When to Get Your Applications Out

One thing that always astounds me is when I see people on TLS or when I talk to people in real life that say that since the application deadline is April 1, they've got some time to decide on where they should apply.

People, that's the LAST possible date you should apply! Please please PLEASE don't wait until that date. You won't get in anywhere (unless you've got a 3.8+, 174+) and you certainly won't get any money anywhere.

I am a firm believer in "the earlier, the better" mentality when it comes to submitting applications for admission. Most schools start accepting applications mid-September or October, so ideally you'll have everything ready and uploaded into your LSAC account by the first day applications are available for your dream school. I know, I know, this sounds like particularly gunnerish behavior, but I swear, it will pay off.

You see, the way I look at it, when AdComms first start accepting and  reviewing applications, they're looking for a reason that you should fill one of their x number of seats. As time goes on, their mentality shifts to looking for a reason that you shouldn't fill one of their x number of seats. They're much more likely to find a flaw in your application the longer you wait, because now they're comparing you to so many other students applying at the same time. Plus, earlier in the cycle they've got more empty seats, so they're going to be more forgiving if you have one number that isn't up to par. It is so much harder to get in to a school if you wait a while to apply.

Not to mention, schools are more likely to take your application seriously the earlier you apply. It shows schools that you're genuinely interested in their institution, not just applying as an afterthought.

Here's my take on the timeline: If you apply by mid-October, you're way ahead of the game (in a good way). If you apply by Thanksgiving, you're applying in a timely manner. If you apply by Christmas you're cutting it close. Any time after January, you're really pretty late. And after February 15? Forget it. This is especially true if you're a splitter.

PLUS, the earlier you apply the more quickly you will hear back (in most cases). I personally heard back from over 70% of the schools that I applied to by the end of January, when a lot of students were just getting out their applications!

So, do yourselves a favor. Spend the summer getting everything (and I do mean everything) ready to apply on Day 1. You'll be so grateful that you did. You'll get more acceptances and more money than if you want until later in the cycle, I guarantee it.

My Final LSP Accuracy

Well, the cycle is over. I've put in my deposit(s) at SMU, and withdrawn every where else. Now it's time to evaluate that handy little tool, Law School Predictor (LSP). A lot of you may remember that I seriously advocated to use of this website to determine where you should target your applications. Here we'll find out how accurate it actually is!

In any given cycle there can be a number of game changers, and no cycle can be predicted with 100% accuracy EVER. I got a few surprises during my cycle (dinged at Samford, whaaaat?), but for the most part everything went pretty smoothly.

So, here we go. In this following list, the outcomes that surprised me are bolded. Please note: not every school is represented on LSP.

               Iowa:   Deny (8%) → (withdrew)
               Wake Forest:   Deny (7%) → Waitlisted

               Southern Methodist:   Consider (25%) → In 

               Case Western Reserve:   Consider (31%) → Dinged

               Loyola Marymount:   Consider (27%) → (withdrew)

               San Diego:   Consider (17%) → (withdrew)

               Baylor:   Consider (24%) → In

               Kentucky:   Consider (16%) → Dinged

               Penn State:   Consider (31%) → (withdrew)

               Arkansas - Fayetteville:   Strong Consider (37%) → In 

               Santa Clara:   Consider (30%) → In 

               DePaul:   Admit (49%) → In 

               Pacific:   Admit (57%) → In 

               San Francisco:   Strong Consider (44%) → Waitlisted 

               Akron:   Admit (81%) → In

               Arkansas - Little Rock:   Admit (>95%) → In 

               Memphis:   Strong Consider (67%) → (withdrew)

               Ole Miss:   Strong Consider (70%) → Dinged

               Pacific*:   Admit (90%) → In 

               Samford:   Admit (87%) → Dinged

               Southwestern:   Admit (>95%) → Waitlisted

               Texas Tech:   Consider (55%) → Dinged

               California Western:   Admit (>95%) → In

               Campbell:   Admit (78%) → Waitlisted, then Dinged

               Dayton:   Admit (>95%) → In 

               Texas Wesleyan:   Admit (89%) → (withdrew)

               Thomas Jefferson:   Admit (>95%) → In 

               Whittier:   Admit (>95%) → In 

               UC Irvine:   (no predicition) → Dinged

               Phoenix:   Admit (>95%) → In

               Western State:   Strong Consider (>95%) → In

* = Pacific is listed twice, once on the Top 100 list, and once on the Unranked list. Each time it had different data listed, so I just put it down both times.

