Toby’s blog

I was asked at Wisconsin-Madison yesterday to talk more about admissions standards beyond the numbers. What is it that makes us accept one high-scoring applicant and not another? And what makes us accept some low-scoring applicants, too?

The applicants in question probably belong to one of two crucially important categories: (1) the applicant adds value to the class by virtue of who he/she is or from where he/she comes, or (2) the applicant adds value to the class because of what he or she DOES. The first category refers to some aspects of diversity (but not all): geographic diversity, “background” diversity (first-generation college student or raised in difficult circumstances), ethnic diversity, etc. The second category speaks to how prospective applicants use their time.

Our eyes light up when we see applicants who have used their time to make a difference in their organizations, communities, and schools. Our eyes light up when we see applicants who have been entrepreneurial—not in the narrow sense of starting a business, which could be great, but in the broader sense of thinking outside the box and truly creating something new. Harvard Law School is devoted to public service; we want to accept the applications of people who are going to add to that mission, not detract.

Think “director of the all-campus blood drive” or “founder of a literacy project that has taught 65 inner-city adults how to read” or “organizer of a summer program building a school in sub-Saharan Africa.” Usually this kind of work takes a commitment over time. You don’t just turn around one day and lead a trek to Africa. But it’s never too late to try….

• 364: number of students who engaged in public interest work last summer
• $4,500: the amount guaranteed to students working in summer public interest jobs
• 40: required number of pro bono hours at HLS
• 300: average number of hours of pro bono work performed by HLS students last year
• 60: average number of alumni in a class who pursue public service jobs either directly after finishing law school or after going through a clerkship
• 2,580: number of clinical or pro bono hours performed by one incredible student in her 2^nd and 3^rd years at HLS
• 9: number of attorneys working in the Office of Public Interest Advising helping students to find jobs
• 10: number of years our assistant dean, Alexa Shabecoff, has been directing the advising office
• 10: number of U.S. senators who are HLS grads
• 12: number of U.S. house members who are HLS grads
• 5: number of governors who are HLS grads
• 6: number of current Supreme Court justices who attended HLS
• 1000s and 1000s: number of alumni engaged in public interest lawyering or public service

More info: Public service at HLS

Recently, at the end of an information session I led here at the Law School, a prospective applicant approached me to ask (I kid you not), “So I got stung by a bee during the LSAT—is that a good explanation for a lower score?”

Naturally, a million responses sprang to mind. How big was the bee? Was it of the “killer” variety? Did it die shortly afterwards? Was it during the logic games section? Obviously the treatment of the bee-sting-induced score is dependent on these follow-up questions…

Actually, as I tell prospective applicants all the time, we will take into consideration a reasonable explanation of a lower LSAT score. If you take the exam twice or more, we generally average those scores, but we may look more at the higher score if it makes sense.

What are some good explanations? First of all, the truth is a good start. If you took the exam cold the first time and then put in some time studying before the second exam, that could easily explain the difference. If the school marching band was practicing right outside the window of the test center, we could see how that might distract. If you contracted the avian flu and barely survived the initial test date, that’s OK too.

Maybe that’s going a bit far. But keep in mind that we might wonder why, if you had such a distracting day, or if you had a death in the family, or some other serious barrier to performance, you didn’t just cancel your score. Or better yet, why not skip the test in the first place? And also keep in mind that having an explanation for a lower score doesn’t put you in a better position than those applicants who don’t have to explain anything at all.

This is not just a numbers game—and I’m sure I’ll get more into that in another entry—but even so, you do have to take the numbers seriously. Your competition does.