Early Withdrawal: Now's the time, please. Forum

[mozhou7]

Sent out all my withdrawal requests yesterday:

Columbia
NYU
Chicago - 60K
Penn - Levy (120Kish)
Virginia - Full tuition
Duke - 72K
Cornel - 120K
Georgetown

Good luck all!

[finalaspects]

Withdrawing doesn't open a spot. Schools give out 3 to 4 times as many admits as they have seats. They won't start pulling from the WL until after the deposit deadline.

Not even for merit aid.

Schools do admit more then they have seats because they know people will withdraw. Nonetheless, the quicker they know people are withdrawing, and if more then expected withdraws early, they will start pulling from the waitlist sooner, and more frequently.

Money that is freed up can also technically be redistributed.

[TheBigMediocre]

I get very happy when I see people withdraw from Emory with $$$.

I'm a 3.35/170 and they still haven't offered me anything. If they did, Emory would jump to the top of my list. (I'm only bitter because my 3.2/166 fraternity brother with identical extracurricular activities got 18k/year)

[starrydecisus]

I agree that withdrawing still helps out the people on the Waitlist. It's still limiting the spots. And besides, it allows the scholarship money to go back into the pot.

Withdrew from UGA (at least I think I did. I emailed the admissions office, but haven't heard back from there? Is there something else I should do?)...Tuition equalizer + $15k scholarship

Will be withdrawing from William and Mary (Tuition equalizer + $15k scholarship) and UF ($30k scholarship, in-state) within the next week!

Good luck to everyone!

[lawyering]

Have so far withdrawn from:

UT Austin $$
UVA $$
Penn
Georgetown
BU full ride
USC
Duke
Chicago $

Good luck to all! More withdrawals to come.

[gossipgirl]

Withdrew from Duke and Vanderbilt, freeing up a seat and money!

Best of luck to everyone to everyone trying to get into these schools!

[georgina]

um, i hope this this isn't a stupid question, but by what methods have you all been withdrawing? i was hoping there'd be some simple form on the admitted students' pages, but i don't seem to see many. do schools accept withdrawals by email, and if so, did you all just send emails to the general admissions@law.blah.edu addresses? seems informal. sorry; i don't have stamps on hand and would like to avoid going to the post office.

[starstruck393]

um, i hope this this isn't a stupid question, but by what methods have you all been withdrawing? i was hoping there'd be some simple form on the admitted students' pages, but i don't seem to see many. do schools accept withdrawals by email, and if so, did you all just send emails to the general admissions@law.blah.edu addresses? seems informal. sorry; i don't have stamps on hand and would like to avoid going to the post office.

Yea, just email them. It might be informal, but as long as it's polite, who cares?

[IAFG]

Withdrawing doesn't open a spot. Schools give out 3 to 4 times as many admits as they have seats.

Not even for merit aid.

[finalaspects]

Withdrawing doesn't open a spot. Schools give out 3 to 4 times as many admits as they have seats. They won't start pulling from the WL until after the deposit deadline.

Not even for merit aid.

Schools do admit more then they have seats because they know people will withdraw. Nonetheless, the quicker they know people are withdrawing, and if more then expected withdraws early, they will start pulling from the waitlist sooner, and more frequently.

Money that is freed up can also technically be redistributed.

[urban]

Are you all writing formal letters withdrawing or just sending e-mails?

[09042014]

Withdrawing doesn't open a spot. Schools give out 3 to 4 times as many admits as they have seats. They won't start pulling from the WL until after the deposit deadline.

Not even for merit aid.

Schools do admit more then they have seats because they know people will withdraw. Nonetheless, the quicker they know people are withdrawing, and if more then expected withdraws early, they will start pulling from the waitlist sooner, and more frequently.

Money that is freed up can also technically be redistributed.

No they won't. They also promise much more aid than their budget allows.

If a bunch of people withdrew early, they'd have no way of knowing if it meant people more people were going to withdraw period, or if a bunch of you all were just doing it early. By then opening up the wait list they risk over enrolling. Why not wait a month for deadline and avoid the whole mess. Which is exactly what happens.

Go read the Illinois 2010 thread, Pless has a date that he starts reviewing waitlists. Not a number of people who withdraw.

[09042014]

Are you all writing formal letters withdrawing or just sending e-mails?

I sent out one email, BCCing every school, with a To Whom it May Concern.

[missvik218]

Are you all writing formal letters withdrawing or just sending e-mails?

E-mails.

Also, while I like to imagine it opening places and $$ for other people .. it just feels good to be crossing schools off the list. It's true though, it's not like they just start pulling WLs immediately. Haha, the same would be accomplished if we all just forgot about the deposit deadlines for these schools.

[starrydecisus]

Withdrawing doesn't open a spot. Schools give out 3 to 4 times as many admits as they have seats. They won't start pulling from the WL until after the deposit deadline.

Not even for merit aid.

