In today’s Trivia Tuesday, we’re taking a look at Yale Law School’s unique application review process. This is an issue that is probably weighing heavily on the minds of the thousands of YLS applicants who submitted applications in the past few weeks (though would-be applicants who have not yet submitted, take heart – due to the manner in which Yale reviews applications, those who submit close or even up to the February 15th deadline are at no disadvantage compared to those who submit earlier).
Yale’s review process is unique in that it more closely resembles that of a small Master’s or Ph.D. program than a law school, reflecting the fact that Yale has fashioned its law program along more scholarly lines than most of its peers. While most law schools employ an admissions committee consisting of a small group of admissions staff and perhaps one or two faculty members, YLS uses its entire faculty to review applications and arrive at admissions decisions. The admissions staff at YLS is, correspondingly, quite small.
After Associate Dean of Admissions Asha Rangappa reviews each application, she divides the pool of applications into three groups based on their likelihood of admission: “presumptive admits,” applicants whose qualifications merit further consideration, and applicants who will not be given further consideration. The first group consists of approximately 50-80 applicants who stand out from the rest of the applicant pool by virtue of their academic, extracurricular and personal achievements. This group is reviewed by Associate Dean Rangappa and the faculty chair of the Admissions Committee, and then admitted.
Each application in the second group, which contains roughly 1,000 applications or approximately 25% of the applicant pool, is then sent to Yale Law School’s 60-person permanent faculty for further review. Each group of three faculty members receives a stack of approximately 50 applications, which they review individually according to each faculty member’s own criteria. This adds significant variability to the evaluation process, as some faculty members, for example, give the greatest weight to the 250-word essay, while others look closely at each applicant’s extracurricular achievements. Each faculty member then assigns the application a rating between one and four, with four signifying the reader’s greatest enthusiasm for the applicant’s candidacy, and then the ratings from each of the three faculty readers are totaled and submitted to Associate Dean Rangappa. All candidates who receive 12s (three ratings of four) receive offers of admission, as do the majority of those who receive 11s (two ratings of four and one three). This process is typically completed by late March. Like most law schools, YLS does not interview its applicants, so once the application is reviewed by Associate Dean Rangappa and the three faculty readers, the admissions decision can be issued to the applicant without further delay.
To learn more about YLS, be sure to read the Clear Admit Law School Guide to Yale Law School!
