LSAT testing option not available on campus

While the Law School Admission Test is one of the anxiety-provoking exams many University upperclassmen prepare for and worry about, they have to go elsewhere to actually take it. The test is administered four times per year at hundreds of locations around the globe, according to the website of the Law School Admission Council, but it is not given on Princeton's campus.

While test preparation centers for the LSAT do exist nearby, such as the Princeton Review's center on Nassau Street, there is not an actual testing site at the University.

Instead, students wishing to take the exam can travel to either Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. or to Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Stephanie Biedermann, a senior who took the LSAT last October at Rider, did not find the travel to another university a grand inconvenience.

Still, when she was looking at the available test center sites in New Jersey, she was a little taken aback by the fact that there was no site on campus. "I thought it was odd," Biedermann said.

"It's at eight in the morning," Biedermann said, and having to worry about a "last-minute carpool" makes the experience more stressful, Biedermann said.

After arriving at the site and seeing that nearly 90 percent of the test-takers were Princeton students, Biedermann wondered, "Why in the world is there not one [site] in Princeton?"

Douglas Rosenthal '04, who took the exam as a junior, said "feeling comfortable" for the exam is an important factor and "it is comforting to know where the test is going to be" — having a site on campus would make the site easier to find.

Having a site in closer proximity "lets you sleep in" Rosenthal said, pointing out another benefit of having a Princeton testing center.

However, the director of Career Service did not echo the students' concerns. "It's not an issue," said Beverly Hamilton-Chandler.

Hamilton-Chandler said she has not been approached with any requests for a testing site at the University.

"They don't seem to have a problem," Chandler said about Princeton students who have taken the exam. "We've never opted to pursue it."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

In the grand scheme of things, the lack of a testing site is not a major problem, said Manzili Davis '06, president of the Pre-Law Society. Still, "in a large school like Princeton" with many students applying to law school, Davis said one would assume that there would be a site on campus.

"It's a onetime thing," Biedermann said of taking the LSAT, which test-takers are reluctant to retake as scores may be averaged. The Law School Admission Council must see all score reports, not only the highest score reports, according to the LSAC website.

Because most people only take the LSAT once, "it's not a pressing thing for you personally," Biedermann said, suggesting why there has been little to no push to get a center on campus.

It is not a situation which students know how to change, Rosenthal said. Like Biedermann, Rosenthal said, "because you only take the test once" there is not as great an impetus to try to move a center on campus.

The LSAT is a half-day standardized test required for admission to the 202 law schools that are members of the Law School Admission Council. The exam tests reading and verbal skills, among other factors law schools use to assess prospective students.