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Hearing from the Law Schools

Holds, Waits, and Deferrals

Often the answer you receive from the law school is neither an acceptance nor a rejection, but something in between. The law school may call this a hold, wait, or deferral, and different schools attach different meanings to the same word. Thus you must read beyond the words to see exactly what this letter is telling you.

Hold Lists

Some schools send applicants a letter after four to six weeks telling them they have been "deferred" or "placed on hold." A hold is a determination that your file is too marginal for a decision just yet. You are neither a presumptive admit nor a presumptive deny. The school wants to defer a decision for a while. The surest way to know that this letter is a "hold" letter and not a wait list letter is that it says you will hear from them again at a later date (which may or may not be specified).

In a few cases, hold lists are simply a note from a courteous but overburdened admissions staff letting you know you haven't been forgotten. In other instances, the law school wants to see its entire applicant pool before making a decision about your file. Hold letters may also allow the law school to solicit additional information; frequently a hold letter will offer you the chance to strengthen your file. In this and other ways, the law school can allow a degree of "self-selection" -- i.e., the applicant who responds positively to this invitation may have a higher chance of admission.

Wait Lists

Wait lists are for the protection of the law school, not the applicant. Law schools, like air lines and restaurants, must make allowance for some people's making a reservation and either canceling at the last minute or just failing to show up. The wait list alleviates this problem. The law school can call applicants at the last minute (indeed, sometimes on the first day of school) to fill any empty seats.

For all practical purposes, a wait list letter usually counts as a rejection. The law school is, in effect, saying they don't really want you, but in the slight chance that they need more applicants at the last minute, they'll call you. You can distinguish a wait list letter from a hold letter because the wait list letter does not say you will hear from the school at a later date. Instead, it usually asks to hear from you; if you want to be on the wait list, you must inform them.

Knowing you are on a waitlist thus tells you almost nothing without additional information. How many people are on the waitlist? If the waitlist is divided into categories, how many are in each category, and which category are you in? How many were called from the waitlist last year? Are applicants called from the waitlist by academic strength or diversity needs? All this information is necessary to determine the value of your place on the waitlist. Feel free to ask the law school these questions in responding to their offer.  

How many people did X call from the waitlist last year?

Waitlist info is very erratic from year to year, and I don't know the variables well enough to predict this year's performance from last year's. What makes Californians not go to Boalt? Where do they go instead? How much does a change in US News rankings affect a school's yield rate? If we knew this, we could predict. Penn went up in the rankings and Texas went down, so Texas will go to its wait list.  But where had those people paid seat deposits?  SMU or BC?  We don't know the domino effects on a yearly basis, but I've pondered the general pattern of those dominos long enough to make a rough estimate.  Click here to see the food chain.

I just said we can't predict wait list fallout for this year.  But so many people want to know about waitlists that I am including a chart of answers collected at the Law forums in 1996. It may have no connection to this year's wait list, of course, but it will give you an idea of the variance in the system.

How Long Will I Have to Wait?  

I wish I knew, but I don't.  A few years ago I bought a crystal ball, so that when clients ask, "When will I hear from Cornell?"  or "Do you think I'll get into UCLA?"  I could take a look.  Alas, it has thus far told me nothing; I guess I'm just not attuned.  

Admissions officers, too, need a crystal ball, and LSAC has provided them with one:  the overlap report.  These are such highly secret documents that I have in fact never seen one, but I've heard of them.  Based on what I've heard, they look approximately like this.  Schools use overlap report plus historical data to predict how many seats they'll fill. Notice that they don't know names; they can't say, "Thomas Scarletta paid a seat deposit to us and Harvard; give him a call and see if we can convince him to come here."  They can say, "We've got a lot of overlap with Harvard and Yale; let's start calling people from other undergrad institutions and east coast states of residence."  This is how they attempt to shape the class, as well as know for sure how many people are in it.  

Admissions officers constantly check their seat deposits and their overlap reports to see if they're likely to need more people.  But the final answer doesn't come until August.  Law schools can go to their wait lists as late as the first day of school.  So if you're really desperate to attend school X, settle in for a while.  But if you're just wondering when you reasonably might hear, look over here.  

The Spy Eye on the Wait List  

In the meantime, you're stuck here, powerless, wondering what's going on in that office. You call, and they don't tell you anything.  Well, I'll try to ease your burden.

Once or twice a week, the admissions officer reviews the dailies -- a list that is updated daily, thus its name. It shows a summary of how many people paid a deposit.  It shows them by race, sex, age, college, major, location, and anything else the admissions office tracks. It shows how many haven't paid a deposit, how many withdrew, etc.   And it shows breakdowns of gpa and LSAT -- median, 25th percentile, 75th percentile.

So let's pretend the admissions officer looks this week.  Her deposit deadline was April 1.  She was looking for 400 first deposits to fill a class of 320.  She only has 390 deposits.  Time to look at more files.  

She pulls out her daily report.  She doesn't like the gender balance and the regional balance -- too many local people.  She reviews the files of a dozen nonresident females.  Okay, this one looks interesting.  Now plug the gpa and LSAT into a program.  Oops!  She brings our 25th percentile LSAT down a point!  Let's try this one instead.  Okay, now the numbers look good.  But she really liked person number one.  Maybe if she admits these three she'll be okay.   Ah, yes!  The LSAT holds, the median gpa goes up by .02, all is well with the world.  Pick up the phone and see if they're interested in a seat.  

This is what the law school means when they say, "The wait list isn't ranked; we use it to balance out our class."  

Responding to Hold and Wait List Letters

You should always respond to a letter offering you any hope for later acceptance. You may send additional information, affirm your interest in the law school without sending further material, or withdraw your application.

