Riding out the waitlist...

There are few things that I think are more aggravating for an impatient potential law student than the waitlist. It comes in many incarnations -- held for further review, deferred until regular applicant pool, etc. -- but it all means the same thing...you need to settle in for several weeks of nail biting.

Personally, there are very few schools that I've applied to where I've been waitlisted. 2 "real" waitlists, and 1 "hold for further review" is my count. And, in my humble opinion, there are not very many instances in which I would consider waiting out the waitlist period in any potential law student's best interest.

I think that there are actually several negatives to riding out a waitlist. It's a gamble, and more often than not (just like in Vegas) you lose.

• coming off a wait list you are less likely (wayyyyy less likely) to get any sort of scholarship money, so odds are pretty good that you'll be paying sticker. Yikes.

• if you ride out the waitlist and foolishly decide not to put deposits anywhere else as a sign to the universe that this is your only option, and then you don't get in, you lose your chance at going to a good school that you actually got in to on a gamble.

• if you ride out the waitlist and play it safe and put down seat deposits elsewhere, and then you get in off of the waitlist, then you lose all of the money you spent (between $250 and $500 each) on seat deposits.

• if you ride out the waitlist and make it in at the last minute (we're talking July or August here, folks), you have very little time to prepare for school. No time to tour apartments, figure out where you're going to live, get settled in to a new area. No time to buy books, examine the syllabi, make friends (either online or IRL) with new classmates. And that's a LOT of pressure.

Not only this, but odds are you can make someone else lose, too. You can cause them to lose out on their spot at their dream school if you stay on the waitlist with no intention of enrolling.

The only time I can see a waitlist being worth it is if it's your absolute dream school. I'm not talking just the highest ranked school you applied to, or somewhere you think you would probably have moderately successful career placement out of. I'm talking about the "eating-breathing-dreaming" devotion, the "I've got their pennant on my wall and will LITERALLY break down in tears if I try to go anywhere else" commitment.

(and if you have that level of devotion, you should be committed...to a mental institution).

But seriously, I think the only scenario in which riding out a waitlist is worth the time, worry, and money is in the case of a DREAM school, one where you didn't think you had a shot of getting in, but applied anyway and getting waitlisted was a SIGN FROM GOD.

Or if you're waitlisted Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Chicago, etc. and in at T2 schools. Then, by all means, ride it out.

As for me, I'm withdrawing from the waitlists at both of the schools where I've been waitlisted. One of them is the best school I applied to, but ultimately I got into good, comparable schools in perfectly decent legal markets, and I think that I would honestly rather attend any of my top three choices instead of this great school I was waitlisted at.