Harvard Law School c/o 2018 Waitlist Forum

[qwertyTLS]

didn't the email make it clear you would have to accept their waitlist offer before receiving financial aid information?

so:
step 1. they offer acceptance which is not officially binding
step 2. you accept or deny their offer which IS binding, and you withdraw from other school you've deposited at.
step 3. you receive financial aid information from HLS

It actually says:

By remaining active on the waitlist you agree to:

Accept an offer of admission if it is extended to you.
Withdraw your seat at any school to which you have committed if offered admission at HLS.

Reading it again it sounds like by remaining on the waitlist you are agreeing to accept. I am personally not bothered by it but wow.
Who has already withdrawn?

yeah i see what you're saying. what i was referencing was right below that in the e-mail. the first bullet point along the lines of 'you'll need to accept before receiving aid." could be misremembering - don't have the email accessible atm

[qwertyTLS]

if offered a spot at HLS, would you go? if you can't answer yes to that in 24 hours, i don't see the value or point in staying on the WL.

[af0890]

.

[The thinker]

Think it's a good idea to respond to that email with a LOCI if you haven't written one? I don't have any major life updates but I'd take the spot if offered.

TCR is no LOCI unless its an update to your application. The idea is Harvard knows everyone wants to go there and you dont need to remind them.

[mernburg]

So if we are planning on staying on the waitlist, we don't need to respond to that email, right?

[qwertyTLS]

Think it's a good idea to respond to that email with a LOCI if you haven't written one? I don't have any major life updates but I'd take the spot if offered.

get some more opinions - but i feel like i'd be less inclined to send one now. the email basically says you 'have' to be interested/commit if you even remain on the waitlist. so saying 'i'd attend' is even less relevant than before, right?

that being said if it was me, i would probably send one in response *with some sort of update if possible (probably won't help, but probably won't hurt sort of thing)

[Auxilio]

Think it's a good idea to respond to that email with a LOCI if you haven't written one? I don't have any major life updates but I'd take the spot if offered.

TCR is no LOCI unless its an update to your application. The idea is Harvard knows everyone wants to go there and you dont need to remind them.

Before today I would have agreed with this 100%. But given that email they do seem much more concerned with yield than previously. While I still wouldn't send one, I think there is a lot more doubt now about the best way to proceed.

[Hikari]

When I was waitlisted by schools I was genuinely considering but unlikely to attend if accepted, I dreaded these types of waitlist updates. I would answer vaguely or ignore them. It took me less than 5 min to acknowledge the waitlist update from the school I am dying to attend
Food for thought

[The thinker]

Think it's a good idea to respond to that email with a LOCI if you haven't written one? I don't have any major life updates but I'd take the spot if offered.

TCR is no LOCI unless its an update to your application. The idea is Harvard knows everyone wants to go there and you dont need to remind them.

Before today I would have agreed with this 100%. But given that email they do seem much more concerned with yield than previously. While I still wouldn't send one, I think there is a lot more doubt now about the best way to proceed.

my opinion on the situation is
if you dont 100% want to go to Harvard, the email pretty much demands you withdraw
if you do 100% want to go to Harvard, nothing has changed

But as an aside I also think there is ALWAYS something you can update your application with. Even if you don't think you have an update there is probably something of note that has changed in your application thats worth sending in a LOCI

[Four Winds]

my opinion on the situation is
if you dont 100% want to go to Harvard, the email pretty much demands you withdraw
if you do 100% want to go to Harvard, nothing has changed

But as an aside I also think there is ALWAYS something you can update your application with. Even if you don't think you have an update there is probably something of note that has changed in your application thats worth sending in a LOCI

I called to ask and they strongly emphasized that we should only update them with *significant* changes, whatever that means.

[90convoy]

Is the fact that Ive already deposited, received my financial aid stuff, and applied for loans sufficient for me to withdraw? I think id be selling myself short if I used only those reasons to justify withdrawing.

[Hikari]

Is the fact that Ive already deposited, received my financial aid stuff, and applied for loans sufficient for me to withdraw? I think id be selling myself short if I used only those reasons to justify withdrawing.

Do you want Harvard or the other school?

[gocowboys]

just to confirm, if you plan on staying on the waitlist there is no action required?

[Atmosphere]

100% I'd love to go to Harvard. But what if we withdraw from our remaining schools and they ding us? I like the concept of a JS1b much better.

