The Law School for Veterans series was written by a friend of the site who is a current veteran student at a Top 10 Law School. Going from the military to law school can be a popular option for many veterans looking to take advantage of their GI Bill.
In Part V we discuss “the application cycle” while paying special attention to your role. Up front, understand that this is an almost full-year cycle. I’ll explain each part of this process in the micro, but in order to have full understanding it does help to have a macro view of the entire year. In order to do that I’m going to write this assuming you are wanting to start law school in September 2022.
September 1, 2021: Applications Open
All Year: Requests for Interviews Trickle in
October/November: Decisions Start
Halloween: Your Applications Should Be Complete
Mark’s note: Also, kids go trick-or-treating and everyone gets dressed up.
Christmas 2021: My Recommended Cutoff Date for 2022 Start
April 1, 2022: Seat Deposits Usually Due
Spring/Summer 2022: Ride Waitlists/Secure Housing/Prepare to Move
August/September 2022: Classes Start
Applications Open
Personally, this was probably the most exciting day of the entire process for me. I had worked hard and was so squared away with my materials that I was pumped to get applications in ASAP. I remember that it was a Saturday. I was stationed in Germany at the time so I set my alarm for 5am, did my PT, made my coffee, and I was at my computer at 6AM CET when it was 12 midnight EST. You needn’t be THAT nerdy, but I say that to give you an idea of how some of your competitors feel. When you’ve prepared for something you’re excited about, it puts you in a very positive mindset. Schools have all their available seats and money at the wait and you’re ready to bust through the doors with your best foot forward. It’s a good feeling.
It takes, on average, about 20-30 minutes to apply to each school. Each school’s application is a bit different and you really must go slowly and follow the instructions 100%. You don’t want to make a sloppy first impression. You want to attach and double check all your documents if only to make sure you don’t mistakenly submit a “Why Duke” essay to Penn. Most applicants will have between 3 and 15 schools to which they’re applying. If you’re in the latter camp, expect it to take all day. I discussed the packet previously in Part IV.
Mark’s note: Definitely take your time. When I reached out to the veterans’ clubs at MBA programs, I was emailing so many that I was just copying and pasting the same message. I inadvertently addressed one school as another. Didn’t look good for me.
Additionally, some schools don’t open their applications specifically on September 1. A few schools open earlier (Arizona State comes to mind) and a few later (Georgetown did in my cycle). You can check the date on LSAC’s website.
Early Decision Agreements
Before you read this section any further, understand this: if you apply “binding early decision (ED)” to a school and they accept you, you have entered into a contract that mandates that you immediately withdraw all other applications, send in your deposit, and start school there in the fall. If you decide NOT to attend a school which has admitted you under binding early decision, your only other option is to sit out a cycle and try again the next year. You lose all other options and all of your scholarship negotiation leverage. For almost ALL applicants, early decision programs make zero sense. You’re essentially agreeing to attend one school with no financial aid. There are worse financial decisions to make, but they aren’t common. Law school at sticker price is almost always a bad investment.
Mark’s note: This is actually different than for MBA programs. Your decision to accept an early placement does not contractually bind you. All you stand to lose is the deposit.
However, for vets on full GI Bill, this math is drastically different. You’ve already paid for your benefits. The deterioration in your knees, back, and mental health spent during your time serving your country have already guaranteed the check. As such, I recommend you do your homework on early decision options to see if they make sense for you. There are two ways that I see this making sense for a veteran.
The first option is pretty straightforward. If you’re tied to a local region and there’s really only one school that makes sense to attend, applying early decision lets them know you’re serious. An early acceptance at your ideal school will give you peace of mind very early in the process. However, there might be other ways to achieve this effect that don’t involve giving up your flexibility. For example, you could call the admissions office and schedule a visit as a prospective student. Let them know on your visit that you’re region tied and want to make it clear that you’re serious. That probably gets the job done without giving up your flexibility.
However, if your numbers are above this school’s median numbers, you might be giving up special opportunities for scholarship stipends. This is especially true if this is a public school and not a private school.
In short, I can see the rationale for applying early decision at Minnesota if you’re completely tied to Minneapolis. But understand that if your numbers are above their medians, you might be giving up significant additional stipend scholarship leverage by doing so.
What about the second option?
