What's Going On in the Admissions Cycle Right Now?

Many admissions offices are slowing the rate of decisions until they get beyond their commitment deadlines so that they can assess how their classes are filling up and what more is needed to reach their goals.

FAQs from Law School Applicants

Trying to squeeze in a couple of school visits before your commitment deadlines? Here are some tips on visiting schools.

Helpful Link

Did you enjoy podcast episode #70 on scholarship negotiations and reconsideration? We recently released part two (see comments section)!

Discussion

This week, our continuing discussion on interactions with the law schools will resume with a discussion on reaching out to admissions offices about final decisions, reconsideration requests, or opportunities to come off of the waitlist.

April is a very delicate month. Admissions offices are using all of their bandwidth to communicate decisions, review extension and reconsideration requests, assess the pool of committed students vs. those who still have time to commit, process any admitted student withdrawals, and prepare for any upcoming admitted student visits. Anticipate that communications to the office via email may have a 24- to 48-hour processing time, so send in requests early, rather than waiting to communicate something on the day of a deadline—it’s unlikely that an extension request received the day of a deadline is going to be processed immediately, and you don’t want to risk your seat.

A lot of contact can occur this month, so make sure that you’re checking your email inbox and your spam folder and that you leave space for voicemails. If your contact information is changing at all due to travel or a move, make sure that admissions offices have your updated information.

Holds

Some schools have slowed decision-making in anticipation of commitment deadlines, communicating to candidates that their applications are currently on hold. This is different from being on the waitlist, in that you are still being considered for outright admission. There are typically opportunities to update your application while it is on hold—some schools invite a letter of continued interest (LOCI), a new letter of recommendation, updates to official transcripts, or an updated résumé—just make sure that you follow any directions issued for submitting supplementary materials. For instance, some schools require new materials to be uploaded via their online status checker, while others prefer that items be emailed in as attachments.

Waitlists

If you are preparing to send in LOCIs, now is a good time to send them. After a deposit deadline, most schools have a grace period and then will begin assessing how many deposits they received in comparison with additional offers they have extended with later deadlines. This helps them to predict how many more offers they need to make to yield the results that they hope to achieve. As they make these predictions, they may make batches of offers from their waitlist if they’ve already reviewed their full applicant pool. Updates to application materials, like LOCIs, allow AOs to sort waitlisted candidates based on recent updates to their file.

Additional Decisions

Passing a deposit deadline and assessing the pool is also a time for schools with candidates on hold to begin issuing additional decisions in batches. An emailed message of continued interest is sufficient here if you don’t have any other substantial updates to provide.

Additional Scholarship Funding

As schools assess their incoming class, they’re also looking to see which candidates opted to withdraw, as this affects their scholarship budgets. Withdrawals can create opportunities for schools to redistribute scholarship funding to others who submitted reconsideration requests or who had not initially received an award. This can create an opportunity to follow up with the admissions team, even to communicate that you’d be happy to receive even a slight increase in funding if it becomes available. Most AOs do maintain lists of candidates who have been in contact for funding.

Admissions Events

There are also a number of schools still holding admitted student events. For those waiting to hear back about scholarship reconsideration requests, admissions events can be good opportunities to interact with the admissions team and make positive impressions that they may consider as they review requests. These positive impressions can be made on faculty and current students as well—many people are a part of this process, and people that you come into contact with during admitted student events are often in direct communications with admissions.

7Sage on Clubhouse

Join 7Sage admissions consultants on Clubhouse on Wednesday, April 13 at 8 p.m. ET for a panel discussion on waitlist offers, commitment deadlines, and letters of continued interest (LOCIs). There will be time reserved for Q&A. RSVP for the event and join Club 7Sage here.

7Sage Webinar: What to Do When You’ve Finished the Core Curriculum

On Thursday, April 14 at 9 p.m. ET, join the 7Sage Tutoring Team for a discussion for LSAT studiers about what to do when you’ve finished the core curriculum. There will be time reserved for a Q&A session. Register here.

7Sage Webinar: Waitlist Offers and LOCIs

On Thursday, April 21 at 9 p.m. ET, join co-founder David Busis and 7Sage admissions consultants for a panel discussion on waitlist offers, letters of continued interest, and commitment deadlines. There will be time reserved for Q&A. Register here.

Upcoming Recruitment Events

  • Duke Law is offering law student-guided tours on Mondays and Fridays at 2 p.m. ET. Tour size is limited, so registration is advised. Register here.
  • Notre Dame Law is offering in-person visits for prospective and waitlisted applicants on Mondays, which include a class observation, admissions information session, and student-led tour. Visits are limited to 10 people at a time. Register here.
  • UCLA Law is offering online information sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 12:15 p.m. PT. Register here.
  • WashU Law in St. Louis is offering meetings with admissions, virtual open houses, and live-streamed events. For more details and to sign up, click here.