Is Auto-Reject a Myth or Reality? Forum

[ProfitsProphets]

I have what many consider an auto-reject LSAT score, yet I was In Review for 10 weeks (down to the last day of cycle) at T-40 law school. I was subtle in my application requesting leniency; however, I am a little unclear about how low LSAT scores are viewed by admissions committees. Was it my request for leniency, or do holistic reviews really exist?

I'm not looking for harsh remarks, such as, "You're getting dinged, so don't worry," rather, I seek conjecture about why the school would hold onto my application for so long, particularly if I end up getting rejected. (My decision is in the mail)

Note: I am a splitter with strong grades, A+ LORs, URM, solid softs, community service, and x-curriculars.

Thanks for any insight into this situation.

EDIT: Sorry, my GPA is 3.75 (pearalegal)

[JOThompson]

I fully believe that auto-reject is a common practice at some schools. One of my friends, who has a 4.0, decent softs, but a score well below 25th received rejections almost immediately after going into review at several schools. I had the same experience at some lower T20s, while other schools chewed my app over for a bit before accepting/rejecting me.

[bceagles182]

It's definitely a reality for most people but cycles for URMs are incredibly unpredictable

[Pearalegal]

In Review doesn't always mean "being reviewed," you just might have been in a big pile.

That said, I don't think "auto-reject" exists in the sense of someone looking at your LSAT/GPA and dancing on top of your application file. I'm sure everyone at least takes a glance through everything, though I'm sure they don't agonize in any way shape or form over the PS of a candidate that has both numbers below 25%

[Philaw]

It has been my experience that every school has certain characteristics they are looking for, and certain that are neutral to that particular school. There truly is a holistic approach to many schools in my experience, as I have quite an interesting background that often warrants a bit of inquiry on behalf of the admissions committees. Typically, what I have found is that if a school is interested but unsure, they will either request more information, if they feel strongly about you though would like some reassurances, will deliberated amongst themselves for quite a while and ultimately decide not to accept you, or they will decide at the outset that they can/can't take the risk.

After this long, you may benefit from making a phone inquiry to the director of admissions. What I have found is that you can typically call admissions and ask for Ms./Mr. X and they will put you through, wherin you can make an inquiry that often proves fruitful.

Hope this helps.

[LawandOrder]

Schools probably send out rejections in large batches at predetermined dates, or once X number have been rejected. You could easily be autorejected and not notified for some period of time.

[Palsgraf]

I don't think you get an auto-reject for your LSAT by itself. Instead your LSAT and uGPA get translated into an "index score" and if this score is too low you get the auto-reject. (and the URM helps change things a bit)

[Sias]

I have what many consider an auto-reject LSAT score, yet I was In Review for 10 weeks (down to the last day of cycle) at T-40 law school. I was subtle in my application requesting leniency; however, I am a little unclear about how low LSAT scores are viewed by admissions committees. Was it my request for leniency, or do holistic reviews really exist?

I'm not looking for harsh remarks, such as, "You're getting dinged, so don't worry," rather, I seek conjecture about why the school would hold onto my application for so long, particularly if I end up getting rejected. (My decision is in the mail)

Note: I am a splitter with strong grades, A+ LORs, URM, solid softs, community service, and x-curriculars.

Thanks for any insight into this situation.

Look at it this way: just because your application status says "in review" or "pending," doesn't mean anyone is actually reading it. It could be that your numbers put your application in a pile where it sat for 9 weeks under the guise of being "in review," only to surface briefly and be rejected.

Then again, it could also be that your file was in fact "in review" for those 10 weeks and the admission committee finally reached a favorable decision.

The point is, leave the application status alone and skip conjecture. You'll never really know until you hear directly from the school and it sounds like you are about to anyway. If your numbers indicate you are a likely reject then you should probably plan on that, not convince yourself into a misguided hope based on the fact that the school did not immediately reject you.

