Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Harvard Law School Buzz Book is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting.
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Harvard Law School Buzz Book Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Harvard Law School Buzz Book is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting. |
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Harvard Law School Buzz Book Welcome to the first edition of Vault's Harvard Law School Buzz Book. In this new and unique guide, we publish extended excerpts and sample admissions essays from surveys of students and alumni from Harvard Law to bring you the inside scoop on its law program. The survey comments cover the following areas:
The guide is intended to serve as a complement to other references to law schools currently available that utilize school-reported data. Unlike those guides, Vault's Buzz Books (which also include the Law School Buzz Book, Business School Buzz Book and College Buzz Book) are composed almost entirely of information provided directly to Vault from students and alumni.
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Status: Current student, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2003-Submit Date
Survey Submitted: March 2005
What you hear is true--grades and LSATs are king. There's no interview, and while the admissions essay, extracurriculars and "life experience" surely count on the margins, if you don't have the grades and LSAT scores, it's going to be really hard to get in. It's really worth spending the time studying and taking practice LSATs if you want to get in here (or any other top-tier law school, for that matter). When it comes to the essay, try and make yourself stand out--find something unique about you that will make you a special candidate who'll contribute to the diversity of the class. You don't have to say "this is why you should take me" but by referring to these things, you make sure the people reading your essay are aware of these unique characteristics.
Academics: Students Speak
Status: Current student, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2005-Submit Date
Survey Submitted: November 2005
The classes and professors are great. For those of you who have heard all the negatives surrounding HLS, that is no longer present. Thanks to the arrival of our new dean, Dean Kagan, the atmosphere of the school had completely changed. When I came to HLS for admit weekend, 3Ls all confirmed the drastic improvement due to the arrival of the new dean. In terms of the academic environment, the class is now split in to seven sections of 80 students. These are the students you spend your entire 1L year with.
The professors are very accessible and there is a mandatory HLS-sponsored lunch of professors and students (in groups of five). The school is now heavily public interest-focused, and provides guaranteed funding to any student who is interested. While I am interested in M&A, it is nice to know that people with other interests are drawn to the school. While I have not experienced grading yet, I can confirm that the workload is hard but not excessive. There is plenty of time to involve yourself in extracurricular activities in leadership roles. I, myself, am involved in four groups on campus with a leadership role, and one that is purely social. I have heard that there can be competition for popular classes, but then I have also heard that some of the most famous professors are not the best teachers. Basic idea in terms of academics is it is what you make of it.
Employment Prospects: Students Speak
Status: Alumnus/a, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/1998-6/2001
Survey Submitted: July 2004
HLS is one of the most prestigious, if not most prestigious law school with respect to employers, particularly corporate law firms. Almost all major large- and medium-size firms will come to campus to recruit. There are plenty of internship and job opportunities, but as with the rest of HLS, the competition for the plum ones is keen. The Office of Career Services is the main career placement office on campus and they are well-run machine, organizing the annual fall recruiting. As long as you do fairly well your first year, with one or two A's, you will be able to get a very competitive job.
Quality of Life: Students Speak
Status: Alumnus/a, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/1995-5/1998
Survey Submitted: January 2005
Cambridge is a beautiful suburb of Boston and is easily reached by mass transit. Crime rate is low, restaurants are excellent and housing is expensive. Harvard Law offers plenty of on-campus housing, if you like that sort of thing, ranging from relatively cheap undergrad-style dorms to quite expensive apartments that include parking. With a little effort, you can find cheaper apartments within walking distance of the school. (A lot of students live just over the line in the neighboring city of Somerville, which is scruffier than most parts of Cambridge but still a fine place to live.) The Harvard University campus, which is adjacent to the law school, is a town in itself, with an excellent movie theater, several great museums, numerous places to eat and hang out, and a library for every taste. The law school student center was recently redone, and the law school gym is scheduled to be redone in the near future. The classrooms are spacious and up-to-date (including laptop connections). The law library is, without question, one of the best in the world.
Social Life: Students Speak
Status: Current student, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2005-Submit Date
Survey Submitted: June 2006
The community is so diverse as to defy categorization and characterization of social life. Suffice to say, if there's something you're looking for, you can find it if you try. Dating happens, but many people come to law school not intending to socialize in that way, so it's less than college. Still, if you're interested, you can find people to date. Loads of people regularly go to bars, clubs and restaurants.
Status: Current student, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2005-Submit Date
Survey Submitted: November 2005
The option for a social life here is surprisingly huge. There are bar reviews at least three times a week. HLS has plenty of restaurants and a lot of organizations. For example, I am in five groups in which I participate heavily. Some interesting ones are RAP (the Recording Artist Project) in which we represent a local recording artist pro bono. In Vino Veritas is a wine tasting group in which we fly different wine companies in to taste their wine and learn about wine and food parings. I am also chair of the Corporate Law Firm Panel, for which I bring partners in from major corporations to talk at conferences. The groups are endless. There is also Lincoln's Inn, which is basically the co-ed frat of HLS. HLS also often rents out bars with other Harvard graduate schools and throws parties. The only complaint I would have about social life is that there is so much to do socially and academically, you hardly get a chance to leave Cambridge. This can be quite annoying for someone who likes big cities. While parties are thrown in Boston at least once a week, the students seem to stay in Cambridge mostly.