The second option is the more common option. Many applicants, especially “splitters” assume that even if they can sneak into a T14, they won’t be getting any scholarship money on account of the fact that they aren’t above both medians. That calculation then drives them toward “leveraging” the binding early decision process to try and get as many “admissions bumps” from T14s as possible. Long story short, schools have incentive to admit people that they know will pay full price and will attend if offered. Please note, all of this is subject to change on the whims of each department. If it has changed, do the research to find your best strategy. With that said, the current route looks like this:
- ASAP: Apply early decision to Virginia (they turn around applications for this in 3 business weeks)
- If not accepted at Virginia, apply early decision at Duke: They turn around quickly as well. There is an argument that you should do them first, especially if they email you before you apply. It’s probably school preference between UVA/Duke.
- If not accepted at either Virginia or Duke, apply ED to Michigan: Their timeline is usually later, but they have a good admissions crew at Michigan and they’re likely to get you an answer before Thanksgiving. Last I checked, their application guaranteed an answer by January 1.
- If no ED acceptance yet, Apply ED to Penn. They have a January round for ED.
That path of four covers the totality of schools in the T14 where you probably stand a chance with a nice bump from applying early decision. In most cases, if you aren’t accepted, they do not flat out reject you, they just release you from the binding contract and roll you over into the regular decision pool. With that said, chances of an acceptance at that point probably depend on them having a weaker crop of applicants (maybe veteran applicants) than they otherwise expect.
A final note on early decision, some schools have special “scholarship option” early decision programs. Northwestern comes to mind. These programs are designed to attract candidates who would otherwise go to a higher ranked school. That being the case, if you’re not above both medians for that school, you’re probably not competitive. And even if you are, you should call their admissions office and ask what an acceptance under that program would look like financially when combined with the GI Bill.
Interviews
Law school interviews, for the most part, are a sanity check. If you are offered one, your chances of admittance are likely above 50%. In some cases, it may be closer to 95%. There are several schools, Georgetown and Vanderbilt immediately come to mind, where an interview is seen as an almost essential part of the admissions process. You should be prepared to interview and interview well.
So how do these shake out?
It’s usually one of three ways:
(1) You interview with an admissions officer.
(2) You interview with an alum of the school who was assigned to interview you.
(3) You submit an automated online interview after getting instructions in your email.
No matter what format your interview takes, it’s important to remember that if you’ve made it to the interview, your mindset should be, going in, that you’re a presumed admit. Thus, your job is not to spout off about your accomplishments or ask probing questions about sensitive topics in the admissions world. No, instead it’s to seem like a normal person. Be able to talk about your interests. Find something that aligns with the school with which you’re interviewing. Prepare a few good questions. Do not come off like a jerk. You don’t have to impress anybody at this point.
So much of legal work is adapting and excelling during stressful times. Lawyers want to know that you are someone who they’ll be able to work with when the stress hits. How do you show this? You show it by being professional, prepared, curious, and kind. One mantra that I have found works well in these situations is “take what you do seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.”
If you’re doing an online interview, and these are becoming more and more common, make sure you’ve set up a space that has a clean background. Prepare your home by shutting off all devices and making sure you have privacy for the entirety of the interview. Finally, dress professionally. Treat this as a job interview. Fresh haircut. Professional makeup. Business formal. Even if you’re on a webcam. Don’t give them a reason to think you’re not taking this seriously.
It goes without saying, but if you do not respond to a request for an interview, or else decline to make time for your interviewer, you are probably not getting in. These are busy, professional people, and they’re doing their diligence for this process. They expect you to meet them at least halfway. Be professional and as accommodating as possible. I did an interview from Germany where I took a pass to go home and interview during the normal business hours. I also took a 4-day pass to go take the LSAT. If you want to change careers, these are the kinds of adult decisions that you might need to make.
Decisions
Decisions come at a frustratingly irregular pace. I was incredibly fortunate. I knew where I was headed on September 25 (see the early decision section above), but that’s not normal. Most folks don’t start receiving decisions before Thanksgiving and many are still waiting at Easter. This is the hard part about getting your applications in early. It leaves you months of time to spend with your doubts and second guesses.
You can really torture yourself by checking decision trackers and online forums. I don’t think this is good for your mental health. It’s probably okay to let yourself have five or ten minutes a day to worry about these sort of out-of-your-hands problems, but be sure to continue living your life in a healthy way. Don’t let the stress consume you.
There are four possible decisions you can receive from a law school: an offer for admission, a flat rejection, a “hold tight” email of some variety, or a waitlist spot. Each one is discussed below.
