Harvard Law School Stats And How To Get Into Harvard

The Harvard Law School is a famous institution of higher education in the legal field that may be found in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2022, the institution was ranked fourth by USNWR. About 562 students attend Harvard Law School annually.

Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Cambridge, Massachusetts's private research university, Harvard University. It was formed in 1817 and is the nation's oldest continually functioning law school. It is regarded as one of the world's leading legal institutions.

The three-year JD program has around 560 students in every class, making it one of the largest among the top 150 law schools in the United States.

The first-year class is divided into seven sections of roughly 80 students each, who take most of their courses together.

In addition to its JD curriculum, Harvard also offers LLM and SJD degrees. Due to Harvard's unusually large class size and prominence, the law school has produced many outstanding alumni in the judiciary, government, and business sectors. Here is Harvard Law School Stats.

Harvard Law School Stats

During the application period for the year 2022, 9,933 individuals applied, and 685 were offered admission.

The 1L class size at Harvard University is 562, and the graduation rate is 54.01 percent. 370 out of 685 candidates who were offered admission chose to attend the school, equating to 54.01 percent of those who were offered admission.

Harvard University's 1L class has a median LSAT score of 174. The 25th percentile of the LSAT is 170, whereas the 75th percentile is 176.

The median grade point average is 3.92. The GPA at the 25th percentile is 3.82, while the GPA at the 75th percentile is 3.98.

Harvard Law School programs

At Harvard Law School, you can receive a Juris Doctor (JD) — the traditional law degree, a Master of Laws (LLM) — a one-year master's program designed to supplement a JD or foreign equivalent, or a doctorate (SJD) — a path to legal academia.

This post will focus on the usual path to JD admittance. It is noteworthy that many individuals get dual degrees because of Harvard's excellent graduate programs.

Common are:

• JD-MBA from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, respectively.

• JD-MPP degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School, respectively.

Harvard is familiar with students pursuing several concurrent intellectual, academic, and professional paths, so admission to dual degree programs is naturally competitive and well-coordinated.

Harvard Law School admissions statistics

HLS is among the largest leading law schools. Using the class of 2022 (JD applicants) as an example:

• Class size: 561

• 12 percent is the Harvard Law School acceptance rate

• HLS discloses the class GPA distribution:

• 3.79/4 for the 25% percentile

• 50th percentile: 3.89 out of four

• 75th percentile: 3.96 out of 4

• HLS also provides its LSAT score distribution:

• 25th percentile: 170 out of 180

• 50th percentile: 173 out of 180

• 75th percentile: 175 out of 180

Twelve percent may not appear to be an impossible admittance rate—greater than Yale's and Stanford's, which clocks in at under 10 percent—but those GPA and LSAT levels are nothing to scoff at.

Determining Latin honors at your undergraduate institution—Cum Laude or, ideally, Magna Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude—is the first requirement for admission to Harvard Law School.

Then, you should devise a plan to study long and hard enough for the LSAT that you can aim for a score above 173 for the best admissions chances.

Consider the remainder of your resume and your career trajectory. Harvard reports that more than 75 percent of its graduating class is at least one year removed from college, and less than 25 percent are four or more years removed.

This data does not indicate what you must do or how many years you must take off between your degree and law school, but planning for at least one gap year between college and HLS is a sound strategy.

Consider the following as you develop your professional strategy for the interim years:

What can or should I do in the years between college and law school that I won't be able to accomplish after attending law school (and presumably accumulating six figures of debt)? Can I educate, work as a community activist, or travel?

Should I take a six-figure career now so that I may attend law school and become a public defender afterward?

What will provide me with a fresh viewpoint on the law? Paralegal work might be the answer. But do not assume that your job involves direct interaction with the law. The answer could be a year in Americorps or as a Fulbright scholar in the Philippines studying justice.

It could be an MPhil or a Master's degree in Philosophy of History. Two years could be spent learning to code in Silicon Valley, followed by two years as a project manager, to prepare for a career in technology law.

Or perhaps it's a year spent working in an agency's mailroom in Los Angeles while pursuing stand-up comedy at night; this could lead to entertainment law, or the JD could set you on a completely different road.

What course did my legal heroes follow? Think about the prominent figures or personal mentors who inspired you to apply to law school in the first place. Where did they travel? What can you learn about gap years from them?

If you are a junior or younger in college, you can apply for HLS's junior year deferral program, which allows you to enter early and includes built-in gap time.