Withdrawing Law School Acceptance Last Minute

[Greensmoothie]

I have been excited all year (well, for many years) to go to law school. A little bit of background information about me: I am currently working full time at a government job making around $60k. I am very interested in immigration law and international arbitration. I studied for the LSAT while working full time and by using khan academy. Looking back, I believe I could’ve done much better if I had invested in an actual course and Powerscore books. I scored a 158. I accepted admission at University of Miami, which offered me 50% tuition. However, with costs of living, the grand total will be around $160,000. I don’t have financial support from my family and I am anticipating with this school’s employment stats this may take a while to pay off. I am starting to panic about how things will be looking in light of COVID-19. I am heavily considering withdrawing my admission at the last minute. Right now my job is allowing me to work from home until at least November. I am thinking about using this time to retake the LSAT, get a higher score and hopefully a better scholarship, and reapplying in the fall. I am worried however that many other people held off on school and now this cycle will be more competitive. I also worry that Miami will turn me down again if I reapplied. Any suggestions or advice during this time are greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Greensmoothie,

Let's talk big picture first, and then get into the details. You're right that $160,000 is a significant debt load, and you'd want to be as sure as possible that a school's employment statistics justify that debt. If you're having doubts, it's a good sign you should consider reevaluating.

It's very difficult to predict what's going to happen with next year's admission cycle (it could be more competitive due to deferrals, but then again, we're not seeing quite as many LSAT registrations as we'd normally expect). So I don't think you should be using that as your sole criterion for whether to withdraw and reapply.

Your other question about how Miami will view a withdrawal, then subsequent application, is a little trickier. You can't count on being readmitted if you withdraw, and I'd even say you shouldn't expect to be readmitted. If it were simply a question of delaying admission, the school would tell you to defer (if they allow for that option). If you simply withdraw and reapply, that's going to look questionable from their perspective and cause them to doubt your commitment to the school.

The final step in this chain is the LSAT. You said you could've done more to study and prepare, and that 158 is quite a good score for just doing self-guided preparation. With a course (and strong commitment to the time it takes to do homework and practice tests associated with that course), I would think you'd be able to see solid gains over that 158. And those gains would significantly boost your admission chances at higher-ranked schools (and your chance for scholarships at schools ranked similarly to Miami). My only caution here is to consider how much you studied for the LSAT the first time around: if your self-prep was very extensive, then you might see more modest gains from a course. If your self-prep was pretty spotty, then you can expect substantial gains from a course.

So I think your final decision should be contingent on what you think about your prior studying and your LSAT potential. If the studying was spotty (and your potential for gains greater), then go for it and commit to a course and strong study plan. If not, consider keeping your current option and make sure you study hard and put yourself in the best position to have the best job options you can get coming from Miami!

If you go the course route, check out our online course selection here (and get enrolled sooner rather than later, as you want to be able to apply as early in the application cycle as possible to give yourself the best chances!): https://www.powerscore.com/lsat/courses ... e/digital/.

Please let us know if this triggers further questions!

Jeremy