I was referring to YLS..:)

This post was in response to the query from the quoted poster....

You are on the button so far as HLS is concerned. Its either of the two dates you are talking about...

Hi, I wanted to let you know that my request for expedite consideration has just been politely, but firmly refused by HLS. They wrote me that they will be unable to provide me with an answer until March 29 -- which means, I suppose, that admission decisions won't be released before that date. Interestingly enough, they sent me an e-mail yesteday (Sunday) at 7:04 pm EST: these guys must be working very hard at that time of the year. My impression is that HLS' refusal of exepedite consideration tantamounts to a rejection: given the circumstances, I feel like I will accept NYU offer of admission and full-tuition scholarship by tomorrow. (Technically, I am still waiting for Stanford, to which too I requested expedite consideration, but I suppose that chances to receive positive answer are minimal.) I was just wondering whether any of you -- admitted either by NYU or by other law schools -- was granted expedite consideration by HLS. Thanks

Hi, I wanted to let you know that my request for expedite consideration has just been politely, but firmly refused by HLS. They that they will be unable to provide me with an answer until March 29 -- which means, I suppose, that before admission decisions won't be released before that date. Interestingly enough, they sent me an e-mail yesteday (Sunday) at 7:04 pm EST: these guys must be working very hard at that time of the year. My impression is that HLS' refusal of exepedite consideration tantamounts to a rejection: given the circumstances, I feel like I will accept NYU offer of admission and full-tuition scholarship by tomorrow. (Technically, I am still waiting for Stanford, to which too I requested expedite consideration, but I suppose that chances to receive positive answer are minimal.) I was just wondering whether any of you -- admitted either by NYU or by other law schools -- was granted expedite consideration by HLS. Thanks

Thanks XY60. I have also got a friend who reported to have received expedite consideration by HLS in 2007. However, another friend of mine was not granted the same treatement in 2009, although he was facing deadlines for a Hauser scholarship at NYU AND admission to YLS -- so, a very promising applicant. Therefore, since precedents seem to be quite contradictory, I would really love to know whether this year someone's request for expedite consideration was satisfied or HLS has adopted a strict policy not to respond to anybody before the end of March -- which will be strange though, as by doing that it really risks to loose all the best candidated, "forced" to accept scholarships/early deadlines in other law schools".

My urgent appeal therefore is the following:
come on, HLS early admitted lucky people, please publicly disclose your situation. My legal advice is that your anonimous user-ID will protect you from the risk of breaching any confidentiality agreement you might have entered into with HLS!

Hi, I wanted to let you know that my request for expedite consideration has just been politely, but firmly refused by HLS. They that they will be unable to provide me with an answer until March 29 -- which means, I suppose, that before admission decisions won't be released before that date. Interestingly enough, they sent me an e-mail yesteday (Sunday) at 7:04 pm EST: these guys must be working very hard at that time of the year. My impression is that HLS' refusal of exepedite consideration tantamounts to a rejection: given the circumstances, I feel like I will accept NYU offer of admission and full-tuition scholarship by tomorrow. (Technically, I am still waiting for Stanford, to which too I requested expedite consideration, but I suppose that chances to receive positive answer are minimal.) I was just wondering whether any of you -- admitted either by NYU or by other law schools -- was granted expedite consideration by HLS. Thanks

@ L&E
I send a return email to gpquery@law.harvard.edu on last Tuesday, March 2. As I mentioned, I received their answer last night, i.e., around five days later.

Thanks...:) I face the same dilemma as you...but on a lesser scale...coz no fin. aid...In my case its CLS...(I am also through @ NYU and U. Chi...)...Thanks a lot...

Could those of you who received the e-mail response indicating a MARCH 29 date please reproduce the e-mail in this post? March 29 seems a bit too late for HLS to announce decisions and would be inconsistent with prior years.

I fully agree with supranote...

LAst year I was asked (by HLS) to wait until the 22th of march but HLS released it's decsions a week earlier...

