lawschoolnumbers.com

[bobfett33]

Well, his spot wouldn't really be TAKEN unless the Harvard admittee blows Harvard off and decides to go to Washington instead. 

Unless that happens, the spot would remain available for the other candidate.  And, don't all law schools seem to admit more people than they could handle, because they know that (depending on the school) 25-75% of the students they admit won't even go there?

[prelaw_undergrad]

You know what's weird about that site?  Half the people on it have applied to 25 schools (that's only a slight exaggeration.  That's like $2,000 in apps!).

Actually, I plan to apply to approx. 20-30 law schools (in a couple of years) and I won't have to pay most application fees.  I get financial aid, and if a person receives fin aid, law schools usually will give him/her a fee waiver.  I know that all of the public law schools (that I am considering) offer fee waivers and some private law schools offer fee waivers, as well. 

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And, don't all law schools seem to admit more people than they could handle, because they know that (depending on the school) 25-75% of the students they admit won't even go there?

The way a school handles a waitlist and the number of students the school originally accepts varies.  For instance, of the 7% of the applicants accepted at Yale, 75% actually attend.  Whereas Stanford admits 8% of all applicants, only 44% actually choose to attend Stanford.  So, in that case, Stanford may accept more students (or have a larger waitlist) than Yale would because over half of all people accepted at Stanford turn the school down. 

Just so you know, Yale Law School has the most accepted applicants who actually attend (75%, remember?), even more than Harvard (only 64% of those with accepted applications attend).

Also, visit this discussion to see what Ivy_Hopeful had to say about the waitlist methodology:

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,635

[Andrew]

some people do say in their profiles that they changed their scores to ensure they remain anonymous....

... i guess they feel their friends will recognize them by their scores?  Even though thousands of ppl could have the same scores as them..

That is too funny.  How many people do you have to tell of your LSAT and GPA before you begin to worry about people recognizing you by your scores on the internet?

[wolfman1977]

Hey Bobfett,

Sorry, my last post was a little unclear b/c I'd been drinking.  What I meant is that, if the guy who eventually ends up at Harvard also is accepted at Washington University, Washington University will likely reduce the number of other applicants it accepts by one.  So a candidate who would have otherwise made it will be waitlisted (or rejected) because of the Harvard guy.  What I neglected to mention is that I personally treat waitlists as rejections because of all the BS they entail.  So yeah, the dude who gets shafted by the Harvard gut could still get in if he's patient. 

[apartment]

What I meant is that, if the guy who eventually ends up at Harvard also is accepted at Washington University, Washington University will likely reduce the number of other applicants it accepts by one. 

Actually, I think this is generally untrue. If the number of applicants to a particular school rises, more people will be rejected and waitlisted (true), but that is a function of the size of the pool, not how it divvies up quality-wise.  Schools calculate their yield for each sub-pool of students.  So, say some tier 2 school gets 50 apps from applicants with 4.0 and 175 lsats.  They know from past experience that maybe 1% of applicants with these numbers have chosen to attend their school in the past.  Will these applicants be accepted?  Yes, of course.  Is the school counting on their coming?  No.  So they will not reduce remaining available acceptance by 50, probably more like one or two (on the off-chance one of the 50 will accept).

I think it's harder to see this behavior in schools because law school applicants can be self-selecting, but schools most definitely track these numbers.  They are also used to help dole out merit scholarships.  Schools are always looking to improve yield among a certain set.  That set, oddly, is not always the group with the highest numbers, but the group whose yield would be most influenced by x amount of dollars.  (Sort of why when you apply to a school that is a little 'beneath' you, you often get massive scholarships.  They know they can probably get you to show interest.)   

[apartment]

That is too funny.  How many people do you have to tell of your LSAT and GPA before you begin to worry about people recognizing you by your scores on the internet?

Maybe it is true paranoia, but I'd be more afraid someone on an admissions committee could identify me.  I have a couple of friends who work in graduate admissions, and I know they check out the different boards to see who is posting what about their schools.

I'm sure 99% of admissions committees, don't care and don't look, but I would bet a few school reps are curious to see how candidates rank them in terms of preference.

IDing a poster would be pretty easy.

[wolfman1977]

Touche- that's a good point about different yields for different applicant groups.  I've always wondered about that

[ebrumm]

I was thinking the same thing - Im glad I read this - I mean I thought I had done pretty well with a 164 only to log on to that site to see everyone and their mother had done just as well if not better! LOL

[tommriddle]

It sure seems like a self-selecting part of the poulation that posts their numbers, but I know it freaked me out when I thought my greatest advantage was just average (my gpa sucks).  For a little while, I was wondering if the average score increased this year.