The Letter of Continued Interest for Waitlisted Law Students

This is for anyone out there that's been waitlisted. When that happens, it sucks. It really does. If you didn't get into your dream school on your first chance, there is one thing you can do though and it's called a letter of continued interest. Before I had to write one, I had no idea these even existed.  My school requested that we send one if we are still interested, but your school may not require it. If that's the case I'd probably still send one because it can make a case for you without being too needy. Side note — do not be needy if you're waitlisted! Calling or emailing a bunch isn't going to make them want to pick you any more, so you're not helping yourself at all. 

Related: My experience on a law school waitlist

What a LOCI is

What you need to know about these is that they probably won't get you moved from waitlisted to accepted, but they definitely will keep you from being removed from the waitlist. The idea behind these is that some people are waitlisted for a school that isn't one of their top choices, and when they get put on the list they know they would rather go to another school. The LOCI lets your school know that you're not one of those people and you definitely would like to be admitted. 

Remember that at this point you're still trying to get admitted, so always be polite and upbeat. I started mine off by thanking them for still working with me. I basically assumed that they wanted me to go there but were just waiting for someone else to give up their seat for me, instead of acting as if they weren't sure they even liked me. I was going for a theme of confidence, but not cocky. 

Intro

After the courtesies, I reiterated that I was still interested in going there and that if I were admitted, I would definitely attend. This part is very important because I wanted them to know that I wanted to be accepted so that I could go there and not just that I wanted to be accepted to have another notch in my belt. I wanted to give them every reason to know that I should be regarded as a serious contender.

Body

The next thing I did was update them on what had been going on with me since I applied (when they last heard from me). I mentioned an honors society that I had been inducted into before I graduated. I humble bragged about how I had gotten the best grades of my undergrad that last semester. Waiting for an acceptance letter is not the time to start slacking off! After I didn't get in, I busted my ass trying to beef up my résumé so that I would be a stronger candidate. 

Closing

For the very last paragraph, I again went over why I thought the school and I could be mutually beneficial for each other. I didn't bother blowing smoke up their ass by going off about their bar passage rates or employment rates because obviously they knew they were good enough to waitlist people. Instead I focused on specific programs or opportunities that I was interested in and why. I also related back my undergrad experience to how I could benefit them. Basically I wanted to assure them that I wouldn't drag down any of their current scores because I'm a pretty good student. 

If you find yourself in a situation needing to write a LOCI, get it done! It's better to write a pretty good letter and give it to them ASAP then it is to write a perfect letter and turn it in a little later. This is because usually the waitlist is on a first-come-fist-serve basis and if there were admitted students who denied their seat, you want to be one of the first ones on the short list to grab it. May the law school odds be ever in your favor.