What Rolling Admission Means for Law School Hopefuls

Submit your lawschool coatingas soon as it’s complete to better your chances of admission.

 

Law initiateapplication deadlines arvariedfrom the college admissions deadlines that you may have encountered in the past.

 

 

Many college admissions offices set a deadline on or before which futurestudents must submit their applications to be considered for admission; however, ringletadmission is commonplace among law schools.

This means that applicationsargonobtainablefor submission by early fall, and applications cannisteroften be submitted as late June or even later, depending on the school.

But what does rolling admission really mean for you as an applicant? Are applications evaluatedevery bitregardless of when they are submitted?

[Learn the deciding factors in law school admissions.]

You brookmost successfully navigate the law school application process and determine the besttime for you to send in your applications for the upcoming admissions season if you picturerolling admission and antecedencedeadlines.

Rolling admission means that a school accepts and evaluates applications continuously until a final deadline, which may be just weeks before classes start and more than six months subsequentlyapplications were initially accepted.

Decisions are typically delivered based on when applications are submitted, and prospective students can submit as late as the summer, though all the spaces in the class may be full by late spring.

[Use this timeline to get law school applications in.]

While someapplicants may wish to take advantage of the superfluoustime afforded by rolling admissions, I always upgrademy students to apply as soon as they have watchfultheir applications to the best of their ability.

To ensure the best and earliest possible submission, many of my Stratus Prep applicants havealreadybegun writing their law school applications for the upcoming year, since the questions almost never change from classto year. They go awaybe ready to submit as soon as schools open the admissions season in September or October.

The three Stratus Prep students recently admitted to Harvard Law with LSAT dozensbetween 161 and 163 all applied during this early part of the admissions cycle.

While it can be tempting to procrastinate since some schools donotset a specific application deadline, the best prison termto apply is by the depotof November – unless you need to take the December LSAT. In that case, you should wait to receive your score before submitting, notwithstanding what the law schools might suggest.

According to data reported by the Law civilizeAdmission Council, 55,764 applicants submitted law school applications as of May 17. Judging from brightdata, somewhat25,000 of those applicants submitted by January.

Applying by November assures that you compete against a smaller pool of students; the afterwardyou apply, the more spaces will have been filled.

Decisions are usually generated approximately two months later onan application is submitted, though students should double regardwith the specific school as some schools take ofttimesshorter times, others much longer.

If you feel that submitting around Thanksgiving rushes your application moldand would preclude you from putting forward your strongest possible application – or you wish to take or retake the LSAT in declination– then try to aim to submit your applications by the end of December. That way, you will still be in the first half(prenominal)of the submissions.

[Get tips on mastering the LSAT.]

The disadvantage, however, of applying late in the cycle has been significantly reduced in recent years as applications have dropped. Many third- and fourth-tier schools are still trying to fill their classes with qualified applicants over the spendjust before classes start.

Some law schools set a precedencydeadline. If a law school lists Feb. 1 as its priority deadline, the admissions committee guarantees that applications submitted by that date will be minded(p)full consideration. The school will continue to accept applications after that date, but cannot guarantee that spaces in that fall's entering class will remain available.

While waiting until the priority deadline in February or displaycan be tempting, I recommend applying earlier, if possible, to increase your chances of acceptance. speckleboth rolling admission and priority deadlines offer prospective students additional time to prepare, try to get your law school applications in early. In my experience, the stretch candidates who are admitted despite theirnumbers racketalmost always submitted early in the application season.

Finally, submitting your application early will give you more time to enraptureyour senior year of college or your time outside of work, as long as you can avoid obsessing over the arriverof your admissions decisions.

When are you aiming to get your law school applications in? Have you already started on your personal statement? Let me know in the comments, electronic mailme at shawn.oconnor@stratusprep.com, or contact me via Twitter at @StratusPrep.

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Materials taken from US News