While You Wait Re-Release

Taylor Yocom: Hi everyone, this is Taylor Yocom from WashU Law and producer of this season of our podcast, Applying Yourself. I’m excited to share an old episode from our second season that listeners applying this cycle might find helpful. We know that waiting can be the hardest part, and our Director of Admissions, Naomi Blanton, and Director of Operations, Anna Donovan, talk about the most productive ways to fill this time. We hope it helps, and we wish you best of luck on this application cycle.

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

Naomi Blanton:: Thank you so much. My name is Naomi Blanton:. I serve as one of the directors in the admissions office at WashU Law. And today we have a really, a 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 maybe tips of what you can be doing if you’re in the application pool. And also, this is season two. So we’re jazzed. I think going forward, we’re gonna have some topics related to decisions, visits, you know, right, today waiting, admitted students day, kind of the thick of the…

Naomi Blanton:: Your summer before law school.

Anna Donovan: Yeah, of being an applicant and potentially a law student for fall 2023. So the first thing we talked about before we started recording, you know, 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. Like, kudos to you all. That’s a lot to take on.

And so for, you know, those of you out there who are still in school, and we want you to finish out this last semester really strong before graduating. You know, you are just so great and wonderful and, you know, high GPA is, you know, really great student organization experience and involvement on campus and really just keeping that and powering through, finishing strong till the end.

Naomi Blanton:: Absolutely. So you have worked very hard to get to this point, you know, applying to law schools. You’ve heard decisions from some law schools, waiting on others. So keeping those grades strong, it is important, you know, 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 and use it as like a networking opportunity with the student organizations you’re in, maybe any employment or volunteerism that you do, letting them know, oh, you know, I’m going to law school. You never know where those connections, those, you know, mentorship opportunities, those kinds of things it 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 what’s, I guess, you know, roommates or friends or people could be like, oh, my uncle is a lawyer. Oh, my dad, my mom is a lawyer. I, you know, have these connections to this law firm. You should speak to so and so and you can really use that to start building your network. That’s something our career center talks about all the time is how you can be creating your network now. Naomi, you want to hit the next…

Naomi Blanton:: Absolutely. And so for, you know, any student, whether you’re still in school or out of school and when you’re in a sort of holding pattern, waiting to hear back from law schools. You can be applying for outside scholarships, and so there are law school, graduate school scholarships available that are independent of any specific university, and you can be applying 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 Lexis Lex, I believe, is the resource housed with the LSAC, the Law School Admissions Council, and they kind of aggregate scholarships that candidates can apply for. You know, 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. Again, you know, can cover books, can cover a month’s rent, can, you know, cover groceries. It is these things that you will, you’ll need to have and do in law school researching those, you know, if you have some free time applying to those because really, you know, don’t count yourself out. You can, you know, rack up some good scholarship money.

Naomi Blanton:: Absolutely. And the next item, it’s, it’s a fun thing to do. It’s a good thing to do. It’s not a have to, and that is visiting law schools. So the law schools you’re interested in, you’re probably calling down your list, looking at like, you know, the schools you’ve gotten into and ones you’re really hopeful to get into. Visiting is not necessary. It’s no indicator of, you know, candidacy, anything like that. But it can be really helpful for your own information.

So, you know, for a lot of people, a visit may not be feasible either with time or finance, but if it is a feasible thing 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. And to kind of help pay for that too. You can always ask your law schools that you’re looking at if they have any travel funds available. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes it, it depends on the time in the cycle also. There’s so many other things there. So don’t be offended if they say, like, oh no, we’re not awarding right now. But it’s worth asking.

Anna Donovan: Absolutely, it is. You know, us, like many other schools, you know, look into it first about what sort of types of visit, what days they might offer visits. And we are coming up on Admitted Student Days. So, you know, if you’ve been admitted to schools, there are these kind of larger, robust programs and events that could be something that you, you know, maybe kind of saving your money up to attend one of those.

You know, and I think it’s really, you’ve done your research into, you know, before you’ve 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 and really get a sense of the space, the city that I think can be really informative on making your final decision for law school.

And that can kind of bring it to like a next point of getting organized. So planning a visit is a next step of bringing these next, you know, the next step of going to 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? You know, what if you’ve gotten into a specific law school or have a scholarship from a specific law school? What is sort of 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, you know, as we get more into the cycle, when an admit decision, let’s say it comes in a little bit later, you may need to act fast and you’ll need to know kind of your thresholds for like, OK, this is a good next step and it meets all of my requirements and needs. So getting organized and also knowing your dates.

