Vermont Law and Graduate School

VLGS calls this the 'Required Essay' and it is the only mandatory piece of writing. NO LENGTH LIMIT IS PUBLISHED -- no page count, no word count, and no formatting, spacing or font instruction anywhere on the JD application-requirements page -- so page_limit is left unset rather than guessed. The prompt is a two-part question and the second half is explicitly a why-VLGS question ('the skills and experience you will gain at Vermont Law and Graduate School'), so the required essay absorbs the why-us case and no separate why_x_essay row is recorded. Two further prompts are offered as optional; see the optional_essay entry.

Verified 2026-09-10 · source page

Two prompts published under the heading 'Optional Essays', quoted here in full. VLGS does not say how many an applicant may answer, does not rank them, does not publish a length limit or format, and neither encourages nor discourages submitting them -- all recorded as silence rather than filled in. Both are outward-facing rather than autobiographical: the first is about contribution to VLGS's community commitment, the second about attempted change on an issue of significance. Neither is a diversity or perspective prompt in the usual sense, and VLGS publishes NO perspective statement, adversity statement, or general addendum invitation anywhere -- so an applicant with a weak semester or a background story to tell has no named place to put it, and those types are omitted from this file entirely per docs/CURATION.md.

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'Character and Fitness Information' is one of the seven items on the Checklist of Application Materials, but VLGS publishes NO detail about it -- no instruction on what an affirmative answer requires, no length limit, no continuing duty to update, and not even the standard ABA Standard 504 bar-admission caution on the JD application page. Recorded as required: false and as the site's silence on the detail, since the checklist establishes that the information is collected without establishing that a written explanation is expected. NO GENERAL ADDENDUM IS OFFERED EITHER: VLGS publishes no invitation to explain a low GPA, a score disparity, or a gap in the record, which is a real gap given that its own 25th-percentile UGPA sits at 2.86 full-time -- among the lowest in this data set, so a meaningful share of admitted applicants have academic history they might want to explain and no named place to do it. The two optional essays are outward-facing prompts and do not serve that purpose.

Verified 2026-09-10 · source page

'Professional resume or curriculum vitae' is one of seven items on the Checklist of Application Materials -- required, with either format accepted. No page limit, format, or content guidance is published, so none is recorded. Worth noting the intake this serves: the school's own class profile reports an average age of 31 with a range of 21 to 67, so VLGS reads resumes from a markedly more experienced pool than most law schools in this data set.

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Two letters are required and travel inside the CAS report rather than separately: the checklist item reads 'LSAC Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Report with current LSAT score, transcripts from all schools attended, and two letters of recommendation.' NO OTHER GUIDANCE IS PUBLISHED -- VLGS states no maximum, expresses no preference for academic over professional recommenders, discourages no category of writer, and says nothing about what the letters should address. count_accepted is left unset rather than guessed, and the absence of a preference is recorded as silence.

Verified 2026-09-10 · source page

Two letters are required and travel inside the CAS report rather than separately: the checklist item reads 'LSAC Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Report with current LSAT score, transcripts from all schools attended, and two letters of recommendation.' NO OTHER GUIDANCE IS PUBLISHED -- VLGS states no maximum, expresses no preference for academic over professional recommenders, discourages no category of writer, and says nothing about what the letters should address. count_accepted is left unset rather than guessed, and the absence of a preference is recorded as silence.

Verified 2026-09-10 · source page

THE SITE REQUIRES THE LSAT IN THE STRONGEST TERMS IN THIS DATA SET, AND THE 509 CONTRADICTS IT -- recorded rather than resolved silently, and worth an email to admissions. The JD page states: 'LSAT scores are valid for five years and all JD applicants must provide current LSAT scores; there are no exceptions.' The checklist repeats it, requiring a 'CAS Report with current LSAT score'. No VLGS page fetched on 2026-08-18 mentions the GRE or JD-Next as an admission test. Yet the school's own 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report prints a GRE row: 5 GRE Admissions Enrollees (2 full-time, 3 part-time) alongside 285 LSAT admissions enrollees, together making up the certified first-year class of 290. Either the policy changed after that class arrived, the filing is wrong, or an unpublished exception exists despite the words 'there are no exceptions' -- the same shape of mismatch recorded for Hofstra and CUNY in docs/CURATION.md, and the sharpest instance of it so far given how absolute the site's wording is. A GRE-only applicant should not rely on the 509. GRE percentiles are withheld under the ABA's under-10 publication floor, so there is no published GRE benchmark here either way. No JD-Next row appears. The two most important criteria are stated plainly: 'The two most important JD admissions criteria at VLGS are the undergraduate academic record and the LSAT score.' Nothing is published about superscoring, averaging, or LSAT Writing.

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Transcripts travel in the CAS report: 'LSAC Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Report with current LSAT score, transcripts from all schools attended, and two letters of recommendation.' A conferred bachelor's degree is required by enrolment rather than by application: 'Vermont Law and Graduate School generally requires applicants to have earned their bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution by the time they intend to enroll,' and 'Applicants must hold a bachelor's degree at the time of enrollment.' HOW THE RECORD IS READ is set out at unusual length: 'We consider the undergraduate record from many perspectives: quality of the undergraduate institution; nature and rigor of the curriculum; performance compared to that of other students from the same school; grade trend from freshman to senior year; and length of time between receipt of degree and application to law school. Additionally, we view completion of graduate work favorably, particularly if the quality of work exceeds the minimum standards required for the graduate program.' On majors, VLGS is explicit that it has no preference: 'we do not prioritize college majors in political science, economics, or other concentrations traditionally associated with pre-law education.' INTERNATIONAL: 'All international transcripts must be evaluated by an official evaluation agency. Recommended evaluation agencies include the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) via LSAC, Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE.org), and World Education Services (WES.org)' -- three routes rather than the usual single LSAC path. English proficiency is required 'of all students for whom English is not the primary language spoken', waivable after 'more than two years' of study in the U.S. or at an English-speaking institution, with published minimums: 'TOEFL minimum score: 600 paper-based, 250 computer-based, 100 Internet-based; IELTS minimum score: 6.5; PTE minimum score: 68.' No minimum GPA is published.

Verified 2026-09-10 · source page

'Vermont Law and Graduate School has an application fee of $60.00 (USD),' listed again on the Checklist of Application Materials. The 509 independently certifies the fee as $60.00. NO FEE-WAIVER PROCESS IS PUBLISHED ANYWHERE -- neither need-based, nor keyed to an LSAC waiver, nor tied to a deadline. Recorded as the site's silence on waivers rather than as a statement that no waiver exists. LSAC's own CAS and registration fees are separate and VLGS does not address them.

Verified 2026-09-10 · source page

Recorded as the site's silence, not as a statement that VLGS does not interview. No page fetched on 2026-08-18 -- admissions, apply now, the JD degree page with its full application process and evaluation criteria, deadlines and calendars, class profile, or ABA required disclosures -- mentions an admissions interview of any kind, evaluative or informational, by invitation or on request. The published evaluation criteria run to several paragraphs on the undergraduate record, the LSAT, and pre-legal education, and no interview appears among them. The only contact offered to prospective applicants is a recruiter conversation, a campus tour, or a virtual tour, none described as part of the evaluation.

Verified 2026-09-10 · source page