Michigan Summer Start vs Waitlist Forum

[omzster67]

How do you all propose going about dealing with being accepted to summer start at umich, while being waitlisted at a more preferred school? I haven't been waitlisted yet but just curious what you all would do.

[Mullens]

How do you all propose going about dealing with being accepted to summer start at umich, while being waitlisted at a more preferred school? I haven't been waitlisted yet but just curious what you all would do.

Wait until the situation actually happens before worrying about it. If it does happen, you will have much more information (such as the actual schools involved) to seek advice and/or make an informed decision.

[omzster67]

How do you all propose going about dealing with being accepted to summer start at umich, while being waitlisted at a more preferred school? I haven't been waitlisted yet but just curious what you all would do.

Wait until the situation actually happens before worrying about it. If it does happen, you will have much more information (such as the actual schools involved) to seek advice and/or make an informed decision.

Haha I'm just deathly bored at work at the moment.

[omzster67]

Well, it's happened. Waitlisted at Penn & Berkeley with a summer start acceptance to Michigan. Any advice?

[Tiago Splitter]

You could ask Michigan if they'd let you switch to fall start. Tell them that you'd be forced to leave your job earlier than expected and prefer not to put your employer in that position.

[yeslekkkk]

I'm in the same situation. :/

[OfThriceandTen]

Depending on their yields, Michigan has been flexible in the past about letting students change to fall after the decision. If you have any legitimate reason (the job thing is a great one), use that. Otherwise definitely come up with some reason. "I would prefer to start in the fall," on its face, will probably not get very far.

I can tell you that you have to make your decision before May and withdraw from all waitlists by then if you decide to matriculate. Being at M, we've all heard of the story of the girl who backed out 2 weeks into classes because she got in at C. First of all, that's highly unethical. It thoroughly pissed off both M and C. Furthermore, the legal world is not that small. You will see your classmates and the administration again in some capacity.

The irony is, summer start is great. It's rough to do 3 semesters in a row, but the summer starters can have an entire semester of GPA-padding classes before OCI. They clean up at OCI. Whether that's due to the GPA boost or the fact that there are very few K-JDs doing summer start, I can't say. If anyone who is admitted for SS wants more information on it, PM me.

[Big Dog]

I can tell you that you have to make your decision before May and withdraw from all waitlists by then if you decide to matriculate. Being at M, we've all heard of the story of the girl who backed out 2 weeks into classes because she got in at C. First of all, that's highly unethical.

That's just wrong. Actually, both are wrong. If you deposit at one school, you may remain on as many wait lists as you desire. And yes, Chicago starts later due to its quarter system. They know with near certainty that if they call someone on the WL in mid-September, that such student has likely already matriculated somewhere else. If it was "highly unethical", do you really think Chicago would not make such an offer?

Dean Zeafross is a big girl; she has seen 1L's drop out before the end of the semester. Indeed, she should plan on it, but over-enrolling a student or two. Just good business practice.

[OfThriceandTen]

I can tell you that you have to make your decision before May and withdraw from all waitlists by then if you decide to matriculate. Being at M, we've all heard of the story of the girl who backed out 2 weeks into classes because she got in at C. First of all, that's highly unethical.

That's just wrong. Actually, both are wrong. If you deposit at one school, you may remain on as many wait lists as you desire. And yes, Chicago starts later due to its quarter system. They know with near certainty that if they call someone on the WL in mid-September, that such student has likely already matriculated somewhere else. If it was "highly unethical", do you really think Chicago would not make such an offer?

Dean Zeafross is a big girl; she has seen 1L's drop out before the end of the semester. Indeed, she should plan on it, but over-enrolling a student or two. Just good business practice.

There's a huge difference between depositing at a school and actually beginning classes there. (And just to make it clear because I think my initial post was confusing: you should withdraw from the waitlists once you begin classes. Staying on waitlists up until day 1 is SOP, and I don't have any complaints about people who do that.) And in the summer start situation there's a difference between going to class for a couple of days and doing so for a period of weeks or months. A friend got into NYU hours before a contracts exam. If he had decided to go, there's definitely competing interests of fairness and ethical lines that could be crossed when you consider he could just wipe clean his entire first semester, where the learning curve is incredibly steep, and start again.

[lawalum]

I don't think it is "wrong". You can stay on a waitlist as long as possible, and it is your risk to give up the deposit and potentially some percentage of tuition if you get in off the waitlist after classes have started at your first school. This happens more often than you might think.