University of Detroit Mercy School of Law

DETROIT MERCY CALLS THIS THE 'STATEMENT OF INTEREST', NOT THE PERSONAL STATEMENT -- worth knowing, because the school uses the phrase 'personal statement' elsewhere for a different purpose (guest applicants 'submit the application for admission to the JD Program using the Personal Statement to specify reasons for requesting guest student status'). Recorded as personal_statement because it is the required narrative essay every applicant writes. THE LIMIT IS PUBLISHED AS A SOFT TARGET AND A HARD STOP IN ONE SENTENCE, which is unusually candid: 'We encourage you to limit your statement to two pages, and the committee will not read more than three pages.' page_limit is recorded as 3 -- the point past which the reading stops -- but two pages is the school's stated preference and the safer target. Format is fully specified: 'Statements should be double spaced in a 12-point font, with normal margins.' It is explicitly a writing sample: 'The statement also serves as a writing sample and should adhere to conventional rules of writing.' The prompt is genuinely three-part -- inspiration, goals, interests -- plus the contribution framing in the first sentence. NO WHY-DETROIT-MERCY QUESTION is asked and no separate why_x_essay, perspective statement, or optional essay is published, so those types are omitted rather than recorded as absent. Explanatory material has its own home; see the addendum entry.

Verified 2026-08-20 · source page

ADDENDA ARE MANDATORY FOR DISCLOSURES AND OPTIONAL FOR EVERYTHING ELSE, in one sentence: 'Please submit an explanatory addendum for each academic and criminal disclosure that includes specific dates, causes, circumstances, and outcomes for each disclosure. Other explanatory addenda are accepted, but not required.' Note the required contents are itemised -- dates, causes, circumstances, outcomes -- and one addendum is expected PER DISCLOSURE rather than one covering everything. A PUBLISHED LENGTH CAP, which few schools give for addenda: 'Addenda should not exceed one page in length, absent extraordinary circumstances.' Recorded as page_limit 1. One page per disclosure is tight, and the 'absent extraordinary circumstances' escape is the school's own, not an invitation. required is recorded as false because the obligation is conditional on having something to disclose; an applicant with an academic or criminal disclosure should read this row as mandatory. DETROIT MERCY PUBLISHES NO CHARACTER-AND-FITNESS QUESTION SET, no continuing duty to update, and no ABA Standard 504 bar-admission caution on its admissions pages -- the addendum instruction above is the whole of it. Recorded as silence.

Verified 2026-08-20 · source page

'A one-page resume is preferred. Resumes should not exceed two pages.' page_limit 2, with one page the stated preference -- the same soft-target-plus-hard-cap construction Detroit Mercy uses for the statement. THE CONTENT SPEC IS THE MOST PRESCRIPTIVE IN THIS DATA SET AND INCLUDES AN EXPLICIT PROHIBITION: 'Please include an education section and experience section. In the education section, you may list any awards, scholarships, publications, and activities. In the experience section, you may include both paid and unpaid experiences. You may also include other sections, for example, languages, memberships, and interests. Do not include an objective or references section.' Two sections are required, several are optional, and two are banned outright. Note the express welcome for unpaid experience, which matters for applicants whose record is volunteer or caregiving work rather than employment.

Verified 2026-08-20 · source page

'Two letters of recommendation are required, and one must come from a college professor, unless the applicant has been out of college for a number of years.' The academic requirement is a rule with a named exception rather than a preference, which is stronger than most schools in this batch -- though 'a number of years' is left undefined, so a mid-career applicant should ask rather than assume. ONE CATEGORY IS BANNED: 'Letters should not be written by family members, family friends, or other personal connections.' Note that reaches further than the usual family exclusion -- 'other personal connections' would cover a neighbour or a parent's colleague. Delivery is through LSAC. NO MAXIMUM IS PUBLISHED, so count_accepted is left unset rather than guessed.

Verified 2026-08-20 · source page

'Two letters of recommendation are required, and one must come from a college professor, unless the applicant has been out of college for a number of years.' The academic requirement is a rule with a named exception rather than a preference, which is stronger than most schools in this batch -- though 'a number of years' is left undefined, so a mid-career applicant should ask rather than assume. ONE CATEGORY IS BANNED: 'Letters should not be written by family members, family friends, or other personal connections.' Note that reaches further than the usual family exclusion -- 'other personal connections' would cover a neighbour or a parent's colleague. Delivery is through LSAC. NO MAXIMUM IS PUBLISHED, so count_accepted is left unset rather than guessed.

