...more on the waiting game

We are starting to get a huge number of calls and emails from people who are at their wits end waiting to hear back from law schools. On one such call this morning I said the following, that I want to share with everyone:

From the applicants (or admitted students perspective waiting for merit awards) the wait seems agonizingly long. I understand that –I’d have to be emotionless not to. Outreach to use from anxious prospective students has been off the charts. But from the lens of the dean of admissions, we are still in the early innings. They know, just as they have experienced every cycle, that they will be filling a class all the way until September. Stanford Law, for example, admitted students off of the wait list right before classes started. So, sticking with the baseball analogy, one of the few very highly successful law schools last cycle was still playing smallball until Sept. Schools also know there is going to be a great deal of what they refer to as “summer melting” this cycle. For many schools, this means 50% or more of their entering classes will come from summer admits. All of this means one simple thing — this cycle is very early in the eyes of the admissions office. Quite frankly, just as you might have trouble understanding why your file went complete in December and you have not heard from them…they find it strange that applicants are sending in perpetual updates this early for seemingly no reason. From their viewpoint, it makes little sense.

I do not know if this help with the wait, but I do know that every cycle it happens just like this. We are still early in the game. When the lights come on and it is middle innings and you should be doing something, we’ll let you know. Indeed, we will tweet just that at:

https://twitter.com/SpiveyConsult

Until then sit tight. Hopefully the view from the other side isn’t so bad either.