The Waitlist Before May 1

With our first release of waitlist decisions today, I thought it might be a good time for a post addressing this in-between stage before May 1. Waitlisted applicants often ask: what should you do between now and May 1?

1. Just to set the stage – we will not begin looking at the waitlist until after the May 1 decision deadline. That’s the date when we will hear from applicants admitted so far, and that’s the date when we’ll have a sense of how many people we may take off the waitlist. So if you are wondering whether you will get an offer off the waitlist before May 1, know that the answer is no. We won’t begin releasing any waitlist decisions until after May 1.
2. Know that your waitlist offer remains open until the May 1 deadline. There’s no rush to accept that waitlist offer if you are still wondering whether you’d like to remain on the waitlist. The Waitlist Response Form will stay right there on your status checker until May 1.
3. Focus for now on all the offers you have in hand. The HLS waitlist can be unpredictable (even for us, the folks who run it!). We are confident that, in the meantime, you will find another school that will be a good fit if the HLS waitlist does not work out.
4. Please review our Waitlist Toolkit carefully. And by carefully, I mean every FAQ. You want to know what you’re getting yourself into when it comes to waitlist season.
5. Finally, you’ve probably heard a lot about Letters of Continued Interest (LOCI). Your LOCI will be an important component of your waitlist candidacy, but you need not upload one before May 1. Perhaps best to draft your LOCI once you have a sense of your plans and a definite interest in remaining on the HLS waitlist. We know that much can change for an applicant in the coming months. Rest assured that no one on our team will look out for your LOCI until after May 1.

Hopefully, that’s helpful advice. We expect to be back in touch with waitlisted candidates after May 1. As always, thank you for applying to Harvard Law School.

–KJ