Verified 2026-08-20 · source page

THE LSAT IS THE ONLY TEST ACCEPTED, AND DETROIT MERCY REFUSES BOTH ALTERNATIVES BY NAME: 'New students are required to receive a bachelor's degree before entering law school and must have taken the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) within the past five years. At this time, Detroit Mercy law does not accept JD-Next or GRE scores in lieu of LSAT scores.' That is an explicit denial rather than site silence -- per docs/CURATION.md the distinction matters -- and it is one of the few in this data set to name JD-Next as well as the GRE. The 509 corroborates: all 247 first-year enrollees sit in the LSAT row, with no GRE or JD-Next row printed. Note the hedge 'At this time', which signals a policy that may move. A PUBLISHED FLOOR EXPRESSED AS A PERCENTILE, WHICH IS RARE AND IS A REAL BAR RATHER THAN ADVICE: 'Applicants must have a high LSAT score in at least the 15th percentile of that test's administration to be considered.' Below that the application is not considered at all. Separately, and as guidance rather than a rule: 'We encourage candidates to perform at the 50th percentile or better for admission; however, we consider a range of applicants based on all aspects of the application.' The school is careful to add that nothing guarantees the outcome: 'There are no credentials that guarantee admission to the program.' YOU MAY APPLY BEFORE YOU TEST: 'Applicants may apply before sitting for the LSAT. We will complete and hold the application pending the LSAT score release.' The last score accepted in a cycle is the June LSAT. Nothing is published about superscoring, averaging, or how multiple sittings are weighed -- a silence rather than a policy.

Verified 2026-08-20 · source page

'Applicants must request that LSAC provide Detroit Mercy Law with a Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Report that includes all LSAT score(s), transcript(s), and TOEFL scores (if applicable).' DEGREE BEFORE ENTRY, NOT BEFORE APPLYING: 'Students must receive a bachelor's degree before entering law school. While many students apply in the final year of undergraduate studies prior to receiving their degree, others apply after receiving their degree. All undergraduate degrees are acceptable.' The school names the spread it actually admits: 'Each year, the incoming class includes students with a variety of degrees in liberal arts, education, criminal justice, business, and STEM.' GPA GUIDANCE, NOT A MINIMUM: 'We encourage candidates to maintain a cumulative undergraduate grade point average at or above 3.0 for admission; however, we consider a range of applicants based on all aspects of the application.' Recorded as encouragement rather than a floor, unlike the LSAT 15th-percentile bar which is a genuine cut. INTERNATIONAL REQUIREMENTS ARE SPECIFIED IN DETAIL, including an unusually precise one-year threshold: 'TOEFL scores, including the Test of Written English and the Test of Spoken English, are required from applicants who earned their undergraduate degree outside of the US, its territories, or Canada... LSAC's TOEFL code is 0058.' And on transcripts: 'Applicants who completed more than one year of post-secondary work outside of the US, its territories, or Canada, with the exception of study abroad, consortium, or exchange programs sponsored by a US or Canadian institution and stated as such on the home institution transcript, are required to use CAS for the authentication and evaluation of international transcripts. For less than one year of study, an applicant may submit transcripts of this work directly to Detroit Mercy Law.' No minimum TOEFL score is published, which is a gap given that the requirement itself is mandatory.

Verified 2026-08-20 · source page

THERE IS NO APPLICATION FEE. The 509 certifies 'Application fee 0', and the admissions pages corroborate by omission -- no fee amount, no payment step, and no waiver process appears anywhere on the apply-now page, the admissions FAQ, or the admissions overview as fetched on 2026-08-20. Recorded as required false. Because the fee is zero there is no waiver to document. LSAC's own CAS and report charges are separate and Detroit Mercy does not address them. No seat deposit amount or deadline is published either, which is a gap relative to most schools in this batch.

Verified 2026-08-20 · source page

Recorded as the site's silence, not as a statement that Detroit Mercy does not interview. Neither the admissions overview, the apply-now page with its full deadline structure, admission requirements, application requirements and decision criteria, nor the admissions FAQ uses the word 'interview' in any form, as fetched on 2026-08-20. The published decision process is entirely file-based -- 'Files are reviewed for decision upon completion' -- and the stated criteria are academic credentials plus 'writing and analytical skills, leadership, work experience, and service'. The only applicant contact offered is 'Schedule a Tour' and admissions events, neither described as part of evaluation.

Verified 2026-08-20 · source page