Is the LSAT Going to Become Optional?
According to a story yesterday in the National Law Journal, the American Bar Association (ABA) is seriously considering removing the rule that all ABA accredited law schools require their applicants to have taken an entrance exam.

In English, that means the ABA is considering making the LSAT optional for JD candidates.

What this means for you: probably not a whole lot. If the ABA ends up making the LSAT optional as their requirement for law schools, which seems like it has a fair chance of happening, law schools themselves are still overwhelmingly likely to keep it as a requirement. For better or worse, the LSAT is the best predictor of law school success of any of the factors that are enclosed in your application. If law schools removed it as a requirement, they would be willingly blinding themselves to their best chance of knowing if you’ll successfully make it through school.

In other words, it’s very likely you’re still going to have to take the LSAT if you want to get into any credible law school. If decent law schools stopped requiring the LSAT, they’d have your GPA and a bunch of nice letters about you to determine whether or not you had the right stuff to get through fairly rigorous legal training. Which, considering how easy it is to get decent grades as a History major, is probably not enough to satisfy any credible law school’s due diligence.

The ABA’s move would simply make it optional for law schools to require the LSAT. And like that time you had the option of stabbing yourself in the eyes, most law schools will almost certainly say no in response.