Should I contact a school about my application?

[badarm]

Hi!

I finished applying to schools the week before Thanksgiving last year (2017) and am still waiting to hear back from a few schools. One of the schools is UVA -- I would ***LOVE*** to go there. Should I contact admissions to tell them how much I'd love to go and that I'd almost 100% go there if I get in? (The only reason I don't want to say 100% is for financial reasons). Or is it a bad idea to contact admissions because they'll be annoyed or something?

On a similar note: will I hear back from every school I applied to before deposits are due?

[Shannon Parker]

As long as you have received notification that your application was accepted I would not recommend contacting them. You do run the risk of annoying them, and there's nothing to be gained. Anything that they would have wanted to know they would have asked for in the application (personal statement, etc.). You will not necessarily hear back from a school that you do not get into or at least waitlisted.

[badarm]

Thanks for the fast response!

On a similar note -- I was waitlisted from the University of MN in December and immediately sent a letter of continued interest. I called the admissions office to confirm they received my letter and they told me that I can submit more things if I'd like. I'm going to get another letter of recommendation but I was wondering: what else can/should I submit? MN would be another good fit for me because I have family in Minneapolis and they have a great international law program, which is what I'm primarily interested in.

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, Badarm,

Have you made explicit to U of MN these reasons for your interest in applying? Law schools also serve their communities and geographic areas. If you have a strong connection to Minneapolis, be sure you have made that clear in your personal statement. Also, make sure you detail your interest in their international law program. These kinds of points can make it clear to a law school that yours is not just another application. In your submission of additional material, you could at least append a cover letter with some of these points.

Additional items to submit could include:

• Other awards/honors you have received, whether academic or professional, that were not included in your original application.
• An example of significant professional/academic work that you consider germane to your interest in law school. For instance,
  when I was in grad school, I worked on a presentation on human rights law for a conference at UT's law school. I would consider including a summary of my work on this project along with a copy of the program as an addendum.
• Any other difficult to classify but relevant personal achievements. If there was something big that you didn't mention in your personal statement, consider including it in your cover letter as noted above.

I hope this helps!