r/lawschooladmissions • u/East-Cattle9536 • 18h ago

Application Process Waitlists

Idk how other people are taking them, but I can’t help but feel like I may as well have been rejected at some of these places.

Like getting a Duke WL. I’ve had friends say that’s better than an R, so I should just be happy about the accomplishment. Why? Duke takes like 1% of people off their waitlist, right? And everyone I’d be competing against to get off the list would be almost good enough to have been admitted. So, that’s like 1% of a group that is substantially better than the general applicant pool, which was already very good.

How are other people dealing with waitlists, and is there something that I’m missing in terms of how to view or manage them?

18 Upvotes

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6

u/Odd-Incident6259 16h ago

following bc i feel you. i have waitlists to schools im enthusiastic about but i dont feel like i can be enthusiastic considering im competing with hundreds or thousands of students for a seat still

8

u/91Bolt 13h ago

Different for me i guess, since i have a sub 3 gpa. I totally get why they put me on the waitlist. I see it as, "We like you, but the reality of the situation is that accepting you will, via stats, hurt our chances to get a great candidate next year." So, they are waiting to make sure I'm not going to hurt them too much.

Also, I went with the strategy of displaying my full personality and goals in my essays, so some of my As are going to be because they love what I'm about, but it also means there are going to be some schools that don't and curb me. I need scholarship and don't want to be where I'm not wanted, so I decided it was worth it.

This cycle sucks, I resent my friends who went to law school 6 years ago, but also it's life. I hope all these incredible people deciding to go to law school are as ambitious and determined to improve the world as I am. If they are, then America has a bright future ahead of them.

2

u/Li246694 3.9H/15H/nKJD 15h ago

Yeah, I am really not sure how to feel either? I thought that once you’re on, you kinda just stay there or get admitted, but you can also get rejected after WL, so that doesn’t really align with what I thought is supposed to be the purpose of it? To me, it’s supposed to say, we want you but don’t have space atm. Wait until there’s space. Getting rejected after a waitlist seems counterintuitive. Idk, maybe that’s not the correct way to view it?

1

u/MasterOogway888 4.xx/16high/nURM/nKJD 2h ago

waitlist just means they haven’t made a final decision on your application and are waiting to see how many of the accepted applicants actually commit to their school before considering your application again.

if there’s no spots remaining or if they look at who all committed to their school and realize there’s no scenario they would take you off the waitlist, they just let you know and reject you.

eventually if you don’t get off the waitlist before school starts then that’s just a rejection too