How many applications did you start but never submit? Forum

[UnicornHunter]

3 or 4. Once I got in to Duke via their priority track*, I didn't bother with schools I was 100% sure I wouldn't choose over Duke (I have the GI bill+YRP so scholarships weren't a concern.)



If you're looking for take-aways, I'd say Duke's priority track is pretty brilliant. If you can accept a student before they even apply to other schools, there's a good chance their inner lazy will take over and keep them from applying to other schools.

[aboutmydaylight]

2. One because I didn't get the fee waiver I assumed they were going to give me, and the other one because I was already in another school I would have taken over it all else constant.

[SPerez]

I guess I'm lazier than most of you since, if not getting a fee waiver was a deal breaker for me, I wouldn't even bother starting an app to a school until I got the fee waiver.

Another common reason seems to be that people start the app to see what the requirements are, then when seeing it requires extra work they bail. That info is almost certainly on every school's website so it's not like starting the app is the only way to learn that information, but it is nevertheless interesting that at least a portion of applicants use the LSAC app in this way.

Thanks for all the responses!

Dean Perez

[CoffeeIsLife]

I think the key thing for me was choosing schools after taking the LSAT, but not having a score yet and picking some in a safety range, and some if I overachieved. Once I got my score it cancelled out a few school right away.

Plus laziness

[ymmv]

Another common reason seems to be that people start the app to see what the requirements are, then when seeing it requires extra work they bail. That info is almost certainly on every school's website so it's not like starting the app is the only way to learn that information, but it is nevertheless interesting that at least a portion of applicants use the LSAC app in this way.

Why would we need to go to those schools' websites to find that information when it only takes a few seconds to start an LSAC app and see the required sections? The point wasn't the "surprise" of the extra supplements; the point is that most of us are unwilling to write additional essays for schools that are low on rank lists to begin with. T14s can get away with requiring a "Why X School" essay or fifteen extra application fields or whatever because of their bargaining position, but if I start an app for a school I consider a low safety and realize it's going to take three times as long to complete as other applications, I'm probably just going to leave it.

[lastsamurai]

2 for me (just deleted them). I had the apps lined up and ready to go but didn't want to pay even the $25 LSAC fee once I got into schools I would rather attend.

[bugsy33]

Any additional essays were a deal breaker for me. I work full time and I don't have time to sit there and compose 5-6 additional essays. That goes for schools of pretty much all ranks. If there was a school I really really wanted to attend I'd write an essay, but other than that it's just a total nuisance. Besides, the only reason I would want to attend X school is because their scholarship dollars and employment rankings beat out all of the other schools I applied to, full stop. The reason people go to Iowa or New Mexico isn't because they just LOVE the state/city/football team ect. They go because it's the best economic decision.

I didn't apply to UNC, Case Western, and Florida due to their essay requirements. I was interested in all of those schools, and would have attended under certain conditions, but the essay was just too time consuming. I could apply to 10-15 other schools in the time it took to write ONE essay.

[hopeful 0L]

1) I'm probably not getting into school X, why throw the $100 away

2) Several deviations (i.e. extra essays) from the standard application. I reasoned that if I didn't care enough to write the additional essays for school Y, I probably wasn't going to end up there.

[sjgonzalez3]

2 not submitted. They were my lowest safeties, didn't feel like spending the $25.00 either. Also, one of them required additional materials above and beyond the norm, as others have mentioned above.

[schmooky]

.

[SPerez]

Another common reason seems to be that people start the app to see what the requirements are, then when seeing it requires extra work they bail. That info is almost certainly on every school's website so it's not like starting the app is the only way to learn that information, but it is nevertheless interesting that at least a portion of applicants use the LSAC app in this way.

Why would we need to go to those schools' websites to find that information when it only takes a few seconds to start an LSAC app and see the required sections? The point wasn't the "surprise" of the extra supplements; the point is that most of us are unwilling to write additional essays for schools that are low on rank lists to begin with. T14s can get away with requiring a "Why X School" essay or fifteen extra application fields or whatever because of their bargaining position, but if I start an app for a school I consider a low safety and realize it's going to take three times as long to complete as other applications, I'm probably just going to leave it.

