Harvard Law c/o 2020 Waitlist Forum

[SpookySalem92]

No, the surprise would be that there's that strong a preference for Columbia over Chicago (or even NYU, really). If publicly available, I'd be curious to see enrollment data for cross-admits, e.g. of people admitted to SLS and HLS how many choose one or the other.

A huge portion of people who have the stats to get into T6 schools are from the Acela corridor/NE and almost invariably pick Columbia over Chicago. Of course, lots of people only get into Chicago or Columbia, but not both.

*Raises hand as someone from the Acela corridor and is under strong family pressure to stay in the Northeast for that reason* lol. I was just about to ask whether the sense was that it was a school specific aversion to UChi or a location-based one, but this is a pretty compelling follow up.

[Rigo]

I mean I think UChi is probably my least favorite culture so without a burning desire to be in Chicago or the midwest, I kind of toss it aside.

I have a NYC & Boston bias though since I'm from the Northeast.

Different strokes for different folks.

[Rigo]

Basically this is just me saying that every school other than THE school just outside of Boston is a dumpster fire and I would never ever ever go to them over the greatest law school OF ALL TIME!

(Pick me!!)

[needbasedlaw]

Did any of you guys get an email from HLS regarding the waitlist (besides confirming your position on it)? It was mentioned here https://www.reddit.com/r/lawschooladmis ... ist_email/:

I don't know who else got the email from HLS about the waitlist, but in the email they sent me it said the following:

"By remaining active on the waitlist you agree to:

Accept an offer of admission if it is extended to you; we will ask that you accept the offer of admission within 24 hours.
Accept the offer before you have received any information about your financial aid package at HLS. Please keep in mind our financial aid packages are need-based and therefore are not affected by the admissions timeline—packages for waitlist admits are determined in exactly the same way as those admitted earlier in the cycle.

Accept the offer before you have a chance to secure housing. Historically this has not been a problem since three housing options (HLS dorms, Harvard University Housing, and the private Cambridge housing market) typically remain very active throughout the summer.
Withdraw your seat at any school to which you have committed if offered admission at HLS."

Does this mean that by remaining on the waitlist I HAVE to accept an offer from them if they extend one to me?

[xn3345]

I mean I think UChi is probably my least favorite culture so without a burning desire to be in Chicago or the midwest, I kind of toss it aside.

I have a NYC & Boston bias though since I'm from the Northeast.

Different strokes for different folks.

Just to offer a counterpoint..

I toured both and found Columbia's culture kind of nebulous and poorly defined. Chicago's, like it or not, was made pretty clear. I really like their shtick about rigor and intellectual curiosity plus the building, class size, and clerkship #s vs Columbia . With that said, before I started the process, I always wanted to go to Columbia and never thought of Chi.

Edit: Chicago also offered me way more money and has way lower costs of living, so I'm biased

[enoca]

Columbia has a bigger class size than Chicago.

[Rigo]

Chicago also offered me way more money and has way lower costs of living, so I'm biased

Oh yeah I would definitely take the money if they offered me a significantly larger amount. That isn't the case for me though (unfortunately) so I can fall back on subjective judgements.

[Rigo]

Columbia has a bigger class size than Chicago.

True, but in the poll the Chicago/NYU grouping has a larger combined class size than Columbia.

[bearedman8]

.

[Rigo]

Harvard waitlists like 800+ people.

But the handful of people in this thread will be given priority, right? Right??!?!

[bearedman8]

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[Pyrex]

Columbia has a bigger class size than Chicago.

This is TCR, although I'm not sure what's with NYU and why Chicago is combined with NYU in the poll. Columbia is more like Harvard than Chicago is, though, so the slight preference makes sense to me.

There's also a crazy small sample size here. Harvard waitlists like 800+ people.

At 47 votes, approaching 7-8% sample. Maybe a biased sample but approaching significance

[ml0606148]

I just checked the official Facebook group Harvard Law School - Class of 2020 (getting in to which needs invitation by HLS I think), there are currently exactly 590 members in that group. Deducting some administrators, it seems it is quite filled already. Hopefully we don't see a small wave like the one we saw last year (only 18 JS1s in May)

and of course there must be some students who forget to withdraw at this moment after they decided to go elsewhere, hopefully we can see a substantial reduction in the Facebook group in the next few days~

[SpookySalem92]

I just checked the official Facebook group Harvard Law School - Class of 2020 (getting in to which needs invitation by HLS I think), there are currently exactly 590 members in that group. Deducting some administrators, it seems it is quite filled already. Hopefully we don't see a small wave like the one we saw last year (only 18 JS1s in May)

and of course there must be some students who forget to withdraw at this moment after they decided to go elsewhere, hopefully we can see a substantial reduction in the Facebook group in the next few days~

¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Noteworthy barometer, but agreed I'm not sure how representative it is as it's unclear how many people have self-removed after choosing another school. If this was something that was tracked last year/previous years could be helpful for comparison purposes.

[bearedman8]

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[SpookySalem92]

*continues to bite nails*

[gargleblaster]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

I know of one person who was accepted to Harvard and retook the LSAT and then didn't get accepted the next year.

I have no idea if that could apply to people off the waitlist. It would be interesting to know. The question is if you turn down Harvard's best offer, will they believe you want to attend the next year?

I also don't remember who that was but they post here so maybe you could find it.

