GRE predictive value works for Wake

The study is over and the news is official: The Wake Forest University School of Law will begin accepting the Graduate Record Exam as an alternative to the Law School Admissions Test effective immediately.

The move makes Wake just the ninth law school in the country — and the first in North Carolina — to accept the GRE as “an additional valid and reliable admission test in the JD admissions process.” Wake was one of the first three schools to begin a validation study of the GRE. School officials say the recently completed study revealed that GRE scores are predictive of first-year law school grades, which correlate to students’ overall success in law school.

The school’s dean, Suzanne Reynolds, called the decision to accept the GRE an effort to expand access to legal education for students who are considering graduate school and have already taken the GRE, but who may not have the time or money to take the LSAT.

“While we remain committed to a small entering class, we are interested in increasing the diversity of our student body, in every respect, including educationally,” Reynolds wrote in a released statement. “As the college of Wake Forest University attracts more and more students with STEM backgrounds and interests, the law school should be prepared, we believe, for an increasingly educationally diverse student body, with students who want to pursue a law degree, perhaps in combination with another graduate degree.”

The GRE, used by most U.S. graduate schools to determine an applicant’s readiness for graduate-level work, assesses a student’s verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing.

Reynolds added that the school will continue to assess a prospective student’s total body of work in its admissions process, and that she expects that the “vast majority” of applicants will continue to take the LSAT.

“But we believe that legal education and the legal profession are well-served by offering another standardized test in the admissions process,” Reynolds said.