Starting this fall the Harvard Law School will accept the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in lieu of the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). The change is a part of its strategy to expand the law school, domestically and internationally.
"Harvard Law School is continually working to eliminate barriers as we search for the most talented candidates for law and leadership," Martha Minow, dean of the school, said in a statement released on Harvard Law's website. "Preparing for and taking both the GRE and the LSAT is unaffordable for many students. All students benefit when we can diversify our community in terms of academic background, country of origin, and financial circumstances."
Harvard Law School completed a study earlier this year in accordance with the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar accreditation standards, comparing the GRE and LSAT scores of current and former Harvard law students who took both tests. It was discovered that the GRE is equally valid to the LSAT for predicting first-year grades.
The University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law currently accepts the GRE as an entrance exam. The school's dean, Marc Miller, told the ABA Journal that he thought the GRE was as good or better as the LSAT for reliability in predictions.
Jeff Thomas, executive director of Kaplan Test Prep's prelaw programs thinks that the number of people taking GRE is likely to increase over the next few months. However, he advised people thinking about law school to continue taking the LSAT, unless their only application choices are Harvard Law School or the University of Arizona.
Additionally, over the past few years, law schools in the U.S. have experienced declining applications and enrollments, leading to the closing or merging of some law schools. While Harvard Law School is not endangered under such categories, other law schools may see the GRE as a potential option to grow their applicant pools and to diversify their student bodies.
