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How & When to Apply

Tracking Responses

Once your application is mailed, you should make sure that it is received and complete at the law school. Some law schools will send you a postcard when your file is complete; others will notify you of missing information, but will not notify you of a completed file. You must follow up to make sure everything has been received.  Many law schools now offer a mechanism for checking this on their web page.  If you are not  personally mailing your recommendations to Law Services, check with the senders about a week after you have requested the recommendation, to verify that it has been mailed.

If you are notified that any piece of your file is missing, follow up on it immediately.  If you have provided incomplete information, send the required data, along with a brief apology for your omission.  If someone else has failed to send the data, contact them, stressing the urgency of your need.  Call back in a week to make sure the information was sent; call the law school a week later to find out if it was received.

Tracking Worksheets

The details of tracking applications may seem petty, but once or twice a year a client reports to me that a law school lost the application, or failed to make a decision because a piece of information was missing. Tracking your application may prevent you from being the person to whom this happens.

Tracking is easier now with the LSDAS service and the options available on the websites of some schools. The first step is to go to the online services at LSDAS and click on the Account Status tab across the top. Next, click on Reports and Letters. This shows you a table with each school, and when the report and letters were sent out.

Knowing that LSAC sent your documents isn't the same as knowing that the school received them. Check each school's website to find out if they let you track applications online.  If they don't and they don't send out post cards telling you that your file is complete, a phone call will be necessary.