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I'm just curious as to why schools ask "where are you heading" when you withdraw from them. Is there a benefit for them to know?

I've wondering this myself. My guess is they might maintain an internal database of applicant data-including the law schools chosen by students who decline an offer or withdraw from a waitlist. Maybe it helps them to see who their competition is, or give them a better sense of who to make offers to in an upcoming cycle.

Of course there is a benefit for them to know. They want to know who the competition is and how they lured you away, so that they can make better offers in the future and better compete.

kaiser wrote:Of course there is a benefit for them to know. They want to know who the competition is and how they lured you away, so that they can make better offers in the future and better compete.

I was under the impression that this information was published once students make their final seat deposit anyways. I know for a few schools the seat deposit explicitly says "we will share your name with other schools" or something along those lines.

JuliusCaesar wrote:

kaiser wrote:Of course there is a benefit for them to know. They want to know who the competition is and how they lured you away, so that they can make better offers in the future and better compete.

I was under the impression that this information was published once students make their final seat deposit anyways. I know for a few schools the seat deposit explicitly says "we will share your name with other schools" or something along those lines.

That's often just so they can make sure you haven't deposited elsewhere.

They want to know how much the average student is willing to leave their school for so they can offer enough, but not too much, to future admits. USC wants to know how much more the average admit is willing to pay for UCLA so they can make the difference in their offers smaller than that. They want to know why because if you gave up good money at a T14 to go to the University of Maine to be near family, they know your data is an outlier and can ignore it.

I don't know, but I do know that I do NOT like it.

Yes, there is a benefit to them knowing where they are going. It lets them know who their competitors are and, to the extent they ask about scholarship information, the relative value of their offer w/r/t where you are going.

I'm perfectly happy to tell schools from which I'm withdrawing where I'll be attending instead. But I thought it was pretty weird that a couple of those schools sent me surveys asking me to rate the various aspects of their recruiting pitch and rank my reasons for not going there in terms of relative importance.

WinterComing wrote:I'm perfectly happy to tell schools from which I'm withdrawing where I'll be attending instead. But I thought it was pretty weird that a couple of those schools sent me surveys asking me to rate the various aspects of their recruiting pitch and rank my reasons for not going there in terms or relative importance.

Not really weird. How else will they get this kind of information? And it's really valuable to them.

JuliusCaesar wrote:I'm just curious as to why schools ask "where are you heading" when you withdraw from them. Is there a benefit for them to know?

You could just not respond to the email. What are they going to do, sue you for tuition?

Tell them you're going to Akron Law because the rec center has a lazy river. If enough of us do this then all law schools will have lazy rivers.

Clyde Frog wrote:Tell them you're going to Akron Law because the rec center has a lazy river. If enough of us do this then all law schools will have lazy rivers.

GENIUS.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

WinterComing wrote:I'm perfectly happy to tell schools from which I'm withdrawing where I'll be attending instead. But I thought it was pretty weird that a couple of those schools sent me surveys asking me to rate the various aspects of their recruiting pitch and rank my reasons for not going there in terms or relative importance.

Not really weird. How else will they get this kind of information? And it's really valuable to them.

I mean, if you want to ask whether I chose School X over School Y because of scholarships or job outcomes or clinical offerings, that's fine. But Columbia's survey was like 40 questions, and included things like asking me to rate their Friday e-mail newsletters on a scale of 1 to 5. How valuable could that be?

ETA: To be fair, it also asked me to list every other school I applied to and the exact dollar figures of my scholarships, which would certainly be valuable intel for them, but seemed a bit intrusive.

How do you think they decide whether to semd those kinds of emails? I know people here are really focused on employment and money, but people also write here about the good/bad impressions people get from schools and I'm sure they influence people's acceptances (especially for people who don't post here). It's adcomms' job to worry about that kind of thing and I think they're committed to the idea that such things do have an effect.

Intrusive is a different argument, and I can see that, and why people might not want to answer.

somethingelse55 wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote:Tell them you're going to Akron Law because the rec center has a lazy river. If enough of us do this then all law schools will have lazy rivers.

GENIUS.

Haha this is great

somethingelse55 wrote:I don't know, but I do know that I do NOT like it.

Just offer to fill out the most detailed survey they can offer if they'll give you application fee back. Bonus points if you get LSAC fee included

Same reason why you say "who" when your significant other says, "I'm leaving you for someone else."

If you were a dean of admissions you would covet this kind of data, fyi. That's why the ask, to know who their real competition is.

Internal numbers. Where to emphasize strengths or put money in future admission cycles.