The LSAT vs. GRE decision for law school looks more open than it is. Ten years ago the LSAT was the only test almost anywhere. Today most ABA-accredited law schools will read a GRE score, and schools that accept both usually say they have no preference.
Applicants haven’t followed. In the class that started law school in fall 2025, roughly one in 80 first-year students enrolled with a GRE score instead of an LSAT.
This guide covers how the tests compare in 2026–27, what school policies say word for word, what the ABA has and hasn’t changed, and how to choose.
For most applicants the LSAT is still the default: it’s accepted everywhere, and law schools have far more experience reading it. The GRE is a legitimate option in specific cases, not a shortcut. Taking both and sending the higher score can backfire, since some schools will only look at your LSAT once you have one.
| LSAT | GRE General Test | |
|---|---|---|
| Accepted by | Every ABA-accredited law school, per LSAC | Most of them, including many top schools, per ETS’s list; not all, and lists change |
| Format | Four 35-minute multiple-choice sections (two Logical Reasoning, one Reading Comprehension, one unscored), plus a separate 50-minute unscored Argumentative Writing essay | About 1 hour 58 minutes: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Analytical Writing |
| Scoring | 120–180 | Verbal 130–170, Quantitative 130–170, Writing 0–6 |
| Where you test | In person at Prometric test centers as of August 2026, with limited remote exceptions | Test center or at home |
| Cost in the U.S. | 253,plusLSAC′s219 Credential Assembly Service fee and $45 per school report, paid either way | $249 |
Four differences matter most:
Math. The GRE has a quantitative section covering arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data interpretation; the LSAT has no math. See how the GRE is structured and the GRE’s Analytical Writing section, which is scored separately.
Retakes. LSAC allows five LSAT sittings within the current reportable score period (scores since July 2021) and seven in a lifetime. The GRE can be taken once every 21 days, up to five times in any continuous 12-month period. GRE registration and retake rules are looser, which isn’t a reason to plan on retakes.
Which scores schools see. ETS’s ScoreSelect lets you choose which GRE test dates to send, but schools can override it: Yale and Seton Hall require GRE applicants to report every GRE score from the past five years. Every LSAT score in your reportable period appears on your LSAC report.
Logic Games is gone. Analytical reasoning was removed in August 2024, so advice describing the LSAT as a logic-puzzle test is out of date. The scored sections test reading and argument analysis.
Since August 2026, the LSAT is administered in person at Prometric centers. Remote testing is now an exception, for approved accommodations a center can’t provide, or test takers living more than 180 miles or three hours’ travel from one.
School websites spell out how each test is treated, and the policies differ more than “we accept both” suggests. Five examples:
Harvard Law: no preference, and taking both doesn’t help. Harvard’s transcripts and testing policy states, “We do not have a preference for either exam,” and that “a candidate is not considered more committed by taking both exams or disadvantaged by taking the same exam multiple times.” On how scores are read: “Each test score is reviewed individually; we do not ‘super-score’, average, or consider the highest composite score exclusively.” For the GRE, “no one section will be weighted more heavily than the others.” The committee “will consider all LSAT or GRE scores presented as part of your application,” and if a score isn’t representative you “may address your concerns in an addendum.”
Yale Law: one test only, and a reportable LSAT wins. Yale’s application instructions say “applicants may submit score(s) from one standardized test only” and “if an applicant has a reportable LSAT score, a GRE score may not be submitted for consideration.” GRE applicants “must submit all GRE scores from the past five years.”
Seton Hall Law: the LSAT controls. Its JD application instructions state, “If you have an LSAT score, that score will control for evaluation by the Admissions Committee,” and “if you have taken both the LSAT and GRE, you are required to submit your LSAT scores.”
UConn Law: LSAT only. The JD application page is blunt: “All applicants are required to take the LSAT. The Law School does not accept the GRE or JD Next, and LSAT waivers are not available.”
Cornell Law: broader than most. Cornell accepts the LSAT, the GRE, or the GMAT, and waives the LSAT requirement for applicants using one of the other two.
Both claims are accurate, and neither answers your question. LSAC calls the LSAT “the only test accepted by all ABA-accredited law schools.” ETS says “as of 2026, the majority of ABA-accredited law schools accept the GRE.” What matters is what your schools do with each test.
The takeaway: a GRE-accepting school isn’t necessarily GRE-neutral once you also have an LSAT score. Decide on one test before you sit for either.
ABA Standard 509 data for fall 2025 shows 42,817 students starting JD programs, up 7.9% from the year before. Of those, about 531 enrolled with GRE scores, roughly 1.2% of the class, down from about 701 in fall 2024.
Read that carefully. It mostly reflects applicant behavior: nearly every pre-law student plans for the LSAT from the start, so the GRE pool is small before any admissions decision gets made. It isn’t evidence that schools penalize GRE applicants.
The practical effect is different. Committees have read tens of thousands of LSAT scores and a few hundred GRE scores, and class profiles, scholarship benchmarks, and reported medians are overwhelmingly LSAT-based, part of why test scores weigh so heavily in law admissions. Apply with a GRE and you’ll have fewer reference points for where your score stands.
Rankings work similarly. U.S. News counts median LSAT and GRE scores as about 5% of its law school ranking, weighting each test by the share of exams a school reports. Schools are measured on both medians, which is why they report them, not proof that they prefer one.
Short version: yes, for almost everyone. The sequence:
In practice, nothing has changed for 2026–27 applicants: you need an LSAT or GRE score for nearly every school on a realistic list. Treat no-test routes as school-specific exceptions to research one at a time, including accelerated 3+3 JD programs at your own university, not as a strategy.
Most applicants who work through that list end up on the LSAT, which is a reasonable place to land. The point is to choose once, deliberately, rather than discovering in October that a school on your list won’t read the score you spent the summer earning.
