GRE vs. LSAT: 5 Things to Think About

Large legal schools, such as Northwestern, Georgetown, Harvard, and the University of Arizona, have decided to accept either the LSAT or the GRE as part of your law school application. So you can cross "prepare for and take the LSAT" off your list of law school application tasks, right? Not so quickly. Here are a number of things to bear in mind:

1. You Will Most Likely Still be Required to Take the LSAT

Unless you are solely applying to Northwestern, Georgetown, Harvard, and/or the University of Arizona, you must submit an LSAT score to all other schools. Most students apply to multiple schools in certain geographic areas. So, if you want to apply to the University of Chicago in Illinois, George Washington University in Washington, Boston University in Massachusetts, or Arizona State University in Arizona (or any of the other 190+ schools), you must still take the LSAT.

2. You Cannot Withhold Your LSAT Score

If you take the GRE and the LSAT, and rock the GRE but bomb the LSAT, law schools will see your LSAT score. You can’t only send the score you want to the schools you want. Because law schools will still require you to send your Credential Assembly Service report, compiled by the Law School Admission Council—the organization that writes and administers the LSAT—you will not be able to withhold your LSAT score.

3. Law Schools That Accept the GRE Will Not be Able to Ignore Your LSAT Score

Law schools will be required to submit the LSAT and GRE scores of every student it admits to the American Bar Association. And those scores are weighted heavily in the annual law school rankings. Since law schools will be held accountable to your LSAT score—even if submitted alongside a GRE score—so will you. Certainly a great GRE score could mitigate against a weaker LSAT score, but it will not be overlooked entirely.

4. We Do Not (Yet) Know What A “Good” GRE Score is For Law School Admissions

Because this is so new, law schools do not know what scores will be competitive for their schools. It’s likely that the percentile rule will apply, meaning, if a school’s median LSAT score is a 90th percentile score (a 164, scored on a 120-180 scale), a competitive GRE score may likely be a 90th percentile score (a 162, scored on a 130-170 scale), but that may very well change—and quickly.

5. The ABA Might Tell Law Schools They Have to Use the LSAT

The American Bar Association makes all the rules law schools must follow. Currently, law schools can determine for themselves if they want to take the GRE too, if they jump through a few hoops. The ABA is considering a rule change that would close that loophole for schools, and make them the sole arbiter of what standardized test(s) law schools must/can use.