Hello,

Recently I have took my Toefl test an I got 101 overall. However, I noticed that Harvard and Stanford requieres 25 minimum score for each subsection and I did not reach such minimum in "speaking" and "writing". Hence, I want to know if those universities area flexible with the "subsection score" or I should take another Toefl test.

Thanks.

Dear All,

I submitted my application on 3 October and my LSAC Report is yet to be requested by HLS ( circa 8 weeks). Given the message on the application status page, I opted not to contact HLS directly. So hopefully it'll be OK.

Could you check your application status page again? It appears that your LSAC Report has been (requested and) received.

It is entirely up to you as to whether to waive your right to access recommendations. Recommendations for which the access right has not been waived are considered non-confidential and therefore potentially less candid.

What a bad news. Is there anything that I can do now to reduce such risk?

Also, what if two of these letters were written months before the request for a LoR was sent to recommenders. As they were just uploaded at a later date after the request, but they were originally written in the past ( with the date provided above in the letter head) ? would they still be disadvantaged?

I never thought that one day using my right would place me at a disadvantage position :( In addition, its the recommender's duty to provide candid evaluation and be honest whether I waive my rights or not.. I had no idea that my actions would have any effect on people's morality..

I hope there might be any solution to this problem.

Thank you.

Hello,

Recently I have took my Toefl test an I got 101 overall. However, I noticed that Harvard and Stanford requieres 25 minimum score for each subsection and I did not reach such minimum in "speaking" and "writing". Hence, I want to know if those universities area flexible with the "subsection score" or I should take another Toefl test.

Thanks.

Dear All,

I submitted my application on September 11.

While my LSAC Report has been received, one of my transcripts is still marked as "awaiting." As the status page states that the LSAC Report is likely to be marked as received long before the transcripts and TOEFL score, I have decided not to contact Harvard directly.

On that note, my application checklist does not feature a section for the TOEFL score. I am wondering whether such a section will only be added later when the applications are being reviewed or whether it should already be a part of my application checklist.

Has anyone else had similar experiences or is currently in the same situation?

Thank you.

Dear all,

I have submitted my application on November 12 to Harvard. My transcripts were sent to LSAC on October 21. LSAC requested additional documents which I provided them with on early November. In the meantime, they hold the review of my application until the receipt of the requested documents.

Since then, I have been chasing them to resume the review of my application which is currently on hold. They have not circulated my LSAC Report or my transcripts to Harvard. According to them, there is a delay in their process and my several emails and phone calls will only increase the delay.

I am a little bit worried because Harvard sends me updating emails in which it is stated that my LSAC report and transcripts are missing and I should make sure to send them before the deadline of December 1. My transcripts have been sent to LSAC a month ago and my report has not been released yet.

I opted to not contact directly Harvard. Hopefully, somebody might have a solution to this problem.

Many thanks in advance

Dear Laur-a,

as far as the 'missing' documents are concerned: I contacted Harvard on the same matter and they told me not to worry. The documents are obviously included in the LSAC report and therefor have been received by Harvard, but were not marked as received individually so far. At least this is, what I understood...
The TOEFL thing is strange though...

Hello,

Recently I have took my Toefl test an I got 101 overall. However, I noticed that Harvard and Stanford requieres 25 minimum score for each subsection and I did not reach such minimum in "speaking" and "writing". Hence, I want to know if those universities area flexible with the "subsection score" or I should take another Toefl test.

Thanks.

While there may be some flexibility here and there for slightly lower subsection scores, it would be to your benefit to take another TOEFL (and, in any event, work on your English skills - you'll definitely want them to be as strong as possible for your LL.M. program!).

I think Harvard should accept at least 250 LL.M. student a year rather than 180. So bad.

Hi All,

Thank you for your interest in the Harvard LL.M. program. We’re always happy to respond directly to inquiries about the program, and we can provide the most accurate answers about our admissions process. Please feel free to email us at gpquery@law.harvard.edu with any questions you may have.

In the meantime, we want to provide some additional information about our admissions process that may help to address a few of the misconceptions that appear to be floating around on this site. First, our process is not a casual process. We do not make admissions decisions based on grades or GPAs alone. In fact, we do even not look at GPAs as numbers; rather, we carefully evaluate each transcript, looking not only at the grades received in each course, but also taking into account other details like the rigor of the course, the rigor of the curriculum overall, and any relevant trends in grades over the duration of an individual degree and/or across all academic work. In evaluating an applicant’s academic record, we try to assess whether the academic work to date indicates that an applicant is likely able to succeed in Harvard’s intensive and academically rigorous program. We have a very strong applicant pool, and most of our applicants do satisfy that requirement. That is why we look carefully at the other components of the application as well. We do not have a formula for admission and we do not admit by the numbers. Instead, we look at each applicant’s full application holistically. The entire process involves several levels of review, beginning with careful evaluation of materials by processing staff for authenticity, accuracy, and completeness, and then involving review by senior administrators, area and subject matter experts, and multiple faculty members. Each year, 30-40 members of the Harvard Law School faculty participate in the application review process and yes, they do bother to read the applications.

