How to Get Into Stanford Law School: The Ultimate Guide
/How hard is it to get into Stanford Law School? Learn the acceptance rate, admissions requirements, and read example Stanford Law essays
Learn how to get into stanford law
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Part 1: Introduction
While hundreds of JD programs offer a similar roster of courses, a select few law schools offer a truly global experience. Stanford Law School (SLS) attracts students and faculty from around the globe to Silicon Valley, home to many of the world’s most important tech companies. Stanford Law students are known to embody the innovative spirit that helps define Stanford as one of the country’s premier research universities.
These are some of the reasons Stanford is consistently ranked alongside Yale Law School and Harvard Law School as one of the top three law schools in the United States. Like its competitors, Stanford receives thousands of applications each year from talented individuals with an impressive range of academic, professional and personal backgrounds.
With an acceptance rate between nine and ten percent, it’s important that prospective students approach their applications with care, making a case not only for why they want to attend law school, but also why Stanford is a good match for them (and vice versa).
Read below to learn more about how to get into Stanford Law School, Stanford Law’s admissions process, strategies for drafting your Stanford Law School personal statement (including examples!), and more.
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Part 2: Stanford Law School programs
At Stanford Law School, the vast majority of students pursue JD degrees. A small handful of students pursue advanced legal degrees, including Master of Laws (LLM), the Stanford Program for International Legal Studies (SPILS), Master of Legal Studies (MLS), and Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD) degrees.
This post will focus on the Stanford Law School’s JD program and admissions process.
In addition to the Stanford Law School graduate programs, students can pursue Joint Degree and Cooperative Programs such as JD/Master’s, JD/MD and JD/PhD programs. Students are asked to apply to non-SLS programs though separate admissions channels. If they are accepted into a joint degree program, attention is given to ensuring that students strike a proper balance between their law studies and additional discipline.
Compared to other T14 law schools, Stanford Law School’s class size is below average—approximately 180 first year students enroll each fall. These numbers account for an intimate school culture.
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Part 3: Stanford Law School admissions statistics
Stanford Law School reports the following figures as a snapshot of its class of 2027:
Completed Applications: 4863
Offers of Admission: 353
Acceptance Rate: 7.26%
LSAT spread:
75 Percentile: 175
50th Percentile: 173
25th Percentile: 171
Undergraduate GPA spread:
7th Percentile: 3.99
50 Percentile: 3.95
25th Percentile: 3.83
These numbers speak for themselves. Not even Harvard Law’s acceptance rate is in the single digits.
Students who apply to Stanford Law School typically receive honors at their undergraduate institutions. Furthermore, they do exceptionally well on the LSATs, generally scoring 172 or higher.
While it’s crucial for prospective students to excel academically, grades and test scores are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to the school’s admissions process. Stanford is looking to cultivate a dynamic, diverse student body.
Stanford wants to know why you as an individual are uniquely qualified to study law among the finest legal minds in the country. What skills and life experiences will you bring to the table?
With this in mind, it’s not surprising that over eighty percent of Stanford Law matriculants carve out at least a year or more in between college and law school to gain experience in the world and strengthen their resumes.
If you’ve taken a gap year or a few, reflect on how your time away from classrooms can contribute to your profile. How did your position as a teacher, financial services analyst, paralegal, volunteer, activist, etc., prepare you to study law at Stanford? Using your post-graduate story to your advantage will be crucial in your personal statement.
If you haven’t taken time off or don’t plan to, work to tell a story of yourself that conveys life experience and perspective, which is what your competitors coming from gap years will be doing.
Stanford Law School application
Now that you’ve done your due diligence, it’s time to prepare your application. Applications are made available in late August and the deadline to submit an application is February 1st, but like all law schools, Stanford follows rolling admissions—which means the sooner you apply, the better. We recommend applying by late November.
This list summarizes the essential parts of completed application:
Application for Admission, completed online and submitted electronically through the Law School Admission Council (LSAC)
A one-to-two page resume (submitted through (LSAC)
At least two—and no more than four—letters of recommendation. Ideally, one of these letters should be written by an individual familiar with your academic work. (submitted through LSAC)
LSAT scores
Credential Assembly Service Report, including undergraduate transcripts (submitted through LSAC)
Written components, including:
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Part 4: Stanford Law School essays (examples included)
An applicant’s personal statement is their platform to make a compelling case for why they merit the opportunity to attend Stanford Law School. Although all law schools generally require a personal statement or similar essay, applicants must tailor the statement they send to Stanford.
