Waiting Lists: A Long-Term Strategy
When determining a strategy as a waitlisted applicant, it’s important first to keep in mind why you were waitlisted: the law school is hedging its bets in two ways.
When determining a strategy as a waitlisted applicant, it’s important first to keep in mind why you were waitlisted: the law school is hedging its bets in two ways. First, the law school wants to see if it can fill its class with more qualified applicants – something it’s insecure about in years when application numbers are down. Second, it doesn’t want to give out acceptance letters to people who are unlikely to attend because schools like to protect their yield rates to appear more selective.
So, you’re in the first category if your numbers are low for the school. For these waitlisted applicants, you should send updates about new, improved grades if you are still in school and a new, improved LSAT score if you have one of those. An additional letter of rec from a professor or updates about recent accomplishments can also be helpful.
If you’re in the second category – for example all of you on Georgetown’s Preferred Waiting List – it means the law school thinks you may get into Columbia, Michigan, NYU, Harvard, etc., and since most people choose Top 10 schools over Georgetown, they know you’re unlikely to attend in the end. So, taking the time to visit, to interview (if and when invited) and to otherwise show sincere interest in the school, including by having alumni or current students reach out to them on your behalf, can make a big difference.
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In both cases, be careful about throwing too much at the law schools too soon. Most schools don’t even think about their waitlisted applicants until after the first deposit deadlines have passed, and waitlists really don’t start moving until June or July. In many cases, a school at the top has to take people from its waiting list before the schools lower down in the rankings start to move into taking people from their waiting lists, at least for the law schools in the same ranking range or region. You’ll want to schedule out contact according to a long-term strategy. For example, don’t have three alumni write emails on your behalf all in one week: space things out.
Another reason to be patient with waiting lists is because you may find that – as you hear back from other schools – your priorities change and you will be able to make a stronger statement about a certain law school. For example, it’s more persuasive to tell a school “I would absolutely attend if admitted,” than “I remain very interested in attending.”
The two major mistakes I see people make when waitlisted are:
1. Not following up – just sitting and waiting to see what happens. In these cases, nothing good happens.
2. Stalking – sending too much, calling too much, not following directions, being too eager and desperate. These are usually the people who send emails with grammatical mistakes and who are unprofessional in their dealings with the school.
The pep talk? Some law schools take half of their entering class from the waiting list. Many law school applicants who get into crazy reach schools do it by being admitted from the waiting list. And, even better, in recent admission cycles many of them have been offered scholarships as well.
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In the meantime, if you haven’t yet visited a law school where you are waitlisted, I suggest getting a visit on your calendar.
For additional tips for being admitted from a waiting list see:
Law School Waitlists (this is an article I wrote six years ago, but still holds true about why people get waitlisted and what you can do about it).
Getting off the Waitlist (a 23-minute podcast interviewing lots of experts on how different schools treat their waiting lists and how to update schools regarding recent accomplishments and interest in the school).
A Waitlist is a Second Admission Cycle (a blog post about the discussion on a panel at UCLA, where they stated that a third (!) of their class is admitted from the waiting list).
Ann K. Levine is a law school admission consultant and owner of LawSchoolExpert.com. She is the author of The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert (affiliate link) and The Law School Decision Game: A Playbook for Prospective Lawyers (affiliate link).
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