Since we've been getting quite a few queries from those of you on our wait list, I thought I'd do a quick post and answer some FAQs.
First, there's been some scuttlebutt about the number of people we have on the wait list. We keep a fairly small wait list. Of course, we realize that not everyone to whom we offer a spot on the wait list will actually take it, so many more people will have recieved a wait list letter than remain on our wait list. Over the next few months, we will periodically review the people on our wait list and release some of them, so the number of people on the wait list dwindles as we go through the summer.
Generally, the bulk of our wait list activity, if we have any at all, will take place around our deposit deadline, which is on May 3. At that point, if fewer people to whom we have extended an offer of admission have accepted the offer than we projected, we will go to the wait list. Depending on the number of slots we have to fill, we may take anywhere from a week to a month to fill these slots. I would say that usually our class is stable by the end of May.
After that, we only go to our wait list if someone who is currently deposited withdraws or decides to defer. I am loath to grant deferrals as we get into the summer because of the logistical hurdles it entails for the people on our wait list, who have often made significant financial and/or geographical commitments elsewhere (and which in turn means that it takes us longer to fill an opening). But I treat deferral requests on a case-by-case basis and have on occasion granted some very worthy requests. So we may take people off the wait list as late as registration day. As I mentioned before, our wait list does get smaller as we get later into the summer, so while the chance of our going to the wait list after June is slim, the individual chances of your being chosen if we do go to the wait list at that point are somewhat higher. (Hope that made sense.)
I'll close with a link to a previous post about good wait list etiquette (which will hopefully be entertaining, if not informative) that should answer your remaining questions. To all of you who applied this year, good luck (and we hope you come here, if we admitted you)!
http://blogs.law.yale.edu/blogs/admissions/archive/2009/04/27/bad-idea-jeans-don-t-be-a-waitlist-stalker.aspx
Yesterday afternoon the Law School was host to a screening of the movie The Rainmaker, with an introduction by none other than John Grisham. Following the movie, Grisham answered questions from the audience before joining us for a reception in the Law School's Alumni Reading Room. I think we were all a little star struck! After all, how often will you have the chance to ask questions of one of the best-selling novelists of our time? Who else could speak nonchalantly about the call he received from Francis Ford Coppola asking to make a movie of his book or listening to Danny DeVito read the script? We learned that Grisham wrote his first novel while still a practicing attorney by waking up to write from 5-7 in the morning. (And I, for one, felt like a slacker!) He spoke about stories that have inspired his most famous novels. He told us of details in The Rainmaker that were based on his experiences as a practicing lawyer. The students were also drawn into the legal intricacies of the trial depicted and the health care policy issues raised by The Rainmaker, but overall the conversation stayed light. Grisham's candor and humor made him a great speaker. And if there were any aspiring novelists in the audience, Grisham said that he would never have written his first book without having gone to law school, so there is still hope!