Your Apps Are In…Now What

Taylor Yocom: Hi, everyone. Welcome to Applying Yourself, a law school admissions podcast from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. I’m Taylor Yocom, an admissions specialist here at WashU Law and the producer of this season of the podcast.

Today, I’ll be talking with our Senior Admissions Director, Claire O’Brien, about what our listeners might know all too well right now. They’ve taken the LSAT. They’ve written their statements, edited them, asked their recommenders for letters, filled out the application, hit submit — and that part’s all done — but now it’s the waiting game. Claire has been there. So we thought it’d be great to talk to her about her experience applying to law school, doing the waiting game, and give some tips to our listeners on how to cope with this stressful time of the process in a productive way.

First, Claire, can you briefly talk about your experience applying to law school?

Claire O’Brien: Taylor, thank you so much for having me today. And you are the best producer ever on the podcast.

Taylor Yocom: Thank you!

Claire O’Brien: We are so lucky to have you producing Applying Yourself.

So, yeah — it has been a while, admittedly, since I applied to law school, but it’s funny: the more things change, the more they stay the same. I get so excited to talk to candidates applying to law school, because I do think back to where I was, and I know I was just so — again, I hate to say “excited” so much — but so excited to go to law school. I was like, “This is my path. This is what I’m doing.” I was so confident that this was the path for me.

Along with the stress, there is this feeling of “what’s to come.” And law is so broad. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, but just knowing there were so many options out there.

I will say that I wish I would have taken advantage of resources available to me that I didn’t even know were available. We had a pre-law advisor — I didn’t meet with them. LSAC has so many resources now. I’m sure that there were resources then, but now it’s amazing, everything that they have.

So I think in some ways, I held myself back from applying in the most full way possible — like, really maximizing addenda, or little strategies and techniques. I checked the boxes, but may not have really used them to present the most robust version of myself, even though at the time I thought it was.

So I encourage everyone: look around, do an assessment, meet with a pre-law advisor, talk to people who have applied before you, and really survey what’s out there.

Taylor Yocom: Yeah, amazing. So, putting your admissions director hat back on — for applicants who are waiting to hear back from schools, what’s a productive thing to do right now, and what might not be productive while they’re waiting?

Claire O’Brien: Okay, so I’m joking, but I’m thinking — of course, I have to say, maybe what’s not productive is going on a website called Reddit.

No, I’m joking.

Taylor Yocom: I was going to say — does it rhyme with Reddit?

Claire O’Brien: Yeah, exactly. I mean, no — it’s nice. Whatever you’re doing, if it’s a taxing thing, even if it’s just waiting — you know, is this the phrase, “misery loves company”? Not that you should be miserable waiting, but it is nice to be around people who are going through a similar process.

So I joke when I say Reddit, because you can find community there. But I think there’s a lot of people trying to figure things out, and it’s easy to try to find a solution. Sometimes — like, a question we get is, “I interviewed this time, and I haven’t heard back.” It could be that the committee is looking for candidates from a certain region of the United States, or certain majors.

So it’s not necessarily linear. Like, “I applied, I got interviewed, then this happened.” Sometimes your file can be in a queue, and then the committee is like, “Let’s look at applicants from this state, or this area of the country, or this region, or who have this background.”

So I think keeping busy. Looking back — for example, WashU is free; you can apply for free — I think if I was waiting on other schools, I might say… this is not a plug to just have you all apply, but to find maybe schools that won’t cost money to apply to. I always think about the job search: if you get rejected, or if you haven’t heard back, send another application.

That’s one thing. I think, too, when I applied, I felt like it was a big wall. Like, you apply and then admissions offices are off-limits. That’s one thing I feel like WashU has tried to do — make it more transparent within reason, right? We can’t field questions about status every day — we just can’t do that. But if it’s been a while, I think it’s totally appropriate to say, “Just checking in with a status update,” or, “Just checking in to see — I interviewed at this date,” or, “I applied here. When am I expected to get a decision from the committee?”

I can’t even give, like, you know, I wouldn’t say it’s every three weeks or every month or every two months — but I think within reason is what I would say to reach out and just say, “Checking in,” or providing an update. “I have an updated resume. I started a new job. I got a promotion.” That’s a good way to connect, because sometimes whoever’s emailing will add it to your file and be like, “Oh wow, this person needs a decision.”

So I think communicating very reasonably with admissions offices can be an effective way to use the time.

Taylor Yocom: And when does it make sense for applicants to send a letter of continued interest to an admissions office?

