Here are my top tips for taking control of your law school waitlists — and preserving your sanity in the process.
It's important for you to have a process for managing your waitlists (and for managing your applications more generally!). Having a process means you can stay cool, calm, and collected in a context of inherent uncertainty. In turn, having that right mindset will allow you to make better decisions for yourself around your waitlists and optimize for the outcomes that are best for YOU.
Unfortunately, many applicants don't have a process or a system for managing their waitlists, and so their mindset is dominated by unnecessary anxiety.
If you're feeling anxious, it's because you're not driving the bus.
Here are common reasons people feel anxious instead of in control:
They are unclear about your own priorities
They don't have a system to manage their waitlists
They don't know how to manage their expectations
They are feeling passive in the process — that the waitlist process is something being done to them
It doesn't have to feel that way. You can take agency over your waitlists and your mindset.
Here's how, step by step:
Step 1: Create a clear hierarchy of waitlist schools in your head
When and if you get that call making you an offer off of the waitlist, you'll have to make a decision very quickly.
You won't have time to ruminate and stare at your bellybutton.
You won't have time to negotiate financial aid.
You won't be getting an extension, and you are 99.9% unlikely to be granted a deferral.
If they have a seat to fill, they'll want to fill it with you or move on to the next person on the list, because that will be their priority at that point: filling that seat as quickly as possible.
So be very clear in your own mind which waitlist schools you would say yes to, and in what order of priority.
That list and hierarchy might change over the course of the summer, and that's fine.
But don't wait until you get a call from one of your waitlist schools to do that analysis, because doing it for the first time under time pressure is not the better way to make an important decision.
If you're not sure whether you would say yes to a school making that call, ask yourself this:
What information do you still need that you don't already have in order to make that decision?
If you can't think of anything specific, then you're just scared of having to make a decision (especially one that you might never be forced to make), so it's easier to kick that can down the road. But kicking that can down the road isn't going to make the waiting or the outcome better.
You've had plenty of time to research schools and talk to students and alums and admissions officers and whoever else might inform your decision. If you haven’t already, start now. If your uncertainty hinges only on price point, assume you'd be paying full fare. They might throw you some money off of a waitlist, but don't count on it.
Step 2: Be clear in your mind about your drop-dead date
The waitlist season often feels like torture for applicants. You probably feel like you're stuck in limbo for months on end, that somebody out there will be determining your fate but you don't know who and you don't know when.
But it's a mistake to think that way. (Not a horrible mistake, just a cognitive one. 😉 )
In reality, you are the boss of what happens over the summer. You get to decide what your priorities are, and how long you're willing to wait for an offer (potentially) to come through.
Schools don't close out their waitlists until orientation has started. Spots might open up anytime between now and then. That's a long time to be sitting with that uncertainty.
Once you put a deposit down somewhere in April or May (whatever your best offer is at that time — do not miss that deadline!) and afterwards, you'll also be securing housing for that school, you might be moving somewhere near or far, and you might have a partner or other stakeholders who have to rearrange your lives around that school.
If you accept an offer off of a waitlist at some point in the summer, are you willing to lose your housing deposit? Break a lease? Move again? Find housing somewhere else, again? Make your partner move again?
YOU get to decide when to stop. You don't have to let schools string you along like a bad ex. Once you mentally take agency over your drop-dead date, you're back in control.
And DO emotionally commit to the school where you put down that April or May deposit. (And if you're not willing to emotionally commit to that school, don't go! You don't have to go to law school at all. Really.)
The odds of getting off of a waitlist are inherently slim. If you get the call from a school you really care about over the summer, that's icing. But don't put that deposit down at your first school while remaining emotionally invested in that other school when that other offer that might never come.
Step 3: Fight for the waitlists you do care about
I know, I just told you to emotionally invest in your deposited school! And now I'm telling you to fight for your waitlists?
Only the ones you still care about.
Only the ones you would wholeheartedly say “Yes” to on the spot.
And only if you have a clear drop-dead date.
Law schools put HUGE numbers of people on waitlists. Seriously. A meteor would have to hit that law school and wipe out the entire incoming class and they'd have a waitlist several times the size of that class as insurance.
If and when a spot opens up, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to call you instead of someone else who doesn't care as much. You can do that in three ways:
Stay in touch once a month. Put those dates on your calendar. You don't need to stay in touch more frequently than that. Include your current contact info so that they always know how to reach you.
Remind them that you remain very interested. It will sound repetitive every month, and that's GOOD. That's what you want. And if you're willing to pre-commit, tell them that (you would accept an offer immediately and withdraw everywhere else). If you’re not willing to make that commitment, then don’t offer it up; just say that you remain very interested.
Follow their instructions for staying in touch (schools each have different instructions!) and keep track of all your correspondence. You're a future lawyer — following instructions and staying on top of correspondence are key skills.
Waiting is hard. Uncertainty is hard. I get it. But YOU get to decide when you’re done with this process, so give some thought to that now.