This multi-part, multi-level review takes a lot of time, and the different steps in the review process can’t be completed in parallel but must be done in sequence. We process applications for review over a period of several months. Applications completed and/or evaluated at the beginning of the process do not have a higher or lower chance of admission than those completed and/or evaluated at the end of the process. All admissions decisions are made at the same time, shortly before they are released in March. We have a small staff, and the same staff members who process applications also respond to inquiries about the processing. When applicants contact us repeatedly to ask us to process their application materials more quickly, it diverts staff attention from processing and slows down our entire process. It will not result in an earlier decision for that applicant, nor will it benefit that individual.

As to how applicants who subscribe to LSAC should proceed, we always recommend submitting your application well before the deadline. If most applicants wait until the deadline to submit their applications (as they typically do), then we will have a bottleneck of applications to process in early December. If applications come in more gradually, then we can process them a bit more efficiently. In any case, if you wait until the deadline to submit, we will request your LSAC application materials as quickly as we can and, assuming there are no issues with LSAC’s processing of your materials, you will not be at a disadvantage at all. We do find, however, that LSAC can take much longer than two weeks to process materials on its end. If you plan to use LSAC’s service, you should make sure to submit your materials to LSAC from four to six weeks in advance of our application deadline to ensure that the LSAC Report is ready to send to us when we request it. Keep in mind that we will be processing application materials for some time; our processing schedule depends on the availability of administrators and faculty members involved in the review process. For example, if your application is not processed until February, that is due to reviewer schedules. Conversely, if your application is not complete in mid-December (i.e., after our application deadline of December 1) and our reviewers are ready for it at that time, then your application will be reviewed as it is, and you may very well be at a disadvantage. That is why we ask for materials by no later than December 1.

We hope this additional insight into our process allays any concerns you may have. We look forward to receiving your applications over the next few weeks (and again, earlier is better!).

Kind regards,
Harvard Law School Graduate Program Admissions

I answered the same question just a few comments before...

Dear All,

I submitted my application on September 11.

While my LSAC Report has been received, one of my transcripts is still marked as "awaiting." As the status page states that the LSAC Report is likely to be marked as received long before the transcripts and TOEFL score, I have decided not to contact Harvard directly.

On that note, my application checklist does not feature a section for the TOEFL score. I am wondering whether such a section will only be added later when the applications are being reviewed or whether it should already be a part of my application checklist.

Has anyone else had similar experiences or is currently in the same situation?

Thank you.

Hi. My LSAC report is shown as received (23.11.16) but my TOEFL score and transcript haven't been received by HLS yet. Meanwhile I also got a "missing documents" email on 23.11
16. Since LSAC shows that all documents have been sent and given the caution that unnecessary emails slow down the admission process, I'm sitting tight. How long should I wait before I send an email?

A - The missing documents email went out shortly before the LSAC Report was received.
B - As set forth on the application status page, it will take us several weeks to manually update your checklist with the contents of your LSAC Report. The LSAC Report is what we need now. There is no need to send an email - we will let you know if we need anything.

Dear All,

I submitted my application on September 11.

While my LSAC Report has been received, one of my transcripts is still marked as "awaiting." As the status page states that the LSAC Report is likely to be marked as received long before the transcripts and TOEFL score, I have decided not to contact Harvard directly.

On that note, my application checklist does not feature a section for the TOEFL score. I am wondering whether such a section will only be added later when the applications are being reviewed or whether it should already be a part of my application checklist.

Has anyone else had similar experiences or is currently in the same situation?

Thank you.

It should already be part of your application checklist if you're required to submit a score. It sounds like you may not actually be subject to the requirement. But if you are, you should not worry since it sounds like your LSAC Report contains your TOEFL score anyway.

Dear Laur-a,

as far as the 'missing' documents are concerned: I contacted Harvard on the same matter and they told me not to worry. The documents are obviously included in the LSAC report and therefor have been received by Harvard, but were not marked as received individually so far. At least this is, what I understood...
The TOEFL thing is strange though...

Hi. My LSAC report is shown as received (23.11.16) but my TOEFL score and transcript haven't been received by HLS yet. Meanwhile I also got a "missing documents" email on 23.11
16. Since LSAC shows that all documents have been sent and given the caution that unnecessary emails slow down the admission process, I'm sitting tight. How long should I wait before I send an email?

A - The missing documents email went out shortly before the LSAC Report was received.
B - As set forth on the application status page, it will take us several weeks to manually update your checklist with the contents of your LSAC Report. The LSAC Report is what we need now. There is no need to send an email - we will let you know if we need anything.

Hello,

I was trying to submit my application however I cannot preview the document. Should I submit it as is? I am unable to check if the contents are fine. I am not sure why I am facing this glitch. Is there anyway you could send me a preview after submission. I would be grateful if you could respond as soon as possible.

I am just wondering why this forum is so silent despite having about 30+ participants on here...Is the waiting crushing us all?

I am just wondering why this forum is so silent despite having about 30+ participants on here...Is the waiting crushing us all?

[Edited by The will of fire on Jan 14, 2017]

I am just wondering why this forum is so silent despite having about 30+ participants on here...Is the waiting crushing us all?