While you Wait!

Anna Donovan: Welcome back to Apply Yourself, a law school admissions podcast. My name is Anna Donovan, and I am the Communications Program Manager at WashU Law. Back with me in the studio today is Naomi. Welcome back, Naomi.

Naomi Stewart: Thank you so much. My name is Naomi Stewart. I serve as one of the directors in the admissions office at WashU Law. Today we have a really prescient topic about, you know, while you wait for admissions decisions to come back, what are some things you can do?

Anna Donovan: Yes, yes. We will maybe toggle back and forth on some of our tips for what you can be doing if you’re in the application pool. And also — this is season two. So we’re jazzed. Going forward, we’re going to have some topics related to decisions, visits, and — right, today — waiting, admitted students day, the thick of the summer before law school, of being an applicant and potentially a law student for fall 2023.

So the first thing we talked about before we started recording: many of our current applicants are still in school, still completing undergraduate programs. There may be some candidates completing graduate programs while they are applying to law school. Kudos to you all — that’s a lot to take on. So for those of you out there who are still in school, we want you to finish out this last semester really strong before graduating. You know, you are so great and wonderful — high GPAs, really great student organization experience and involvement on campus — and really just keep that momentum going through, finishing strong till the end.

Naomi Stewart: Absolutely. You have worked very hard to get to this point, applying to law schools. You’ve heard decisions from some law schools, you’re waiting on others. So keeping those grades strong, it is important for your whole process, and you’ve worked so hard to get here.

And also, staying involved. You are embarking on this law school journey — use it as a networking opportunity with the student organizations you’re in, and maybe any employment or volunteerism that you do. Letting them know, “Oh, I’m going to law school” — you never know where those connections, those mentorship opportunities, those kinds of things can come up. And maybe it can lead to a summer job, a part-time job working in a specific area that can give you some experience before you start law school.

Anna Donovan: Yeah. You don’t even know — I guess, you know, roommates or friends or people could be like, “Oh, my uncle is a lawyer,” or “My mom is a lawyer. I have these connections to this law firm. You should speak to so-and-so.” You can really use that to start building your network. That’s something our Career Center talks about all the time — how you can be creating your network now.

Naomi, do you want to hit the next topic?

Naomi Stewart: Absolutely. For any student — whether you’re still in school or out of school — when you’re in this sort of holding pattern, waiting to hear back from law schools, you can be applying for outside scholarships. There are law school and graduate school scholarships available that are independent of any specific university, and you can apply for those additional funds, because every little bit helps when paying for graduate school. So that is a great way to be spending this time as you’re waiting.

Anna Donovan: Yeah. This is where I will plug LawHub (I believe that’s the resource), housed with LSAC, the Law School Admission Council, which kind of aggregates scholarships that candidates can apply for. For us specifically, we always get sent emails — there are local law firms that give these small scholarship awards. There are writing competitions. There are different things out there. And you know, these awards can cover books, can cover a month’s rent, can cover groceries. These are things that you’ll need to have and do in law school. Researching those, if you have some free time, and applying — really, don’t count yourself out. You can rack up some good scholarship money.

Naomi Stewart: Absolutely. The next item is a fun thing to do — it’s a good thing to do; it’s not a “have to” — and that is visiting law schools. The law schools you’re interested in: you’re probably culling down your list, looking at the schools you’ve gotten into and the ones you’re really hopeful to get into. Visiting is not necessary. It’s no indicator of candidacy or anything like that, but it can be really helpful for your own information.

For a lot of people, a visit may not be feasible — either with time or finances — but if it is feasible, and if it’s something that you feel like could help you, plan a visit to some of the law schools you’re looking at. To help pay for that, you can always ask the law schools you’re looking at if they have any travel funds available. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes it depends on the time and the cycle, also. There are so many other things there, so don’t be offended if they say, “Oh, no, we’re not able to” — but it’s worth asking.

Anna Donovan: Absolutely, it is. We, like many other schools, look into it first about what types of visits and what days they might offer visits. We are coming up on admitted student days, so if you’ve been admitted to schools, there are these kind of larger, robust programs and events — that could be something you maybe save your money up to attend.

