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Before Thanksgiving is early. Before Christmas is on time. If you're retaking the in Oct and have your app ready to send as soon as scores are released, then you'll be fine w/r/t time.

http://www.admissionsbythenumbers.com/

Not a lot of schools yet, but check out the variation. TCR is first day, but as long as you're in by early Dec, like most folks, you're fine. The latest you should apply (except for Yale) is second week of Jan, and only if you took the Dec LSAT test. But again, earlier > later, all else equal.

I sent in the bulk of my applications right when I got my LSAT score, which was ~Nov 1. I then submitted several others in late Nov, Dec, and Jan as fee waivers came in. In retrospect, I did it wrong and could have saved myself a lot of money. I should have sent in the applications to certain schools (HS and Berkeley, although I wasn't even going to apply to H) earlier in October, and then waited on all the others until I got CAS fee waivers. Instead, I applied to several T20's at cost because I thought applying early would be more important than the money I'd save via fee waiver. Don't make this mistake.

With Yale, I know you can apply right up until the last day and Asha will still read it. For Harvard, Berkeley and UVA, early applications are critical. I would definitely recommend having everything in before Christmas.

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bee wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:I sent in the bulk of my applications right when I got my LSAT score, which was ~Nov 1. I then submitted several others in late Nov, Dec, and Jan as fee waivers came in. In retrospect, I did it wrong and could have saved myself a lot of money. I should have sent in the applications to certain schools (HS and Berkeley, although I wasn't even going to apply to H) earlier in October, and then waited on all the others until I got CAS fee waivers. Instead, I applied to several T20's at cost because I thought applying early would be more important than the money I'd save via fee waiver. Don't make this mistake.

With Yale, I know you can apply right up until the last day and Asha will still read it. For Harvard, Berkeley and UVA, early applications are critical. I would definitely recommend having everything in before Christmas.

Did you send in applications without an LSAT score? Or was your October score a retake?

Wondering if it's worth it to send my materials in without a score at schools where they make a point of asking people to submit early.

October was a retake. I didn't register for CAS beforehand because my first score from a previous year wasn't high enough to generate merit based fee waivers at the schools I was interested in anyway. I did not send in any applications w/o an LSAT score -- however, my credentials would not have gotten me fee waivers at HS & B anyway (I hardly ever see a Cal fee waiver), so there would be no point to waiting, whereas based on what I've seen on LSN, I would have received waivers for CCN and down if I'd waited till late november, and I don't think that would have had a substantive impact on my apps. I ended up only applying w/ fee waivers to Michigan, Duke, and NYU, and paid the fees at schools like UCLA, Georgetown and UMN

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bee wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:October was a retake. I didn't register for CAS beforehand because my first score from a previous year wasn't high enough to generate merit based fee waivers at the schools I was interested in anyway. I did not send in any applications w/o an LSAT score -- however, my credentials would not have gotten me fee waivers at HS & B anyway (I hardly ever see a Cal fee waiver), so there would be no point to waiting, whereas based on what I've seen on LSN, I would have received waivers for CCN and down if I'd waited till late november, and I don't think that would have had a substantive impact on my apps. I ended up only applying w/ fee waivers to Michigan, Duke, and NYU, and paid the fees at schools like UCLA, Georgetown and UMN

Thanks! Did you look into getting refunds for the schools that gave you fee waivers after you already sent in an app? I've heard about this but it seems to be pretty inconsistent.

No, I did not -- it seemed like a rather entitled attitude, and I don't think its typically very successful. But maybe I should have? I would recommend just using the fee waivers in the first place