[blue5385]

Applicants like the guy below suggest that a low LSAT score is not necessarily an auto-reject criterion when it comes to URMs (his GPA is similar to yours, slightly lower):

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/pastord/jd

I wouldn't assume that just because they took a long time making a decision on your file, it's an auto-reject because of your score. Lots of schools are holding/taking an extremely long time with decisions even if they're admits (could be a factor of this year's increase in apps). With that being said, I don't know if it's a good thing, since many schools tend to move on admits fairly quickly. Good luck!

[KibblesAndVick]

Note: I am a splitter with strong grades, A+ LORs,URM, solid softs, community service, and x-curriculars.

Having an "auto reject" LSAT =/= auto reject when you're bringing other goods to the table. If you were white with a 2.8 GPA and a leadership position at your fraternity as your best soft, they would review your file for as long as it takes to make sure you paid the application fee.

[mrm2083]

I'm still in review at Duke yet most people who sent in apps at the same time or even a good amount later than me have gotten a decision. I am hispanic though and looking at LSN it seems that most of the people who haven't heard are Us and Ns. My guess is they are saving us till the end and then making a decision based on what they need (diversity, etc.).

[JOThompson]

I suspect that USC in particular uses auto-rejection. According to another TLS member, the school uses some secret squirrel sorting method. I managed pretty long reviews and even acceptances at some peer schools, probably due to my softs and GPA, but I was in review at USC for about 24 hours before being rejected. Or maybe I'm just being illogical and bitter about being complete for six months

[T14_Scholly]

You're confused about why they've held on to your application but you're a URM?

[erniesto]

If you applied later in the cycle your urm status, if the school even recognized it in the first place might be irrelevant. Once a school admits a certain amount of applicants below the desired 25th percentile, they can only waitlist or reject everyone else or they risk lowering said percentile. USNews > diversity index

[ProfitsProphets]

You're confused about why they've held on to your application but you're a URM?

I'm not necessarily confused about why they held onto my application, what I am not clear on is why 7 of 8 schools rejected me before the end of January (all T-65), yet this one particular school held onto me until the very end.

You're saying they held me because I'm Mexican-American? Which means what?

[ProfitsProphets]

If you applied later in the cycle your urm status, if the school even recognized it in the first place might be irrelevant. Once a school admits a certain amount of applicants below the desired 25th percentile, they can only waitlist or reject everyone else or they risk lowering said percentile. USNews > diversity index

I applied on the first day they accepted apps by noon.

[KibblesAndVick]

You're confused about why they've held on to your application but you're a URM?

I'm not necessarily confused about why they held onto my application, what I am not clear on is why 7 of 8 schools rejected me before the end of January (all T-65), yet this one particular school held onto me until the very end.

You're saying they held me because I'm Mexican-American? Which means what?

It means that law schools are very interested in having a diverse entering class. Because of this they have a lot of hope when they look at your application. Combined with the fact that you've demonstrated value by earning a high GPA and having softs to buttress your case, it's not surprising that they took a while to look over your application.

[ProfitsProphets]

You're confused about why they've held on to your application but you're a URM?

I'm not necessarily confused about why they held onto my application, what I am not clear on is why 7 of 8 schools rejected me before the end of January (all T-65), yet this one particular school held onto me until the very end.

You're saying they held me because I'm Mexican-American? Which means what?

It means that law schools are very interested in having a diverse entering class. Because of this they have a lot of hope when they look at your application. Combined with the fact that you've demonstrated value by earning a high GPA and having softs to buttress your case, it's not surprising that they took a while to look over your application.

Thanks, I appreciate this feedback. I really did try my best in UG, which ultimately took me 10 years to complete (had daughter when I was 20, now 35). So the adcomms have my part-time transcripts from 1997-2001: 11Ws, 2Fs, etc., in comparison to my full-time transcripts from 2004-2007: All As, 4Bs (including 4.0 senior year).

Trust me, I appreciate being IR for so long, yet with this school being the last one, and the only one I experienced a long wait, I can't help but hope I am accepted, yet fearful I'm dinged. However, worst case scenario: retake the LSAT and apply again next year.