I think it’s really — you’ve done your research before you decided to apply to these schools, but also, if you’ve never been to this specific city before: can you picture yourself living here for three years? Really get a sense of the space, the city. I think that can be really informative in making your final decision for law school.

That can kind of bring us to the next point: getting organized. Planning a visit is a next step of bringing law school closer and closer — but knowing your dates and starting to put together: What is it going to cost to live in this city? If you’ve gotten into a specific law school or have a scholarship from a specific law school, what is the cost-benefit? Working out your equations and figuring out those numbers.

So it’s really putting together all the pieces that you do have as you wait for an admissions decision — or the pieces that you don’t have — because as we get further into the cycle, when an admit decision comes in a little bit later, you may need to act fast. You’ll need to know your thresholds for, “Okay, this is a good next step, and it meets all of my requirements and needs.” So getting organized, and also knowing your dates.

This is really huge. We talk about this all the time. Naomi and I are season veterans — many, many cycles in — and doing law school admissions, we are really talking about deposit dates. Every school does things completely differently. I think I almost mention this on every podcast: every school does things completely different. And while I would say deposit deadlines are kind of grouped together, each school has a different date — maybe a different time of day — that you will need to secure your seat and scholarship by. That is just huge — to make sure that you are reserving your seat at the school that you’ve been admitted to and want to attend in a timely manner.

So our hot tip here is: the schools you’ve applied to — even as you’re waiting and you might not have gotten decisions — you can take 10 minutes, you can Google that school’s deposit deadline, and just add it to a little spreadsheet so that you know, if and when you get admitted, what those dates are. I think adding it to your phone, adding a phone alarm, and really just having those dates and times nailed down. We do see, every year, some candidates that miss deposit deadlines, and it’s heartbreaking when those emails and calls come in. So you can try and avoid that now by setting yourself up for success and really doing your research as to when you need to commit to those schools. Is it one deposit? Is it maybe two deposits? What is the amount? And really just having reminders everywhere.

And really, if you’re waiting for admission from X school and you get in and you get a good scholarship offer, you can pay your deposit any time leading up to that deadline. It’s just a deadline. I know there’s a monetary investment for deposits, but if you know that this is the school for you — this is your number one choice, you got in, you’ve crunched the numbers, and you’re going to make it work financially — you can pay that deposit. You can secure your seat. And you can just have that be something that you’re done with, and not be waiting until the last day. So yes — definitely getting organized, knowing your dates, and starting to put together your metrics around making these decisions if it comes up that you need to make them quickly.

Naomi Stewart: Yeah, absolutely. It’s kind of a little bit related to visiting, but: what does the cost of living in that city look like? Law schools all put out both tuition and fees and a breakdown of what they consider your cost-of-living expenses to be — books, etc. Looking at those is another part of the finances, not just a merit- and need-based tuition scholarship, but what else you may be funding for yourself — the breakdown of what that might look like.

You should be thinking about these things early. It is an investment in yourself. Almost every single person comes out of law school with some amount of debt, and that’s okay. But looking at what that could be for you — you’re so excited when X school gives you this scholarship, but the actual three-year amount of debt you might be taking on is something to look at as well.

Anna Donovan: Naomi, do you want to talk a little bit about continued interest and staying connected to those schools?

Naomi Stewart: Yeah. So in the spirit of this podcast — you know, “while you wait” — that’s assuming that you’re probably waiting to hear from some schools, and you may want to communicate with them. That’s a good thing. Schools want to know how interested you are. They do want to know that. There are some different ways you can do that. You can send a letter of continued interest. Oftentimes this is filed on your application by the school you send it to, just stating that you’re interested.

You can give as much or as little information in that as you would like. You can say something like, “I have my top three schools. I’ve heard from two. I have this scholarship from one. I really want to hear back.” Sometimes there are dates involved — like, “I need to hear back by X date.” I would caution to only say those things if they’re actually true. As much information as you want to share with the schools can be beneficial for them, just because they do want to know your interest. And by extension, I hope it’s beneficial back to you. So have it be sort of a transparent and open conversation with the schools, to the extent you’re comfortable.