These results show what happens when I click the URM box. Some schools looked at me as a URM, and some didn't...it depends on if they looked at me as "Hispanic" or "Central American." Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are the two latino ethnic groups that get the URM boost a majority of the time; other latino groups (like Guatemalan) are not considered URM, and thusly are SOL. If I had entered my data without checking the URM box, a lot of the considers became "weak consider" or "deny" choices, instead, and some of my admits turned into "considers."

Overall, I'd say that my cycle went well, with a couple of good surprises, and a couple of not-so-good surprises. I think that LSP was a fairly accurate tool, and it definitely helped me focus on where I could/should apply. I'd recommend that any law student take a look at the LSP results for their data before sending out their application.

If you want to get a more thorough picture of all of the schools I applied to, when my applications went out, and how much money I got at each school, you can check out my LSN profile.

Withdrew from Penn State

Today I sent an email to Penn State Law (Dickinson) asking to have my application withdrawn from consideration. I decided that even if I did get in that I wouldn't want to move to Pennsylvania for school, and that I wasn't likely to get enough money to make that move worthwhile.

For me, withdrawing before hearing back was hard, but only because sometimes I live in a dream world where EVERY school might give me a full ride and stipend.

At this point in my cycle, I've gotten more acceptances than I thought I would, and I have to realistically think about where I would be interested in attending, and unfortunately Penn State just didn't make the cut.

I expect to be withdrawing from a few more schools this week (Thomas Jefferson, Phoenix, Marquette, etc.). Hopefully narrowing down my pool of possibilities will make my choice easier in the end!

My Original Mission

My original mission with this blog was, among other things, to keep track of when I heard back from which law schools and what that method of communication was. I think the handiest site to do that is on LSN, because there are fields for every date that you can fill out, and then everything looks nice and neat.

Unfortunately, there is only one field for any sort of narrative, and it's just not the best laid out format for my slightly OCD, symmetry-loving brain to enjoy. I'll continue to update on LSN for the people on that website -- a lot of people can use comparison dates from previous cycles to estimate when they might hear back from a particular school, etc. -- but I think I'll use this blog as more of a platform for remembering dates and methods.

So, without further ado, here is my timeline to date on hearing back from law school admissions offices:

11/3: Gearing up to get a majority of my applications out by Thanksgiving. Just made the 11/1 cut off for Santa Clara EA. I kind of feel like if I apply everywhere then at least I'll get in somewhere.

11/17: Almost all my applications are out. I sent fee waiver requests to almost everywhere I wanted to apply, and got almost all of them. Saved some $$.

11/23: Associate Dean at U Ark called to discuss my application today, wanted me to submit a supplemental "Why Arkansas" essay. Okay!

11/29: USC Status Checker updated to Decision Letter Sent.

12/1: Accepted at Akron via phone call. I'm counting my first decision as an acceptance, because I haven't gotten the USC letter yet! YAY!

12/2: DePaul Status Checker updated to Decision Rendered. Should hear from them in the next few hours. 12 HOURS LATER: In at DePaul via Status Checker!

12/3: Letter (small envelope) in the mail from South Carolina...I'm in!!

12/9: Decision Rendered and Letter Mailed at UK. It looks like (from TLS updates) I might be out. First rejection = harsh.

