How Do Clinical Credits Work?
Students enrolled in a clinic receive clinical credit for their clinical enrollment and classroom credit for their clinical course component enrollment.
Many clinics have variable credits, which allows students to elect how many credits they would like to enroll for (generally from a range of 3 to 5 clinical credits).
Each clinical credit equals four hours of clinical work per week or 48 hours per semester.
| Terms available | Clinical Credits | Hours of work per week | Hours of work per semester |
| Fall, Spring | 2 clinical credits | 8 hours/week | 96 hours |
| Fall, Spring | 3 clinical credits | 12 hours/week | 144 hours |
| Fall, Spring | 4 clinical credits | 16 hours/week | 192 hours |
| Fall, Spring | 5 clinical credits | 20 hours/week | 240 hours |
Over winter term, students receive 2 clinical credits. Students must be in residence working full-time at their placements, from the first day of winter term through the last day of winter term.
Students may take up to 16 clinical credits throughout their time at HLS.
Changing Clinical Credits
If you are enrolled in a clinic that offers variable credits, you may adjust your clinical credits through Helios up until the clinic’s drop deadline.
Deadlines
After a clinics add/drop deadline, students can request a change to their clinical credits by emailing Maggie Bay, up until the following dates:
Fall 2024 – October 4, 2024
Spring 2025 – February 14, 2025
After the above dates, all clinical credit changes must be requested by your direct clinical supervisor and submitted for review to mbay@law.harvard.edu.
Winter-Spring clinical students may adjust their spring clinical credits up until the above spring clinical credit change deadline.
How to Change Clinical Credits
Under the add/drop section of “Courses,” click on the edit button next to the clinic that you are enrolled in for which you would like to adjust your credits. In the pop-up screen, you will see the option to increase/decrease the credits you are enrolled for on the upper-right hand corner of the screen.
Please Note: Once the drop deadline for a clinic has passed, please contact the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs for more information about adjusting your clinical credits.