[The thinker]

The message said that you have to withdraw from other schools once you've been admitted off the waitlist not in order to remain on it. In fact the blog suggests making alternative plans (one of which would be depositing at another law school)

[Atmosphere]

The message said that you have to withdraw from other schools once you've been admitted off the waitlist not in order to remain on it. In fact the blog suggests making alternative plans (one of which would be depositing at another law school)

Whoops, misread that one. That's fair

[Hikari]

The message said that you have to withdraw from other schools once you've been admitted off the waitlist not in order to remain on it. In fact the blog suggests making alternative plans (one of which would be depositing at another law school)

Whoops, misread that one. That's fair

How did you miss that? Lol

[Atmosphere]

The message said that you have to withdraw from other schools once you've been admitted off the waitlist not in order to remain on it. In fact the blog suggests making alternative plans (one of which would be depositing at another law school)

Whoops, misread that one. That's fair

How did you miss that? Lol

Hey leave me alone, it's finals week and i'm braindead

[everton125]

I am trying to assess what kind of financial aid I should expect from Harvard before deciding whether or not to withdraw from the waitlist, and I just want to make sure I understand what Harvard means by "protect 50% of the value of these assets" in the language below. Do they mean that if a student has money in a retirement account, they only expect the student to contribute 50% of the total value of that account towards paying for Harvard? So, for example, if you have $20,000 in your retirement account, then the expected student contribution would only go up by $10,000 rather than $20,000?

Personally, if I am understanding this correctly, I think this is pretty much straight BS, as I don't think they should be assessing my retirement account at all in determining my expected student contribution, particularly considering Harvard's massive endowment. If I am being charitable, I suppose they are trying to prevent people from throwing all their savings into retirement accounts in order to decrease expected student contributions, when they otherwise would not have moved that money into their retirement account at all. Regardless, I am not a fan, and not just because it screws me over a bit.

**Retirement Assets

Retirement assets (401K, 403B, IRA, Roth IRA, and any other type of retirement account) are treated somewhat differently from other assets. We ask that you report the total current value of any retirement assets regardless of their type. We do, however, protect 50% of the value of these assets in recognition of the fact that their liquidation may incur an additional tax burden and/or penalties for early withdrawal of these funds. More importantly, we strongly encourage our students to save for retirement and believe that this type of asset protection is in keeping with that philosophy.
***********************************************************************************************************
EDIT: Also, to clarify, despite Harvard avoiding outright mentioning liabilities in the below description (such as, e.g., mortgages and debt, though the former may be captured in home equity for all I know), for the purpose of calculating parental contribution, net worth is the total of all the below minus all liabilities, correct?

•your parents’ net worth (from all investments excluding savings in qualified retirement accounts, plus home equity, plus other savings, trusts, business value, and real estate equity) falls within the range typical for the HLS Grant recipient population, which is $0 to $500,000

[lokikoala]

Took myself off the waitlist! Good luck to you all!

[RandomDude]

Took myself off the waitlist! Good luck to you all!

Now, for research purposes, were you influenced by today's e-mail?

[thequeen]

Still as committed as ever. I'm glad they sent out this email though. It's not fair to them or us if people who remain on the waitlist decide to suddenly decline the offer after waiting it out.

If money is a top consideration, you can easily calculate what your expected financial aid would be.

[everton125]

Still as committed as ever. I'm glad they sent out this email though. It's not fair to them or us if people who remain on the waitlist decide to suddenly decline the offer after waiting it out.

If money is a top consideration, you can easily calculate what your expected financial aid would be.

I don't know if it is actually that easy, unless you can point me to a calculator that determines the expected parental contribution, and you can answer my above questions.

I am also happy to pm my personal financial information (i.e., my savings, my parents income, and my parents net worth) to anyone if they are interested in accurately calculating my financial aid, and potentially removing me from the waitlist.

[Hikari]

The message said that you have to withdraw from other schools once you've been admitted off the waitlist not in order to remain on it. In fact the blog suggests making alternative plans (one of which would be depositing at another law school)

Whoops, misread that one. That's fair

How did you miss that? Lol

Hey leave me alone, it's finals week and i'm braindead

I hope you get to enjoy your summer before law school. I could not imagine not taking time off before law school.

[Hikari]

Still as committed as ever. I'm glad they sent out this email though. It's not fair to them or us if people who remain on the waitlist decide to suddenly decline the offer after waiting it out.

If money is a top consideration, you can easily calculate what your expected financial aid would be.

I don't know if it is actually that easy, unless you can point me to a calculator that determines the expected parental contribution and can answer my above questions.

I am also happy to pm my personal financial information (i.e., my savings, my parents income, and my parents net worth) to anyone if they are interested in accurately calculating my financial aid, and potentially removing me from the waitlist.

Why don't you call the financial aid office to find out more?