Law schools across the country are reverting to their old ways when it comes to admissions.
On July 31st, the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted to terminate the LSAT Exemption Plan.
Since its inception, several schools have taken part in the program. The program allowed a handful of institutions to have up to 10 percent of their incoming class consist of students who did not sit for the Law School Admission Test.
To qualify, students needed a 3.5 or higher undergraduate grade-point average and must have scored in the 85th percentile or higher on either the SAT or the ACT when originally applying to schools for their undergraduate degree.
The original reasoning behind the creation of the LSAT Exemption Plan was to keep undergraduates on campus, while also saving applicants time and money on LSAT test prep and on the actual exam. However the plan was limited from the beginning as it was only available to law school programs attached to broader universities.
As of now, all students applying to law schools must take the LSAT exam to be considered a legitimate applicant.