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Non-acceptance comes in many forms. You may be put on an administrative hold, wait-listed, told to apply again at a later date after you have remedied a specific deficiency, or just rejected outright. Your reaction should depend upon which of these categories applies and which school is in question.
The vagaries of the admissions process and the differences between schools mean that one school's decision has limited predictive value in terms of what another school will do. (This is one of the reasons that we suggest applying to so many schools.)
Responding To Denial
The first thing to do when confronting a denial is to ask yourself how significant it really is. If you have already been accepted by a school you favor, the rejection is truly insignificant. If this is a school you very much wish to attend, however, a different reaction is appropriate.
The first step is to analyze why you were rejected. You may already know the reason, of course, if you were aware of one or two specific aspects of your application that were likely to keep you from being admitted. If you are not sure, you can always contact the school's admissions office to get their views on why they rejected you. The schools most likely to inform you are the smaller ones that have relatively fewer applications. Schools are most receptive to such inquiries during their slow periods—late spring and summer.
Beware, however, of what even these very helpful schools will say. They will address only substantive matters and will not comment on the actual application. They will not say, "Your essays were so sloppily written, and you revealed yourself to be so arrogant and insensitive, that we never want to deal with the persona you portrayed."
A school that is willing to discuss your rejection is doing you a real favor, so be ultra-polite in dealing with them. If you are defensive or hostile, which are natural reactions to being told you are less than perfect, you will elicit less useful information from them than you might have if you had been appreciative and welcoming of their inputs.
Should You Ever Appeal A Denial?
If you have no truly dramatic new information to bring to the table, do not raise your blood pressure and that of the admissions committee by appealing a rejection. Admissions committees go to great lengths to give applicants a sympathetic reading of their files—with even the most marginal file being read by at least two and often three people—so you can count on the school's having considered your application material fairly.
Some schools, on relatively rare occasions, will be willing to reconsider an application based upon presentation of important new information. If you have such information and wish to appeal, contact the admissions office and explain the situation. See whether they will entertain an appeal. If so, be sure to present convincing new information, reiterating that you do wish to attend this school and will contribute greatly if admitted. (If you are not absolutely certain that this is your number-one choice, do not even consider putting busy admissions people to the trouble an appeal will involve.) Recognize, however, that the odds against being admitted will be very long indeed.
An administrative hold means that the school was unable to make a decision on your candidacy within the typical four to eight weeks, so your application will be held over until a later (often, significantly later) date. This suggests that your candidacy is strong, but the school will not know if you are quite strong enough until it has seen more of the applicants.
Take the opportunity to send a short note reaffirming your interest in the program if the delay is scheduled to extend for more than about a month. If you have strong new information available—such as a promotion or a published thesis—by all means, communicate it to the admissions office.
Responding To Wait-Listing
Being wait-listed generally means that you will be admitted to the program only if someone who has been accepted chooses not to come. In fact, schools know that a certain percentage of their admittees will choose other schools or decide to wait a year or two, so they routinely admit more students than they can actually take. The "excess" number admitted, however, is often not sufficient to make up for all those who decline admission. The wait-list is used to manage this situation. Admissions officers are often uncertain as to how many wait-list candidates are still actively interested.
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It is for precisely this reason that you, as a wait-list candidate, must not remain silent. By making yourself a presence to the Admissions Committee, you dramatically increase your chances of being one of the lucky few they "tap" in June, July, or August. As you are likely to continue to augment your list of responsibilities and accomplishments during this lengthy waiting period, you should communicate them to the admissions office. The information you will want to impart to the admissions officers might become available at different times. Thus, it is acceptable to send them more than one update for your file, but it is wise to limit your contact to two (or three) instances, unless you know for certain that they welcome your constant attention. Find out from the school at which you are wait-listed how it suggests you carry out your contact—whether it wants to receive one or two notices from you or whether it enjoys continuous updates and inquiries from its wait-listed students.
Other Options
If schools that you want to attend have rejected you (for the moment), do not give up on getting a law degree. If you seriously want a law degree, there are probably a number of schools that can help you meet your needs. Most people, who have investigated schools carefully, including those who produce the school guides and rankings, sincerely believe there are 50+ quality law programs in the country. So even if you applied to an unrealistic set of schools this time around, cast your net a bit wider or reapply to schools you narrowly missed this time.
For those of you who are positively determined to attend your preferred schools—and cannot be convinced to go elsewhere—there are a few other tactics you may wish to employ.
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