While it can be useful to an extent as one indicator among other indicators, the LSAT should not be as definitive a factor in admissions as it presently often is.
Biggest Factor: Benefit or Bane?
LSAT’s are generally the single biggest factor in the admissions process to law schools. I don’t think though that the LSAT accurately assesses necessarily who will be a good (or great) member of the legal profession or not.
However, the LSAT has turned into the biggest measuring stick of whether a candidate deserves admission into a law school. Law schools compete with each other over their LSAT averages. High LSAT averages have turned into (they weren’t that way before) a badge of elite status for law schools.
I think that usage of this test is unfortunate as the LSAT is quite limited in evaluating whether one will be a good (or great) member of the legal profession (or whatever else graduates choose to do with their law degree). 3 and half hours should not make as major a pronouncement to your future law school destination and set of opportunities thereafter. The present LSAT-ocracy and large disparity of opportunity between law schools (especially in certain areas of the legal profession such as large law firms and judicial clerkships, especially federal clerkships) are not an ideal state of affairs in my opinion.
Harrison Rainie of U.S. News and World Reports seems to agree: “Of course, many schools now use the LSAT as an all-purpose indicator of an applicant’s worth. This was not what the test’s creators intended. Devised in 1947-1948, it was supposed to help schools weed out the most unqualified candidates and predict the kind of grades students would get in their first-year courses, according to legal historian William P. LaPiana. A crucial decision was made at the outset that the test would not contain questions probing applicants’ general knowledge–a clear signal, LaPiana says, that the creators hoped the profession would be opened up to working-class men who had shown their talent and courage during World War II. But by the late 1960s, when applications to elite schools exploded, the test that began as a way to help more young people prove they belonged in law school became a tool to exclude many applicants. The top schools felt they needed a comprehensive ranking scheme, and the LSAT became one of its key elements, LaPiana says.” (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/gradrank/lawdeans.htm)
In a big piece of breaking news (Feb. 1st, 2001), the Law School Admissions Council is re-thinking the place of the LSAT score in admissions. The Law School Admission Council has always been responsible for making and administering the Law School Admissions Test, the oh-so-important exam which often determines who gets admitted to which law school. What the LSAC does is a bit more interesting to me after I took a “Law and Education” class from Prof. Dr. Victor Rosenblum, former president of the LSAC.
We find this out further about what this leading law school umbrella organization (LSAC) is doing about the LSAT: “Now, the Newtown, Pa.-based organization is saying that the results of its test may carry more weight than they should. Last month, the LSAC unveiled a $10 million, five-year effort to encourage law schools to examine and rethink the way they handle the admissions process. Known as the ‘Initiative to Advance Education on the LSAT,’… the LSAC is encouraging law schools to avoid the traditional numbers-only approach to admissions and not to rely as heavily on LSAT scores. The project, the largest ever funded by the LSAC for such an initiative, was approved unanimously by the organization’s board of trustees in early December. The LSAC board has already approved several areas of the initiative, which is still in its planning stages. Among the ideas in the proposal is support for the Alternative Models Implementation Project, which would de-emphasize numbers-based admission policies and broaden admissions criteria.”
“The plan also calls for an annual national training workshop for law school admission officials, augmentation of the LSAC faculty outreach program and a legal profession education campaign. These three aspects of the project educate law school officials, professors, lawyers, judges and legislators about the proper use of the LSAT and the importance of other admissions criteria.”
(“LSAC Commits $10 Million to Help Schools Examine Admission Policies” by Rick Haggerty in The Legal Intelligencer, Feb. 1, 2001.)
So through the initiative of the LSAC, the LSAT may no longer reign as the biggest factor in law school admissions…then again, its vaunted place in the minds of many admissions committees may fade slowly. Also, we’ll see if the test itself is changed or not.
This is the 3rd in a series of articles on the LSAT. For more, check out “The Magic Ticket to Law School” and “If You Want to Go to Law School,” also written by yours truly.