<p>Now that the 2009/2010 admission cycle is almost history, I was curious if anyone noticed changes or trends that may affect future applicants. Figure we may as well give some insight and assistance to those who will be applying over the next few years. </p>
<p>As I was always more observant in following trends for "cuspy" T-14 admissions, I paid more attention to schools in the T10-20 range and applicants with an LSAT range of 166/169, so this is what I noticed:</p>
<p>GPA's seem to count alot. There really appeared to be a big jump in what was needed for a T-14 acceptance with a mid/high 160 LSAT. In previous years, a 3.5/168 or 3.4/169 had a very decent shot at Georgetown or Cornell. Not this year. It seemed that gpa really mattered. The 3.8/167 seemed to have as good of a shot as the 3.4/169 as GPA's seemed to be a more important factor than in past years. Splitters did not seem to do as well as they did in the past. Again- this was just observation, anectodal and based on info I saw on LSN/TLS- but just want to pass along that grades do count alot
--so I suggest to those still in school, concentrate on your grades. They seem to matter more now than before. </p>
<p>what's with Duke? They just offered some current waitlisted applicants the opportunity to apply ED for 2011. Duke will give a decision by 7/16. If accepted those kids have to withdraw all offers and go to Duke in 2011. Some discussion on TLS. Doesn't seem to have a down side for the applicants. I am sure Duke will use this to boost their rankings on USWNR- but this took everyone by surprise. May also open up some spots in lower T-14-20 as some people seem to be taking Duke up on the offer. So there may be more waitlist movement. Seems like some kids who were set to go to Fordham and U T and taking Duke up on this offer. Can't blame them.</p>
<p>I read the thread last night. some students have already been accepted. for students who were waitlisted at duke and duke is high on their list, if accepted the only down side might be $$. But if picked up from the waitlist there probably wasn’t going to be much money.</p>
<p>Others commented that Duke is actually only going to take a few students through this route. It makes me wonder if others will follow suit next year.</p>
<p>Hi Sybbie-
Duke’s action does seem to add a new twist to law school admission process.</p>
<p>Northwestern sometimes asked certain acceptees if the would defer for a year- but their was usually a nice scholarship offer in the package to make it financial worth one’s while to wait an additional year.
Duke is just offering a spot in the class for the following year. But for some kids, that offer might be good enough.</p>
<p>I don’t know if other schools will make the offer this year as they are basing the admission on this year’s application and school starts in about 6 weeks . We’ll see what ensues next cycle.
(or maybe not- I think I’ve gone through enough cycles already- it’s getting time to move on.)
Good luck to all future applicants.</p>
<p>Agreed. Definitely an interesting move on Duke’s part because a lot of people send letters of continued interest but don’t really mean them. As in, they might be interested but if they get a WL offer higher up the food chain, they will withdraw and attend there instead. ED is an easy way to snag people whose first choice really is Duke. On the other hand, some might really have Duke as their #1 but don’t want to wait another year. I think it would be interesting if schools their ED deadlines to late in the cycle like UVA did. If Duke offers ED for 2010, I’m sure they will get many more going that route but the issue in their case is over-enrollment already for this year. Too bad they will probably make fewer offers next year. </p>
<p>I think what would be really interesting is if Stanford starts offering ED because then they can really test people’s commitment to them vs. Harvard and Yale. They seem to lose out a lot to the latter two.</p>
<p>I forgot about UVA- they also did something different this cycle. If I remember correctly- they re-opened the ED deadline fairly late in the cycle (around Jan./ Feb?). So I guess if you were already rejected from your favorite schools- it still wasn’t too late to have your application re-considered as an ED applicant. Or it might have been for new applicants only. My d didn’tr apply to UVA so I didn’t follow their admission cycle that carefully.
My hunch is these schools are not doing it to be considerate it to the applicants- but to keep their yield #'s up.
For whatever reason- it can help certain candidates- so it’s all good.
also- in fairness to Duke, I think this was the first year Duke did ED for regular JD candidates.- so maybe they are still playing around with their ED process.</p>