Acceptance
Woo! You did it! Now look at all this paperwork and all these instructions! Lawyers get paid to read, understand, and follow instructions. Consider this another step along the path to becoming a lawyer. Make sure you read EVERYTHING they send. Pay special attention to dates, timelines, dollar amounts, and deadlines. You don’t want to blow something because you didn’t read closely. At this point, if you have questions, you should 100% call their admissions department and ask them. You’re an admit now, so the power has shifted completely. They’re now trying to convince you to attend as opposed to you trying to convince them to let you in. Understand that, but don’t let it give you an excuse to be a jerk. Remain polite, deferential, and kind. But at the same time, they’re there to help. Take advantage of that.
Rejection
Don’t try to talk yourself out of a rejection. A rejection is a rejection. The only thing you will do if you don’t take “no” for an answer is piss them off and guarantee they will reject you again if you decide to sit out a year and apply again.
If you’re hit with ALL rejections after you’ve applied to a wide range of schools (reaches/targets/safeties) it’s probably time to seek some professional help (admissions consulting) and try again next cycle. Most likely you were too aggressive with your school selection. But people get rejected all the time for having bad packets. You may have done your best on your own and your best still wasn’t good enough. But that doesn’t mean you’re finished forever.
Never forget, as I mentioned in Part III, there is usually nothing more effective at changing the strength of your application than a few more points on the LSAT.
Hold Tight Email
These are becoming frustratingly common in the admissions world. They usually show up in January or February after you’ve already been waiting for months. Why do they happen so often? Two reasons. First, they’re tired of your cohort calling them and whining about the time it’s taking to make decisions. The more quantitative reason is that it’s because schools are adjusting their numbers targets based on changes in applicant data from the first few months of the cycle. If the school was previously targeting a 166 LSAT median, and they suddenly have a rush of applicants over that number, they might be waiting to see if it’s a realistic goal to set that number up to 167 or even 168.
Again, LSAT is king here in many cases. 2020-20201 has been especially brutal with a rush of high LSAT scorers. In fact, there are enough 165+ applicants to fill every seat at every Top 50 school this cycle. Whereas from 2016-2019 a 165 was probably a lock to end up in the Top 20 in almost every case, this year it’s not. That’s why these emails go out.
Waitlist
These should be treated as soft rejections with a “to do” list attached. Do not expect to get off a waitlist. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow the instructions. Each school will probably have a handful of slots open up throughout the summer, or even as late as the week class starts, where they need to offer admission to someone on a waitlist. As such, you should keep a few things in mind.
First, your application’s theme and story that I harped on in Part IV starts doing real work here. The fact that you’re a memorable veteran on the waitlist makes you identifiable. If someone doesn’t show up to the first day of orientation in August and the school needs a body quickly, suddenly your professionalism and ability to adapt as a veteran make you a pretty attractive candidate to admit off the waitlist.
Having said that, you should absolutely fill out the paperwork that the school asks you to fill out if you want to remain on the waitlist. After that, sometime in June or so, you should send in a “Letter of Continued Interest” that informs them that you wish to remain on the waitlist. They will probably make waitlist cuts throughout the summer, so this is a nice way to ensure you’re not one of the great mass of forgotten applicants on the waitlist. If you would 100% deposit immediately and commit to attend, this is the point you should let schools know that. There’s no harm in saying this to every school on which you are riding a waitlist, as long as you immediately withdraw your applications everywhere else if you are subsequently admitted off of one.
One final note, waitlists can literally run into September. I know people who started orientation at one school before they got the call off the waitlist at another school, packed up their stuff that day, and started class somewhere else after missing that school’s orientation. Flexibility here is key.
Scholarship Decisions
Schools also take a varied approach to issuing scholarships. Some issue them at the time of acceptance, some send them one by one a bit later, and some issue all the admitted students their scholarship offers at the same time in the spring. As a GI Bill applicant, you must be aware of a few things.
The GI Bill is a “last payer”
This one trips people up because it doesn’t make intuitive sense until you really think about it. Let’s say you’re rated for 70% GI Bill. Then let’s say you get into The University of Florida and they offer you a $20,000 scholarship. Florida’s annual tuition and fees run around $38,000 at the time of publishing.
So how much will you owe out of pocket for Florida?
Who pays first matters in this analysis. If the government was the first payer, the GI Bill would cover all but about $11,000 of the bill, and Florida would cover at least the last $11k and possibly even cut you a check for the remaining $9k. That’s NOT how it works, though. Instead, the GI Bill pays last. Instead, Florida discounts its tuition to $18,000 (their scholarship goes first) and then the GI Bill will cover 70% of the remainder, all but $5,400 of the remaining bill. That means YOU will be cutting Florida a check for $5,400 each year for tuition and fees.
If you have 100% GI Bill, this is where things change. Many public schools still want you to attend, and they still want to give you money. As such, if the government already has agreed to cover your full tuition, they will sometimes offer you an additional “living stipend”. Off the top of my head, I know that both Virginia and Michigan in the T14 do this.
