Aptitude tests typically required to enter law schools have been postponed over the past two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
That's driven Arizona State University's law school to announce that it will accept applicants who have not taken the LSAT or the GRE graduate school entry exam continuing its effort to remove barriers to legal education.
Doug Sylvester, the dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, said the school already had its Master of Legal Studies Honors Program, as an alternative available for students who didn't get high enough LSAT scores to immediately get into the juris doctor program. The program allows students to try out law school and if they perform well in their classes, they can enter the juris doctor program the following semester.
The ASU law school is now more flexibile for incoming law students after LSAT officials said they weren’t sure if they could provide remote testing during the pandemic, the school decided to no longer require that test or the GRE for admission into its alternative program as well as its juris doctor program.
"The best test to determine whether you are going to be a great law student is whether you are a great law student," Sylvester said. "We think this is something that we want to continue going on into the future.”
In the four years that the law school has offered the Master of Legal Studies Honors program, Sylvester said a third of those students have gone on to enter the juris doctor program and become successful lawyers.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Doug Sylvester's name and the clarify new information provided by ASU about test postponement.
