{"id":85662,"date":"2018-10-08T09:59:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T19:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=85662"},"modified":"2020-03-09T14:58:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T00:58:48","slug":"gre-law-school-admissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/10\/08\/gre-law-school-admissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot project extended to accept GRE<\/abbr> for law school admissions"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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From left, Kevin Wrabley, William Morrison and Melissa Miles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Five students are the first to enter the William S. Richardson School of Law<\/a> at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a> without taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n

A two-year change in admissions policy allows prospective students to apply with scores from the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE<\/abbr>) General Test as an alternative to the LSAT<\/abbr>. UH<\/abbr> law school faculty approved a one-year pilot program a year ago, and have extended it for another year.<\/p>\n

Of the 116 first-year students accepted to the UH<\/abbr> law school this fall, five submitted GRE<\/abbr> test scores as part of the selective admissions process.<\/p>\n

Kevin Wrabley<\/strong>, a paralegal and former middle school teacher, said he might not have applied to UH<\/abbr> law school at all if he had been required to take the LSAT<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

“Having the GRE<\/abbr> alternative definitely made a difference in my decision to apply immediately,” said Wrabley. “As a working husband and father, my time was limited, and the GRE<\/abbr> fit my needs a lot better in terms of how often it’s offered.”<\/p>\n

The LSAT<\/abbr> is offered six times a year, while the GRE<\/abbr> General Test can be taken almost weekly.<\/p>\n

The law school faculty approved the pilot study to expand access to legal education for students who were already considering graduate school and who have taken the GRE<\/abbr>, but may not have the time or resources to also take the LSAT<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

Professor Hazel Beh<\/strong><\/a> sees this as a particular strength. “We have been able to attract very high-caliber graduate school students with rich backgrounds in STEM<\/abbr> and social sciences by accepting the GRE<\/abbr>,” said Beh. “These applicants may have been reluctant to take the LSAT<\/abbr>, as preparation for yet another entrance exam may distract them from important work they are already doing in other graduate programs.”<\/p>\n

The law school’s decision to accept the GRE<\/abbr> General Test came after its own validation study in collaboration with Educational Testing Service. Data gathered in 2015 and 2016 showed that GRE<\/abbr> scores were a better predictor of first-year law school grades than undergraduate grades.<\/p>\n

The UH<\/abbr> law school is now accepting applications<\/a> for the 2019 fall semester.<\/p>\n

For the full story, see the law school website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—By Beverly Creamer<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five students are the first to enter the William S. Richardson School of Law without taking the LSAT<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[757,154,9,68],"class_list":["post-85662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-admissions","tag-law","tag-uh-manoa","tag-william-s-richardson-school-of-law","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85662"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113011,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85662\/revisions\/113011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}