Still haven't heard from HALF of the schools I've applied to Forum

[PhilEconCS]

Is this normal? I applied to 20 schools back in mid-January and as of today I still have 10 schools I have not heard from yet, even though the seat deposit deadline for many schools is Wednesday of next week.

[bnazty]

I'm in the same position as you. I've decided to pick a school that I've already been accepted to and put down a deposit, then wait on the other schools. Losing out on $250-$500 is relatively insignificant when you consider you will be spending 3 years and $100,000+ anyway. Just pick your favorite school that has accepted you, deposit there, and then wait for the rest.

[tealeaves12]

Is this normal? I applied to 20 schools back in mid-January and as of today I still have 10 schools I have not heard from yet

Sounds normal to me. But you may get comfort from checking out the Applicant Threads for each of the schools to which you've applied. This will show you what other students are going through. There is also a thread specifically for late Jan/early Fed applicants. You can also check out lawschoolnumbers.com and go to the schools you've applied to and see about waves they've had etc.

Your answer to "is this normal" may depend on your stats as well. A few possibilities to why you haven't heard back yet? Just my guesses:

1. Mid-Jan is kind of late in terms of law school apps. It's only been about 10 weeks. It's not unheard of for a school to take longer than that to make a decision, especially if you're not in Auto Admit/ Auto Deny territory with your GPA/LSAT score;
2. Maybe you have the right stats to get in, but they're waiting until after their seat deposit deadline to have a rough picture of what their class size looks like at this point (though they could theoretically WL you for this instead...);
3. If your stats are stellar, maybe they are waiting until after seat deposit deadlines to see if they have enough money available to offer you in scholarships - and don't want to admit you until they can offer;
4. It could just depend on your school. Some schools behave differently than others in terms of general timeline/expectations, whether they make decisions in "waves" or just whenever they feel like it, etc.

I would just say #1 is the most likely answer. It's a really busy time of year for admissions offices. If you're really concerned about seat deposits, just do what bnazty suggested.