More Law Schools Ditching LSAT in Favor of GRE

As prospective law students are sitting for the LSAT today, hoping to score high enough to begin law school in the fall, more and more law school have decided to ditch the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) in favor of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

It’s a move that’s seen as helping curb weak interest and plunging enrollments in law schools across the country.

The American Bar Association, which oversees law school admissions guidelines in the United States, requires law schools to either use the LSAT or another test the law school has determined to have “validity” in predicting student success. Law schools that have announced that they will begin accepting GRE scores in lieu of LSAT scores argue that the GRE is a valid substitute to the LSAT.

While law schools initially moved cautiously in deciding whether to accept the GRE, there seems to be both momentum and widespread willingness to drop the LSAT, even at a time when there has been an uptick in LSAT applicants.

The first school to consider the GRE in its admissions decisions was the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, who made the announcement in February 2016.

More than a year passed before a second law school followed Arizona’s lead when Harvard Law School made its announcement in March 2017.

Arizona and Harvard remained the only two law schools to announce acceptance of GRE scores for admissions purposes until just a few months ago.

Since August 2017, a dozen law schools have followed their lead, with Brigham Young University Law School being the latest institution to make the announcement. I expect more and more law schools to make similar announcements in the coming months.

Law schools that have announced accepting GRE scores include:

Law School (Announcement Date, 2018 U.S. News Best Law Schools Rank)

1. University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law (2/16, #48)

2. Harvard Law School (3/17, #3)

3. Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (8/17, #10)

4. Georgetown University Law Center (8/17, #15)

5. George Washington University Law School (8/17, #30)

6. University of Chicago Law School (8/17, #4)

7. University of Hawai'i at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law (9/17, #100)

8. UCLA School of Law (9/17, #15)

9. Washington University School of Law (10/17, #18)

10. Columbia Law School (10/17, #5)

11. St. John's University School of Law (11/17, #72)

12. Texas A&M University School of Law (11/17, #92)

13. Wake Forest University School of Law (11/17, #36)

14. Brigham Young University Law School (11/17, #46)

Would you take the GRE and over the LSAT?