Harvard Law has announced some changes to its admissions policies. Students applying through the school’s Junior Deferral Program, which allows juniors to apply to the law school under the condition that they defer their enrollment for a minimum of two years provided they pursue meaningful work or scholarship in the interim period, will no longer have to pay an application fee. So applicants can now save $85. Additionally, students applying to Harvard Law through the Junior Deferral Program will complete a new application, one that is not on the Law School Admissions Council site.

Harvard Law Drops Application Fee for Junior Deferral Program

As reports Michelle G. Kurilla for The Harvard Crimson in a piece entitled “Harvard Law School to Drop Application Fee, Streamline Process for Junior Deferral Program,” “When the JDP first launched in 2014, the program was only open to Harvard undergraduates. Since 2017, the program has been expanded to allow applications from all undergraduate institutions. Two admissions cycles after the program expanded to non-Harvard students, the Law School is still looking to increase representation from public colleges and universities. Of the 42 undergraduate institutions currently represented in the expanded JDP program’s cohort, only seven are public, including Arizona State University; the University of California, Berkeley; McGill University; University of Georgia; University of Idaho; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and the University of Texas, Austin.”

And while Harvard Law’s Junior Deferral Program is still considered a “pilot program,” we have a feeling it will be sticking around for at least a few years. These efforts by Harvard Law are aimed to increase the diversity of the applicant pool, which includes attracting students who attend public universities as undergraduates.