Top Law Schools

Hey there,

I received a fee waiver from a couple of schools that I had previously considered out of my reach. Does anyone have any advice on how this should be read? These schools weren't on my radar before, but I went ahead and applied. The fee waivers came shortly after the scores from my December LSAT exam were released. Does that mean I am at least *somewhat* on THEIR radar? Any insight appreciated.

jtravis wrote:Hey there,

I received a fee waiver from a couple of schools that I had previously considered out of my reach. Does anyone have any advice on how this should be read? These schools weren't on my radar before, but I went ahead and applied. The fee waivers came shortly after the scores from my December LSAT exam were released. Does that mean I am at least *somewhat* on THEIR radar? Any insight appreciated.

Nope, probably not. Sorry they do this all the time to people who have little to no shot, fee waivers don't mean much.

I wouldn't put too much thought into since I've heard of plenty of people on TLS that have gotten waivers and have been outright rejected, as well as accepted with money, so really it looks like it can go either way. It seems to me that a school will give you a fee waiver for two reasons, they either think you are competitive or they think you are no competitive and just want to take advantage of receiving an extra applicant, and then rejecting them.

jtravis wrote:Hey there,

I received a fee waiver from a couple of schools that I had previously considered out of my reach. Does anyone have any advice on how this should be read? These schools weren't on my radar before, but I went ahead and applied. The fee waivers came shortly after the scores from my December LSAT exam were released. Does that mean I am at least *somewhat* on THEIR radar? Any insight appreciated.

Not necessarily. There are multiple reasons why schools send them out.

Some of them are, but not limited to:
1) They are interested in you
2) They want you to apply so they can deny you and decrease their acceptance rate
3) They want to increase applications to increase numbers, then again possibly denying you (win, win, win, win for law school)

Basically it is a win/win situation for a law school to send them out. They may lose some money, but USNWR is more important.

If the school is within reason with your numbers, then look into it. However if it is a huge reach or deny on LSP, apply, but don't get your hopes up.

With some schools you will know if they are interested if they ask for interviews, etc.

Depends on the school

kittenmittons wrote:Depends on the school

The schools in question are Duke and UVa. Does anyone know anything specific about their fee waivers? A mechanism for increasing applications or more genuine? I'm sure it's not as straight forward as that, but you know....

jtravis wrote:

kittenmittons wrote:Depends on the school

The schools in question are Duke and UVa. Does anyone know anything specific about their fee waivers? A mechanism for increasing applications or more genuine? I'm sure it's not as straight forward as that, but you know....

Well you know your numbers, your transcripts, and situation. Compare it to Duke and UVA. LSN gives info on fee waivers. If you are within the 25-75 percentiles for both GPA and LSAT, it may be because you are competitive. Are you a URM? That could be another reason.

Look at LSP and see your percent and what you are deemed at the schools. Consider or greater?

jtravis wrote:

kittenmittons wrote:Depends on the school

The schools in question are Duke and UVa. Does anyone know anything specific about their fee waivers? A mechanism for increasing applications or more genuine? I'm sure it's not as straight forward as that, but you know....

Both are increasing selectivity rates while searching for diamond-in-the-rough type candidates. If both of your numbers are below median at these schools and you do not possess URM status, there is a 99.9% chance you fall into the former category.

They want you to apply so they can reject you.

"Selectivity" is a USNWR category.