Law School Admissions officers can detect a generic personal statement. Therefore, applicants must approach writing their personal statements carefully.
Stanford Law School personal statement
As a prompt to help applicants compose their personal statements, Stanford writes: “Please describe what aspects of your life experiences, interests, and character would help you make a distinctive contribution to Stanford Law School.”
Let’s review a sample personal statement for Stanford Law School that was written by a student named Hannah:
It was the story that I initially didn’t want to write. It was the story that didn’t seem to have an ending, given that its main subjects were still fighting for their livelihoods. It was the story that made me think about the privilege I had to wake up every morning without the threat of deportation bearing down upon me. But when I committed myself to writing an article for my college weekly about undocumented immigrants and the challenges they face while attending prestigious universities, I realized that I was tapping into something: the true power of language. I realized that I had the freedom and platform to serve as an advocate for social justice on behalf of my peers. What was I to make of this responsibility? I wondered if my investigative reporting would generate an article that might fall on deaf ears. And then, on the flip side of things, I pondered over how many people I could reach, and how many opinions about human rights could I change.
I sometimes feel that society is at a crossroads when it comes to our usage of language. Though I’d like to assume that that it still has an essential role in our culture, the zeitgeist suggests that language can now be easily distorted and diminished by politicians, pundits and those who edit our media outlets. Even now, in my current role as a researcher at a D.C think-tank, I find myself working hard to weed out hyperbole when I read the news reports or policy briefs that are meant for wider audiences. Still, when I’m writing white papers, something clicks inside of me to continue using language to breathe life into ideas that might improve the lives of those who may be mute in the face of oppression.
Sometimes I wonder if this is a familial trait, a sense of social responsibility that I inherited from my parents Following the fall of South African Apartheid, my father jumped at the opportunity to move to South Africa to work as a journalist and report on the social changes taking place. My mother joined him, and they spent a year in Cape Town. After work they enjoyed local beers at restaurants and cafes, where they chatted with locals when the language of forgiveness was being used to bring different racial groups together. Growing up in D.C., I remember reading many of my father’s clippings, which he kept in a navy blue scrapbook on a bookshelf in our living room. I always found myself amazed by his use of human stories to shed light upon greater systematic forces.
I feel lucky to have been exposed to journalism as a child and during college, but I know that practicing law is the career path for me. The moment I realized this didn’t occur during one of my undergraduate political-science seminars, or summer internships, or at my current job. It was that article, which led down a rabbit hole into the depths of immigration law, and inspired my undergraduate thesis. After graduating, though, I’d stepped away from the academic side of the work, I signed up to volunteer at a homeless shelter in a neighborhood with a significant population of undocumented migrants. I am the composite of my academic, professional and personal experiences, and I’m excited to have more at Stanford Law School.
At Stanford, I’m excited about the opportunity to engage with the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law in addition to other public policy resources on campus. I want to build upon my experience in public policy to ultimately change how immigration law accounts for young migrants traveling across international borders. For this reason, I’m excited by the wealth of clinics at Stanford, which will give me the chance to develop the skillset to advocate for change beyond broadsheets and blogs. It’s time to take my fighting spirit to courtrooms and use language to ensure that people, regardless of their circumstances, can access the dignity they deserve.
Here are some positive aspects of Hannah’s personal statement:
Her introduction provides suspense. Although it isn’t a traditional opening narrative, Hannah hooks the reader, who automatically wants to know the story. Hannah also mentions her journalism background in the first paragraph; the reader is told upfront that she’s an accomplished writer. This gives her leeway to play with language if she wants to do so later in the statement.
She’s able to mention information that appears on her resume casually. After reading her statement, we know her credentials and the longevity of her commitment to public service, but her background doesn’t overshadow her desire to do good for others. As a result, readers sense her eagerness to continue to work hard and get her hands dirty.
She’s researched Stanford Law School. This comes across in the last paragraph when she mentions the resources she wants to tap into at Stanford. This is important because Stanford is known for its clinics and commitment to tackling global and domestic issues.
