How To Get Into Harvard Law School

Offers surefire advice as well as 50 successful application essays from current students and recent graduates.

Here, 55 of the successful applicants to Harvard Law School share the essays that helped them make the cut. Each is analyzed by the staff of the "Harvard Crimson" and accompanied by no-nonsense advice to help readers craft their own winning essays.

One L, Scott Turow's journal of his first year at law school and a best-seller when it was first published in 1977, has gone on to become a virtual bible for prospective law students. Not only does it introduce with remarkable clarity the ideas and issues that are the stuff of legal education; it brings alive the anxiety and competiveness--with others and, even more, with oneself--that set the tone in this crucible of character building. Each September, a new crop of students enter Harvard Law School to begin an intense, often grueling, sometimes harrowing year of introduction to the law. Turow's group of One Ls are fresh, bright, ambitious, and more than a little daunting. Even more impressive are the faculty. Will the One Ls survive? Will they excel? Will they make the Law Review, the outward and visible sign of success in this ultra-conservative microcosm? With remarkable insight into both his fellows and himself, Turow leads us through the ups and downs, the small triumphs and tragedies of the year, in an absorbing and thought-provoking narrative that teaches the reader not only about law school and the law but about the human beings who make them what they are. In the new afterword for this edition of One L, the author looks back on law school from the perspective of ten years' work as a lawyer and offers some suggestions for reforming legal education.

Learn everything you need to know to get into law school. This third edition (and completely re-written and updated) version of the bestselling law school admission guide provides detailed information on how to present yourself in the law school application process. Ann Levine brings 15+ years of experience in law school admissions (as director of admissions for law schools and as a law school admission consultant) to provide advice about writing the best law school personal statement and optional essays, how to choose people to write letters of recommendation, what to include in your resume, how to explain weaknesses in your application such as a low GPA or LSAT score, the best way to prepare for the LSAT, and how to choose a law school. Once you've submitted your law school applications, this book will continue to guide you on getting accepted from a waiting list, negotiating law school scholarships, and transferring to a new law school after your 1L year. The book includes an analysis of personal statement introductions as well as complete essays successfully used by applicants, tips on writing optional essays for law schools, and sample resumes and addenda. Topics include: - How will law schools view my credentials, activities, and work experience? - What is the rolling admission process and how can it impact whether I am accepted? - Will the fact that I am a non-traditional applicant help me or hurt me? - Why is the personal statement important and how do I select a topic? - How do I explain a low LSAT score, inconsistent GPA, academic probation, or arrest record? - Should I write an optional essay? - Should I share information about my learning disability? - Why was I placed on a waiting list and what can I do to increase my chances of acceptance? - How can I use scholarship offers to negotiate between law schools? - How do I decide where to attend? The tips and insights provided within The Law School Admission Game: How to Play Like an Expert is the second best thing to having your own law school admission consultant. Ms. Levine offers candid and tangible advice in a conversational tone with an open and encouraging (but brutally honest) approach. This book will change how you look at the law school admission process and help you create your strongest possible application package. This book offers strategies for all law school applicants, including specific advice for people: -Determined to attend a Top Law School -Hoping for the chance to attend any law school -Seeking an affordable legal education -Returning to school after being in the work force -Still in college with limited work and life experience -Considering how to build their experiences and resumes to strengthen their applications -Concerned about writing a compelling personal statement because they haven't overcome significant obstacles - Know the story they want to tell about overcoming obstacles in life but are not sure what to emphasize. No matter your life story or potential weaknesses in your law school application, The Law School Admission Game: How to Play Like an Expert will guide you through every piece of the application process. Both previous editions of this book have been Amazon.com bestsellers, and this one is the first to feature full-length essays used by successful applicants in the past, as well as a self-study LSAT schedule. If you're even thinking about applying to law school, this book is about to become your go-to resource.

Whether you’re is a college junior facing the LSATs, a senior sitting with disappointing test scores, or someone who has always dreamed of a career in the law, there is too much at stake not to ask the hard questions about what lies ahead. In How to Get Into Law School, Susan Estrich lends her unique point of view and far-ranging experience-as ace law student, tenured professor, renowned legal scholar and analyst-to the life and career questions applicants will face, and answers them in the frank, no-nonsense manner that is her trademark. Featuring anecdotes from admissions directors, professors, veteran attorneys, and adventurous students alike, this is your indispensable how-to guide.

The Harvard Law School Admissions team is over eight current and former law students from the most prestigious and top ranked law school in the United States. We're here to provide you with inside information on what Harvard Law School and other top tier law schools like Yale, Stanford and Columbia are looking for in candidates, and how you can get a competitive advantage when applying. What do you have to do to get into the top law schools in the world? We're here to guide you every step of the way. Being accepted into Harvard Law School is not just about tricks to writing an application: you need to work right, think right and act right. Our e-book, How To Get Into Harvard Law, will tell you how to make yourself the most attractive candidate out there. It's guaranteed to improve your chances to get into your law school of choice.

The fundamental fact about our Constitution is that it is old -- the oldest written constitution in the world. The fundamental challenge for interpreters of the Constitution is how to read that old document over time. In Fidelity & Constraint, legal scholar Lawrence Lessig explains that one of the most basic approaches to interpreting the constitution is the process of translation. Indeed, some of the most significant shifts in constitutional doctrine are products of the evolution of the translation process over time. In every new era, judges understand their translations as instances of "interpretive fidelity," framed within each new temporal context. Yet, as Lessig also argues, there is a repeatedly occurring countermove that upends the process of translation. Throughout American history, there has been a second fidelity in addition to interpretive fidelity: what Lessig calls "fidelity to role." In each of the cycles of translation that he describes, the role of the judge -- the ultimate translator -- has evolved too. Old ways of interpreting the text now become illegitimate because they do not match up with the judge's perceived role. And when that conflict occurs, the practice of judges within our tradition has been to follow the guidance of a fidelity to role. Ultimately, Lessig not only shows us how important the concept of translation is to constitutional interpretation, but also exposes the institutional limits on this practice. The first work of both constitutional and foundational theory by one of America's leading legal minds, Fidelity & Constraint maps strategies that both help judges understand the fundamental conflict at the heart of interpretation whenever it arises and work around the limits it inevitably creates.

A history of Harvard Law School in the twentieth century, focusing on the school’s precipitous decline prior to 1945 and its dramatic postwar resurgence amid national crises and internal discord. By the late nineteenth century, Harvard Law School had transformed legal education and become the preeminent professional school in the nation. But in the early 1900s, HLS came to the brink of financial failure and lagged its peers in scholarly innovation. It also honed an aggressive intellectual culture famously described by Learned Hand: “In the universe of truth, they lived by the sword. They asked no quarter of absolutes, and they gave none.” After World War II, however, HLS roared back. In this magisterial study, Bruce Kimball and Daniel Coquillette chronicle the school’s near collapse and dramatic resurgence across the twentieth century. The school’s struggles resulted in part from a debilitating cycle of tuition dependence, which deepened through the 1940s, as well as the suicides of two deans and the dalliance of another with the Nazi regime. HLS stubbornly resisted the admission of women, Jews, and African Americans, and fell behind the trend toward legal realism. But in the postwar years, under Dean Erwin Griswold, the school’s resurgence began, and Harvard Law would produce such major political and legal figures as Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Elena Kagan, and President Barack Obama. Even so, the school faced severe crises arising from the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, Critical Legal Studies, and its failure to enroll and retain people of color and women, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Based on hitherto unavailable sources—including oral histories, personal letters, diaries, and financial records—The Intellectual Sword paints a compelling portrait of the law school widely considered the most influential in the world.