Top Law Schools

I don't know if I got this right but it seems some schools require a deposit of every admitted applicant even if the applicant doesn't wish to reserve a spot or attend the law school. Is this true?

ex. NU

Application Fees and Deposits

The Law School charges the following nonrefundable fees:

Application fee

$100

Deposit
(required of all accepted students and applied toward tuition and fees)

$750

Late tuition payment penalty fee

$200

you only pay if you are going to attend

URMLAW wrote:I don't know if I got this right but it seems some schools require a deposit of every admitted applicant even if the applicant doesn't wish to reserve a spot or attend the law school. Is this true?

Practically all schools require a tuition deposit to hold a seat. Some schools require multiple deposits while others only require one deposit.

However, this only applies if an applicant does wish to reserve a seat, and the first deposit deadline is always in April or later. You should have most if not all of your acceptances by then, and be able to decide which school(s) to pay the deposit. The seat deposit amount and deadline should be provided with your acceptance letter, or by the school soon afterward, but it'll be late enough for you to hear back from other schools and make a decision.

By April you should be able to pick one school to pay the deposit and withdraw from any others. If you're still waiting on a WL at your top choice, you'll have to pay a deposit in April to hold a seat open at your backup school in case you don't get in off the WL. The deposit at your backup school will be forfeited if you don't attend there, so you should only ride a WL if you're so eager to go there that you'd forfeit a deposit elsewhere.

Just about all schools require a deposit. For some schools it is a token amount, for some schools it is a crippling amount that will lock you into that school.