JDP Overview
The Junior Deferral Program (JDP) is an excellent option for students who know they want to go to law school but want to explore other professional, educational, or service opportunities first. Through JDP, undergraduate students in junior standing (or the international equivalent) can apply to HLS as long as they are scheduled to complete all required coursework and graduate the following year. If admitted, they must commit to defer their admission offer for at least two years once they’ve completed their undergraduate degree. Students can then use this deferral period to explore their interests and gain hands-on work experience before returning to the law school classroom.
Eligibility
Students interested in applying to the Junior Deferral Program in the upcoming admissions cycle (summer 2025) must be scheduled to complete coursework and graduate from their undergraduate program by Spring 2026. In addition, an applicant’s undergraduate degree must be equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree to be eligible to apply. The duration of the undergraduate program may vary. If you aren’t sure whether or not you are eligible to apply, please email jdadmiss@law.harvard.edu.
Information Sessions
Join one of our virtual information sessions. In these 45-minute webinars, participants will hear from members of the J.D. Admissions team as well as a current student admitted through the Junior Deferral Program. We will provide a brief overview of the program, answer pre-submitted questions, and address live questions submitted through the Q&A box. For a broad overview of HLS and the admissions process, we encourage participants to view our recorded J.D. Admissions Information Session and browse our JDP FAQs before joining a session.
Thursday, April 24 at 12:00 – 12:45 p.m. ET
Thursday, May 22 at 08:00 – 08:45 p.m. ET
Thursday, June 26 at 12:00 – 12:45 p.m. ET
Click below to join our mailing list for the latest updates and information about the Junior Deferral Program.
Application Toolkit
We compiled the application resources, information, and advice from across our website to help you put together an application that best reflects your abilities and readiness for Harvard Law School.
Cohort Profile
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Number of Undergraduate Institutions 80
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Number of Majors 57
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States & Territories Represented 47
*Data reflects all students admitted to HLS via the Junior Deferral Program in the past six years
JDP Blog Posts
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JDP Reapplication Insights
As noted in a previous blog post entitled Reapplying after JDP, the Admissions Committee warmly welcomes reapplications. Each year, several students who were not admitted to HLS through the Junior Deferral Program reapply and join the HLS community. In this updated blog post, we aim to clarify our advice for JDP applicants, specifically regarding when JDP
October 21, 2024
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JDP Reflections: 8 Lessons I Learned Through my Junior Deferral Program Experience
The Harvard Junior Deferral Program (JDP) can take you anywhere you can imagine (sometimes even places you haven’t imagined). JDP provides time before law school to explore other opportunities, the world, and, most importantly, yourself. Reflecting on my two-year deferral time, it is difficult to narrow down all of my experiences from spending time in
August 2, 2024
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JDP Reflections: How I Discovered the Junior Deferral Program (JDP)
Why Defer? When I arrived at the University of Virginia in the fall of 2018, I had one thing on my mind: attending law school. However, which school I wanted to attend, what type of lawyer I wanted to be, and, to a certain extent, why I even wanted to be a lawyer were all
July 23, 2024