Application Components
Applications must be accompanied by a non-refundable $85 application fee, which will not be credited to tuition in the event of admission. The application fee is waived automatically for those applicants who have received an LSAC fee waiver.
If you do not have an LSAC fee waiver and would like to request a need-based fee waiver of your Yale Law School application fee, please request a fee waiver using our online application. Need-based fee waivers are generously granted, and parental information is not requested as part of the fee waiver application. If your request is approved, you will be given a fee waiver code to enter during the submission process for your Yale Law School application.
Please note that neither the request for, nor the granting of, a need-based fee waiver has any bearing on admissions decisions. Yale Law School employs a need-blind admissions process and encourages applicants from all socio-economic backgrounds to apply.
You must receive, or expect to receive, by the summer of 2023 a bachelor's degree (or the equivalent) from an approved undergraduate institution in order to be eligible to apply. All offers of admission are contingent upon graduation.
You must submit to LSAC transcripts from each college or university you attended, including all schools you attended for graduate or professional study. Even if one school includes summary data regarding courses from another school on its transcript, an official transcript from each institution must be submitted. Yale Law School strongly encourages applicants to submit transcripts, through the LSAC, reflecting all coursework completed through the time of application and further encourages applicants to submit updated transcripts as additional coursework is completed. We suggest that you allow at least six weeks for a transcript to be processed by LSAC. For detailed instructions, please visit the LSAC transcript webpage.
In light of the circumstances posed by COVID-19, Yale Law School recognizes that transcripts may reflect mandatory or optional pass/fail or credit/no credit grades. These grades will not be viewed negatively by the Admissions Office and the Law School will maintain a holistic review process for all applications.
Applicants are required to submit two essays: a personal statement and a 250-word essay. Faculty readers look to these two pieces of writing to obtain a nuanced picture of each applicant.
The Personal Statement
The personal statement should help us learn about the personal, professional, and/or academic qualities an applicant would bring to the Law School community. Applicants often submit the personal statement they have prepared for other law school applications.
The 250 Word Essay
The 250 word essay is an opportunity to write about an idea or issue from your academic, extracurricular, or professional work that is of particular interest to you. Although there are many ways to approach this essay, one option is to write about a time when you changed your mind about an idea or issue that is of interest to you. The idea or issue you choose does not have to be law-related; the essay is simply another opportunity for faculty readers to learn more about how you would engage in the Law School community.
You will have the opportunity to include a diversity statement and optional addenda to your application if any are necessary for a full representation of your candidacy.
Yale Law School welcomes, but does not require, a diversity statement, which many applicants submit to help us learn more about them and how they would contribute to our community. Other applicants choose not to include diversity statements, especially if they have otherwise covered key aspects of their backgrounds and experiences in their applications. One way to decide whether to include a diversity statement is to consider those aspects of your identity that are core to who you are, and make sure they are represented in your application.
Separate from a diversity statement, you may include optional addenda, for example, explanations related to test scores or transcripts. It is not necessary to include any, and many applicants do not include addenda.
Yale Law School requires at least two letters of recommendation. We strongly prefer letters from at least two professors with whom you have studied who can speak to your academic performance and who have had a chance to personally evaluate significant aspects of your academic work. Letters from employers, college deans, coaches, chaplains, colleagues, and others may be helpful, but are not preferred. If possible, they should not replace letters from two faculty recommenders.
Applicants who have been out of school for some time or who are otherwise unable to obtain two faculty recommendations may substitute letters from employers or others who know them well. These letters should address the qualities that academic recommendations typically address, for example: the applicant's ability to write and think critically, as well as their overall suitability for the study and practice of law.
A tip sheet for your recommenders can be found here.
All letters of recommendation must be transmitted through the LSAC Letter of Recommendation Service, which is included as part of your CAS subscription.
We will begin review of your application as soon as we have received two letters of recommendation. We will not hold your application in order to wait for additional letters. To ensure that all of your recommendations are available for consideration, please verify that they are on file with LSAC prior to applying to the Law School.
Applicants are required to submit a statement of activities to help us understand what you did during your undergraduate education and after graduation (if applicable).
The college activities section asks three questions: 1) what you did during those terms when you were not in school, including summers and any other terms off (e.g., employment, internships, or study abroad); 2) what you did during the terms while you were also taking classes (e.g., extracurricular activities, employment, or internships); and 3) a catch all question where you may briefly describe any other activities that you consider relevant (e.g., a significant thesis or capstone project, or significant personal or familial responsibilities).
If it has been more than three months since you attended college, you must also describe what you have been doing since graduation in any format you choose. You should include graduate or professional education, paid or unpaid employment, as well as any other activities that you consider relevant.
The activities in these sections should be listed in order of their relative importance to you. For each activity, you must provide a brief description, state the approximate start and end dates, estimate the weekly hourly commitment, and note whether the activity was paid or unpaid. Please note that we anticipate significant duplication between these sections and your résumé. These sections should be brief, and, in general, applicants should answer the college activities questions in no more than 1–2 pages and the post-college activities question in no more than one page.
Yale Law School accepts results from the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test. Additionally, the Law School accepts results from the LSAT-Flex and the GRE General Test at Home. We do not have a preference among these standardized tests. However, you may submit score(s) from one standardized test only. If you have a reportable LSAT score, you may not submit a GRE score for consideration.
If you choose to apply with the LSAT, you must take the LSAT no later than January 2023. LSAC automatically reports all LSAT scores from the past five years. The oldest LSAT score we will accept is June 2017. If you have taken the LSAT since June 2017, you do not have the option not to report your score(s) to the Law School—your score(s) will be included in the information that we receive in your CAS report from LSAC.
LSAC requires at least one LSAT writing sample, taken either at the time of the LSAT examination or via LSAT Writing, in order to generate your CAS report. Yale Law School requires only one LSAT writing sample. Applicants who take the LSAT more than once do not need to submit multiple writing samples. It may take up to three weeks for LSAC to process and report your LSAT Writing. Therefore, you should complete your LSAT Writing no later than January 25, 2023 to ensure we receive it by Yale Law School’s application deadline.
If you choose to apply using the GRE General Test, we must receive your GRE scores from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) by our application deadline, February 15, 2023. Because it may take up to 15 calendar days for ETS to transmit your scores once you complete the exam, you should take the GRE no later than February 1, 2023. Applicants who have taken the GRE can log into their ETS accounts and select Yale Law School as a recipient of GRE results using the school code 4542.
To maintain parity between our evaluation of LSAT and GRE results, applicants who apply using the GRE must submit all GRE scores from the past five years. When reporting your GRE scores to Yale Law School, please select the option to report your entire testing history. Selecting this option will report all of your GRE scores for the past five years. Additionally, please ensure that the GRE score report submitted with your application is generated on or after the date you submit your Yale Law School application. A failure to comply with these policies may prevent the review of your application or result in the withdrawal of an offer of admission.
Yale Law School does not require a dean's certification form as part of the initial application. In the event an offer of admission is extended to you and you choose to accept that offer, you will be required to submit a dean's certification form from each college or university degree program in which you are, or have been, enrolled, regardless of whether a degree was awarded. The dean's certification form and a complete set of instructions will be provided to admitted students.
All offers of admission are contingent upon the satisfactory completion of the dean's certification requirement. Discrepancies between an applicant's answers to the questions in the Character and Fitness section of the admission application and the information provided in dean's certification forms will be considered sufficient grounds for the revocation of an offer of admission.