A small but rising cohort of GRE law school admissions
In 2018, I looked at the “tiny impact (so far)” of GRE law school admissions. Law students admitted without an LSAT score rose from 81 in 2017 to 168 in 2018 (among ABA-accredited law schools, excluding those in Puerto Rico). But some law students could always be admitted without an LSAT score under limited circumstances. Still, it appeared that the bulk of these admissions were those with GRE scores. But given about 37,000 matriculants to law school, it was a very small percentage.
USNWR has begun collecting data about GRE admissions at law schools. That information (not publicly available, sadly!) confirms that the bulk of these no-LSAT admissions at law schools are those with GRE scores.
In 2019, no-LSAT admissions rose from 168 to 384—more than doubling from the previous year, which more than doubled the year before. Undoubtedly, on the rise.
Whoa, cowboy! That’s a data spike! But… not really. In fact, my first chart is probably pretty deceptive.
You see, 384 admissions among 37,873 matriculants represents just 1% of all law school admissions. Still a small number—but rising. Let’s situate that number among all admitted students, with a better sense of perspective in a new chart.
Even though GRE admissions still represent a very small percentage of overall admissions, only a few dozen law schools accept the GRE. That means GRE admissions are disproportionately concentrated at a few law schools. Last year, I noted that Arizona had about 15% of its class as GRE admissions, and Harvard and Georgetown around 2% or 3% of the class. Several classes are above 5% this year: Alabama (8 non-LSAT admissions), Arizona (17), BYU (16), Kent (12), Georgetown (48!), Georgia (19), Harvard (43!), Hawaii (12), Northwestern (27), St. John’s (13), and Buffalo (8). Indeed, these 11 schools are more than half of all non-LSAT admissions.
So while the number rises and remains very small overall, a few schools have admitted substantial cohorts of GRE students. We’ll see what happens to these cohorts in the years ahead—if bar passage rates or employment rates materially differ, for instance. And we should expect this trend to continue next year.