A variance is permission that the American Bar Association (ABA) gives to an ABA-accredited law school to use the JD-Next final test to make admissions decisions for applicants who have not submitted either an LSAT or GRE score to the law school. These variances allow these institutions to accept JD-Next instead of the LSAT or GRE in their admissions processes, recognizing it as a valid and reliable data point in applicants' profiles.

View ABA's list of applications here.

A variance is not needed for:

• An applicant to be able to submit a JD-Next final test score in addition to an LSAT or GRE score.  
• When a law school relies on ABA Interpretation 503-3 to admit applicants.
• When the JD-Next test is being used for a purpose other than making an admissions decision.
• For a law school to use the JD-Next course and/or JD-Next final test to prepare applicants for law school or to determine admitted students’ readiness for law school.
• Law schools that are not accredited by the ABA are not required by the ABA to have a variance.