Here's Why It Just Got Easier to Apply to Harvard Law

Demand for American law school degrees has fallen off a cliff. Harvard Law School, which counts more than half of the current U.S. Supreme Court and Barack Obama as alumni, is no exception. The school's Wednesday announcement that it will begin to accept the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) over the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) from applicants starting this autumn appears to be a bet that Chinese engineers and Indian scientists can help reverse a double-digit decline in applications.

Harvard said it made the decision after determining that its students’ GRE scores were an “equally valid predictor” of first-year grades as the LSAT. Experts said that Harvard’s weight in the legal world means it’s likely that other schools, too, will soon accept the GRE.