Application Form
Please follow the directions carefully and include the requested information in the spaces provided. You may also upload various attachments to your application as outlined in the attachment section of the application. Please note that if any one of the attachments outlined does not apply to you, please check the box within each section that says "this does not apply to me." Please do not submit attachments in lieu of completing the requested information in each section of the application. Label clearly all attachments at the top or header of the attachment.
Pleas note that the race and ethnicity data collected in questions 5-8 of the Additional Biographical section of the application form is not provided to admissions committee members for use in the application-selection process. This data is collected for alternative purposes including but not limited to government and accreditation reporting requirements.
Standardized Test Score(s) and CAS Report
All applicants for admission to the JD program are required to take either the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) or GRE. Scores for both exams are valid for five years. LSAC will send all valid LSAT scores to NYU regardless of whether an applicant submits a GRE score. Applicants who have both an LSAT and GRE scores are not required to submit their GRE score.
All applicants are required to register for the Credential Assembly Service (CAS). After your application is received electronically, a request for your CAS report from the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) is automatically generated. The CAS report summarizes undergraduate academic work and includes copies of your transcripts. If you have taken the LSAT, your LSAT score(s) and your LSAT writing sample(s) will be included in the CAS report. GRE scores must be sent to NYU Law directly from ETS. The law school code for NYU School of Law for both LSAC and ETS is 2599.
Note for Foreign-Educated Applicants: Foreign transcripts must be submitted through the LSAC Credential Assembly Service (CAS). Applicants who completed any post-secondary work outside of the United States (including its territories) or Canada, must use this service for the evaluation of foreign transcripts. The one exception to this requirement is foreign work completed through a study abroad, consortium, or exchange program sponsored by a US or Canadian institution, and where the work is clearly indicated as such on the home campus transcript. Please visit www.lsac.org for details.
Recommendation Forms
Two recommendations are required to complete your admissions application.
The Committee on Admissions requires the use of the LSAC Letter of Recommendation (LOR) Service. Please Do NOT submit duplicate letters directly to NYU School of Law.
Note: The Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship; the Lindermann Family Public Service Scholarship; the Jacobson Public Service Scholarship for Women, Children, and Families; the Sinsheimer Service Scholarship; and the Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children; and the Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Criminal Justice applications require at least one additional recommendation that addresses the applicant's commitment to public service (see Scholarship section for details).
Application Fee or Waiver
When you transmit your application electronically, the fee, payable by credit card only, is $85. The application fee is not applied to tuition and is not refundable.
Applicants who have received an LSAC-approved LSAT or Credential Assembly Service fee waiver, will have their NYU School of Law $85 application fee automatically waived.
Applicants who are alumni of Teach for America or the Peace Corps are eligible for an $85 application fee waiver. To qualify, applicants must have completed their 2-year commitment to Teach for America or the Peace Corps by the start of the fall semester. Further, Teach for America alumni must have completed TFA's pre-corps training institute and served as a teacher for two years in a low-income community through their Teach for America placement. Applicants who have completed less than 2 years by the start of law school or those who are just entering Teach for America or the Peace Corps are not eligible.
Applicants who were awarded the Truman Scholarship from the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation are eligible for a fee waiver for the NYU Law JD application.
The application fee will also be waived for those who have served or are serving in the United States military. (Participation in a foreign country's military does not qualify an applicant for a fee waiver from NYU School of Law.)
Teach for America, Peace Corps, Truman Scholars, and US military participants should email their request for a fee waiver. Applicants must have an account with the LSAC. To request an application fee waiver, please include your L number, a verification letter, and the basis for the waiver (Teach for America, Peace Corps, Truman Scholarship, or US military service).
Personal Statement
While the Committee on Admissions does not use interviews as part of the regular selection process, we would like to give you the opportunity to include more information about yourself than the application form conveys. Because people and their interests vary, we leave the content and length of your statement to your discretion. You may wish to bring to our attention additional information that provides an understanding of your qualifications, goals, and potential to contribute to the NYU Law community.
Resume
A resume is required to complete your application.
Supplying Additional Information
New York University School of Law seeks to enroll a student body from a broad spectrum of society. The Committee on Admissions encourages you to provide any information that may be helpful to us in reaching a thoughtful decision on your application. While the choice as to whether and what information to submit to the committee is entirely yours, any information you provide will be used to give the Committee a more complete understanding of your background: to help the committee reach an informed decision on your application, and to aid the Committee in selecting a student body with a range of experiences.
