Hey Guys,
Greetings from Dublin! I was having trouble thinking of a good topic for this weeks newsletter so I went over to Anna Ivey’s blog. This blog is a great resource for you guys and I think you could learn a lot about the application process by checking this blog frequently. That said I found this great posting about early decision deadlines that Id like to share with you
Cheers,
Imran
Law School Early Decision deadlines are coming up, so it's a good time to revisit the topic. Under what circumstances does it make sense to apply ED? (And for these purposes, I assume "Early Decision" is binding.) A couple of thoughts:
- The Early Decision commitment will not overcome an otherwise weak application. If you're less than competitive for an ED school, they aren't likely to snap you up out of the early pool. Rather, they'll probably want to roll you over into the regular pool so that they can see how their applicants are shaping up that year. For that reason...
- If you're in your fall semester of senior year, applying Early Decision makes sense only if you are already at your strongest academically. You still have two semesters of grades ahead of you, and many college students do their most interesting and important work senior year. Unless your GPA is already at its peak by the end of junior year, it might make sense to reconsider your application timeline. People who have upward trending grades throughout college would be cutting off a sizable fraction of that trajectory. Especially if you have academic weaknesses to mitigate from the earlier part of college, you'll want to show them a stellar senior year's worth of grades. In theory, you could wait until your first semester is done to submit your applications, but at many law schools, especially the most competitive ones, that's already pretty late in the game. If you're not at your strongest at the start of senior year, consider putting off your apps for a cycle so that you can apply with the benefit of your senior year accomplishments.
- If you are accepted into your ED program, do whatever it is you agreed to do when you made the binding commitment. Does your ED school require you to withdraw all your other applications if you're admitted? (That's the typical case.) If so, withdraw immediately. Not next week. Not two months later. Some applicants are tempted to leave their other applications in place, mostly out of curiosity ("I know I've committed myself, but I really want to know if I get into Yale"), but sometimes also in the hope that they can "upgrade" if a better offer comes along. Neither situation is kosher if you're required to withdraw. Plus, your "upgrade" school could very well take a dim view of you reneging on your ED obligations to another school. The law school admissions world is a small one.
Imran Haque is a 3L at USC Gould School of Law & a graduate intern at the Office of College Advising
