The University of Arizona Law School was the first law school to announce acceptance of the GRE in place of the LSAT ® back in 2016. After piloting a program in 2017, Harvard Law School also began accepting the GRE for law school admission in 2018. Once the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted to allow law schools to accept applicants' scores from the GRE in lieu of the LSAT ® in November of 2021, a larger number of law schools followed suit. The result? There are now 123 ABA-accredited law schools accepting the GRE, up from 26 law schools in May of 2019.

According to Harvard Law admissions in a 2019 panel discussion with pre-law advisors, the acceptance rate among GRE-only applicants mirrored that of all law school applicants to their program. Many of the schools accepting the GRE for more than one admissions cycle have cited studies showing that GRE performance is proving to be a reliable indicator of their students' first-year law school grades. Administrators at each school say that accepting GRE scores will make legal education accessible to students with a wider variety of academic, geographic, and financial backgrounds.

GRE scores for law school admissions

With the ABA-approval of the GRE as a viable alternative to the LSAT for admission, the Council offers the following guidelines to admissions offices under Standard 503:

The Council reminds schools that the use of test scores to make admissions decisions is subject to Standard 501(a)’s requirement that a school adhere to “sound admission policies and practices,” and that a law school may not admit applicants who do not “appear capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the bar.” The Council also reminds schools that although Standard 503 does not prescribe the weight that law schools must give to an applicant's test score, it does require law schools to use admissions tests in a manner consistent with the test developer's current guidelines regarding the proper use of the results.

At The Princeton Review, we continue to follow the action and include questions on these policy changes in our annual survey of law schools. Our goal is always to provide students with the most accurate, comprehensive, and timely information they need to achieve their academic dreams.

Read More: How Many Times Can You Take the LSAT?

Quick Facts about Law School Admission & GRE Scores

  • University of Arizona's policy states that if an applicant has taken the LSAT, the score must be submitted. So you can't take the LSAT and the GRE and then choose which score to submit. If you opt to take the GRE instead of the LSAT, you must direct ETS to submit your GRE score to the university, a separate step outside of the LSAC Credential Assembly Service.
  • Keep in mind that LSAC will report all LSAT scores from the last 5 years, whereas the ETS ScoreSelect service allows you to only report the GRE scores from the last 5 years that you choose.
  • Once a school goes through an admissions cycle of accepting GRE scores, they will report their median score ranges in the ABA Standard 509 Information Report. That means as an applicant, you can begin to understand the score ranges of their admitted students for both the LSAT and the GRE, and what score you will likely need to gain admittance.
LSATGRE
Format In-center testing through Prometric, with limited exceptions, using your LawHub credentials. Can be taken at a test center, or from home if you meet the equipment and environment requirements.
Time Approximately 2.5 hours, including one 10-minute break Approximately 2 hours
Topics Reading Comprehension and Logical Reasoning (note that the Argumentative Writing section is taken remotely on a separate test date) Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning (math), and Analytical Writing
Date There are specific blocks of time across 8 months in which testing is offered Almost any day of the year
Fee $253 (plus a $219 subscription to the Credential Assembly Service, which is required for application to most law schools $220 (plus you may still need a CAS subscription)
Accepted by The vast majority of law schools in the United States
123 law schools, see list above