@supranote/unilu
Please find below the text of their e-mail:

Dear Mr. [x],

We are writing to you in response to your e-mail requesting an early admission decision from Harvard Law School. We understand that you have received an offer of admission and scholarship from NYU Law School.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with a definitive answer before late March. If you cannot get an extension until at least March 29, 2010, then we would have to advise you not to give up the scholarship package offered by NYU Law School for the possibility of being admitted to Harvard Law School, especially since we will not be able to provide you with our financial aid decisions until early April.

@supranote/unilu
Please find below the text of their e-mail:

Dear Mr. [x],

We are writing to you in response to your e-mail requesting an early admission decision from Harvard Law School. We understand that you have received an offer of admission and scholarship from NYU Law School.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with a definitive answer before late March. If you cannot get an extension until at least March 29, 2010, then we would have to advise you not to give up the scholarship package offered by NYU Law School for the possibility of being admitted to Harvard Law School, especially since we will not be able to provide you with our financial aid decisions until early April.

This response does not indicate clearly that decisions will be released on March 29. Rather, it states that you should request an extension until at least that date, which again provides HLS with cover for its mysterious release date. Asking for an extension until at least March 29 would not, of course, give you time to make an informed decision if decisions are released on March 29, so I do not believe that March 29 is the admission decision deadline. Rather, it is a recommended guideline for you that would allow you to make an informed decision in the event you were accepted.

This response does not indicate clearly that decisions will be released on March 29. Rather, it states that you should request an extension until at least that date, which again provides HLS with cover for its mysterious release date. Asking for an extension until at least March 29 would not, of course, give you time to make an informed decision if decisions are released on March 29, so I do not believe that March 29 is the admission decision deadline. Rather, it is a recommended guideline for you that would allow you to make an informed decision in the event you were accepted.

I think I should agree with you, although given the brainstorming activity that we are all doing in these days -- I mean, in creating our personal rank of preferences in terms of combination of law schools and scholarships --, I imagine that it would not take to much for any of us to decide between two concurrent offers, once they are both been issued :-)

In any event, I was just curious to know whether any of you is aware of positive early consideration by HLS. Thanks

I really don't thinks it's a rejection. If they advise you to try to get an extension, then they're being tentative. At the very least that means that they're not sure about your application, or have not yet had a chance to look at it. We can also infer that if they are tentative we can't expect a decision anytime soon.

That said, a friend of mine (who I reckon has a great shot at getting into Harvard) was offered a scholarship to NYU. She has until Tuesday (tomorrow) to accept. She emailed Harvard and they told her to send on a scanned copy of the scholarship offer. She has yet to hear back....

From that we can infer that they are treating different applicants differently. They probably split applicants into groups on the basis of the "prima facie" (go legal terminology!) quality of their applications (because that's the most sensible way to do it i.e. you don't want to invest time looking at applications that are obviously bad, and also some applications are probably obviously very good). That's the only way it could be explained (unless they're arbitrary, sadistic or have thought up a smarter way). Another possible explanation is that they are treating different regions differently, but (whilst I know from talking to a Harvard professor earlier in the year that applications are divided up into regions which each have committees assigned to them) I think that only applies up until the point at which all of the "obviously-not-qualified" applicants are sheared off. Then they would probably pool them, and decide on the basis of merit. Otherwise, if you were to cap the number of applicants from each region, you might lose out on some great applications from one region due to them being average relative to their own region, but excellent relative to other regions. Given the time and effort they put into the system, they probably wouldn't want to risk losing that value.

So, after this smidge of reasoning, my guess is that they have gradiated applications in terms of quality. They have probably pooled them by now, give that we're coming up to decision time. I think if you've received the email telling you to get that extension, then you're probably somewhere in that pool. Because my mate has been asked to send on the scholarship offer for them to consider and you have not, I think it's likely that you're in the tentative group. It's correct to assume that they would want to avoid being responsible for causing someone who is later rejected from missing out on a scholarship. That also means that if they were sure you weren't getting in, they wouldn't be equivocal as they seem to have been. So, essentially: you're still in with a shot for Harvard. Ask for the extension. That's all you can do. If they say yes, you're sorted. If they say no, decide on whether the chance you've got of getting into Harvard is worth your scholarship from NYU!

