Would it be detrimental to check in on your application status?

[mjslava]

As the title asks, with this be a bad idea? I’m more or less wanting to call and ask about the waves of admission and for some universities to see what index score would be competitive in this cycle so far.

[qsizzle]

It all depends. Some schools ask that you don't, while others (like UBC) are more than happy to help.

I think the worst that could happen is that they say "no" to telling you.

[GreyDude]

OP, I assume you're a current applicant, as your status says. If not, then none of what follows applies. 

I understand the urge you have to call and ask that question—believe me! I'm curious, too. But for what it's worth, this is not something I would do. I don't think think it would get me the information requested, and I don't think it would be subjectively helpful.

On the second point, for me—and, I suspect, for you—this would not be just a matter of curiosity. It's the kind of thing people who like to be in control do when we cannot influence the outcome of something that matters to us: knowing the stats and timing might give us some sense of control over the calendar and some sense of reassurance about the process and our place in it. But, first, even if you did manage to get the information, any sense of control it brought would be fictitious. The result might be to only raise your anxiety even further. 

And second, since this year's stats are still being developed, my guess is that law faculties will happily share last year's stats, though only the numbers that are already public-facing or otherwise available. And while some adcoms will want to be helpful (pace @qsizzle), I doubt any would tell you when the next wave of admissions/rejections will be (assuming they send such things out in waves at all, which they might not). Further if they did tell you "what index score would be competitive in this cycle so far," they would be telling you something about your chances of admission, because you would just compare that to your own index score and draw a conclusion. But they certainly will not tell you how likely you are to be admitted until they're ready to tell you whether you are being admitted, since other factors might come along to dash your hopes, and I can imagine a lot of ways such a thing could be very problematic for a law school. 

None of this means that this is a 'bad idea' from the point of view of your success or failure as a law applicant, but I really do not think it's a 'good idea.'  I would be much more inclined to leave the admissions staff to their work and not bother them with questions they likely can't answer and that won't do me much good, anyway.

And as for me, I am going to try to practice what I preach. I'm going to take a couple of deep breaths and learn to accept the things that I cannot change—including the timing of the reply I hope to soon receive from a law school, and what that reply will be.

And yes, I just referenced the Serenity Prayer. 

Edited March 1, 2022 by GreyDude
clarity

[existentialdread]

On 3/1/2022 at 2:07 PM, GreyDude said:

OP, I assume you're a current applicant, as your status says. If not, then none of what follows applies. 

I understand the urge you have to call and ask that question—believe me! I'm curious, too. But for what it's worth, this is not something I would do. I don't think think it would get me the information requested, and I don't think it would be subjectively helpful.

On the second point, for me—and, I suspect, for you—this would not be just a matter of curiosity. It's the kind of thing people who like to be in control do when we cannot influence the outcome of something that matters to us: knowing the stats and timing might give us some sense of control over the calendar and some sense of reassurance about the process and our place in it. But, first, even if you did manage to get the information, any sense of control it brought would be fictitious. The result might be to only raise your anxiety even further. 

And second, since this year's stats are still being developed, my guess is that law faculties will happily share last year's stats, though only the numbers that are already public-facing or otherwise available. And while some adcoms will want to be helpful (pace @qsizzle), I doubt any would tell you when the next wave of admissions/rejections will be (assuming they send such things out in waves at all, which they might not). Further if they did tell you "what index score would be competitive in this cycle so far," they would be telling you something about your chances of admission, because you would just compare that to your own index score and draw a conclusion. But they certainly will not tell you how likely you are to be admitted until they're ready to tell you whether you are being admitted, since other factors might come along to dash your hopes, and I can imagine a lot of ways such a thing could be very problematic for a law school. 

None of this means that this is a 'bad idea' from the point of view of your success or failure as a law applicant, but I really do not think it's a 'good idea.'  I would be much more inclined to leave the admissions staff to their work and not bother them with questions they likely can't answer and that won't do me much good, anyway.

And as for me, I am going to try to practice what I preach. I'm going to take a couple of deep breaths and learn to accept the things that I cannot change—including the timing of the reply I hope to soon receive from a law school, and what that reply will be.

And yes, I just referenced the Serenity Prayer. 

I second all of the above. I am also just a fellow applicant so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I do think it is somewhat in bad taste to call admissions about this sort of thing. Calling to clarify that they've received all of your docs or to confirm your GPA or something is totally acceptable IMO as it pertains to the completion of your application. However, I think that people need to stop torturing admissions with phone calls like you are describing. 

Much like my friend stated above, they are more than likely going to be unwilling to tell you anything. That is likely because that information cannot be made public as stats are not yet confirmed, or because they simply don't know how many applications they are going to accept from any one pile of applications they assess at one time. Might be 10 people, or it could be no one. They are just trying to do their jobs and deal with the hundreds of applications to sort through and it doesn't make it any easier when people are calling asking things like "when am I going to hear back?". 

I might just be jaded, but I work a job comparable to the folks in admissions where I do a lot of tedious work and can only provide people (who are often very anxious) with limited information and vague timelines for completion. People blow up my phone all day long and it annoys the shit out of me when I've reiterated the same thing over and over. As much as I appreciate where these people come from and I try to treat them with endless patience as I know they are very stressed out, it is extremely disruptive to me actually doing my job and helping their files move along. Not to mention, it raises my blood pressure when I've had the same conversation 5 times in the span of an hour...and then they call me again the next day and ask the same thing...Did I mention that I find it really annoying?

 

I am trying to take my own advice and not pester anyone because deep down I know that all of this is now out of my control. Instead, I simply torture myself with this forum and check my portals 15x a day. At least that way the only person getting annoyed is me. I fully appreciate how you feel and this process is a huge struggle for a lot of us. We are largely a type A group and it's hard not knowing what's going to happen or when. 

 

TLDR: I don't think that it's a "bad" idea or that it would have any impact on your application if you do, I just don't think you will get any meaningful information and you will likely just annoy whoever answers the phone.