So, I'm a little bit OCD. I fully admit it. And I like to keep papers, especially important papers, in a somewhat organized and easy-to-access method. When I was applying to law schools, I set up a system for recording and keeping track of my applications that worked really wonderfully for me, so I figured I'd share.
I bought a package of those green, legal-sized file folders with fasteners on each side, as well as a set of the number tabs from Office Depot. I whipped out my handy-dandy label maker and labeled the right side for applications and the left side for receipts. Since pretty much everything can be handled on LSAC, it really does make the process easier, so if you're a less anal person than I you might not even need to print anything out, just save it to your LSAC profile or computer. I personally need the papers to flip through, so I do what works for me.
I print out a copy of the entire application once it's confirmed as transmitted to a school (after it's in your "Submitted Apps" section of your LSAC profile you can download a pdf copy of the exact application you sent to each school), and place it on the right side of my folder, in the lowest available number. Then I update my table of contents accordingly. Every time I get an email or snail mail communication from that school, I print it out, hole punch it and stick it in that tab, so you have everything in one handy place, and can flip to any school easily.
On the left hand side of the folder, I keep receipts for all of my LSAC purchases and copies of any receipts or checks I have to send the schools individually. These are in chronological order. I decided to do it this way because a lot of times I would submit three or four applications at a single time, and that way I didn't have to make 8 copies of the same receipt, or go hunting for it when I needed it.
Unless I was sent a legit viewbook, I even put the admissions mailings in the same tab in these folders. I think I ended up filling two and a half folders.
From there, I set up an excel sheet with the name, USNWR ranking, location, application fee (and fee waiver, if applicable) and total tuition costs of each school. Personally, I organized these chronologically by the date of my application, so I could easily add schools at the bottom, but I thought about organizing them based on USNWR rankings, too. I updated each entry with the date I submitted, the date my app was received, the date my app went complete, the date it went into review, and the date a decision was made as the occasion occurred. I kept a "notes" field as well, so I could jot down things that were important.
Now, pay attention, this is important: I also would periodically go through and rank the schools personally, noting the date of the ranking...I probably did this once every three weeks or so. This was the most interesting to me, because it helped me see the change of opinion in a very mathematical way, so I could tell what factors were influencing my decision.
I would recommend everyone keep a journal or excel sheet or something just jotting down your ranking of each school you applied to. That way, toward the end of the process you can objectively look over the data and figure out what is the most important factor to you in this decision. A lot of times you can get caught up in the enormity of making the decision and forget all about the process you went through to arrive at that decision.
So, yeah, I know this is kind of boring, and half of the people who read this blog have already decided on which schools to attend (or are at least significantly farther along in the process than when this information would prove helpful), but hopefully those of you who haven't gone through the application cycle yet will be able to look at my (crazy) way of operating and find a method that works for you.
I'm definitely going to employ a similar method when I start sending out letters and resumes for 1L SA positions.
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