Naomi Blanton:: Yes, this is really huge. We talk about this all the time as Naomi and I are seasoned veterans, many, many cycles in. In doing well school admissions, and really we are talking about deposit dates. Every school, I think I almost mentioned this on every podcast, every school does things completely different. And while I would say deposit deadlines are kind of maybe grouped together, each school has a different date, maybe a different time of day that you will need to secure your seat and scholarship. And 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.

And so our hot tip here is the schools you’ve applied to, and 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, if you get admitted, 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 is, 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, you know, if you’re waiting for admission from X school and you get in and you get a good scholarship offer, you can probably pay your deposit anytime leading up until that deadline. It’s just a deadline.

Anna Donovan: It’s just a deadline. You know, I know money, there’s a monetary investment for deposits, but if you know that this is the school for you and this is your number one choice, you get in the, you know, you’ve crunched the numbers and you’re going to make it work financially, you can pay the deposit. You can secure your seat and you can just have that be something that you’re done with, you know, and not like waiting until the last day.

Yes. So yes, so definitely getting organized, knowing your dates and starting to put together sort of your metrics around making these decisions if it comes up that you need to make them quickly around attending school. You know, it kind of.

So a little bit related to visiting, but, you know, what does the cost of living in that city look like? You know, law schools all put out both, you know, tuition and fees and a breakdown of what they consider your cost of living expenses to be, books, et cetera. Looking at those, that’s, you know, another part of the finances, not just, you know, a merit and need-based kind of tuition scholarship, but what else you may be kind of funding for yourself, the breakdown of what that might look like.

You know, 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, you know, looking at what that would be for you, you know, you’re so excited when X school gives you this scholarship, but sort of what does the actual, you know, the three-year amount of debt you might be taking on is something to look at as well. Naomi, do you want to talk a little bit about like continued interest and staying connected to those schools?

Naomi Blanton:: 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. And that’s a good thing. Schools want to know how interested you are. They do want to know that. There’s some different ways you can do that. You can send a letter of continued interest, and so oftentimes this is filed on your application by, you know, the school that you send it to, just stating that you’re interested. And 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’s dates involved, like I need to hear back by X date. You know, I would caution, only say those things if they’re actually true. Yeah, so, you know, as much information as you want to share with the schools, it can be, you know, beneficial for them just because they do want to know your interest. And by extension, we hope it’s beneficial back.

Back to you. But yeah, you know, 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 asking just, I’m so interested. This is my top choice. This is of my top three, whatever it is. Yeah, very simple, straightforward. I would love to hear back, you know, is there any set that you can ask a question, or you can just state that you’re interested.

Anna Donovan: Yeah, absolutely. You know, and 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. You know, we’re not lying to anyone about when we are expecting decisions to roll out for as much information as we can respond with that. Yeah, so very simple.

You know, and I think addition, you know, adding on to that, if you do have updates, you know, I know we touched at the very top of this candidates who may still be in school. If you have an updated transcript and you’ve just really rocked it and you have your all A’s or whatever it may be, you know, circling back to those schools, you know, here’s my most updated transcript. I’m continuing to, you know, kind of point to how strong you’re finishing out school.

And also any resume updates as well. You know, we talked to candidates who are securing summer internships or, you know, placement for themselves and may have an updated resume. So those documents can be really helpful for us to see, you know, how you’re going to be spending that time leading up to starting law school.

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

Anna Donovan: Yes.

Naomi Blanton:: Have fun, enjoy your life. Spend time with friends and family. And, you know, 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 like, you know, stress reducers, fun activities.

Anna Donovan: Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, you can let yourself off the hook. You know, you have done so much to take the LSAT or the GRE to, you know, submit these applications. Like waiting isn’t a bad thing. You can give yourself a little bit of a break. You’ve done, you’ve taken yourself most of the way there. And unfortunately, you know, the final thing is like, you’re just gonna have to wait. The what to do while you’re waiting is the answer is wait. Again, if you’re looking for things to fill your time, but also, you know, there’s just gonna 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, you know, as we are now in 2023 and I’m just gonna say like early spring, we’re still in winter. But.

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.

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

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

Anything else, Naomi, or should we wrap it there?

Naomi Blanton:: 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. If you want to still apply to WashU law, absolutely. 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, you know, don’t ever feel like you don’t, you’re bugging an admissions office by checking in, by calling, by email. That’s our job. We love talking to you all, especially ones that wanna be here in the fall.

Naomi Blanton:: Absolutely.

Anna Donovan: Awesome. Well, thanks, Naomi.

Naomi Blanton:: Thank you, Anna.

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

Naomi Blanton:: Bye-bye.