I know this came up in the past, but I'm still wondering what to do...

I have offers from GW, Duke and BU. Except for GW, I need to reply to Duke and BU by March. I still don't know which to choose between them.

I'm awaiting decisions from NYU, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Berkeley. Atleast some of those decisions are not expected before late March/April....... should I wait ? I'm also thinking it may have been a mistake not to apply to other Top 10 schools if I'm not accepted to any of those and I could have been accepted to some others.

Thanks to anyone who answers, as usual.

Here's what I would so (and will do myself).

1. Make an "internal ranking", where would you go in case you get accepted everywhere. For example, 1.Harvard, 2.Stanford etc.

2. If the deadline for accepting an offer comes
a) try to negotiate an extension for the offer
b) if that doesn't work, honestly assess your possibilties of getting acceptance in the law schools you prefer to the law school where you've got a deadline to meet. I, for example, would be rather pessimistic about HYS/Berkeley/NYU; because it doesn't matter how good you are, there's never a guarantee for getting accepted. If you think you have a (very) good chance, you can let the deadline pass, but it bears the risk of losing your place and getting placed on the waiting list
c) if you're not sure about getting accepted in your preferred law schools, pay the non-refundable deposit of 300-500 $ and accept the offer. In the worst case, you lose 300-500 $, but you'll get into your preferred law school. And what's 300-500 $, if a whole year will cost you more than 60,000 $.

Concerning applying to other Top10 law schools - I wouldn't lose any sleep about it. You cannot change it anyway, you cannot apply everywhere and you already gained acceptance to Duke, e.g., an excellent law school. In my opinion, don't look too much for rankings, but what the LL.M. program can offer you. I, for example, would choose Georgetown (14th) over UPenn (6th), for example, any day since UPenn doesn't offer me enough in my area of interest.

I would also recommend you to contact the Admission Office at the law school you haven't yet heard from. Tell them that you have been accepted elsewhere, you need to respond soon whether you accept that other offer, and enquiry whether they couldn't possibly reveal to you something before official results are made public. Sometimes it worked last year.

I know from my experience that this waiting can be horrible. Best of luck!

can anyone give their experiences with telling universities that they have alternative offers and need to know whether they've been admitted immediately? I might find myself in the same problem (though since none have responded yet, this is moot as we speak) and want to know whether universities (in particular, the more prestigious ones) take too kindly to being told that we need an immediate answer.

Hope to hear views from those who have experienced such problems and successfully navigated them!

This was a strategy I used with a lot of good results in many schools. If you get a positive answer from a school inform those schools that are a better choice for you that you got this answer. Just say that you would rather go there, but you got this result from University X and you need a result from them as soons as possible.

Thanks very much -JW- and others...

Do you think we can pay the deposit and then turn them down easily ? They sometimes mention that it's a deposit + a real statement, i.e letter of intent, that you're for sure joining them. I think they might get a little upset if you then decline them even if they do earn the deposit money, no ?

I guess I really don't know which school to choose. I have some scholarship from BU, but is Duke surely better ?

I'm interested in I.P mostly.... I think.

Should I rank NYU higher than Duke ?
How about Berkeley ?
BU lower then all of those ?

Btw, how early from the deadline would you ask for the extension ??

It's true that they'll be a bit upset...but they're big universities, they'll get over it! Besides, they'll have your deposit cheque anyway so at least they get something. I know someone who paid the deposit for Cornell then later turned them down for UCLA and went there instead. No big deal. NYU's LLM is great but there's a massive class (400+ students I heard.....). Duke's programme is also highly regarded. It's all subjective though, whatever works for the individual.