University of San Francisco School of Law

NO PAGE LIMIT, STATED EXPLICITLY: 'Personal statements tend to average 2 to 4 pages in length; however, there is no page limit to the personal statement. The Personal Statement should be typewritten, double-spaced, and included with your application as an electronic attachment.' No page_limit is recorded because the school affirmatively removes one, and the two-to-four-page figure is an observation about applicants rather than an instruction — docs/CURATION.md warns against converting that into a cap. IT IS ALSO A WRITING SAMPLE: 'The Admissions Committee requires that each applicant submit a personal statement to supplement the application form. The statement is used by the Committee as both a source of additional information and as a writing sample, but it is not a substitute for the application.' Nothing is published about generative AI. THE RESUME LIVES HERE: 'You may also attach a resume to the statement' — one sentence, offering rather than requiring it, which is why this file records no separate resume row. USF names no resume format, length, or content requirement anywhere.

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OPTIONAL, UNCAPPED, AND PUBLISHED UNDER TWO DIFFERENT NAMES WITH TWO DIFFERENT HEADER INSTRUCTIONS — recorded as one requirement because it is plainly one document, but the conflict is worth knowing before formatting a file. The application-requirements page and the admissions policy page both call it a Supplemental Statement: 'In addition to the required Personal Statement, you may submit an optional Supplemental Statement SEPARATE from the personal statement. In this statement, we invite you to share more about how your unique voice, perspective, and experience will enrich everyone's education and to make the law school class stronger than the sum of its parts. Supplemental statements tend to average 2 to 4 pages in length; however, there is no page limit. Please be sure to title this statement with the header Supplemental Statement on each page. Use a separate electronic attachment and submit with your online application.' The FAQ calls the same thing a Diversity Statement, gives a longer prompt, and asks for a different header: 'applicants may submit an optional diversity statement or essay that is separate from the required personal statement. Please be sure to title this statement with the header Optional Diversity Statement on each page. An applicant may describe any factors that illustrate how he or she may contribute to our diverse, inclusive community... For example, an applicant may want to address issues or experiences related to race, ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, religious affiliation, ideology, or socio-economic disadvantage. In addition, an applicant may want to discuss divergent career aspirations, employment background, educational history, special talents or skills, or primary or secondary languages other than English. Diversity statements tend to average 2 to 4 pages in length; however, there is no page limitation.' The FAQ version reads as the older, pre-2023 framing and the requirements-page version as its replacement; the requirements page is preferred here because it is the page the school treats as its checklist. No page_limit is recorded — both versions say there is none.

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CHARACTER AND FITNESS DOMINATES THIS SECTION, and USF's disclosure demands are among the most detailed in this data set. 'All applicants are required to complete the disclosure questions in the Character and Fitness section of the Application. USF requires applicants to disclose any issues related to academic probation, suspension, disqualification (particularly from a previous law school) as well as conduct. In addition all applicants must disclose any felony or misdemeanor conviction, or pending charges including a DUI (or any alcohol or drug-related offense). This includes any conviction that may have been expunged as well as any juvenile adjudication. Information should include the date of each incident, full explanation of the incident, including the name of the charge, and the final disposition of each charge. In addition, you will be asked to disclose information if you were party to a civil suit.' Expunged convictions and juvenile adjudications are named specifically, as are civil suits. A CONTINUING DUTY, which most schools do not spell out: 'all applicants are required to notify the School of Law if any changes to the information included in their Application for Admission occur after the application has been submitted... Newly admitted applicants are required to immediately submit a detailed written description of new disclosures to the Law School's Admissions Office if an incident occurs AFTER an offer of admission is made and to the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic Services if an incident occurs AFTER classes begin. Information disclosed after an applicant has been offered admission will automatically result in a re-evaluation of the applicant's file.' The consequences are itemised: 'Failure to disclose any changes to your application or any of the Character & Fitness information noted above, may result in revocation of your admission decision, dismissal from school, revocation of any degree awarded by USF School of Law, denial of admission to the Bar, and referral to the LSAC Subcommittee on Misconduct and Irregularities in the Admission Process.' A GENERAL ADDENDUM IS PERMITTED, mentioned only in the FAQ's interview answer: 'If you have specific information you would like to provide, it should be included in your personal statement or in an addendum to your personal statement.' No format or length guidance is given for it. Recorded as required: false because the general addendum is optional and the C&F explanation is conditional.

