Now that most law school applicants have received decisions from almost all the programs they applied to, many are in the common position of being accepted at some schools and wait-listed at other, often more desirable schools.
If you are wait-listed at a school you would like to attend more than any of the schools you were admitted to, you should strengthen your candidacy by writing a letter of continued interest. A letter of continued interest is a more personal and substantive way to let the admissions committee know that you would like to stay on the waitlist and would love to attend their school. Note that a letter of continued interest does not replace any formal process required to inform the school that you wish to be on their waitlist.
This week’s post will cover the anatomy of a letter of continued interest and discuss the four major components any letter should have.
[Get answers to common questions about law school continuing interest letters.]
Part 1: Begin with a thank-you. The first words of your letter should thank the admissions committee for reviewing your application and for considering your candidacy for membership in their law school class.
This expression of gratitude indicates that you understand that they have spent significant resources in evaluating your candidacy, and that they will likely spend more time evaluating you as they sort through their waitlist. By recognizing their expenditure of resources on your behalf, you are starting the letter off on the right note and creating a good initial impression.
Part 2: An expression of interest. After you have thanked the admissions committee, you should reiterate your strong interest in attending the school if admitted. If this school is your first choice, simply state that the school is your top choice and that you are committed to attending if admitted from the waitlist.
Admissions committees find this information important for two reasons. First, they know that you will be an enthusiastic member of the incoming class. Second, the statement’s certainty enables them to more easily plan their waitlist acceptances.
If you know that the school isn’t your top choice, or you are unsure whether it is, you should not be dishonest by stating that you will commit to attending if admitted. Instead, you should simply state that you remain very interested in attending the school and you are excited about the prospect of attending that school in the fall.
[Follow five tips for getting off the law school waitlist.]
Part 3: Any updates to your application. This should be the largest and most substantive portion of your letter of continued interest. At this point, the school has evaluated you based on all the information they received in their original application, and has decided not to grant you admission — yet. It is therefore important to give them information about how your profile has changed in the past few months.
If you are a current student, your most likely update will be completed grades from the first semester of your senior year, assuming these grades were not submitted as part of your original application. Another common update is a new extracurricular activity or an increased role in a current extracurricular activity.
If you have already graduated from college and are working, your most likely update is a greater role or increased responsibility in your current job, or a job change.
For example, a client I worked with this admissions cycle was working in the same job that she had worked in since she applied. Although she had not received an official promotion, in the few months between the submission of her application and the school’s notification that she was put on the waitlist, her boss had begun to entrust her with increasingly important tasks and had given her increased autonomy. In her letter of continued interest, she briefly described this change in her role so that the school was aware of her boss’s increased confidence in her.
[Check out must-do tasks for law school students looking to transfer.]
Part 4: An offer to provide additional information. Many schools accept additional information from waitlist candidates as they further evaluate their candidacy. This additional information is usually a supplemental letter of recommendation or a supplemental essay.
Supplemental essays are often essays that describe your reasons for wanting to attend this particular school. Make sure to thoroughly review any documentation you have received from the school to see if they actively solicit any additional information.
Even if a school does not specifically solicit any additional information, you should offer to provide any information that they might find helpful in further evaluating you. An applicant I worked with in the previous cycle was able to submit an additional letter of recommendation by offering to provide additional information, even though the school had not indicated that they would accept any further information.
Do you have questions regarding writing a letter of continued interest? Let me know in an email or tweet me @shawnpoconnor.
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Anatomy of a Law School Letter of Continued Interest originally appeared on usnews.com