And like I said, a letter of continued interest — you can send that in the form of an email, or an email with an attachment. Or you can just send an email saying, “I’m so interested, this is my top choice, this is one of my top three,” whatever it is. Very simple, straightforward. “I would love to hear back.” You can ask a question, or you can just state that you’re interested.

Anna Donovan: Yeah, absolutely. As we are fielding those emails, we’re happy to look at where we are in the cycle and try and respond in a way that we’re being as clear about any timeline or dates that we are hoping to meet — when we think decisions will go out. We’re not lying to anyone about when we are expecting decisions to roll out — we’ll give you as much information as we can. So, very simple.

In addition to that — I know we touched on this at the very top — for candidates who may still be in school: if you have an updated transcript and you’ve just really rocked it, and you have all A’s or whatever it may be, you know, circling back to those schools, “Here’s my most updated transcript,” and continuing to point to how strong you’re finishing out the school. And also any resume updates as well. We talk to candidates who are securing summer internships or placements for themselves and may have an updated resume. Those documents can be really helpful for us to see — how you’re going to be spending that time leading up to starting law school.

Naomi Stewart: Absolutely. And other things you can do while you’re waiting to hear from law schools kind of wrap into what you can do while you wait to start law school. And that is: read the things you enjoy.

Anna Donovan: Yes.

Naomi Stewart: Have fun. Enjoy your life. Spend time with friends and family. Just do some activities — some activities that provide that balance. Those will become very, very important while you’re in law school — to have that balance, and things that can be stress reducers, fun activities.

Anna Donovan: Yeah. You can let yourself off the hook. You have done so much to take the LSAT or the GRE, to submit these applications. Waiting isn’t a bad thing. You can give yourself a little bit of a break. You’ve taken yourself most of the way there, and unfortunately, the final thing is — you’re just going to have to wait. The “what to do while you’re waiting” — the answer is “wait.” Again, if you’re looking for things to fill your time. But also, there’s just going to be some downtime. You’ve done the work, and you really are just going to have to kind of sit there. And maybe you’re, like, perpetually refreshing your inbox to hear back from some of these schools.

But really, as we are now in 2023 — and I’ll just say, it’s early spring; we’re still in winter — most decisions will be rolling out, I think, from most schools leading up to those deposit deadlines. So you’ll be hearing back from most schools hopefully very soon. And I say soon, meaning, you know, over the next couple of months.

I will give a caveat to that, though. A fair number of schools, including WashU Law, are rolling decisions. So students who apply in May or over the summer, all the way up until — I want to say — August, it is a rolling decision process. Each and every individual applicant is assessed on the merits of their individual application. So that is a way schools are different. But yeah, a lot of people will hear decisions this spring, for sure.

Naomi Stewart: Absolutely. We are very much mid-cycle, whereas some other schools may be towards the end of their application cycle. So definitely looking at that as a data point as well. We continue to take applications. We continue to review all applicants through the summer as well, leading into August. I believe the last LSAT we take is the June LSAT. So it’s not too late. But everyone is going to have a different wait time, ultimately, depending on when you get that application submitted.

Anna Donovan: Anything else, Naomi, or should we wrap it there?

Naomi Stewart: I think that is a great list. If you have any questions, or if you want to send in a letter of continued interest, you can always email us. You want to still apply to WashU Law? You can send an email to applylaw@wustl.edu. We’re always happy to be of help, and you can find lots of ways to connect with us also at law.wustl.edu online.

Anna Donovan: Yeah, absolutely. And don’t ever feel like you’re bugging an admissions office by checking in, by calling, by emailing. That’s our job. We love talking to you all — especially ones who want to be here in the fall.

Naomi Stewart: Absolutely.

Anna Donovan: Awesome. Well, thanks, Naomi.

Naomi Stewart: Thank you, Anna.

Anna Donovan: Thanks for joining us, you guys. All right, bye.

Naomi Stewart: Bye-bye.