My comment was more about the paradigm that I think most law schools still have about the process students use to research law schools. I think most of us assume that students start with Google and eventually, at least at some point, end up on individual school websites.

What I'm reading here is at least a few data points that suggest this isn't the way many students get their application information, which is a different and fascinating topic in its own right. (E.g. I've noticed a tendency for some students to get information from everywhere BUT a law school's website.) But like a poster below said, if it is easier to start the app via LSACs website and get the info that way it makes sense people would do that.

Dean Perez

[ymmv]

University websites are roughly the least informative and most difficult-to-navigate places on the internet. This holds mostly true for law school websites as well:
http://xkcd.com/773/

[Yung Yoda]

Application cost to high it is. More fee waivers given out there should be.

[SPerez]

University websites are roughly the least informative and most difficult-to-navigate places on the internet. This holds mostly true for law school websites as well:
http://xkcd.com/773/

As someone who has been involved with two website redesigns, I can say AMEN to this.

[Kimikho]

Yeah, I hadn't gone to the websites for any of the schools I applied to. The first time I went to the website (at least, the main one) of the school I committed to was last week.

[BmoreOrLess]

I'm not sure exactly how many I didn't finish, but probably around 5 or so. As you expected, they were all schools I would have applied to for scholarship negotiation purposes, and not to actually attend.

[js123]

Around 6 I would say. The main reason was I just decided to retake the LSAT and try for it next cycle. A few also fall into the category of starting it just to see what the application entails.

[paglababa]

I started Michigan and Yale and never completed them due to the Michigan Why X and Yale's 250.

[yossarian]

re: school websites

Surprised at the people who didn't use them as a resource.
-Agree they are generally useless and repeat a lot of information.
-Agree they do not provide great info about applications. They may give a heads up about the "Why X," but they don't give you a heads up about C&F explanation for freakin' parking tickets. That's the only one that really pisses me off.

But,
-They give insight into the way the school sees itself, which is useful in crafting the application. Even if it's not informational about the school.

[shifty_eyed]

SMU asked about parking tickets on their C&F disclosure, and I didn't feel like trying to look up all that information, so I didn't finish my application.

[kershka]

I started and then deleted 5 or 6 applications, I think. Most of them were safety schools that I was no longer interested in once I had been accepted to Duke via PT (which is seriously one of the best programs ever. I actually found it considerably more difficult to withdraw from Duke then other, higher-ranked schools that offered me significantly more money. This was in a large part because the PT program let me start to fall in love with Duke so early in the cycle).

I deleted my NU app before completion as well, but that was because I learned more about the law program and realized it would be a bad fit. I had been basing a lot of my assumptions about the school on their undergrad with which I was quite familiar and their overall reputation. Once I started to research the law school in more detail, I realized I wouldn't enjoy my time there if I were to be admitted. Annoying/excessive supplemental essays probably would have caused me to withdraw from a few more schools, but fortunately they were all optional and I had fee waivers so I just chose not to write the extra essays and let whatever would happen, happen.

[Serett]

I believe I started Georgetown and Columbia without submitting. I didn't love my chances at Columbia and had no fee waiver, and I didn't love Georgetown over its peers and had no fee waiver.

[klondike5]

Any additional essays were a deal breaker for me. I work full time and I don't have time to sit there and compose 5-6 additional essays. That goes for schools of pretty much all ranks....I didn't apply to UNC, Case Western, and Florida due to their essay requirements. I was interested in all of those schools, and would have attended under certain conditions, but the essay was just too time consuming. I could apply to 10-15 other schools in the time it took to write ONE essay.

Same reason here mostly. Full time (40+) work, full time school and a more than full time 2 year old made it difficult to write the extra essays. I did complete them for a few schools, but UNC and UF were schools I eliminated for this reason. I regret not completing UNC not so much for UF.

The only schools I didn't apply to because of a lack of waiver were Bama and GW. Don't regret either of those.

[jdx2014]

I can guarantee that if recent grads clear out their old files they have at least one "drunk application" they never finished (probably because a fee was involved)

I think mine might have been drunk medschool ones that (arbitrarily and unfairly) requested I submit some crazy thing called an "MCAT" score.........bastards.

[Slytherpuff]

I started Cornell but then remembered that I didn't really want to attend anyway.

Wish I hadn't submitted my UW app though...