After a unanimous vote by faculty, The University of Akron School of Law will immediately start to accept GRE scores as an alternative to the LSAT scores from applicants.

Christopher J. Peters, dean of Akron Law, said law schools exclusively used the LSAT as the sole admission test in order to analyze the capability of applicants’ possible success in law school.

Meanwhile, the American Bar Association allows law schools to use any admission test that provides valid and reliable information toward an applicant’s ability in law school.

“As of today, at least 46 other law schools across the country have begun to accept the GRE in addition to the LSAT,” Peters said.

Now, UA joins those as the first Ohio public law school to accept GRE scores and also the first in the country to do this with an  annual tuition cost of $25,000 for all students, a UA press release said.

“Early indications from other law schools that began accepting the GRE as an alternative are that it can help increase the pipeline of qualified applicants from all fields,” the press release said.

Peters hopes that through accepting this alternative to the LSAT, legal education will become more available to students with diverse backgrounds.

Not only will students have to devote less time and resources through having one test for law school and other graduate programs, but they are also able to use a GRE score from the last five years to apply to Akron Law.

According to the GRE General Test website, there are three categories within the test that are used to reflect the type of thinking a student will do in graduate and professional school.

Currently, Akron Law is accepting applications for the spring, summer and fall 2020 semesters.