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Related Discussions
Weird Letter from Stanford
TheQueen
Member
Hi all, I got a weird letter from Stanford just now, wondering if anyone else got this letter and how they're feeling about it. I applied to 16 law schools in early November, Stanford was not one of them. With a 163 LSAT and a 3.72 GPA I thought that it would be a long shot and a waste of money. Then today I get a form letter from them encouraging me to apply because they want to increase diversity (I am a gay lady). They told me how to apply for a fee waiver from LSAC but did not actually give me a fee waiver. With the deadline a week a way, this late in the application cycle, and with no actual fee waiver, this seems to me like an attempt for them to just collect more application fees. The fact that they are sending these letters to "diverse" prospective students seems especially fucked up to me. Anyone else get this letter and feel weird about it? If Stanford really wanted a diverse class why didn't they send me this letter right after my LSAT? Or why didn't get give me a fee waiver? Seems like a money making attempt masked as a diversity campaign. Thoughts?
Comments
App farming... happens every cycle with lots of schools targeting a range of demographics, but shoot your shot if you want to. They're fairly easy to get a fee waiver from. The have their own form to self-report income. Even if they don't make money off of you, increasing app volume helps their acceptance rate which I believe is 2.5% of their USNWR ranking.
Even this late in the cycle? Seems like I'm just throwing away money and giving into their little ploy. I do not qualify for the fee waiver
This isn't as late as you'd think based on the internet. Especially with top schools that can afford to do basically whatever they hell they want. At the end of last month... so like a little over a week ago, I spoke with several T14 admissions reps and all of them related that this was about mid cycle... Chicago actually said it would be mid cycle in a normal year, but this year is slower so it was still early for them.
So throwing away money? Maybe... especially if its a huge reach. There's also an argument to be made that the proliferation of high scores will allow schools to meet targets easier and free them up to make more "soft" admits. If it were a school I wanted to go to, it'd be worth the app fees for me not to ever have to wonder if I'd have made it.
Frankly, who cares what their motivation is, shoot your shot . How would they know if a person is gay or not?
I wouldn't waste the time/money. it sounds like they're trying to just get more apps in as your stats are outside of their range. Go with your gut instinct!
Plus you could get scholarships from other schools. yea not t3, but maybe better to save money. I'd be insulted too. They should be more appropriate in their comms, they'd expect that from us!
Thank you! It just felt especially predatory to me. They sent it in a big envelope too, my girlfriend thought it was an acceptance before I told her I hadn't applied! Like wow Stanford you want a diverse class? Or do you just want some diverse money?
If you indicate sexual orientation in your LSAC profile schools will get it via CRS... that's one way at least.
Honestly, I would be a little cynical because of how late in the cycle they sent this (full disclosure, I applied to Stanford and have no beef with them). Especially considering that Stanford is a school that has stated that timing of application matters to an extent. Yale sent similar application packets to "diverse" candidates but sent them in the fall (also, at Yale, timing of application doesn't matter). Sending it this late feels like a flat out cash grab, versus a genuine encouragement.
I think it's less about the money than the boost to rankings, as @canihazJD mentioned, but that doesn't mean it isn't rather predatory. I got a surprising letter from Colombia like that, but it was early cycle and after an LSAT score at their 75th. I highly doubt I'll get admission there, because my GPA is more than a full point below their 25th but I sent it in even wondering if they were trying to use me to boost numbers. They also included a fee waiver. To send that kind of letter without a fee waiver seems pretty sketch, and it isn't like Stanford is ranked much differently than Columbia. If it's standard practice for Columbia to include a fee waiver early in the cycle for a long shot applicant checking boxes like me, (I may trigger age and geographic diversity factors as well) I don't know why it wouldn't be for Stanford. I felt extra concerned because Columbia was the only merit-based and unsolicited fee waiver I got in the T14.
At the end of the day, it's also not like the game is played cleanly on our side either. It is quite common for applicants to apply to certain schools exclusively to use in scholarship negotiations, but on balance, given that we're wagering 3 years of our lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars and they're wagering that they'll be able to reject 88% of applicants instead of 86% and collecting our money while doing it I think we can keep the moral high ground. Particularly if they're preying specifically on historically under-represented populations by charging them money to boost that rejection rate.