12/13: Decision rendered at Ole Miss, letter in the mail (according to an email I got this morning). LATER: I guess they sent it out last week, because I got the letter this afternoon. Dinged at Ole Miss and UK via snail mail.

12/14: AHHH!!! Still says "In Committee" on my SCU status checker, but I have a "Decision Letter Mailed" under my mailings. I'll be on pins and needles until it gets here!!!

12/16: My letter hasn't arrived yet, but...I'M IN AT SANTA CLARA! Yay, secret top choice!! (I didn't want to jinx it). Also, got an email today from Marquette saying that I should have received my acceptance by now. Well, that's good news. In at Marquette PT.

12/17: Sent my supplements to UArk, got an email from the dean saying my acceptance letter would be mailed out next week. In at UArk - Fayetteville. Also: got my letter and scholarship offer from SCU - $15,500!

12/20: Letter received from UArk. $4,000 per semester (weirdest way I've seen scholarships described).

12/23: Merry Christmas to me from Whittier! In via email today! Got a second email asking me to call them to discuss my interest in Whittier for consideration for a merit scholarship. Odd.

12/30: Didn't check any of my status checkers at all over the last week (how liberating). Checked today -- in at Phoenix as of 12/23.

12/31: Email from Whittier Financial Aid...$26k for the first year, with a weird tiered requirement for finaid for all following years (top 5% get full ride, top 10% get 3/4 etc.)

1/10: Haven't been checking status checkers at all in the last week. Dinged at Texas Tech (surprised) via small envelope, Case Western by email today.

1/16: Emailed just before midnight (PST) on a Sunday -- in at UALR.

1/20: Decision Rendered at Western State. Based on new "requirements" and "tuition deposit" sections, I'm pretty sure I'm in. LATER: IN at Western State via phone call.

1/21: In at Cal Western via small envelope. In at Dayton via phone call.

1/24: Waitlisted at Wake via email and status checker. "Hold for further Review" at Campbell, but they said specifically that it's not a WL, so I don't know how to qualify it. Scholarship offer(s) from UALR - In-State Tuition ($11.6k) PLUS an $18k merit scholarship...WOW!

1/31: In at SMU via status checker!!! According to TLS, people who called got news that admit packages will contain $$ info, and will come in next week.

2/4: Scholarship offer from Cal Western today via mail. $15k per year, contingent on keeping GPA above 80% (3.0). Scholarship offer from Thomas Jefferson, too...$20k per year, contingent on staying in top 30%.

2/6: Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Will probably withdraw from Marquette, Thomas Jefferson, Phoenix, Western State, and maybe one or two more in the upcoming week.

2/7: In at STCL via email.

I'll attempt to update more regularly on this site (with more information) every time I hear back from a particular school.

A Little Update

So, it's been a while. I know, my bad. I was definitely going to update more often, but my personal life has been in upheaval recently. Now that it's a little more "smooth sailing" (hopefully) rather than "don't rock the boat, baby" I should be updating more and more frequently.

Instead of an instructional or informational post, I just wanted to update with the fact that I got waitlisted at the top-ranked school I applied to (I was seriously expecting to be rejected) and in to the second-best ranked school I applied to. Yayyyy!!

It makes me feel better to know that I got in to these good/great schools in the face of the rejections I've gotten from far lower-ranked schools. Rejections always suck, whether they were schools you reeeeeally wanted to get in to or not.

So far I've been accepted at 15 schools, rejected from 4, and waitlisted at 1.

That's pretty good, right?

You can track my progress on my LSN profile, if you'd like!

I just peed a little.

Okay, this is out of order (I'm trying to go back and do this blog a little chronologically), but I'm just so stoked I HAD to share:




I GOT IN TO SANTA CLARA! It's my top choice school, and I wasn't really sure if I would get in, but I did!!! I've been a little neurotic since Tuesday because it showed me as "Decision Letter Sent" but still "In Committee," but it updated this morning! Stoked.

Okay, that's all. Resume your normal lives.

(Unless you want to celebrate with me tonight).