In a new trend known as “GRE creep,” a growing number of law school admissions offices are accepting the GRE as an alternative to the LSAT, including several Tier 1 law schools. According to the New York Times, this is motivated by the desire to make law school more appealing to a diverse body of candidates, including scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.

PPPA lecturer and pre-law coordinator Ernesto Chavez, J.D. has some thoughts to share on whether you should take the GRE or the LSAT:

“Is there going to be a deluge of law schools accepting the GRE? Don’t count on it until the ABA, the governing group of lawyers, signs off, which it has yet to do. Thus be cautious about switching to the GRE unless you fit a certain category of student who is already attractive to law schools regardless of any LSAT score. You need to have a very impressive resume to appeal to a school if you don’t take the LSAT.

These schools are only accepting a small minority of applicants with a GRE. The LSAT is still the predominant admission score law schools want because of the need to report competitive data and stay highly ranked in the law school rankings; and also because the LSAT is still the time-tested indicator of success in law school.

Schools accepting the GRE are trying to cherry-pick good students from other disciplines. That said, if you’re not afraid of a gamble and have really impressive credentials, such as in the diversity or STEM areas, this would be an option. I would say you should use the GRE only if you have not committed to law school as your primary goal, and are interested in using the test to apply for other graduate programs as well.”

Join Ernesto Chavez for the Winter quarter “Think Like a Lawyer” workshop series, Wednesdays from 12:30pm-1:20pm in BB 104. This series prepares students for Spring quarter’s LSAT course.

For more information, contact Ernesto Chavez at elchavez@uw.edu, or (253) 692-4313.