Director of Harvard Law School Admissions Toby Stock addressed UW-Madison students and other law school hopefuls at Memorial Union Wednesday, explaining the way in which his department ""crafts the class"" each year at the No. 3 law school in the nation.
Stock used the term ""crafting"" because, though Harvard admissions takes into account credentials such as LSAT scores and GPA, he and his colleagues give top priority to the completeness and diversity of the class when reviewing applications.
""A lot of people think when we're looking at applications that we're looking at a person or an application and we're saying, ‘Does this person deserve to get into Harvard Law School?'"" Stock said. ""That's not how it works. How it works is, we're crafting a class of 555 students, and different pieces and parts fit into that class.""
According to Stock, approximately 7,000 students apply to the school each year. The admissions department then conducts phone interviews with the top 1,000, approximately half of which are ultimately accepted. Eleven percent of last year's freshman class hailed from the Great Lakes states.
The UW-Madison Law School ranked No. 32 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report—follows a similar admission process, according to Assistant Dean Carolyn Butler. Butler referred to it as putting an ""orchestra"" together.
""It's so much about talking with other people, having people challenge your ideas, having people question you,"" Butler said. ""So if you had everybody in the room who was the same, even if everyone was really smart ... it would not be the kind of environment in which you would get the full benefit of law school, and it's not the kind of environment employers are looking for.""
At the meeting, Stock encouraged prospective law students to enter the work force for a couple years before applying. This, he said, proves the applicant has professional promise, which along with academic potential and personal qualities is the main criterion he evaluates.
As for academic potential, the 75th percentile LSAT score of first-year Harvard students was 175 last year, as opposed to 163 at UW-Madison. Both Stock and Butler said it does not matter what type of undergraduate degree a student earns.
""I would take whatever you're excited about,"" Stock said. ""You're probably going to do better in those classes, and you can't out think us in what we're looking for; we're crafting a class.""
