Stat Of The Week: The Working Stiffs Of Harvard Law School

Increasingly, Harvard Law students have prior real-world work experience.

By Above the Law on April 10, 2015 4:04 pm

The student body at Harvard Law School has been undergoing a significant shift over the past five years or so. Fewer HLS 1Ls are fresh-faced arrivals straight from undergrad. Increasingly, Harvard law students — like so many Jimmy McGills or Abe Lincolns — have real-world experience under their belts before studying law.

This is shift is a deliberate one. According to HLS Dean Martha Minow, “When I became dean, I directed our admissions team to give extra weight to applicants with experience since college.” (See also David Lat’s piece for The New Republic arguing in favor of a post-college gap before law school.)

In 2009, 40 percent of HLS’s entering class arrived directly from their senior year of college. Since then, roughly 75 percent of each incoming class comes to campus with some post-college work experience: