Law Schools

Another Law School Changes Course On The LSAT

University at Buffalo School of Law will now take the GRE in lieu of the LSAT.

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Move over LSAT, there’s a new test in town. In yet another blow to the dominance of the LSAT as the law school admissions exam of choice, last week the University at Buffalo School of Law announced they would accept the GRE in lieu of the LSAT for admissions beginning with the fall 2019 application season.

As has become common with law schools accepting the GRE, the administration of the school is touting the increase in access this brings:

“We are very pleased to take another step forward toward eliminating barriers to access to education,” says Dean Aviva Abramovsky. “The cost of standardized tests can be very expensive. Students who have not made a final decision regarding their educational path must often take more than one test, or are forced to make a difficult decision regarding which test they can afford to take.

“As New York State’s law school, we have always been committed to expanding pathways to a legal education. This is just one more way for us to do so.”

The GRE is rapidly gaining acceptance at law schools around the country. Those currently accepting the GRE are: Harvard, Columbia, St. John’s, Brooklyn, Northwestern, Arizona, Georgetown, Hawaii, Washington University in St. Louis, Wake Forest, Cardozo School of Law, Texas A&M, BYU, John Marshall Law School, Florida State, Pace, UCLA, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Penn, USC, Cornell, and NYU allow applicants to take the GRE. (University of Chicago and University of Georgia both allow candidates in dual degree programs to skip the LSAT.) Though this is but a small percentage of the total number of law schools in the country, pretty soon even more schools will get in on the good ship GRE. According to a survey by Kaplan Test Prep, a full 25 percent of law schools have plans in the works to accept the GRE.

Amid this tumultuous testing landscape the American Bar Association, the body responsible for law school accreditation, hasn’t officially weighed in on the use of the GRE in admissions. ABA accreditation Standard 503 currently mandates that law schools require admissions testing, and that the test used be “valid and reliable,” but what that means for the GRE is a matter of debate.  Earlier this year the ABA considered a resolution that would elimination the testing requirement in admission. However, in August, the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar officially withdrew that resolution before the ABA House of Delegates. Since then, there’s been no official word from the accreditation body.

Congratulations to the wannabe Buffalo Law students that no longer are required to take the LSAT.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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