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

Admissions offices are still issuing decisions, they’re reviewing admitted students for scholarship consideration, and they may be starting to entertain negotiation or reconsideration requests. They’re also hosting admitted student events, sending out reminders about commitment deadlines, and facilitating meetings with their committees and deans to ensure that they’re making their goals for the cycle. They may be connecting admitted students with each other online, connecting admitted students with housing offices, or coordinating with other departments for current student and faculty outreach.

This is also the time that waitlisted candidates often send in LOCIs, so that there is an update to their file just before the first deposit deadline. AOs can run reports to see which applicant files have recent updates—or any updates—since the initial application submission.

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Discussion

This week, our discussion continues on interactions with the law schools in terms of waitlist offers and summer melt.

Waitlist Offers

As AOs continue to build their incoming classes, they will continue to make waitlist offers to strong candidates that they would like to consider for possible admission as time progresses. Some schools maintain one large list, while others separate their waitlist into distinguishable parts—sometimes assigning one of those lists as priority. The important takeaway from being added to a waitlist is that you’re still being considered—admission is still on the table for this cycle.

There is no way to know how many schools will need to pull from their waitlist in a given cycle—schools make adjustments each year based on institutional goals, which may affect the number of initial acceptances they make, the number of candidates offered waitlist positions, etc. Each year is different, so there’s no reliable calculation of the odds of being selected off of the waitlist. However, there are steps that you can take that affirm your place on the waitlist, keep your file updated, and help you prepare, so that a school considering its waitlist has a strong chance of taking a closer look at your candidacy.

Confirming Waitlist

Pay close attention to the communications that you receive, because some schools require an affirmative act on the part of the applicant to remain on the waitlist—rather than automatically assign everyone recommended for waitlist onto the list, they ask candidates to confirm that they want the school to continue considering their candidacy. This helps schools weed out candidates who have accepted other offers with the intention of committing at these other institutions. If a candidate is required to affirm that they wish to remain on the waitlist and they miss the deadline to do so, their application will likely be withdrawn.

Sending LOCIs and Other Updates

Letters of continued interest (LOCIs) and other updates, such as final transcripts submitted to the LSAC for a new cumulative GPA calculation or an updated résumé submitted to reflect new employment or academic honors, are often welcomed after a candidate is placed on a waitlist. Read any instructions carefully—some schools limit when LOCIs may be submitted, provide specific prompts for an optional statement (rather than an LOCI), or provide additional information that gives you an idea of when that school intends to begin reviewing candidates on the waitlist for possible admission.

For the schools that invite LOCIs from waitlisted applicants, this is an opportunity for you to share additional information about things that you’ve achieved since you submitted your application, things you’ve learned about the school, or interactions you’ve had with students/staff/faculty that have enhanced your interest to attend, etc.

Some candidates who opted not to write a Why X school statement with their application will incorporate Why X school content into their LOCI. If you wrote a Why X statement, are there other reasons that you’re interested in attending that you didn’t have space to mention? Are there aspects of your interest that you can expand on?

If a particular school happens to be your first choice, and you’d immediately commit if offered a seat, communicate that! However, if a school communicates that they don’t want any LOCIs or correspondence sent in outside of transcript or résumé updates, wait until an opportunity presents itself. Some schools don’t accept LOCIs during the spring, but they may be open to them over the summer after commitment deadlines.

Rankings

While some schools don’t rank candidates on the waitlist and consider all candidates as spaces become available, other schools may rank waitlisted candidates and/or place them into quartiles to help indicate the likelihood of a potential call. Some will have a priority waitlist and a regular waitlist. For schools that do rank, instead of looking at the entire pool when spaces become available, they may only look at a subset of the pool—a quartile, a range of numbers on the ranked list, the priority grouping.

As time passes, schools will update their waitlists to reflect candidates who have communicated that they are committed to attend elsewhere. An appropriate time to find out if rankings/quartiles have updated would be after deposit/commitment deadline dates have passed and again in early July.

Summer Melt

“Summer melt” describes the loss of admitted applicants to other schools as they pull from their respective waitlists. This phenomenon happens every year—a highly ranked school will pull from their waitlist, which affects their peers and local competitors. This has a trickle-down effect, causing those peers and competitor schools to then have to pull from their lists, and so on, and so on.

Summer melt creates gaps in the incoming class that must then be filled by waitlisted candidates, and this can happen anytime throughout the late spring and summer months, so even from the waitlist, continue to check your email and your spam folder. Continue to keep space available for voicemail messages. Continue to keep admissions offices updated should your contact information change. Should you receive the call and be unavailable, you want to make sure that AOs are able to adequately reach you.

Feelers

Often, if AOs are getting ready to make additional offers of admission to waitlisted candidates, they’ll do what I call “feeler” calls, which are meant to gauge the likelihood that a waitlisted candidate will accept an offer should an offer be extended and what other offers the candidate is considering. The feeler call might be used to gauge whether that candidate should also be awarded some scholarship funding to help make the admission offer more attractive.

Decision Deadlines

Offers of admission to waitlisted candidates often come with shorter decision deadlines. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to check your email and spam folder and voicemails regularly for this reason. If the response time has passed, that school will move on, and another opportunity may not become available.

We will cover peer networking, roommate connections, and student housing in the next newsletter. Stay tuned!

7Sage LSAT Live Opportunity

Scott Milam, a 7Sage LSAT Tutor, will be teaching a 10-week course live! This class is ideal for anyone who wants a bit more structure and accountability as they work their way to their goal score. Registrants will be limited to twelve students. For more information and the link to sign-up, click here.

7Sage on Clubhouse

Stay tuned for April dates to discuss waitlist offers and summer melt!

7Sage Webinar: What to Expect as a 1L

On Wednesday, March 16 at 9:00 p.m. ET, we will be hosting a 1L panel discussion with former 7Sagers about what you can expect as a 1L (and how to survive). You’ll get a chance to ask your questions at the end. Register here.

7Sage Webinar: Combating Test Anxiety + LSAT Tutoring Giveaway

On Thursday, March 17 at 9:00 p.m. ET, join the 7Sage Tutoring Team for a webinar about "Combating Test Anxiety,” which will include time for a Q&A session. One attendee will be awarded a free hour of LSAT tutoring service. You must be registered to attend! Register here. For more information on 7Sage LSAT Tutoring services, click here.

7Sage Webinar: Scholarship Negotiation and Reconsideration

On Thursday, March 24 at 9:00 p.m. ET, join co-founder David Busis and 7Sage admissions consultants for a panel discussion on scholarship offers, making scholarship reconsideration/negotiation requests, and preparing for or extending 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.