If I turn down Harvard's best offer I wouldn't apply next year since I know they would be unaffordable. Problem is that right now I don't know if they will be affordable. Already have good $$$ to other schools, would just go for that next year.

I don't understand. Can't you estimate what your need based aid will be?

I'm not sure that I can.

They seem pretty clear on how much they will take of my assets (all of them, lol) but I have no idea how much they will want my parents to contribute.

Since my parents are old, live in CA in an pretty nice house, I feel like H might try to fuck me hard on money because of them. They still have a decent income but will be retiring in the next few years, and H doesn't seem to care that they won't be continuing anything to my education since they really don't have any money to give unless they sell their house.

I checked a calculator for the "institutional method" that H says it uses, and that spit out a fucking ridiculously high number for my parental contribution, that if true, I would withdraw immediately from the waitlist.


How are other people figuring out what H wants their parents to pay?


Also, does anyone know if u can take the whole grant amount they offer without taking the fill amount of loans? Like on the example of the person they give on their website who gets:

48k loans
21k grants
5k own contribution
14k parent contribution

Could they like live in a cheap place and save on rent and not take out the full loan amount?

[notsonotorious]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

Seems like a good way to get on their shitlist?

[gargleblaster]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

Seems like a good way to get on their shitlist?

Reapply to other schools that aren't them is what I meant.

[Npret]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

I know of one person who was accepted to Harvard and retook the LSAT and then didn't get accepted the next year.

I have no idea if that could apply to people off the waitlist. It would be interesting to know. The question is if you turn down Harvard's best offer, will they believe you want to attend the next year?

I also don't remember who that was but they post here so maybe you could find it.

If I turn down Harvard's best offer I wouldn't apply next year since I know they would be unaffordable. Problem is that right now I don't know if they will be affordable. Already have good $$$ to other schools, would just go for that next year.

I don't understand. Can't you estimate what your need based aid will be?

I'm not sure that I can.

They seem pretty clear on how much they will take of my assets (all of them, lol) but I have no idea how much they will want my parents to contribute.

Since my parents are old, live in CA in an pretty nice house, I feel like H might try to fuck me hard on money because of them. They still have a decent income but will be retiring in the next few years, and H doesn't seem to care that they won't be continuing anything to my education since they really don't have any money to give unless they sell their house.

I checked a calculator for the "institutional method" that H says it uses, and that spit out a fucking ridiculously high number for my parental contribution, that if true, I would withdraw immediately from the waitlist.


How are other people figuring out what H wants their parents to pay?


Also, does anyone know if u can take the whole grant amount they offer without taking the fill amount of loans? Like on the example of the person they give on their website who gets:

48k loans
21k grants
5k own contribution
14k parent contribution

Could they like live in a cheap place and save on rent and not take out the full loan amount?

Then estimate what the highest will be and if you can't live with that amount, then you have the answer. You can borrow your parental contribution in loans they don't have to pay it, it's just that your need is less than others whose parents don't have the same money as yours do. I guess that's the down side of not being actually poor or whatever.

I think Harvard has a minimum amount of loans everyone getting need based aid has to take but maybe an expert here can explain more.

[Npret]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

Seems like a good way to get on their shitlist?

Reapply to other schools that aren't them is what I meant.

I don't really understand your thinking. You're going to accept an offer at Harvard that you know won't be giving you the financial aid you think you need. So then you're going to spend a year waiting and reapplying to other schools? Does this really comes down to how much financial aid Harvard will give you? I mean you just want to see the actual number so you can then withdraw and spend a year reapplying?

[SpookySalem92]

It's been said before, but I think part of remaining on the waitlist and accepting that you'll need to respond to an offer of admission without knowing your financial aid package is gaining comfort with the "worst possible" scenario--for some people (myself included), this would mean sticker price. If you already know you wouldn't be comfortable with that, echoing above, I think you have your answer.

[Rigo]

If it makes anyone feel better regarding Facebook, I have two friends in the group. One is a current Harvard 1L and the other took a CCN fully.
I wouldn't put too much stock in the number of members.

[notsonotorious]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

Seems like a good way to get on their shitlist?

Reapply to other schools that aren't them is what I meant.

I don't really understand your thinking. You're going to accept an offer at Harvard that you know won't be giving you the financial aid you think you need. So then you're going to spend a year waiting and reapplying to other schools? Does this really comes down to how much financial aid Harvard will give you? I mean you just want to see the actual number so you can then withdraw and spend a year reapplying?

Ditto. Seems like if the problem is "I have good $$$ offers from other schools ++ me/my parents have enough income/assets that Harvard probably won't give me a good package +++ I am $$$ sensitive" the answer is: EITHER strongly consider going to one of those schools now because you will almost certainly be unhappy with Harvard's award OR make peace with taking out higher loans if you really want to go to Harvard.

It doesn't seem to be the case that you're desperate about going to Harvard at any cost since you're talking about giving that up as an option if it's not affordable so it really feels like the former is your answer.

[notsonotorious]

If it makes anyone feel better regarding Facebook, I have two friends in the group. One is a current Harvard 1L and the other took a CCN fully.
I wouldn't put too much stock in the number of members.

I second this. I am a member of 2 fb groups at schools I have formally turned down. Literally too lazy to leave the groups because I could do something more meaningful with my time, like writing about it on TLS