Harvard Law c/o 2020 Waitlist Forum

[appind]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

you actually can't defer any WL offers unless the school chooses to make a special exception for you (the only people I know of who were able to do this were all dual degree students enrolled in another H program)

it seems accepting the offer may come with some sort of deposit, the kind that direct admits (not from WL) have to do to show that they plan to attend. Else there may be more people who would accept an offer from WL but not enroll.

If one deposits after accepting from WL, then if they decide to decline, they may forfeit their deposit, but there shouldn't be any more penalty than that. i think they can apply next cycle without it impacting anything.

[Rigo]

Harvard doesn't do deposits, I don't think.
I do kind of think you're screwing yourself next year if you stay on the waitlist, get an offer, and then don't matriculate whether by declining the offer or withdrawing later.

I mean do what you need to do and don't force yourself to matriculate if it ends up being too expensive, but I wouldn't hold your breath if you reapply to Harvard next year, since it will be clear you just retook for more money at lower ranked schools and Harvard's financial aid package won't be too different year to year.

Note that I think there is only a black mark on your application if you turn down an acceptance after riding the waitlist. If you withdraw from the waitlist at any point before an offer and then reapply next year, I don't think they'll hold that against you.

[eck456]

Harvard doesn't do deposits, I don't think.
I do kind of think you're screwing yourself next year if you stay on the waitlist, get an offer, and then don't matriculate whether by declining the offer or withdrawing later.

I mean do what you need to do and don't force yourself to matriculate if it ends up being too expensive, but I wouldn't hold your breath if you reapply to Harvard next year, since it will be clear you just retook for more money at lower ranked schools and Harvard's financial aid package won't be too different year to year.

Note that I think there is only a black mark on your application if you turn down an acceptance after riding the waitlist. If you withdraw from the waitlist at any point before an offer and then reapply next year, I don't think they'll hold that against you.

Can verify from personal experiences and taking to Hls admissions team about it (tho they did just put me right back on the WL where I was last year, so do with that what you will)

[appind]

Harvard doesn't do deposits, I don't think.
I do kind of think you're screwing yourself next year if you stay on the waitlist, get an offer, and then don't matriculate whether by declining the offer or withdrawing later.

I mean do what you need to do and don't force yourself to matriculate if it ends up being too expensive, but I wouldn't hold your breath if you reapply to Harvard next year, since it will be clear you just retook for more money at lower ranked schools and Harvard's financial aid package won't be too different year to year.

Note that I think there is only a black mark on your application if you turn down an acceptance after riding the waitlist. If you withdraw from the waitlist at any point before an offer and then reapply next year, I don't think they'll hold that against you.

Can verify from personal experiences and taking to Hls admissions team about it (tho they did just put me right back on the WL where I was last year, so do with that what you will)

did you decline after WL? numbers change from last year?

[Npret]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

you actually can't defer any WL offers unless the school chooses to make a special exception for you (the only people I know of who were able to do this were all dual degree students enrolled in another H program)

it seems accepting the offer may come with some sort of deposit, the kind that direct admits (not from WL) have to do to show that they plan to attend. Else there may be more people who would accept an offer from WL but not enroll.

If one deposits after accepting from WL, then if they decide to decline, they may forfeit their deposit, but there shouldn't be any more penalty than that. i think they can apply next cycle without it impacting anything.

That's the question I'm raising but it's academic for me. I think accepting from the waitlist and not attending will hurt you the next year because what more can Harvard offer you? You've already turned them down and it can look like you just want to use them for negotiation purposes even though that isn't true.

It might be worth investigating if you think you won't attend this year. It's unlikely you will get more money next year because tuition, etc will also increase.

I don't know the answer but I wouldn't assume you could accept but then not attend and expect that not to hurt you next year at Harvard.

[gargleblaster]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

I know of one person who was accepted to Harvard and retook the LSAT and then didn't get accepted the next year.

I have no idea if that could apply to people off the waitlist. It would be interesting to know. The question is if you turn down Harvard's best offer, will they believe you want to attend the next year?

I also don't remember who that was but they post here so maybe you could find it.

If I turn down Harvard's best offer I wouldn't apply next year since I know they would be unaffordable. Problem is that right now I don't know if they will be affordable. Already have good $$$ to other schools, would just go for that next year.

[gargleblaster]

Harvard doesn't do deposits, I don't think.
I do kind of think you're screwing yourself next year if you stay on the waitlist, get an offer, and then don't matriculate whether by declining the offer or withdrawing later.

I mean do what you need to do and don't force yourself to matriculate if it ends up being too expensive, but I wouldn't hold your breath if you reapply to Harvard next year, since it will be clear you just retook for more money at lower ranked schools and Harvard's financial aid package won't be too different year to year.

Note that I think there is only a black mark on your application if you turn down an acceptance after riding the waitlist. If you withdraw from the waitlist at any point before an offer and then reapply next year, I don't think they'll hold that against you.

I agree with your analysis. I would not be applying next year to H if I knew they couldn't make it rain $$ for me. Since I'd already know that one way or another if they let me in and I accept, it's a moot point.

