The Latest Law School To Accept The GRE

Another day, another law school accepts the GRE.
The University of Buffalo School of Law is the latest law school to accept the GRE in lieu of the LSAT for admissions.
“We are very pleased to take another step forward toward eliminating barriers to access to education,” Dean Aviva Abramovsky says in a press release. “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.”
Increasing Accessibility
A number of law schools have chosen to open up admissions to the GRE in hopes of increasing accessibility to a legal education.
For one, the GRE is offered almost every day of the year at more than 1,000 testing centers, whereas the LSAT is given out four times a year (Since mid-2018, however, LSAC has planned to offer the exam seven times annually).
Additionally, the GRE is computer-delivered whereas the LSAT is paper-based.
“For us as an industry to require a test that only qualifies them for law school might not be realistic anymore,” Eulas Boyd, dean of admissions at Brooklyn Law School, tells The Economist. “It’s pretty short-sighted for us to say that you need to prove your fidelity to a legal career by taking the LSAT now and preparing for months, as opposed to a test that could potentially qualify you for several careers.”
Broadening The Applicant Pool
Another reason for law schools to accept the GRE is to open up the applicant pool to more diverse students.
According to The Economist, from 2015 to 2016, 585,677 students took the GRE, whereas 105,883 students took the LSAT. By accepting the GRE, law schools can reach students who may not have even planned to attend law school.
“We’re always trying to find innovative ways to encourage more students from different backgrounds to come to law school,” Kari Van Sickle, director of admissions at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, tells The Economist.
Here are the law school, in addition to the recent University of Buffalo, that currently accept the GRE:

• American University Washington College of Law
• Boston University School of Law
• Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School
• Brooklyn Law School
• Chicago-Kent College of Law
• Columbia Law School
• Cornell Law School
• Florida State University College of Law
• George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School
• Georgetown University Law Center
• Hamd Bin Khalifa University Law School
• Harvard Law School
• John Marshall Law School
• Massachusetts School of Law at Andover
• New York University School of Law
• Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
• Pace University Elisabeth Haub School of Law
• Pepperdine School of Law
• John’s University School of Law
• Suffolk University Law School
• Texas A&M University School of Law
• University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
• University of California, Davis, School of Law
• University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
• University of Chicago Law School
• University of Hawai’i at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law
• University of Notre Dame Law School
• University of Pennsylvania Law School
• University of Southern California, Gould School of Law
• University of South Carolina School of Law
• University of Texas at Austin School of Law
• University of Virginia School of Law
• Wake Forest University School of Law
• Washington University School of Law
• Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Sources: University of Buffalo, The Economist, ETS