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

As January LSAT scores are released, law schools will continue to push out admissions decisions and scholarship offers as quickly as they can. Admitted students should anticipate communications regarding scholarship decisions, reconsideration policies, and upcoming events. Waitlisted candidates should prepare any relevant updates for submission, as admissions offices may take looks at their lists as we near commitment deadlines this spring.

FAQs from Students

Does 7Sage offer LSAT tutoring? Yes! Here’s information from one of our managers, Scott.

Helpful Link

The registration deadline for the March LSAT is on this Thursday, February 3. This date is also the last day to submit accommodation requests or to change the test date free of charge. For more information, click here.

Discussion

This week, our discussion continues on interactions with the law schools via admitted student portals.

Following an offer of admission call, email, or mailed packet, schools will typically follow up in January or February to provide admitted students with access to a portal, which will contain a myriad of information. The amount of information can be overwhelming, but it’s all important, and it’s a good idea for candidates to take the time to digest all of it (though not necessarily in one sitting). A good amount of the information will be broken down into the following categories, and clients with one of our After-the-App packages can utilize our editing and consulting services to help maximize opportunities (for more information, click here).

Scholarship Opportunities

There may be specific institutional scholarships that are only available for application once offers of admission are made. This is often done to both narrow the field and to decrease the amount of materials received initially with the application. Pay close attention to deadlines and requirements. These kinds of scholarships tend to be about specific areas of law and/or demographic backgrounds.

Scholarship Negotiation/Reconsideration Policies

Whether law schools allow scholarship negotiation or reconsideration is often a very clear section within an admitted student portal. Some schools only allow reconsideration within a specific window of time or will limit reconsideration requests to a one-time opportunity. Other schools may allow negotiation to continue multiple times over the course of the spring and summer.

Similarly, pay close attention to the parameters of each school’s process. Some will consider multiple scholarship offers from peer schools, while others will only consider what you consider to be the best offer. You will likely need to provide documentation of your other offer(s) and will need to provide reason or justification for your request for increase. You may also need to provide dates by which you hope to receive a decision, any scholarship retention guidelines, a cost of attendance analysis, or other documentation.

Commitment Deadlines and Details

Schools will highlight seat deposit/commitment deadlines prominently. There are times when the general commitment deadlines DO NOT apply—some scholarship opportunities have different commitment deadlines attached. Additionally, some schools require seat deposits before incoming students are eligible to apply for student housing (should they want an opportunity to live on campus), which creates a pressure to commit earlier in the cycle to secure these types of opportunities.

Admitted Student Events

Most schools offer several different opportunities for admitted students to engage with the law school community—via open houses, admitted student weekends, research institute lectures, clinic or advocacy centers showcases, or student organization welcome events. There’s no requirement or expectation that you attend everything, but it’s a good idea to make sure that you spend some time on campus to familiarize yourself with their offerings and confirm that the environment is the right fit for you.

Admitted Student Networking

Within the portal, schools will often provide access to incoming student Facebook groups or other forum areas where incoming students can introduce themselves and get to know each other. They may also offer connections to help law students seeking roommates connect. There are likely some current students who will be within these forums to help guide conversation and offer insights.

7Sage Event

On Thursday, February 10, at 9:00 p.m. ET, David and the 7Sage Tutoring Team will host a webinar about "Need for Speed." The event will include a giveaway of a free hour of tutoring, and participants will be given the opportunity to ask questions.

For more details and to access the registration link, click here.

Upcoming Recruitment Event

Most law school recruitment events are now behind us, but there is one big one left that includes most of the T14:

  • The LSAC February Digital Forum will take place online on Saturday, February 5 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET. This will include live and on-demand workshops as well as a digital law fair with schools from across the country (a list of participating schools is not yet listed). Register by February 3.