Claire O’Brien: That’s tough too. I think it really is case-by-case. It’s such a fine line, because you don’t want to be the person who’s like — “Oh gosh, it’s this person again.” If you’re doing too much communication — like, being kind of cognizant of the volume that the particular office is getting.

But I think if it’s been some time since you have applied, or if you have an authentic update — like, if you did get promoted, or if you did start a new job, or if you did finish something or publish something — I think that’s a good way to do a letter of continued interest, kind of baked into an update to your application.

Taylor Yocom: That sounds like a more productive use of time than checking your status checker over and over again.

Claire O’Brien: Yes, yes. And just realizing too — this is easier said than done, and it’s so much easier to say this now that I’m out of it on the other side — but, like, being occupied with other things too.

Taylor Yocom: Yeah, I was going to say — you went to law school, you were a lawyer, things get stressful. Do you have any tips or fun things you like to do when you’re stressed that maybe an applicant might be able to pick up, too?

Claire O’Brien: Oh man — I actually feel like you have way more exciting hobbies, so I’m going to flip this question on you after this.

Taylor Yocom: Okay.

Claire O’Brien: Because mine are pretty… like, when I’m stressed, I run. Remember that day that I ran out one time, I had a stressful meeting and I ran seven miles before the meeting, because I was so nervous about it.

So for me, that’s the way it manifests — running, exercise, moving around, walking. But that’s pretty boring, and some people don’t… my husband’s like, “I would not like that.” Some people don’t like that. But I want you to tell the listeners what you do.

Taylor Yocom: Oh my gosh, thank you, Claire. Yeah — I’m an artist. Some of our applicants and listeners don’t know that. Right now, I picked up weaving, which is really fun, and sewing. I actually made this skirt over the weekend.

Claire comes into the office with, like, the coolest outfits, and she’s like, “Oh, I made this.”

Claire O’Brien: Thank you. But it’s not as easy as it looks, right?

Taylor Yocom: No — it’s very fun, though. It’s a fun challenge.

Claire O’Brien: And you teach. So Taylor graduated from Sam Fox here at WashU. Do you teach art now?

Taylor Yocom: I do some community classes. There’s a local reuse creative studio called Perennial, so I do some bookbinding and fiber art classes there. It’s really fun.

Claire O’Brien: So maybe applicants who are looking for a way to de-stress could check out Perennial.

Taylor Yocom: Yes. Shameless plug — fun place in St. Louis, lots of old vintage craft supplies for, like, $2 a pound.

Claire O’Brien: I think, too, another really important thing — so, I work as a pre-law advisor for WashU undergrad as well. Diversifying your applications. I think I was, like — I don’t know, maybe I would have been, like — I can’t say, “Oh, I was too safe,” because I would have gotten into the top schools. I’m not saying that, but I think that I squarely went on and was just like, “I think I could get into these schools I’m applying to.”

There’s something to be said for safety, but I also think diversifying applications. To the other angle, if you’re only applying to a certain ranking of school, then you might be waiting for a long time. So I think having some top-tier, highly-ranked schools, but then making sure you do have some targets, some safeties — really mixing it up, I think, is good. Because then you kind of get a mix of — what do they say on Reddit? — a mix of safe, you know, some rejections, and so on.

I always tell people: just diversify. Because I’ve seen people on both ends — people who maybe aren’t reaching as high as they could, and other people who are maybe reaching too high. We’ve got to have a good mix.

Taylor Yocom: And you can really only control your part of the application. You have no idea what the pool looks like.

Claire O’Brien: Exactly — or what admissions committees are looking for.

Taylor Yocom: That’s so true.

Claire O’Brien: So mix it up. And again — it’s so expensive to apply to law school, but hopefully… WashU’s been fee-free since 2019, and I think other schools are following suit on that. So that’s good.

Taylor Yocom: Well, thank you, Claire. Do you have any parting words — like, the one piece of advice you would have given yourself when you were applying to law school?

Claire O’Brien: Here’s what I would tell myself: it was the best decision I could have made. Even though now I’m not even traditionally practicing, I feel like having a JD has given me so many options career-wise that I didn’t even know existed. So I still get that excitement when people are like, “I’m going to go to law school,” because the possibilities are endless.

If you do your part — if you show up to class, if you try your best, do well, get good experiences, get good internships — the possibilities coming out of law school are really endless. So, yay.

Taylor Yocom: Amazing. Thank you, Claire.

Claire O’Brien: Yeah — and come visit us at WashU. We’d love to take you on a tour. Come visit us. And thanks for having me.

Taylor Yocom: Thank you. Thanks, everyone.