[09042014]

Numbers don't matter as much for URMs since most URMs who will end up attending will have an LSAT below their median anyway (because URMS with higher lsats go to better schools).

And as long as you are below median, it hurts their medians the same anyway.

[Mockingjay16]

I'm almost certain I was auto-rejected from a school this past week. I never went 'Under review' as others who were accepted were. I spent a good amount of time on this application and even wrote a Why this school as it was one of my top choices. I would feel much better knowing they had read my application entirely and THEN rejected me as I believe an LSAT score isn't completely indicative of how one will perform in law school. My GPA was also well above median - is it worth the time to email them?

[dingbat]

Let's test this theory, and get someone to apply with a 135/2.5 to every law school in the country, but add some stellar credentials (not nobel prize, but maybe a title like Vice President). We'll see what happens.

Come to think of it, I know someone who's a (young) professor at a very reputable schools (think HYS equivalent). I wonder how much it would take to get him to tank the LSAT and apply to law schools, just to do a test.

[fallingup]

I'm almost certain I was auto-rejected from a school this past week. I never went 'Under review' as others who were accepted were. I spent a good amount of time on this application and even wrote a Why this school as it was one of my top choices. I would feel much better knowing they had read my application entirely as I believe an LSAT score isn't completely indicative of how one will perform in law school. My GPA was also well above median - is it worth the time to email them?

What are you looking for exactly? Law school admissions depends on the Law School Admission Test. If this is somehow offensive/hurtful/reductive to you, why did you even take the test? Law school admissions isn't an evaluation of how great of a person you are. If that were the case, law schools wouldn't be filled with douchebags. It seems like you're looking for personal reassurance through this process when it's not really about that at all.

[slawww]

Let's test this theory, and get someone to apply with a 135/2.5 to every law school in the country, but add some stellar credentials (not nobel prize, but maybe a title like Vice President). We'll see what happens.

Come to think of it, I know someone who's a (young) professor at a very reputable schools (think HYS equivalent). I wonder how much it would take to get him to tank the LSAT and apply to law schools, just to do a test.

Check out this thread I created:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7&t=202506

For the schools that provide the info, you can see pretty clearly where the auto-reject line is. There are a few outliers, though.

[fallingup]

Let's test this theory, and get someone to apply with a 135/2.5 to every law school in the country, but add some stellar credentials (not nobel prize, but maybe a title like Vice President). We'll see what happens.

Come to think of it, I know someone who's a (young) professor at a very reputable schools (think HYS equivalent). I wonder how much it would take to get him to tank the LSAT and apply to law schools, just to do a test.

I don't think someone like that belongs in law school and wouldn't be surprised if they got rejected everywhere despite their great soft(s). The bottom line is that law school is a poor match for this person's talents. Just because you fail the LSAT doesn't mean you aren't an intelligent and valuable contributor - it just means that you should probably go contribute your intelligence and value in a different field/program.

[Mockingjay16]

I'm almost certain I was auto-rejected from a school this past week. I never went 'Under review' as others who were accepted were. I spent a good amount of time on this application and even wrote a Why this school as it was one of my top choices. I would feel much better knowing they had read my application entirely as I believe an LSAT score isn't completely indicative of how one will perform in law school. My GPA was also well above median - is it worth the time to email them?

What are you looking for exactly? Law school admissions depends on the Law School Admission Test. If this is somehow offensive/hurtful/reductive to you, why did you even take the test? Law school admissions isn't an evaluation of how great of a person you are. If that were the case, law schools wouldn't be filled with douchebags. It seems like you're looking for personal reassurance through this process when it's not really about that at all.

I meant to say I would feel better having known they read my application entirely and then rejected me. I spent a good amount of time and money to apply. I don't need reassurance about anything, I just know people with the same score as me getting into places because they pulled the URM card. Just because they are a URM doesn't particularly mean they will perform any better than I. I did fine on my test but I do believe the score isn't everything, obviously as they ask for personal statements and resumes, etc.