This is an opportunity to share with the Committee information about how your background will enable you to contribute to the NYU Law community. Information that has been helpful in the past includes, but is not limited to, meaningful leadership experience; significant community involvement; personal/family history or educational or socioeconomic disadvantage or unusual circumstance which may have affected academic performance and how you exceled despite those circumstance; and the skills you have developed to overcome adversity. This list is not all-inclusive, but we offer it for you to think about as you consider whether such information might be relevant in your case, and to assure you that it is quite appropriate.
If you choose to provide additional information, please upload this information in the attachment section of the application, and clearly identify your submission accordingly.
When you receive additional grades (such as first semester of senior year grades), you are required to submit an updated transcript to LSAC, which will, in turn, send us an updated CAS report.
Any information you submit, including material sent after your application is complete, will be considered by the Committee on Admissions if received before a final decision is reached on your application.
In completing this application, be sure that your statements are accurate, you answer all the questions in the Character and Fitness section of the application, and you electronically certify the application by completing the Certification section of the application. Misrepresentation may result in denial of admission, the rescinding of an offer of admission, dismissal from the Law School, or revoking any NYU School of Law degrees granted. Misrepresentation also may result in notification of LSAC's Subcommittee on Misconduct and Irregularities in the Admissions Process. The Law School may seek to verify any information submitted by contacting recommenders, employers or school officials.
In addition to a bar examination, there are character, fitness, and other qualifications for admission to the bar in every U.S. jurisdiction. Applicants are encouraged to determine the requirements for any jurisdiction in which they intend to seek admission by contacting the jurisdiction. Addresses for all relevant agencies are available through the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
Questions or Concerns
We will try to notify you if any of the material necessary to complete your application has not been received by the Office of Admissions, and we will try to keep you informed about the status of your application. Please understand that it takes some time for the committee to give each application thorough consideration. Please note that we have an online status check function available for all applicants accessible from our JD Admissions landing page.
Please keep a copy of your application and your personal statement. We will not return or give you copies of any part of your application or supporting material, nor will we forward any part of your application or supporting material to a third party.
The Office of Admissions does not release any information about an applicant's status to anyone except to the applicant. This policy helps to protect the confidentiality of every applicant.
If an applicant is admitted to the Law School, the applicant's contact information, including email and phone number, will be shared with community members such as Law School faculty, alumni, administrators, students, and student organizations, including affinity groups to facilitate the exchange of information about NYU Law. Applicants who do not wish their contact information to be shared with members of the NYU Law community should contact the Office of JD Admissions.
Application materials and all supporting documents submitted in connection with an application for admitted students who enroll at New York University School of Law become part of the student's record and are subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
For applicants in the European Union please see Data Privacy Notice for Prospective Students in the E.U.
Timing of Decisions
A holistic approach to the review of applications requires an extraordinary amount of care, and thus a significant amount of time. There is no way to predict an exact date on which a candidate will receive a decision.
Candidates who apply under the binding Early Decision option (deadline November 15) will be notified (admit, deny, or hold) by late December.
Candidates who apply by our regular February 15 deadline will be notified by late April. Candidates may hear sooner than late April, but we cannot make such a guarantee.
The Committee on Admissions recognizes that some law schools have deposit deadlines as early as April 1 and will ask a candidate for a commitment before that candidate receives a decision from NYU School of Law. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to accelerate our process in these circumstances.
Rolling Notification, Not Rolling Admission
Applications are sent to the Committee on Admissions in the order in which they are completed, but decisions are not necessarily made in the order in which applications are first reviewed. Some applicants may receive a decision fairly quickly based on the overall and relative strength of the application.
In an applicant pool of approximately 8,500 applications, many candidates present strong qualifications. The Law School’s admissions process is both objective and comparative. The Committee follows an on-going process of reviewing and rereviewing the vast majority of the applicant pool. Most candidates’ applications require significant comparison with the applicant pool as a whole before a final decision can be reached. For many candidates, the committee is not able to reach a decision until they have a clear picture of that year’s entire applicant pool. All decisions by the Committee on Admissions are final.
As long as candidates take the LSAT or GRE by January and meet the February 15 deadline, they will be given full and complete consideration and will be at no competitive disadvantage in the admissions process.