I just want to say that it's getting toward the end of May, and this cycle is still not very epic. Just getting it out there. We were all thinking it...

Epic-ness is on its way. I'm still sticking by it.

I really think that it will come next cycle.

Please let it come next cycle!!!

Please let it come next cycle!!!

Over at the Harvard waitlist thread 27 people have reported contact from admissions in what will likely mean as many acceptances. For comparison, last year this first WL-admit "wave" was only 12-13 people. And over at the Yale waitlist 5-10 people appear to have gotten off, compared to 1-2 this time last cycle. (Stanford has not yet admitted anyone from the WL it seems - could be coming, or not).

Bottom line: expect more admissions from waitlists in the rest of the T14 on down compared to last year.

Over at the Harvard waitlist thread 27 people have reported contact from admissions in what will likely mean as many acceptances. For comparison, last year this first WL-admit "wave" was only 12-13 people. And over at the Yale waitlist 5-10 people appear to have gotten off, compared to 1-2 this time last cycle. (Stanford has not yet admitted anyone from the WL it seems - could be coming, or not).

Bottom line: expect more admissions from waitlists in the rest of the T14 on down compared to last year.

TLS can't be more than half of all candidates; I would estimate its more like one-third to a quarter. As such, over 10% of HLS' incoming class will be pulled from the waitlist.

Always Be Closing

A faculty member at an elite law school has forwarded me an email the entire faculty received earlier this week. The email explains that, because of a combination of all the bad news about law school graduate employment prospects and the improving employment prospects in other fields [???], this has turned into an unusually competitive year for law schools in their attempts to get prospective students to enroll.

In these circumstances, the faculty are told, a phone call or even a short email from a faculty member to an admitted student could make a big difference, even if the faculty member has nothing to say beyond this school is great and I'm happy to answer questions. Faculty who want to pitch in will be given a list of admitted students to contact.

Although I'm not at liberty to disclose the identity of the school it's a place that 96.738% of law school applicants would have loved to get into before David Segal et. al. started harshing legal academia's mellow, and where the faculty are paid stupendous sums (I have seen their compensation structure) to teach 2.27 classes per year and tell the Supreme Court what to do. Even by legal academic standards it's a particularly sweet gig, so from the standpoint of pure self-interest the recipients of this email ought to bestir themselves and get on the phone or at least the computer.

Remember, coffee is for closers.

But seriously, what are the faculty supposed to say to the people they contact? If these prospective students are at all "sophisticated consumers" of information about higher education, it should send up some warning flags that the faculty of this top law school are actually imploring them in person to attend Our Great School.

Furthermore, there's the potentially embarrassing detail that the vast majority of law faculty know little or nothing about any of the things they would have to know to answer the most important questions 0Ls who have a clue will want answered. These questions will not include "does the law school feature a collegial atmosphere?" or "how good is your international sports law program?" They will include "how do the career prospects of this school's recent graduates compare to those of these three competitor schools I'm also considering?" and "do you have any real basis for claiming that paying what you're asking me to pay to go to this school makes sense for me, given my opportunity costs and reasons for considering law school (neither of which you know anything about)" and "can I haz some more money plz?"

So kids, if you get a call or email like this, remember: when The Robert M. Owen and Patricia Calder-Johnson Professor of Commercial Human Rights Law is asking you what he has to do to put you in a new law school today, he's pitching you, just like that polite well-dressed fellow down at the Hyundai dealership. With one key difference: when you leave the dealership, you'll actually have a car.

A chicago admit today posted on TLS . She got into Harvard off the waitlist. When she tried to withdraw from Chicago - they offered her a Rubenstein scholarship. One of the most prestigious scholarships in the country .

Talk about a buyers market. At least at the top, and it trickles down to the other schools.

one of the comments. can anyone verify?
http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot. ... mment-form

How long until they release the June test taker #s? I checked the website and it wasn't updated yet.

http://www.lsac.org/lsacresources/Data/ ... stered.asp

How long until they release the June test taker #s? I checked the website and it wasn't updated yet.

http://www.lsac.org/lsacresources/Data/ ... stered.asp

on a side note, where is the breakdown of the LSAT scores & applicants on the LSAC site?


http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... ol/255685/

Anybody know when the June LSAT data becomes available? Schools are clearly feeling the pressure so this seems to be a particularly important year for application levels. If they stay at current amounts or continue to drop (likely, I think) that should make a huge difference going forward.

February was a 13.6% drop from 2011 and that exam tends to split between 2011 and 2012 applicants but June seems more like the proverbial canary in the coalmine for this year's cycle since it is (almost) exclusively class of 2016 or later applicants.

Last June saw an 18.7% drop in LSATs administered. Even a small drop from this figure should signal huge problems for law schools.

Over at the Harvard waitlist thread 27 people have reported contact from admissions in what will likely mean as many acceptances. For comparison, last year this first WL-admit "wave" was only 12-13 people. And over at the Yale waitlist 5-10 people appear to have gotten off, compared to 1-2 this time last cycle. (Stanford has not yet admitted anyone from the WL it seems - could be coming, or not).

Bottom line: expect more admissions from waitlists in the rest of the T14 on down compared to last year.

I think this bodes well for next cycle. My thought is that schools like Harvard tried to operate business as usual this cycle, and the beginning of the cycle was nothing out of the ordinary. However, the waitlist movement has been absurd once the schools saw what their applicant pool turned out to be. I think, especially if applicant numbers continue to drop, that they are going to have to ease up a little bit on the qualifications of the incoming class and won't wait until the waitlist next year to do so.