Harvard Law School is somewhat unique in that our admissions process involves a short, evaluative phone interview. In past years there’s been some confusion and anxiety about the phone interviews so I thought I’d do a quick post to give you the relevant information.
The phone interview is an incredibly valuable part of the admissions process. While we receive quite a bit of information from you on paper, this is our one opportunity to actually speak with you and learn more about your passions, interests, and aspirations – this information is tremendously helpful to our efforts to build a class with diverse backgrounds and interests. Additionally, the interview is a great chance to get a sense for how you might interact with others. So much of the learning at HLS comes from your interactions with your fellow students – we want to make sure that you’ll be able to both contribute to and learn from this dialogue.
Interviews are offered by invitation, typically shortly after I’ve reviewed your file. I personally conduct all the interviews (~1,000 to 1,200 each year) and they generally run between five and fifteen minutes in length. The conversation varies, based on who I’m speaking with, but generally we’ll touch on what you are passionate about or interested in, why you’re drawn to law school, and what attracts you to Harvard, in particular. It’s worth doing a little bit of thinking about these questions before we get on the phone, both so that you can concisely communicate your interests and so that you can relax and allow your energy and passion to shine through.
The interview should actually be fun – a chance for you to tell us a little bit more about why you want to be here. And while everyone who is offered admission is interviewed (starting in October and continuing all the way through the summer) the interview shouldn’t be thought of as a “final step” in the admissions process. Rather, it’s one of many factors that we consider in making admissions decisions.
I hope this is some helpful background and I look forward to speaking with many of you soon!
– Josh
