Application Materials

A complete first-year application to the JD program includes the electronic application form available on LSAC.org plus the following additional materials:

LSAT Score Report

You must have a reportable score on the Law School Admission Test, where LSAC defines the "reportable score period" as the current testing cycle, beginning in June, and the previous five testing cycles. You may submit your application before you have a reportable LSAT score, but your application will not be complete until your score has been released. You must have at least one LSAT Argumentative Writing or LSAT Writing sample on file with LSAC in order for your LSAT score to be released. If you opt for LSAT Score Preview, your score will not be released until either you have confirmed that you wish to keep it or six days have elapsed since the official score release date, whichever is sooner.

To delay review of your application for a future LSAT score, you must submit a Review Delay Request, the link to which will be included in the email verifying your application as complete. If you do so, your application will not go under review until your future LSAT score has been released, and if the delay extends beyond an application deadline, your application will not meet that deadline. If your score is not released by the time scores from the November 2026 LSAT have been released on December 2, 2026, your application will not meet the Early Bird application deadline, and if your score is not released by the time scores from the February 2027 LSAT have been released on March 3, 2027, your application will not meet the regular application deadline.
 
Once a final decision has been rendered for your application, the Admissions Committee may amend its decision in light of a new LSAT score but is under no obligation to do so.

Transcripts

You must provide your official transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate institutions where you have been enrolled. This includes institutions from which you have not received a degree, such as those where you earned transfer credit or those where you earned dual enrollment credit while in high school. Transcripts for completed academic programs must show any degrees conferred and dates of conferral.

You must receive a bachelor's degree from an accredited postsecondary institution prior to enrolling in the JD program. To check the accreditation status of an institution within the United States, please consult the U.S. Department of Education's Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs.

If you earned your bachelor's degree before September 1, 2026, your transcript must show your degree as conferred for your application to be considered complete. If you are still undertaking coursework toward your bachelor's degree, your application may be considered complete with an "in progress" transcript, but you are encouraged to submit an updated transcript to LSAC once available. Any offer of admission or scholarship funding made to an applicant whose transcript is "in progress" is contingent upon the applicant's continued performance toward their degree.

All students intending to enroll in the JD program in the Fall 2027 semester must ensure that their final official transcripts are on file with the Office of Admissions by July 15, 2027, where a transcript is "final" if it shows the student's degree as conferred. If a student's final official transcript will not be available by July 15, they may request a deadline extension. Only under extraordinary circumstances may a student without a final official undergraduate transcript on file remain enrolled in the JD program beyond October 5, 2027, and under no circumstances may such a student remain enrolled in the JD program beyond the Fall 2027 semester. For students in the 3+3 Program, a transcript will be considered "final" for the purposes of this requirement if it shows that all undergraduate coursework required to be completed prior to matriculating in the JD program has been successfully completed.

Official transcripts must be sent to LSAC for required processing, including those from the University of Louisville itself. Transcripts sent directly to law school cannot be accepted.

Letters of Recommendation

You must provide at least one letter of recommendation, and you may provide up to three letters of recommendation in total. The Admissions Committee strongly encourages applicants to provide at least two letters of recommendation if possible.

The Admissions Committee expects letters of recommendation to be academic or professional in nature, where an "academic" letter refers to one authored by an undergraduate or graduate school faculty member who has taught the applicant in a traditional classroom setting, and where a "professional" letter refers to one authored by someone who worked closely with the applicant in a professional setting for an extended duration, preferably as the applicant's direct supervisor. Any applicant currently or recently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate academic program is strongly encouraged to submit at least one academic letter. Letters of recommendation that are neither academic nor professional in nature are strongly discouraged.

Letters of recommendation must be sent to LSAC directly by your recommenders. You must then access your LSAC account and assign letters of recommendation to Brandeis Law. Letters of recommendation received via any other means cannot be accepted.