I'm not planning to turn them down and then reapply next year hoping that the get a lot more geneous or something - that seems most unlikely

[appind]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

I know of one person who was accepted to Harvard and retook the LSAT and then didn't get accepted the next year.

I have no idea if that could apply to people off the waitlist. It would be interesting to know. The question is if you turn down Harvard's best offer, will they believe you want to attend the next year?

I also don't remember who that was but they post here so maybe you could find it.

If I turn down Harvard's best offer I wouldn't apply next year since I know they would be unaffordable. Problem is that right now I don't know if they will be affordable. Already have good $$$ to other schools, would just go for that next year.

what exactly can a black mark affect? turning down an acceptance can be after offer and declining, or accepting offer and then withdrawing. the second may be worse, but i am sure that happens to some people.

[appind]

nu pole

[Npret]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

I know of one person who was accepted to Harvard and retook the LSAT and then didn't get accepted the next year.

I have no idea if that could apply to people off the waitlist. It would be interesting to know. The question is if you turn down Harvard's best offer, will they believe you want to attend the next year?

I also don't remember who that was but they post here so maybe you could find it.

If I turn down Harvard's best offer I wouldn't apply next year since I know they would be unaffordable. Problem is that right now I don't know if they will be affordable. Already have good $$$ to other schools, would just go for that next year.

I don't understand. Can't you estimate what your need based aid will be?

[Npret]

If accepted I'll def accept their offer.

If they don't come through with financial aid I feel like I'll just drop out and reapply next year

I know of one person who was accepted to Harvard and retook the LSAT and then didn't get accepted the next year.

I have no idea if that could apply to people off the waitlist. It would be interesting to know. The question is if you turn down Harvard's best offer, will they believe you want to attend the next year?

I also don't remember who that was but they post here so maybe you could find it.

If I turn down Harvard's best offer I wouldn't apply next year since I know they would be unaffordable. Problem is that right now I don't know if they will be affordable. Already have good $$$ to other schools, would just go for that next year.

what exactly can a black mark affect? turning down an acceptance can be after offer and declining, or accepting offer and then withdrawing. the second may be worse, but i am sure that happens to some people.

The thought is that they won't admit you again. But I don't know. I just know of one person who declined admission to retake and wasn't admitted.

If someone gets admitted off the waitlist why would they decline and then reapply? Maybe if some real life issue happens. Maybe admissions understands a unique situation.I dont know. It seems like they are intense about the waitlist.

[Alexandros]

.

[enoca]

Harvard very elaborately explains their need based formulas on their website. You might not be able to get an exact number beforehand, but you should be able to ballpark it already.

[Pyrex]

Have all of those on the waitlist submitted the fafsa to HLS? Is it required for regular and waitlisted admits? I can't find much about the fafsa on their site, but I know SLS and YLS require it.

I called and asked back in January actually, they said Harvard doesn't use Fafsa at all and that I didn't have to anything regarding financial aid until such time as I was accepted.

[Pyrex]

What is MVPB?

[Rigo]

What is MVPB?

Really?
Michigan UVA Penn Berkeley

[sittykitty]

What is MVPB?

Most Valuable Peanut Butter

[Rigo]

What is MVPB?

Most Valuable Peanut Butter

Also known as Nutella

[SpookySalem92]

WoH, why is there such a huge swing toward CLS over
Chicago/NYU? I guess that surprises me a bit

[Pyrex]

WoH, why is there such a huge swing toward CLS over
Chicago/NYU? I guess that surprises me a bit

1) small sample size, etc
2) for nyu at least, a ton of people didn't hear back until the last week.

[SpookySalem92]

I've seen that from a bunch of different place this year, which is odd because my experience was the exact opposite this cycle. I received my NYU decision (via voicemail) about 3 weeks after I applied; CLS took three times as long to get back to me, same with Chicago.

[Rigo]

People love northeast prestigious schools, and most people with (borderline since WL) H numbers have Columbia numbers. Really no surprise here.

[SpookySalem92]

No, the surprise would be that there's that strong a preference for Columbia over Chicago (or even NYU, really). If publicly available, I'd be curious to see enrollment data for cross-admits, e.g. of people admitted to SLS and HLS how many choose one or the other.

[Rigo]

No, the surprise would be that there's that strong a preference for Columbia over Chicago (or even NYU, really). If publicly available, I'd be curious to see enrollment data for cross-admits, e.g. of people admitted to SLS and HLS how many choose one or the other.

I know a lot of people that would never pick UChi and I expect most do Columbia over NYU simply for prestige reasons.

Interesting data nonetheless though.

[curry1]

No, the surprise would be that there's that strong a preference for Columbia over Chicago (or even NYU, really). If publicly available, I'd be curious to see enrollment data for cross-admits, e.g. of people admitted to SLS and HLS how many choose one or the other.

A huge portion of people who have the stats to get into T6 schools are from the Acela corridor/NE and almost invariably pick Columbia over Chicago. Of course, lots of people only get into Chicago or Columbia, but not both.