NN , more law schools are beginning to accept the scores for pilot programs. I spoke to Cornell about this topic earlier this year when I applied. It is truly a fascinating development. The tests, though similar, are radically different in a few ways (chief among them the quant vs. the logic games). If the schools feel this helps broaden their horizons, then I am all for it.

AndrewN · Answer

Do you think,  nightblade354 , that the move is an effort to encourage more applications? I remember having read an article a couple years ago about a similar development, one relevant to this general forum of course, with business schools accepting the GRE® in addition to the GMAT™. The data in that article (which I wish I could find online) showed a decline in the number of overall test-takers for the GMAT™, a trend that in turn affected the number of business school applications. It would make sense to me that money would be involved somewhere. I suppose I could just Google some potential answers, but since you come across LSAT information on a regular basis, I thought I would ask. To put it succinctly, has there been a decline in the number of LSAT test-takers in the past decade or so, and has there been a concurrent decrease in the overall number of law school applications? I am just curious.

Thank you for any insight you may have into the matter.

- Andrew

nightblade354 · Answer

Hi Andrew,

To the best of my knowledge, the number of lsat test takers has increased in recent years, though they are still a far cry away from their highest levels; those tend to occur during recessions. Applications follow a similar trend, so I don’t believe the main reason is to increase competition. Rather I think schools are genuinely curious what would happen if they brought in high-scoring gmat test takers. The quant skills alone, which most lawyers are loathe to develop, adds an interesting wrinkle to their pool of law students.

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AndrewN · Answer

Thank you,  nightblade354 . I was reading more about the trends in  law school applications  and  LSAT administrations . It does appear as if the number of LSAT test-takers has increased, as well as the number of  applicants  to law schools in the U.S., even if the number of overall  applications  dropped by a bit: 1.5%, according to the same U.S. News & World Report source. I wonder if, since the GRE® is a much more broadly administered test, and the GMAT™ also has historically had over 240,000 test-takers per year, this move is a bid to see an uptick in applications. In any case, that is an amusing comment on many aspiring lawyers and their aversion to developing quant skills. For my part as a tutor, I find the LSAT more nuanced, and as much as I enjoy logic puzzles--I used to work through newsstand publications of such puzzles, the ones with the multiple grids that you would use logic to put dots in or x's--I would have to put in a lot of work to solve them as quickly as is necessary on that test. (I even referred students to 7sage in the past for tips on getting faster, but last I checked, a lot of information was restricted.)

Thanks again.

- Andrew

nightblade354 · Answer

7sage had to restrict access because of a legal dispute (I believe) with LSAC. They are a fantastic website, and one that I used myself for my LSAT studies. But yes, most lawyers hate math. Which is all the more ironic because those who do the best on the LSAT come from STEM backgrounds.

EllieElla · Answer

May I know it more.

nightblade354 · Answer

EllieElla  can you clarify your question?

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Law Schools Begin Accepting GMAT Scores

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