Personal Statement

The personal statement is an open-ended essay written on any topic of your choice. It should be 500 to 750 words in length and should demonstrate your capacity for high-quality, independent written work. Ideally, your personal statement will provide insight to the Admissions Committee on your personal story, experiences, motivations or anticipated contributions to the legal profession.

For additional insight on what to include in your personal statement, please refer to our Admissions FAQ.

Brandeis Statement

The mission of Brandeis Law celebrates the legacy of Justice Louis D. Brandeis, a native of Louisville known as "the people's attorney" for his dedication to social causes and his refusal to accept fees for his public interest work. In the spirit of that mission, the Brandeis statement is a supplemental essay written in response to one of the following three prompts:

1. Purpose: Tell us about a social or political cause that is important to you and explain how you envision a legal education helping you to effectively champion that cause.
2. Service: Tell us about one or more specific ways in which you have engaged in service, leadership or volunteerism and describe how those experiences have impacted your trajectory.
3. Community: Tell us about your connection to the greater Louisville or Kentucky community and articulate how you plan to engage with the local community during and after law school.

Your Brandeis statement should specifically answer the prompt you have selected and must be clearly labeled with the appropriate prompt number. It should be 250 to 500 words in length and, like your personal statement, should demonstrate your capacity for high-quality, independent written work. While your Brandeis statement may complement your personal statement, the two should be unique and should not be repetitive or redundant of each other.

Résumé

Your résumé outlines your contact information, education, employment history and other notable achievements and experiences. It should be neatly organized and appropriately formatted, with all instances of employment clearly labeled with dates (month and year) and locations (city and state). Your résumé should not include an objective statement, a list of references or a photo. Most applicants' résumés can fit on a single page if prepared thoughtfully, though a second page may be reasonable for applicants with significant employment histories.

Character and Fitness

In addition to a bar examination, there are character, fitness and other qualifications for admission to the bar in every U.S. jurisdiction. Applicants are encouraged to determine the requirements for any jurisdiction in which they intend to seek admission by contacting the jurisdiction. Addresses for all relevant agencies are available through the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Many jurisdictions, including Kentucky, require a copy of your law school application to accompany your petition for admission to the bar. The Character and Fitness section of the application requires the disclosure of information that may be pertinent to your character and fitness to study and practice the law. Failure to answer these questions truthfully and completely could affect not only your application for admission to Brandeis Law but also your petition for admission to the bar.

If you answer "Yes" to one or more of the questions in the Character and Fitness section of the application, you must provide a written disclosure that addresses all such answers. Your disclosure should be a narrative in your own words, including all relevant details, dates and outcomes. Do not provide any court records or other similar documentation unless requested by the Admissions Committee. The Admissions Committee may request clarification or additional information if not sufficiently addressed by your initial disclosure, and review of your application may be suspended until you have provided a sufficient response.

All applicants to the law school have a continuing obligation to disclose pertinent character and fitness information. If at any time after you have submitted your application there is new or previously undisclosed information that would affect your answers to the questions in this section, you must immediately contact the Office of Admissions to amend your answers as necessary and provide a new or amended written disclosure including all relevant details, dates and outcomes for review by the Admissions Committee.

Addendum

If appropriate, you may provide a brief addendum regarding any aspect of your application that is not addressed elsewhere and that you feel is necessary to explain for the Admissions Committee. The addendum should be no longer than 250 words unless exceptional circumstances warrant a longer explanation. You are not required to provide an addendum.

By submitting your application materials, you certify that the information provided therein is truthful and complete, and you are under a continuing obligation to update and supplement your application if at any time after its submission the information therein is no longer truthful and complete. Failure to meet these obligations may result in denial of your application for admission or revocation of your admission to Brandeis Law. You likewise certify that you are the applicant named in the application and that the information provided therein is your own independent work. While soliciting and incorporating feedback from other people or artificial intelligence may be appropriate in completing your application, presenting the product of other such entities as your own independent work may result in denial of your application for admission or revocation of your admission to Brandeis Law.