We had a snow storm in Boston yesterday and we were a bit worried that we’d have trouble getting all of the Early Action letters in the mail by today, our decision deadline. I am happy to report that letters have been sent, and if you’re waiting for an Early Action decision, you should be receiving yours soon!

Some of you will receive letters letting you know that you’ve been deferred to the regular applicant pool. Many people tell me that they assume this means they won’t get in. Although I can’t tell you what will happen to your file, if we deferred your application, it simply means that we want to wait to compare your credentials to those in the regular application pool. You will have the advantage of being read many times by members of the Admissions Committee. We also like the fact that you applied early to us – an indication that your interest is very strong. So please don’t decide that a deferral means you will be denied in the end. We certainly haven't done that!

For us, an important part of the reading process is to remember that you are anxiously waiting for your admission decision and to respect the time and effort you put into applying to NUSL. Please feel free to touch base if you’re concerned about a decision we’ve made or want to check on your application status. (In the next couple of weeks you’re going to be able to check your application status on-line.) We do our best to give you the information you need to help you feel less anxious about the process, so check in if you're worried.

One note about admission to those of you who may have applied regular admission to the law school: We read files on a modified rolling admission basis. This means that we make some decisions now, but that many applications are held until March. This is so we can compare applications after our March 1st application deadline. We then take a look at the credentials of those we’ve held to decide which applicants seem to have the strongest profiles to round out our class. It takes a long time, but in the end you can be confident that your application has been given a very thorough review and the decision was made with a lot of thought.

I hope this gives you some perspective on our process. I’ll continue to talk about how we review applications as the season continues. You should feel free to post comments or questions for me at any time.