Thanks to everyone who submitted a question this week – we got an overwhelming response. Your questions were generally around a few themes so I’ll answer the most popular ones today and save the rest for another time.
A lot of your questions were about our “hold” status:
“Are held applicants’ files going to be completely re-reviewed at some point or have you made a preliminary decision on each file, but are unsure whether you might change your mind after seeing how the entire applicant pool stacks up? Either way, when can held applicants reasonably expect to start hearing back?” – Nate
“When can held applicants expect to start receiving application updates? Will all “holds” be evaluated simultaneously, or can individuals held earlier in the process expect to hear something sooner than those held later? – Ranwa
“Will there be new interview invitations extended to “hold” applicants? If yes, do you have an estimate of the timing?” – Mae
It seems like there are quite a few of you agonizing over being on hold, and many of you seem to have a lot of time to spend on TLS. Relax – there are still places open in the class, and these will be filled by people on hold or whose applications have not been reviewed yet
Hold is a good place to be. You didn’t do anything wrong. If I interviewed you, you’re not on hold because you had a horrible interview (if that were the case, you’d probably just have gotten denied). There’s nothing horrendous about your application. The fact of the matter is that we’re fortunate to get more qualified applicants than we have slots for in the class. We have the luxury of building not only a talented class, but a diverse one. We want to make sure that not everyone is from the same high school, or wants to work for the same Congressional Committee. And the only way to make that happen is to look at the whole applicant pool before making all of our decisions – thus, the hold category.
At this point, your application has been thoroughly reviewed. We’ve got a crack team here, and at least two of us have read your application. So we have a pretty good sense of who you are at this point. You’re more than welcome to send additional information – updated transcripts and resumes are particularly helpful. But don’t feel the need to send something just to send it. Remember, what you send reflects on your judgment – is that seventh letter of recommendation from your grandmother’s next door neighbor who always thought you should be a lawyer really going to reflect well on you?
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve started to go back through the holds. Some of you, we’ve already admitted; others have been asked to interview. Don’t freak out if that’s not you. This is a fairly long process, and it will take 6-8 weeks to go through all the applications, at which point some of the remaining holds be shifted to a wait-list.
Finally, I wouldn’t read too much into whether you’ve been held after an interview or without receiving one. In many cases, that’s more a function of when in the cycle your application was reviewed than it is an assessment of your chances.
“What is the role of the interview in the application process? Can you fail the interview (i.e. get rejected purely on the basis of a bad interview)?” – Jennifer
“How is the phone interview taken into account in the final decision to admit? Is the quality of the interview used primarily to distinguish between candidates who are borderline, or for some other purpose?” – Jon
For those of you unfamiliar with this, one requirement for admission to Harvard Law is that you have a short phone interview with me. In addition to giving me the pleasure of getting to know you a little bit, the interview is a great opportunity for me to learn something about you that I might not pick up from your application.
Everyone invited to interview is a pretty strong candidate; generally, an invitation to interview means that you have a good chance of admission. Now that doesn’t mean that the interview is dispositive, because we’re interviewing a wide range of candidates. In some cases we have a really strong evaluation of your candidacy and the interview is more about making sure you’ll be a good fit for HLS; in other cases the committee may be a bit more uncertain of where you stand or we may have a specific question about something on your application. The interview gives me another chance to get a sense of what you can add to the class.
It’s a pretty straightforward conversation, and to a large extent I give out the questions ahead of time. So there shouldn’t be any surprises. Being somewhat prepared is critical – I’m a little bit shocked if you can’t articulate why you’re interested in coming to law school. In general though, if you do a little homework, come prepared, and honestly convey why you’re interested in law school and Harvard Law, you’re likely to have a good interview.
“Do you reeeally not have LSAT/GPA cutoff numbers?” – FullofHope222
There really, really aren’t. I promise. If there are, no one’s told me and I’ve spent much of the last several months reading a few thousand applications for no good reason.
Here’s the deal. Are a good GPA and LSAT helpful to your application? Absolutely. They’re strong indicators of your academic capability and suggest that you’ll be able to excel in a law school environment. But they’re not the only indicators. We think that other factors, such as strong work experience, leadership roles in extracurricular activities, solid letters of recommendation, and other personal experience, are also good indicators of your capacity for success as a lawyer. So each year we admit many people who fall below our 25th percentile for GPA or LSAT (about 25% of the class actually). Generally, these people have other “superstar” qualities that they’ve demonstrated repeatedly in the workplace, running organizations, or through their scholarship.
Additionally, a great GPA and LSAT are no guarantee of admission. Each year we end up with surprised candidates that are shocked when their 3.9+ GPA, 178 LSAT does not result in an offer of admission. Again, we want to see people who will be real leaders and change agents in society. We’re looking for people who not only have the academic talent, but also have a demonstrated record of impact.
That’s it for this week – use the comment section of this entry to keep submitting questions and I’ll come back to them in the next few weeks.
Have a great weekend!
Josh
