Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University

Required of all first-year applicants and listed in the JD Program checklist. Two double-spaced pages maximum; the page publishes no font or margin specification. Attached to the LSAC application form. Hofstra publishes no other essay prompt of any kind — there is no perspective/diversity statement, no 'why Hofstra' essay, and no optional supplemental essay anywhere on the admissions pages; recorded here as the site's silence, not as a statement that such essays are unwelcome. The admissions-process paragraph on the same page names the personal statement first among the non-numeric factors the Office of Enrollment Management weighs, alongside 'resume, commitment to public service, leadership, overcoming both economic and historical disadvantages, talents and skills, unique experiences,' the difficulty of the undergraduate course of study, trends in the undergraduate record, graduate work, extracurricular and community activities, work experience, letters of recommendation, and 'personal obstacles that may have interfered with the realization of the applicant's full potential.' The page says nothing about generative AI.

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Optional and only loosely described — the page never uses a length limit or a list of acceptable topics. Under Application Form: 'Prospective candidates may add addendums, resumes, and other items of support by attaching the electronic document(s) to the online application. All supplemental documentation should clearly indicate the question number which it refers.' One addendum is effectively mandatory when triggered: applicants previously dismissed from another ABA-accredited law school 'should provide detailed information and documentation from their prior law school regarding their former enrollment.' The pages carry no separate GPA-addendum, score-disparity, or character-and-fitness addendum invitation, though the page does close with the standard notice that 'there are character, fitness, and other qualifications for admission to the bar in every U.S. jurisdiction.'

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Unusual: letters are NOT required. The Application Process section heads the item 'Optional: Letters of Recommendation' and reads: 'Recommendations provide useful information in the selection process and should come from those who have had an opportunity to carefully assess you over a sufficient period of time to make a reasonable evaluation. We encourage all letters of recommendation be sent to CAS to be included with your CAS report.' The JD Program checklist on the same page sets the count: 'Two letters of recommendation (optional)' — hence count_accepted 2, count_required 0. Despite being optional, letters of recommendation appear in the page's list of factors the Office of Enrollment Management considers. Transfer applicants (not covered by this file) are instead offered 'One letter of recommendation from a law school professor (optional).' The page does not address waiver of the right to inspect letters, nor a maximum beyond the checklist's two.

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Not on the required checklist and not described as required: the resume appears only as an optional attachment — 'Prospective candidates may add addendums, resumes, and other items of support by attaching the electronic document(s) to the online application' — and among the factors the Office of Enrollment Management considers. No page limit or formatting guidance is published, so none is recorded.

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Applicants must 'Have a current Credential Assembly Service (CAS) subscription,' and registration with CAS is listed as its own step in the Application Process. Degree eligibility: applicants must 'Have earned a U.S. Bachelor's degree or its equivalent, from an accredited four-year institution recognized by the American Bar Association,' and must 'Be at least 18 years of age upon entering the first-year class in the fall.' Foreign-educated applicants: 'Hofstra Law requires all foreign educated applicants to submit foreign transcripts to the LSAC JD Credential Assembly Service (JDCAS) for evaluation. This service is included in the LSDAS subscription fee. The only exception to this requirement is if you completed foreign work through a study abroad, consortium, or exchange program sponsored by a U.S. or Canadian institution, and the work is clearly notated as such on the home campus transcript.' The pages do not mention a TOEFL or IELTS requirement — recorded as silence, not as a waiver of one.

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LSAT only, as far as the site says. The JD Program checklist states 'The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is required,' the eligibility list requires applicants to 'Have taken or plan to take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT),' and the Application Process item is headed 'Law School Admission Test (LSAT).' Score validity: 'If you have taken the LSAT within five years from the current application cycle, you do not need to retake the test.' Applicants may apply before testing — 'You may submit a formal application to Hofstra Law prior to taking the required LSAT. However, your application will not be complete until all components of the application have been received.' The GRE is not mentioned anywhere on the live admissions pages; that is recorded as the site's silence, not as an explicit rejection of the GRE. Two caveats worth flagging: (1) the school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report shows 2 first-year enrollees admitted on the GRE and 1 on JD-Next (JD-Next reporting is available only to schools holding an ABA Standard 503 variance), so both tests appear to be accepted in practice even though the site describes neither; (2) no minimum score is published for the JD program, but the JD/MBA joint degree page sets one — 'Students with an LSAT of 153+ and an undergraduate GPA of 3.25+ are eligible for admission. The GMAT is not required for the JD/MBA program.' Early Action applicants must take the LSAT 'no later than the fall prior to your matriculation'; no last-acceptable administration is published for Regular Decision.

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Effectively no fee, because the waiver reaches everyone applying the way the school directs. Site wording: 'Application Fee. If you apply electronically, we will waive the application fee. If you submit a paper application, please include a $75 check or money order payable to Hofstra Law. This nonrefundable fee is not credited toward tuition, and is not applicable toward the fee for the LSDAS.' Applicants are 'encouraged to apply online through the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC),' and every JD checklist on the page — 1L, transfer, and visiting — is annotated '(no application fee required).' The school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report independently lists the application fee as 0. Recorded as not required because the only route the school promotes carries no charge; the $75 remains on the books solely for paper applications. No separate need-based fee-waiver process is published, and none is needed. LSAC's own registration and CAS fees still apply and are not addressed.

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Recorded as a silence, not as a policy. Neither the JD Admissions landing page, the JD Admissions: How to Apply page (which walks through every application component and the decision-notification process), the Admissions landing page, nor the Visit Us page mentions an admissions interview in any form — evaluative, invite-only, optional, or recorded video. The word 'interview' appears on Hofstra Law's admissions-area pages only in unrelated contexts (financial-aid loan entrance interviews; mock interviews and on-campus interviews in career services). The campus visits and information sessions the site offers are recruiting events, not evaluative interviews.

Verified 2026-08-18 · source page