Schools do admit more then they have seats because they know people will withdraw. Nonetheless, the quicker they know people are withdrawing, and if more then expected withdraws early, they will start pulling from the waitlist sooner, and more frequently.

Money that is freed up can also technically be redistributed.

No they won't. They also promise much more aid than their budget allows.

If a bunch of people withdrew early, they'd have no way of knowing if it meant people more people were going to withdraw period, or if a bunch of you all were just doing it early. By then opening up the wait list they risk over enrolling. Why not wait a month for deadline and avoid the whole mess. Which is exactly what happens.

Go read the Illinois 2010 thread, Pless has a date that he starts reviewing waitlists. Not a number of people who withdraw.

Honestly, why is everyone getting so worked up over this?

If it makes us feel better to think we may be freeing up spots and aid for someone else, let us do it. If we know we're not going to attend the school, it's going to help them out anyway to withdraw our application, so they don't waste time trying to increase our awards, sending us emails, calling us, etc. It's just courteous to let a school know when you are 100% sure you'll not be attending. And that's what we're doing. and by the looks of this thread and the people who have been withdrawing, we're all happy to do it.

Besides, even if they hand out excess offers and spots, the more we decline, the closer they get to their realistic picture. Besides, I know some schools have said they are waiting for students to decline offers before making new awards.

[finalaspects]

Schools do admit more then they have seats because they know people will withdraw. Nonetheless, the quicker they know people are withdrawing, and if more then expected withdraws early, they will start pulling from the waitlist sooner, and more frequently.

Money that is freed up can also technically be redistributed.

No they won't. They also promise much more aid than their budget allows.

If a bunch of people withdrew early, they'd have no way of knowing if it meant people more people were going to withdraw period, or if a bunch of you all were just doing it early. By then opening up the wait list they risk over enrolling. Why not wait a month for deadline and avoid the whole mess. Which is exactly what happens.

Go read the Illinois 2010 thread, Pless has a date that he starts reviewing waitlists. Not a number of people who withdraw.

it helps speed up the process. why do you come in this thread and try to argue otherwise, with people trying to do nice things for other people? as long as it helps even just a little bit, its still helping.

also every school does it differently. some schools start accepting off of waitlists as early as end of this month.

[09042014]

Ok go pretend you are doing people a favor. Have fun.

[finalaspects]

Ok go pretend you are doing people a favor. Have fun.

are you suggesting that it can't help, not even a little bit at certain schools? if enough people withdraw to reach whatever critical point, and a school knows that they need to start accepting more people, they will do so.

you blindingly say that it can't/won't help what so ever, even when some schools have stated that $$$ can be negotiated after they find out how many people withdraw.

[foxyeconomist]

Perhaps Desert Fox needs to believe that it doesn't help because he doesn't want to withdraw and would feel guilty about it if he let himself believe.

[IAFG]

Perhaps Desert Fox needs to believe that it doesn't help because he doesn't want to withdraw and would feel guilty about it if he let himself believe.

He ED'd and withdrew from everywhere immediately.

OTOH I know of a TLSer who heeded this sort of thread, withdrew from a T20 via email, then recieved a letter the next day in the mail with a half-tuition scholarship. Withdrawing is overrated.

[finalaspects]

OTOH I know of a TLSer who heeded this sort of thread, withdrew from a T20 via email, then recieved a letter the next day in the mail with a half-tuition scholarship. Withdrawing is overrated.

talking about schools you wouldn't attend 100%. whether this is after or before the scholarship offer is up to you.

[burtonrideclub]

Just withdrew from GW and Fordham

[jasmoon]

From Cornell:
"We attract many more applicants that we're able to accept, and many who aren't accepted are placed on a waiting list. To help these people, we ask what you please reply as soon as possible...If you decide not to enroll, we'll select someone else to join us. The sooner you let us know, the sooner we can make further decisions and the sooner applicants on the waiting list can start making plans. Thanks for your help."

So perhaps it's more than a nice gesture?

[Unadilla Kayaker]

Withdrew from W&L with $17,000/year two weeks ago.

Today I withdrew from:
Boston College Law School (WL)
Fordham University School of Law (WL)
University of Wisconsin Law School (WL)
Boston University School of Law (WL)
University of Minnesota Law School (WL)
George Washington University Law School (WL)
The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law (In--no scholarship yet, have visited)
University of Illinois College of Law (In--$15,000/year)
The University of Iowa College of Law (In--no scholarship)

I still have five schools to consider and two more I am waiting on. At the very least, these schools are off my list and I cannot reconsider them. If you are worried about missing a scholarship, put in your e-mail the last correspondence you received from them and say "unless there is updated information that I have been sent..." when you withdraw. I don't know if I'm freeing up a spot, but I know I am getting my file out of the pile. I've been in a few admissions offices lately, and they currently have stacks of files everywhere.

Good luck all!

[gdane]

Thanks for doing this guys. Really appreciate it. As someone that is WL and would loveee to get accepted off it, it is wonderful to see people doing this.