If you want to remain under consideration at a school which has placed you on hold, you should write saying so. Affirm your interest in the program as enthusiastically as possible. If you are sending additional information, either with your letter or separately, detail the information you are sending, so the law school knows what to expect and when your file will again be complete.  

A statement of interest in their school could make an enormous difference at wait list time. Schools that do not ask the question on the application are much more likely to care in April.  However, generic or uninformed statements count as no statements. Admissions officers have figured out that you're indiscriminately applying to enormous numbers of law schools.  They plan to offer seats only to those discriminating few who have offered a clear, credible reason for wanting to attend that school.  So if you're going to try this strategy, you'd better be prepared to tell them a good deal more than their US News ranking.  Also, remember to tell them why the information is important to you.  The representative for Northwestern laughed along with me when I told him of my client who wrote, "Northwestern Law School is right on Lake Michigan" without explaining why she cared about this.  

Finally, if you know your interest in this school has waned, either because of your acceptance at another school or because of a visit or other information that left you less impressed than previously, do the admissions officer and your fellow applicants a favor by withdrawing your application. The law school will not be offended if you write a brief note saying, "Thank you for informing me of the status of my application. I have decided to attend one of the schools which have already accepted me, and am withdrawing my application for admission."

"I know I can do the work."  

A lot of applicants think that these words will make a difference in their chance of being pulled from the wait list.  Unfortunately, they forget that at a typical law school, 75% of the people who apply "can do the work."  There are still only seats for 10%.

Every admissions officer I know says that rejecting the applicants who can't do the work is easy.  The hard part is choosing the few for whom they have room from among the many who can.  

Let's think for a minute about, say, Columbia.  They have a median LSAT of 169 or 170, and a gpa of about 3.75.  Nine hundred students in the applicant pool have those numbers.  Now let's drop the LSAT down to 160, leaving the gpa at above 3.75. Four thousand more applicants have those numbers.  And if we drop the LSAT to 150, there are yet another 4,000.  So the ability to do the work is the least of the admissions officer's worries.  

Sending Additional Information

If a school requests additional information, you should respond promptly and affirmatively.

Many schools request updated transcripts at the end of the current semester. Request the transcript from your school, and send a letter affirming your interest and informing the school that the transcript has been ordered. If your grades were an improvement over recent semesters, you might want to enclose a copy of your grade report along with the letter. If you do so, make sure you indicate that an official transcript will follow.

If the school offers you the opportunity to send anything you want, you have three reasonable options:

• you may send one additional recommendation, preferably from an instructor who taught you last semester or this one;
• you may send information about any awards you have received since you applied, including acceptance letters to joint degree programs at the same school;
• you may send something that shows your diversity more fully than you showed it in your application.

Answering Specific Questions

If a school requests information about a specific topic, consider their request carefully. Try to place yourself in the mind of the admissions committee: what are they looking for? Get an outsider's input; you may have overlooked something which would be obvious to a person who is not part of your life.

I once had a student who told me that his only hobby was watching football, either in the stadium or on TV. He had no part-time jobs. When Temple wrote him asking, "What do you do with your spare time?" he called me in distress. I sat him down to write a minute-by-minute itinerary of his weekend, beginning Friday at 4:00 and ending Sunday night. His answer was that Friday night he did his mother's grocery shopping and laundry, Saturday he cooked her a week's meals, and Sunday he took her to church. Then he watched football. When I asked about this unusual schedule, he finally "remembered" to mention that his mother has multiple sclerosis. His brief statement to this effect was rewarded in two weeks by a letter of acceptance.

A request to explain why you took a leave of absence or how a stated disability affects your school work should be answered completely and honestly (as should all questions). Remember that if the school is concerned enough to contact you with this question, a whitewash won't work. The admissions committee has a real concern they want met. If your leave of absence covered your admission to a drug rehab program, don't say, "I needed a break from school." In the first place, you haven't answered their concern. In the second place, taking six months off to neither work nor study does not paint a very good picture; the admissions committee isn't likely to pursue an applicant who could spend half a year sleeping and watching TV.

Offers of Interviews

Some law schools will contact you for an interview. If you want to have any chance of attending that school, respond promptly and enthusiastically. If the school is too far away to drive and you cannot afford to travel, write stating your interest in the school and the limitations which you face. Ask if an interview can be arranged in or near your city; suggest a recruiter who will be traveling in the area, or an esteemed graduate who lives in your locale. Take some initiative in this matter; try to find out the recruiting schedule of that school in your area; locate a graduate who might be willing to interview you. If all else fails, ask if you can be interviewed by phone.

Once you have arranged an interview, prepare for it. Read the law school's catalog and note any interesting courses or programs. Review your application to refresh your memory on what they asked and what you answered. Be prepared to answer three questions: "Why do you want to attend law school?" "Why this law school?" and "Why should we accept you?"

If you decide this school isn't worth the hassle of an interview, you probably don't really want to attend; do them the courtesy of withdrawing your application.

Continued Expressions of Interest

What if this is absolutely your first choice of law schools?  You can try writing a letter saying this, in a way that might get them to believe you.  You can show them your connections to the school or the area, schedule a visit, or otherwise explain your interest in them.  If you're still in committee or waitlisted this year, you can call every two weeks or so (unless the school says "don't bother us," as Harvard and NYU do) and reassert your interest.  You can keep them apprised of your summer activities, final grades and awards from college, etc.  Or you can ask them what will get you a seat, if you can get near a decision-maker.  At some schools, however, nothing you do will make a difference.  Which ones?  Click here.

After you've done all that, try prayer; a lot of people swear by it..