After You Apply

When you submit an application on the LSAC website, LSAC time stamps the application and prepares it for the school. 

Once a law school has received an application through LSAC, it will begin a process of review to ensure that all requisite components are included in the application file. This initial review process may conclude relatively quickly, or in some cases it may take several weeks, depending to a great extent on the volume of applications being processed by the school at that time.

To give applicants some insight into the seeming black box of the admissions process, many law schools offer an Online Status Check website. The status check website informs applicants when an application is received from LSAC, when an application is placed in the queue for review by the admissions committee, when the committee begins its review, and when a decision has been reached. If you are accepted, most schools will communicate that information to you by phone call or e-mail. If you are placed on hold, placed on a waitlist, or rejected, you will receive an e-mail and/or letter at your address on record.

If you are already subscribed to the LSAC’s Lawhub Advantage subscription, which provides access to all previously released official LSAT practice tests, you can also use the Law School Application Status Checker feature of your subscription to check your application status for multiple law schools* at once.  

*Note: Some law schools do not post application statuses online to Lawhub Advantage. You’ll need to continue tracking those applications directly with the schools.

There is, unfortunately, no specific answer to this question. In rare cases, some applicants may receive an answer within a few weeks, but the process typically takes 2–4 months. If your application is placed on hold or if you are placed on a waitlist then it may take several additional months to receive a final decision. 

In particularly competitive years, you may not hear until very near to the seat deposit deadline, or even after the seat deposit deadline.

In the meantime, continue to check the status of your applications for each school, and check your LSAC Credential Assembly Service (CAS) account to confirm that each school has requested a CAS Report from LSAC within a few weeks after you submitted your application.

A law school’s decision to place a student on hold is not really a decision at all. Think of it more as a notification that there will be a delay in the school’s processing of your application. The school might later decide to admit you, reject you, or place you on a waitlist. It is difficult to read any meaning into the use of a hold on an application.

There could also be a hold placed on an application because your application is missing a component to make it complete. Make sure that your application has been marked as complete by the law school.

If you have already submitted your application and are still registered to take another LSAT, schools will see that you are registered for another test.  Some schools may go ahead and review your application with the score you have, but many others may place a hold on your application and not review it until they have your updated score. Some schools may ask you to indicate a preference on your application for what to do if you register to take another LSAT. If you are not sure what a particular law school does in this scenario, contact their admissions office to find out.

A waitlist (or reserve list as some schools refer to it) is composed of applicants whom the admissions committee has determined are academically qualified to attend the school, but the admissions committee is not yet prepared to offer them a spot in the incoming class for various reasons.

The manner in which law schools use waitlists varies significantly school-by-school and year-by-year. Some schools admit applicants off the waitlist even before the deadline to apply has passed. Others wait until after the first seat deposit deadline (the deadline for admitted students to pay a fee to hold their seat in the incoming class) has passed to admit applicants from the waitlist. In more competitive years, law schools may not admit anyone from the waitlist. 

In general, law schools tend not to rank or order the applicants on their waitlists. Even those schools that do rank waitlist applicants tend to do so using general quartiles or broad categories of priority. It varies school-by-school as to whether the school will inform an applicant where they stand on the waitlist. If a law school has not volunteered information on where you are on the waitlist, do not ask.

When you are placed on a waitlist, most law schools will request you submit a form confirming your desire to remain on the waitlist. While it is important that you take this step, oftentimes merely submitting the form is not sufficient to be admitted from the waitlist should a spot open up. Law schools often will not admit someone from the waitlist unless the applicant has advocated for their admission in some way to show them that they are still actively interested. Note, however, that some law schools specifically instruct applicants placed on the waitlist not to submit any supplementary materials or take any steps in an effort to gain admission. If you are placed on a waitlist, it will be your responsibility to determine what a school permits from waitlisted applicants.

Assuming a school does permit you to advocate on your own behalf, consider taking one of the following steps:

1. Submit one or more letters of continuing interest (LOCIs)

Letters of continuing interest (LOCIs) are one-page business-style letters in which you may (1) update the school on relevant information post-dating your application (new academic awards, employment promotions, fall semester grades, etc.) and (2) explain in greater detail why you want to attend this particular law school. It is probably intuitive that updating the school on relevant, recent developments of note may help you stand out in comparison to others on the waitlist. The importance of talking about why you want to attend that particular law school or, phrased differently, why the law school is a good fit for you, may be less intuitive. In most cases, law schools want to extend an offer of admission only to wait-listed applicants who are very likely to accept that offer. By articulating the basis for your desire to attend the school, you are evidencing that you have devoted thought and research in your decision to apply to this particular school and are therefore more likely to accept an offer. Even more useful, if you are sure that you would accept an offer from the school, say so explicitly in the LOCI.

 It is appropriate to send multiple LOCIs if you remain on the waitlist for an extended period. Sending one per month after the seat deposit date is not unreasonable and allows you to assure the school that nothing has occurred in the interim that impacts your desire to attend. 

2. Submit an additional letter of recommendation
Many schools will accept one or more additional letters of recommendation from applicants placed on the waitlist. If your school does accept them, remember that academic letters are often more helpful to admissions committees.

3. Submit any optional essays suggested by the school
If a law school asks you to or allows you to submit an optional essay after being wait-listed, you should take the time to write a strong essay. It helps to convey the seriousness of your interest and gives the admissions committee another writing sample to evaluate.

4.Complete a waitlist interview, if offered the opportunity
A small number of law schools have a separate interview process for wait-listed candidates. (Ex. Northwestern Law- see FAQ here.)

5. Set up a formal visit
Visiting a school conveys the seriousness of your interest in the school. In many cases, it may also lead to face time with an admissions representative, which can be helpful.

Logistical issues may arise if you are waitlisted at one or more of your preferred schools.

Seat deposits. Applicants usually remain on a waitlist long after the seat deposit deadlines have passed at the other schools where the applicants were accepted. So if you are wait-listed at School A, you will need to decide whether there is a School B you would be willing to attend if you aren’t admitted at School A, or whether you will wait and apply again to School A the following application cycle. If you are sure that you want to attend law school the upcoming fall regardless of whether you are admitted from the waitlist at School A, then submit a seat deposit at School B. This is a common practice, and it raises no ethical issues if you get off the waitlist at School A and decide to attend there instead. The only drawback to placing a seat deposit at School B is that you may lose the deposit if you get off the waitlist at School A because not all schools refund seat deposits.

When to remove yourself. You can decide to remove yourself from the waitlist at any time, or stay on the waitlist up to the first day of classes. Waiting until the last minute comes with a lot of headaches, so you’ll want to determine when the inconvenience outweighs the switch in law schools for you. Accepting a spot off the waitlist may happen after you’ve already signed a lease and/or moved to a new location. Be conscious of any penalty clauses for breaking rental contracts and what the rules are for subleasing to another tenant.  You may also need to arrange to move your belongings quickly.