This does beg the question, if public schools can do this with a 100% applicant, why couldn’t they do it with the 70% applicant mentioned above. That is, why couldn’t they code that $20k scholarship to Florida as a living stipend which would then fix the “last payer” problem mentioned above. Truthfully, I don’t know. If I was an applicant who was in that situation, would I call their admissions office and ask that question? YES! The worst they can do is say no. They’re not going to pull your admission offer for a logical question like that.
Yellow Ribbon Program
The last piece to the puzzle is the Yellow Ribbon Program (YRP). Many private schools, including all in the T14, participate in YRP. The way this works is that the GI Bill covers up to a maximum amount of money and then the government and the university agree to match the rest of the tuition and fees payments dollar for dollar. In that sense, if you’re admitted to Harvard or Columbia under their YRP allotments, it’s almost like you’re gaining an automatic scholarship. This is how you end up going to Harvard for free and, again, why you have such a massive financial advantage over the vast majority of all other applicants. This does require 100% GI Bill, though. If you don’t have it, you should figure out how to get it before you go to law school. It’s that valuable.
Deposits
These are self explanatory. You pay a deposit against your fall tuition bill (to be refunded later if you’re on 100% GI Bill) to secure your seat in the class. Schools want commitments in the spring for their incoming classes so that they can finalize numbers and start grabbing folks off their waitlists. This can be an extra expense for vets that they don’t anticipate, mine was $1,000, so be sure to prepare accordingly. If this is an extreme hardship for you, I recommend that you call the school admissions department and ask if you can be set up with a payment plan.
There are only two scenarios of any special interest here: multiple deposits, and deposit extensions.
Multiple Deposits
The first deposit deadline typically allows you to make the deposit without a binding commitment to attend. As such, if you want to lock down your seat at both school X and Y both, presumably because you are unsure of which you would like to attend for whatever reason, it’s allowable to do this. Be aware that these are non-refundable deposits, though. You aren’t seeing this money ever again. Be aware though that schools do share this information after a certain date. If you are deposited at multiple schools at that point, it’s very likely that each school will know about the other. They may press you for an actual decision at that point.
Deposit Extensions
If you are in the situation listed above, it’s probably better to just call and ask for a short extension, especially if legitimate circumstances are still pending that would affect your ultimate decision. Schools don’t have to say yes, but they will probably understand a professional request and at least consider it. It’s on you to present your case appropriately.
Waitlists in the Late Game
First of all, there’s no shame in riding a waitlist until they release you. In fact, I’ve seen students get released from waitlists a full month after they started classes at another school. That’s life. Most of these late acceptances give you 24-48 business hours to accept the offer. The later in the game you’re offered, the less time you have. I know someone who was offered at 9AM when someone failed to show for orientation at a T14 and they gave him until COB to accept. He was in orientation at another top school, accepted, notified the folks there that he would be attending elsewhere, and hopped in his truck to drive across the country. This is the kind of flexibility you need if you’re going to ride waitlists.
There are individual applicant strategies for this. I recommend that you send an additional Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI) each month, letting the school know that, if accepted, you would immediately deposit and commit to attending. It goes without saying that if you aren’t willing to do that, don’t say that. But in the waitlist game, it’s such a longshot to get accepted off even one single waitlist, that you should only really ride the waitlists that you would for sure accept if offered.
Conclusion
Whereas the previous parts of this series have given you checklists that contain items under your own control, this part does not. I can tell you to write a good personal statement and give you tips on how to improve. I cannot make an admissions department go faster to consider your application. There are some parts of this process over which you have no control.
This can be taxing mentally and emotionally. There is a good chance you will enter April without a 100% lock on where you will be in August. Think about it. That’s eight months of unease and worry waiting for enough information to make a smart decision. Whatever you do, do not do anything to show a lack of professionalism in the process. If you’re talking on the phone with an administrative assistant, be respectful and professional. Do not go around bad mouthing schools on social media. Don’t be a jerk to other applicants. Your reputation is currency once you enter law school. It’s better to start acting like that matters as soon as you’re an applicant. Be respectful. Be helpful. Be professional.
The final chapter in this series will include a brief discussion of what to do between acceptance and matriculation and a far lengthier discussion on tips to doing well once you start law school.
Next: Military to Law School: Starting Law School (Part 6/7)
Related Articles:
How To Maximize Your MBA With The GI Bill
7 (Free!) Online Classes for Veterans
5 Books to Read During Your Military Transition
GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.