How to Handle Being on Multiple Law School Waitlists

Applying to law schools – especially those ranked in the top 20 – involves a lot of uncertainty given the intense competition for each seat. Unless an applicant has stellar scores, there's a strong likelihood that he or she will land on law school waitlists.

For example, the 25^th percentiles of LSAT scores for the University of Pennsylvania Law School, ranked No. 7 in the 2019 U.S. News Best Law Schools, and the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, ranked No. 18, are 163 and 161, respectively, while the 75^th percentiles are 170 and 169. With such tight margins and thousands of applicants submitting multiple applications to schools with only so many seats to fill, many prospective students will find themselves on waitlists.

Additionally, the competition goes both ways: Schools know that offering a seat to a highly qualified student doesn't mean that the student will accept the offer, so they keep a long waitlist in case other schools are prioritized over them.

The recent increase in applications due to a reaction to President Donald Trump's policies – colloquially known as the "Trump Bump" – also contributed to longer waitlists. Not only is the applicant pool larger, but sophisticated applicants who realize the stiffer competition and want to maximize their chances are applying to more schools within, and sometimes outside, their score range.

Consequently, it's not atypical to see applicants who in previous years would have been admitted early in the admissions cycle finding themselves with a somewhat uncertain future even now. Here are steps you can take if you're facing the same situation.

Write a letter of continued interest. The first thing you should do when placed on a waitlist is submit a letter to the law school reaffirming your interest in attending the school.

While some law schools require you to affirmatively accept their offer to put the applicant on the waitlist, most will place you there unilaterally. Some applicants think that there's nothing left for them to do but cross their fingers and wait, but this is precisely the time to be proactive.

Reach out to the school and let it know you're still very much interested in attending and offer to send any additional information that might help the admissions committee in its decision.

Presumably, a few weeks, if not months, have passed since the application submission, so make sure to keep the school updated on everything new and relevant in your life, such as grades, honors and internships.

Because waitlists typically don't start moving until May, it's quite possible you'll have additional updates to provide. Write a letter every month or two, but not more frequently than that. Nobody likes a flooded inbox, and writing a letter every couple of weeks can adversely affect your chances.

Schedule a visit. If you'd like to earn some Brownie points with the admissions committees, schedule a visit to as many schools as possible.

Make sure to coordinate the visit with the admissions office so the school knows you're willing to spend the time and resources, which is a good indication of your strong interest. Similarly, ask to meet – not "interview with" – one of the committee members so you can showcase your personality and insightful questions about the school.

Also, try to speak with a current student and attend a class or a student organization meeting to gain more information about the school, and then include your impressions of those encounters and your visit in general in your letter of continued interest. Doing so will provide a new angle to your application, making it more well-rounded.

Submit a deposit to a safety school. A common mistake made by applicants on multiple waitlists is assuming that they will get admitted to at least one of the schools and consequently foregoing putting in a deposit in a lower-ranked school.

While admissions offers are possible, the worst-case scenario would be for an applicant to find out he or she will not get in off the waitlist after deposit deadlines have already passed.

You should put in a deposit to one of your safety schools and forfeit it if you're fortunate enough to be offered admission in a more desirable school. You will lose the deposit, but in the grand scheme of things, a few hundred dollars is a small price to pay when compared with three years of law school tuition.

Relax. The most important step is to remain patient. I'm currently working with two candidates with nearly perfect GPAs and LSAT scores in the 160s who applied to most schools ranked between No. 5 and No. 20, and both ended up on more than 10 waitlists.

Understandably, both were nervous facing an uncertain future. But after visiting some schools and submitting multiple letters of continued interest, both have been offered admission to several schools, some in the top 10.

Even if you haven't been offered admission yet, things may change. Many schools make offers in July, and sometimes even August. So take a deep breath, start working on those letters of continued interest and hope for the best.