UR Law class of 2014 will be first required to take LSATs

Good grades alone will no longer suffice for automatic admission into the T.C. Williams School of Law for Honors Law program participants, Associate Dean of Admissions Michelle Rahman said.

The Honors Law program was established for students of exceptional academic merit with an interest in law when they applied to undergraduate school at the University of Richmond. About 200 students per class work closely with UR Law throughout their undergraduate careers, and if they have a 3.5 GPA at the end of fall semester senior year, they are automatically admitted into the law school.

The American Bar Association has established a new standard that requires every law school applicant to have completed the LSAT to demonstrate the potential for success in the law school, Rahman said.

Starting with the class of 2014, the law school will require applicants from the Honors Law program to take the LSAT, Rahman said. Their LSAT results must at least match the median score of the previous year's entering class, she said. In other words, they have to score higher than 49 percent of the students enrolled in the class before them. The same goes for their GPA, rather than the 3.5 standard.

The median scores of the law school's entering class in fall 2008 were 161 on the LSAT and a 3.34 GPA. In 2008 113 students out of the 225 Honors Law program participants were eligible for guaranteed admittance into the law school.

Rahman said the new policy would not increase the law school's admissions credentials because more students with median scores would result in a more average record for each class.

"We see this as a partnership with the university and a demonstration of our belief in the strength of curriculum and the education that University of Richmond students receive," she said.

Contact reporter Avril Lighty at avril.lighty@richmond.edu