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'The admissions committee requires two letters of recommendation in support of your application. An optional third letter may be submitted, but no more than three letters of recommendation will be considered for one application.' THE TWO LETTERS GATE THE ENTIRE FILE, which is a mechanic applicants routinely underestimate: 'LSAC will not release your CAS report to USF until two letters of recommendation have been received by LSAC.' A slow recommender therefore holds up the transcripts and the LSAT score too. WHO SHOULD WRITE: 'Although the committee will accept recommendation letters from any two individuals designated by the applicant, the committee suggests... If possible, have the two recommendations completed by college faculty members (or administrators) with whom you have studied. If you have been away from college for a considerable time, you may wish to substitute other individuals, including supervisors and business colleagues, with whom you have had more recent contact.' And a warning about weak choices: 'Choose individuals who have had substantial and recent opportunity to observe your professional and/or academic potential. Recommendations from people who have not had such opportunity are of little assistance to the committee.' ROUTING IS MANDATORY for first-year applicants: 'USF requires that your letters of recommendation be submitted through the LSAC Letter of Recommendation Service.'

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'The admissions committee requires two letters of recommendation in support of your application. An optional third letter may be submitted, but no more than three letters of recommendation will be considered for one application.' THE TWO LETTERS GATE THE ENTIRE FILE, which is a mechanic applicants routinely underestimate: 'LSAC will not release your CAS report to USF until two letters of recommendation have been received by LSAC.' A slow recommender therefore holds up the transcripts and the LSAT score too. WHO SHOULD WRITE: 'Although the committee will accept recommendation letters from any two individuals designated by the applicant, the committee suggests... If possible, have the two recommendations completed by college faculty members (or administrators) with whom you have studied. If you have been away from college for a considerable time, you may wish to substitute other individuals, including supervisors and business colleagues, with whom you have had more recent contact.' And a warning about weak choices: 'Choose individuals who have had substantial and recent opportunity to observe your professional and/or academic potential. Recommendations from people who have not had such opportunity are of little assistance to the committee.' ROUTING IS MANDATORY for first-year applicants: 'USF requires that your letters of recommendation be submitted through the LSAC Letter of Recommendation Service.'

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'All first-time first-year applicants must register for the Credential Assembly Service report... Transcripts of all college work, both undergraduate and graduate, as well as any prior law school work, should be sent directly to LSAC.' A missing transcript can sink the file: 'The committee may not consider an application if the CAS report indicates that transcripts are missing.' DEGREE TIMING IS GENEROUS AT APPLICATION AND STRICT AFTERWARDS: 'All law school applicants are required to have completed or expect to complete a bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year university or college by the time law school classes begin in August. Accepted applicants must furnish official final transcripts indicating receipt of a bachelor's degree, as well as completion of any work in progress when the application was filed. If admitted, an official transcript showing the conferral of the bachelor's degree must be mailed directly from the college or university to the Office of Admissions prior to the start of the fall term.' AN INTERNAL CONFLICT ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE ROUTE, recorded rather than resolved: the same page offers the CAS report as a substitute twice with two different cut-off years — 'as long as the transcript is dated 2020 or later and notes the degree conferral date' under Education, and 'as long as the transcript is dated 2019 or later and notes the degree conferral date' under Credential Assembly Service. An applicant relying on this should use the later year to be safe, or ask. NO MINIMUM GPA is published. No pre-law curriculum is prescribed: 'The faculty strongly recommends an undergraduate program providing a wide-ranging, liberal education... Courses which provide training in written and oral expression and which are intellectually and analytically demanding are particularly recommended.' International-applicant instructions live on a separate page not fetched for this file.