She’s insightful about society through a personal lens. For the most part, Hannah is the primary subject in every sentence. She can keep her personal statement light by asking questions and remaining personable even as she displays her critical reasoning skills.
Essential reading: Law School Personal Statement (The Ultimate Guide)
Stanford Law School diversity essay
Stanford gives the students the option of writing a diversity essay. The law school writes: “Although admission to Stanford Law is based primarily upon superior academic achievement and potential to contribute to the legal profession, the Admissions Committee also considers the diversity (broadly defined) of an entering class important to the school’s educational mission. Suppose you would like the committee to consider how your background, life, and work experiences, advanced studies, extracurricular or community activities, culture, socio-economic status, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or other factors would contribute to the diversity of the entering class (and hence to your classmates’ law school educational experience). In that case, you may describe these factors and their relevance in a separate diversity essay.”
Please refer to our guide to writing law school diversity statements if you have questions about whether or not to write this statement for your Stanford Law School application.
Let’s review Jason’s diversity statement for Stanford Law:
As the only son of a feminist mother, I learned early on in life that men had an essential part to play in the fight for gender equality. I remember hearing conversations between my parents at the dinner table wherein they discussed whether or not my father—a small business owner—was creating a work culture that respected women at his office. As a professional and a woman of color herself, my mother wasn’t only interested in the content of his answers. Indeed, she seemed more curious about the convictions that supported them. She wanted my father’s commitment to gender equality to be contagious so he could serve as a role model for his male colleagues in addition to his first job as a role model for me.
I was privy to these conversations before the rise of the #MeToo movement, which has since caused our nation to have a national reckoning with how gender inequality and sexual harassment plague our society. As a cis-gendered male who works in corporate America, my first priority has been to listen to my female colleagues. However, as my mother’s son, I also have a responsibility to act, given the privileges that have helped shape my young adulthood.
It’s time for men like me, who’ve spent time in fraternities and on college athletic teams, to not simply police misogynistic behavior. We have the responsibility to erase it from the earth. I think this is an important distinction, given that many men think it’s progressive to be a little less rowdy in locker rooms or at bars when a beautiful woman walks by their table. These small changes in behavior are not enough. In professional spaces, we need to start asking ourselves harder questions and working toward solutions: Why aren’t there any men on this governing board of that student club? Did I just mansplain to a woman during that discussion group? Am I bringing bias to my dealings with my female colleagues?
At Stanford Law School, I want to begin my journey toward practicing law by relying on my conviction to intervene when I see misogyny taking place around me. Ironically, it’s the tech world—which is the sector where I want to work after law school—that’s currently the most prominent industry dragging its feet when it comes to issues surrounding gender inequality. For this reason, I look forward to discussing how diversity and inclusion practices can bring about change at companies headquartered in Silicon Valley. I want to be a voice that deconstructs the “boys’ club” social aspects of the tech word. At Stanford, in addition to studying Law, Science & Technology, I want to make my mother proud.
Here are some positive aspects of Jason’s diversity statement:
By tallying less than 500 words, this statement is a proper length. Jason can establish his point of view on the importance of diversity efforts without writing a second personal statement.
He doesn’t shy away from his male privilege. Through his mother, Jason alludes to the fact that he is a person of color who presumably experiences implicit bias in the workplace. Still, he uses this statement as an opportunity to dismantle toxic masculinity and take a stand to improve professional environments.
Jason places his point of view in conversation with discussions happening in 2020 and, more importantly, in Silicon Valley, just minutes away from Stanford Law School.
He leads with a personal anecdote. This helps humanize Jason’s story. We learn a little about his childhood, which makes reading the statement all the more intimate and emotional.
Final thoughts
Stanford Law School attracts applicants who hope to change society fundamentally. Their student body is diverse, with wide-ranging interests. Standing out from the crowd will require showcasing your unique talents in a way that aligns with the ethos of Stanford Law School.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on law school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into law school using his exclusive approach.
THERE'S NO REASON TO STRUGGLE THROUGH THE LAW SCHOOL ADMISSIONS PROCESS ALONE, ESPECIALLY WITH SO MUCH ON THE LINE. SCHEDULE YOUR COMPLIMENTARY CONSULTATION TO ENSURE YOU LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE.