Top Law Schools

Cornell apps up ~60%
Illinois apps up ~50%
Iowa apps up ~50%
WUSTL apps up ~20%
Alabama apps up 70% or so? can't specifically remember this one.

...and who knows who else is up.

Yet the total number of applicants are only up 4% or so. So more people are applying to many more schools. Some people still haven't gone complete at Cornell because they are so far behind. WUSTL has dozens of people on their "hold list" that were almost auto-admit last year, and they STILL seem to be over-deposited (although it's refundable for another week and a half). Iowa's given out so many full scholarships that they may not even have any money at all for partial scholarships, and people with awesome numbers who applied late are getting waitlisted. Illinois says they will have their best class ever, as does every single other school out there. Yet there really isn't that many more applicants.

So what is it? What's the deal? Are people really applying to every T30 school they can? Are there a lot of people that have T14 numbers applying to tons of safeties or seeking out full scholarships because this is the year of debt aversion? Where are all these hoards of well-qualified applicants coming from? Are a ton more people taking advantage of LSAT retakes?

The bottom line is that it's got to be one of two things: either well-qualified applicants applied everywhere this year, or there's simply more well-qualified applicants out there (without there being a huge increase in the total number of applicants). Likely, it's a little of both. Just browsing LSN seems to suggest that there's a ton of people that have applied to 20 or more schools, and many people on TLS speak of being double deposited. I'm instituting a poll to try and figure this out.

And please, share your own stories about this madness.

I am close to depositing at two schools (T20 & T14) but am still waiting to hear from two and am on the waitlist for a few other T14s. I probably applied to way more schools than I should have, but I'm nearly ten years out of undergrad and am approaching law school as the next step in what I hope is a varied career / life and I wanted to keep my options open as much as possible. Without the help of a pre-law advisor or fellow students to learn about the process from, I really didn't know what chances I stood at getting admitted. Between the uncertainty, being late in the application cycle (my aps were finally complete late January), and many of the top schools throwing fee waivers around, I just kept applying. And, since I'm getting a little older and will likely never do something like this again (quit a well-paying job and go to school for multiple years), I applied to the likes of Harvard and Yale in the spirit of "no regrets". If they both turn me down, at least I'll never keep wondering "what if?"!

2 deposits. Waiting to see if I sell my house.


I think people just shot out a lot more applications this year to a lot more schools. Instead of 7 or 8 schools, 17 or 18 seemed to be pretty spot-on.

A better question is, which law school gets screwed by an unexpectedly low yield rate?

JCougar wrote:A better question is, which law school gets screwed by an unexpectedly low yield rate?

I may be way off base but I think that the high number of apps will also create lower acceptance rates, which might at least offset the low yields... Especially at Illinois where the app is free and people with 160/3.3 are taking advantage

jdfrisby wrote:

JCougar wrote:A better question is, which law school gets screwed by an unexpectedly low yield rate?

I may be way off base but I think that the high number of apps will also create lower acceptance rates, which might at least offset the low yields... Especially at Illinois where the app is free and people with 160/3.3 are taking advantage

Yield is not a component of USNWR ranking, acceptance rate is.

edit: nice ninja bump of year old thread

JCougar wrote:Cornell apps up ~60%
Illinois apps up ~50%
Iowa apps up ~50%
WUSTL apps up ~20%
Alabama apps up 70% or so? can't specifically remember this one.

...and who knows who else is up.

Yet the total number of applicants are only up 4% or so. So more people are applying to many more schools. Some people still haven't gone complete at Cornell because they are so far behind. WUSTL has dozens of people on their "hold list" that were almost auto-admit last year, and they STILL seem to be over-deposited (although it's refundable for another week and a half). Iowa's given out so many full scholarships that they may not even have any money at all for partial scholarships, and people with awesome numbers who applied late are getting waitlisted. Illinois says they will have their best class ever, as does every single other school out there. Yet there really isn't that many more applicants.

So what is it? What's the deal? Are people really applying to every T30 school they can? Are there a lot of people that have T14 numbers applying to tons of safeties or seeking out full scholarships because this is the year of debt aversion? Where are all these hoards of well-qualified applicants coming from? Are a ton more people taking advantage of LSAT retakes?

The bottom line is that it's got to be one of two things: either well-qualified applicants applied everywhere this year, or there's simply more well-qualified applicants out there (without there being a huge increase in the total number of applicants). Likely, it's a little of both. Just browsing LSN seems to suggest that there's a ton of people that have applied to 20 or more schools, and many people on TLS speak of being double deposited. I'm instituting a poll to try and figure this out.

And please, share your own stories about this madness.

i thought apps were down 12% this year?

hmm...

Question wrote:Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:10 pm

Response wrote:Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:42 pm

Wait what?

I also thought apps were down this year. Less people taking the LSAT too. I don't know how Cornell apps could be up 60% from last year because last year they were up 52% from the year before.

Emma1 wrote:I also thought apps were down this year. Less people taking the LSAT too. I don't know how Cornell apps could be up 60% from last year because last year they were up 52% from the year before.

This thread is from last cycle...

You are right. The OP statements made no sense for this cycle. Don't know why this was revived!

Got into my top choice, and everywhere else I applied - minus my reach, where I was WL-ed. Very exciting cycle for me, definitely wasn't expecting all of these acceptances! I will withdraw from the others over Spring Break, except for my reach and a few to negotiate scholarships.

theturkeyisfat wrote:i thought apps were down 12% this year?

EDIT: I see what happened now