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LSAT ONLY — USF REFUSES THE GRE BY NAME, and goes further than most in refusing everything else too: 'USF does not accept the GRE or any other standardized test score in lieu of the LSAT.' That is an explicit denial, not a silence. 'Applicants must take the LSAT and have their score(s) reported to the USF School of Law in a CAS Report.' MULTIPLE SCORES: 'USF will utilize the highest LSAT in the review process if multiple LSAT scores are presented by the applicant,' repeated in the FAQ as 'USF uses the highest score when multiple LSAT scores are presented for application review.' VALIDITY: 'LSAT scores are valid for five years,' with the FAQ adding 'LSAT scores within five years of the year of application are considered valid for review purposes.' LSAT WRITING is required to complete the score: 'For your LSAT to be considered complete, you must have at least one writing sample on file — either from an earlier paper-and-pencil administration of the LSAT or from LSAT Writing.' TWO STALE PASSAGES ON THIS PAGE should not be read as current, and they are the clearest sign the page has not been refreshed. The validity floor is a cycle behind the five-year rule stated beside it: 'Any LSAT taken prior to June 2020 is considered invalid for application review.' And the timing advice is two cycles behind the February 2, 2026 deadline the same page announces at the top: 'you are advised to take the LSAT no later than the February 2025 test date to receive maximum consideration. Applicants may also take the April 2025 and June 2025 exam; however, applicants may not be given the maximum consideration in such cases, due to the lateness in receiving those test results.' The structure of that advice — February for maximum consideration, April and June accepted with reduced consideration — is presumably unchanged, but the years are not. USF's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report reports all 201 first-year enrollees as LSAT admissions enrollees and prints no GRE row and no JD Next row, exactly as an LSAT-only policy predicts.

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'A $60.00 application fee, payable to the University of San Francisco, must be submitted with your application. If you are applying electronically, you must pay the application fee online using a valid credit card. The application fee is not refundable. In the event that you are subsequently admitted, the fee will not be applied toward your tuition. Furthermore, if you decide to withdraw your application before a final decision is made, your application fee will not be refunded.' USF's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report independently lists the application fee as $60. A NEED-BASED WAIVER EXISTS AND MUST BE APPROVED BEFORE APPLYING — the timing is the trap: 'The required application fee may be waived for an applicant whose financial situation makes it a severe hardship to pay. Applicants requesting a waiver of this fee must submit a brief statement to the Law School Admissions Office explaining your financial situation. Information should include your current monthly income, assets and monthly expenditures. Approval of a fee waiver must be obtained prior to submitting an Application for Admission. Fee waiver requests may be sent via email to lawadmissions@usfca.edu. Please allow five business days for fee waiver requests to be processed.' An LSAC waiver carries over automatically: 'Applicants granted an LSAC fee waiver will have their USF School of Law application fee automatically waived' — though that sentence continues with a stale year, 'as long as their LSAC fee waiver is for the current 2024-2025 application year'. Recorded as required: true because the fee is owed by default and the waiver must be requested and approved in advance.

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REFUSED OUTRIGHT, with a reason given and an alternative named: 'Does USF interview applicants? Due to the large number of applicants to the USF School of Law, we are unable to interview applicants or accommodate requests for interviews. If you have specific information you would like to provide, it should be included in your personal statement or in an addendum to your personal statement. Prospective applicants are encouraged to attend one of our information sessions scheduled in the fall. Admissions professionals will be on hand to answer any questions you may have about the law school.' This is an explicit denial rather than a silence — no interview happens, and none can be requested. The written file is the whole case, which is why the school points applicants to the personal statement or an addendum instead. Campus visits, open houses and class visits are offered separately: tours run 'beginning in mid-September for the fall semester and mid-January for the spring semester', and 'Limited classroom visits are available beginning in early September.'

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