Eligibility and Application for the LEO Program

The Program is intended to welcome to the law school and the legal profession those who have faced such challenges prior to law school, and who have demonstrated great promise in rising to meet those challenges.

Seton Hall Law recognizes that the traditional criteria for admission to law school might not adequately reflect each student’s potential for success in law school and beyond.

APPLICATION

To apply, students must complete the application for first-year admission with LEO Consideration. This requires an additional essay explaining the challenges you may have faced in your pre—college education, discussed below. Applicants must explain the challenges they faced and overcame, and how those challenges relate to their academic achievements.

The program recognizes that grit, determination, resilience, perseverance, and drive are key characteristics of successful law students and attorneys. In preparing your application you should reflect on and celebrate your accomplishments in the face of challenges so that we can better understand how these experiences have shaped you and the law student and lawyer you hope to be.

Applicants should address any of the following challenges you may have faced and how you have found ways to be successful despite these challenges:

1. Social: Being treated differently or otherwise facing obstacles due to your race, ethnicity, primary language spoken at home, religion, physical or learning disability, family circumstances, or sexual orientation.
2. Economic: Growing up in a household that faced challenging economic circumstance.
3. Educational: Attending elementary, middle, and/or high schools that were low-performing or otherwise did not prepare you well for college.
4. Challenges in other areas

 

DEADLINE

The priority deadline to apply for consideration as a LEO Fellow is March 1 (the final deadline to apply and complete the application is April 1).

To complete the application by April 1, the following must be received by Seton Hall Law’s admissions office:

1. Full application indicating LEO and including the additional LEO Essay
2. Credentials Assembly Service Report (including LSAT & LSAT Writing if applying with the LSAT)
3. GRE Score Report (if applying with the GRE)

 

Important: If your file is not complete by April 1, your will only receive consideration in the general decision pool without LEO.

Applicants who have previously participated in LEO, or who have been academically dismissed from another law school, are ineligible for LEO. If you have any further questions about applying for consideration for the LEO program, please contact the Admissions Office directly at (973) 642-8747.

ADMISSION

Once we receive your application materials, you can be admitted one of two ways:

1. LEO Admissions Committee Review:  A Committee dedicated to identifying the qualities of successful LEO Fellows makes admission decisions based on a holistic review of applicants’ academic records, LSAT scores, and LEO application materials. Appropriate supportive documentation such as tax returns, medical records, or school records may be submitted with the request for LEO consideration. Additional information may be requested.
2. General Admissions Committee Review: Even if it is determined that a student does not qualify for admission by the LEO Admissions Committee, that student may still be admitted through the general admissions process in accordance with Admissions Committee guidelines and standards.

Applicants who accept admission as LEO Fellows are required to participate in the LEO Summer Institute and are initially admitted as full-time students with the option of a reduced load for the first year, or as a weekend student.