I They have probably pooled them by now, give that we're coming up to decision time. I think if you've received the email telling you to get that extension, then you're probably somewhere in that pool. Because my mate has been asked to send on the scholarship offer for them to consider and you have not, I think it's likely that you're in the tentative group. It's correct to assume that they would want to avoid being responsible for causing someone who is later rejected from missing out on a scholarship. That also means that if they were sure you weren't getting in, they wouldn't be equivocal as they seem to have been. So, essentially: you're still in with a shot for Harvard. Ask for the extension. That's all you can do. If they say yes, you're sorted. If they say no, decide on whether the chance you've got of getting into Harvard is worth your scholarship from NYU!

Ultimately, regardless of the speculation, your last comment is most valid. I do not believe that decisions are still being made by these institutions. Their unwillingness to expedite has little to do with acceptances/rejections. It's an across-the-board unwillingness that absolves them of liability in the event a candidate holds out for a decision and loses an opportunity elsewhere. The fact that they are telling candidates to accept other offers supports the position that they are advising candidates to do what is in their best interests and refuse to commit one way or another.

Also, it may be "beneath" certain institutions to believe that an offering institution warrants expedited consideration. If HLS believes that NYU is not its competititon, then an acceptance at NYU is meaningless to HLS, and HLS would have no incentive to expedite.

The speculation can go both ways under a variety of reasons. Bottom line: a firm offer is an offer. It's not a prospect of an offer or the hope for an offer. If you have an offer and a deadline that other schools will not accommodate, accept the offer you have. Otherwise, you are taking a gamble and may wind up with nothing.

Thank you very much indeed for your thorough post. For the sake of brevity, I omitted to disclose that I was asked too by HLS to send a copy of my NYU offer for full-tuition. All that I can infer from that story, is that alternatively: (i) their email was a nice way of rejecting me; or (ii) by adopting that strict policy of not granting expedite consideration, HLS risks to loose the best applicants who receive by competitors law schools nice scholarships and a short deadlines to answer. Since I am more sure of statement (ii) than statement (i) (i.e., it is more likely that I was not considered among top quality applicants than they adopt such a shortsighted strategy, which can be easily manipulated by competitors law schools like NYU), I won't trust anymore very much in admission to HLS.

As for an extension from NYU, I do not think it is feasible. I haven't ask for it, but their offer letter was quite clear on that point, I am afraid...


Their email may have been a nice way of rejecting you, but it really doesn't read like that. The weird thing, though, is that my friend has not received a similar email. So these are two inconsistent positions. I think the explanation that I gave above is the only way to make sense of these two positions.

@Supranote1 - I mlthml is right in that Harvard are probably not going to risk losing good applicants. To adopt such a strict approach would be obtuse and short-sighted. I think the explanation above makes sense of why my friend still has not received a rejection to her expedite request.

@supranote1 - They are absolved from liability once they caveat all their responses. The email which they sent about sugggesting asking for an extension, is not obviously a rejection, but is also phrased in a way that absolves them of responsibility - i.e. saying you shouldn't turn up you nose at an offer of a scholarship.

The reason I think the explanation that I proffer above makes sense, is because I have a friend who has not had her request rejected. That means they potentially are considering expediting decisions.

@Supranote1 - I mlthml is right in that Harvard are probably not going to risk losing good applicants. To adopt such a strict approach would be obtuse and short-sighted. I think the explanation above makes sense of why my friend still has not received a rejection to her expedite request.

Of course. I'll let you know as soon as I hear. In fact, I'll text her now! It's 1:23pm in Boston. That means that they have 3hrs and 37mins (and then also all day tomorrow lol) to let her know! Stay tuned for details!