Hi,
Seminarians pertain to the clerical state, but are not actually clerics until they are ordained to the diaconate. This is true for men both in the diocesan seminary and those in religious institutes.
Canon 266.1: “A person becomes a cleric through the reception of the diaconate and is incardinated into the particular Church or personal prelature for whose services he has been advanced.”
Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
