Registering for Clinics in Helios
Students register for most clinics through Helios during registration preferencing the spring of the year before. The clinical round is the first round in a series of registration phases.
- Students register for clinics for the fall, winter and spring terms of the upcoming year.
- Students may submit up to 6 preferences during the clinical round.
- For clinics that are offered in more than one semester, each semester counts as a distinct clinical preference.
- After results for the clinical round are released, clinical add/drop opens in Helios.
Students may participate in one clinic at a time. Once you have taken a particular clinic, you cannot sign up for it again through the Helios registration preferencing process.
Students who have already taken a particular clinic and would like to return to the clinic in a subsequent semester do not register for the clinic through the Helios preferencing process. Interested students should apply to continue their work through the Advanced Clinical Program.
Clinical Course Component Registration
All clinics have a required clinical course component. Unless otherwise noted in the clinic description in the HLS Course Catalog, when a student enrolls in a clinic, they are automatically enrolled in the required clinical course component. Clinic enrollment and clinical course enrollment are generally linked – if a student drops from a clinic, they will also be dropped from the clinical course and vice-versa.
2024-2025 Clinic Selection Deadlines
Opens: Tuesday, March 26 at 9am
Closes: Thursday, March 28 at 5pm
Results: Monday, April 1 by 5pm
Please review the Registrar’s Office website for a full list of registration dates and events.
By Application Clinics
A handful of our clinical offerings require an application process for enrollment. Registration for these clinics is not done through Helios. Each clinic has its own application process and application deadline. This information can be found in the clinics’ description in the HLS Course Catalog.
List of By Application Clinics
Waitlists and Add/Drop Periods
Once clinical preferencing results have been released, add/drop opens for clinics (fall, winter and spring). Students may drop from any clinics they were enrolled in, enroll in any open clinics, and add themselves to the waitlist for any clinic they did not preference during clinical registration. Waitlists continue to process in Helios up until the drop deadline.
Clinic Waitlist Processing
If you receive a clinic waitlist offer and are having problems accepting it, please refer to the “Registration and Add/Drop” section of our Frequently Asked Questions webpage.
- General information about the Helios waitlist policies and procedures can be found here on the Registrar’s Office website.
Clinic waitlists move significantly. Waitlists for fall clinics will process over the summer until the drop deadline. Waitlists for winter and spring clinics will continue to process throughout the fall, until the winter and spring drop deadline hits.
If you’d like to speak with someone about the chances of you getting off a particular clinic waitlist, please contact clinical@law.harvard.edu.
Clinic Drop Deadlines and Project/Client Assignments
Please note that clinic add/drop deadlines are earlier than non-clinical add/drop deadlines. Some clinics have even earlier drop deadlines than the general clinical drop deadlines – check the clinic’s description in the HLS Course Catalog to confirm each individual clinic’s drop deadline, or reference our Clinical Curriculum Chart.
Dropping after the applicable drop deadline will result in an “Withdrawal” (WD) on your academic transcript. You cannot drop a multi-semester (e.g. Fall-Winter) clinical course after the first semester’s (Fall) drop deadline. Clinical work begins the first week of classes.
Please note that for most clinics, students will not know their specific project assignment until after the clinic’s drop deadline. To learn more about the potential clinical projects for a given semester, please contact the clinic directly.
General Clinic Add/Drop Deadlines
Helpful Links and Resources for Clinical Registration
Learn more about the clinical registration preferencing process, add/drop and waitlisting, and the clinical offerings available. We encourage you to review the evaluations that past clinical student’s have completed about their experiences!