The Law School Waitlist Calendar: Every Published Date, February to August

The Law School Waitlist Calendar: Every Published Date, February to August

The law school waitlist runs on published dates, and almost none of them are in the month applicants think they are. Of the twenty J.D. programs checked on September 5, 2026, one publishes a deadline for the waitlist letter itself (Chicago, May 1), one publishes a calendar date for the response form that keeps you on the list (Harvard, May 1), one asks you to wait before writing at all (Harvard: "it is most effective to wait until late April"), and six publish an end date for waitlist activity that falls in August, not in May. One school publishes a running log of what it did and when, and a second dates a status note at the top of its waitlist page. The rest publish a window, a deposit date, or nothing. Every date below was read on September 5, 2026 from the page linked in the school's name, and every date that is printed with a year is labelled with the cycle it belongs to.

This page is the calendar only. What each school tells you to send — portal or email, one page or unstated, how often, what it refuses — is recorded separately in what each law school's waitlist page says to send. The front half of the cycle, application open and close dates, early-decision commitments, and the LSAC fee and GPA rules for 2026-27, is a different calendar again and sits in law school application deadlines, fees and early decision for 2026-27.

How to read the table

• Every cell is the school's own wording or a date the school printed. The operative sentences are quoted in full under the table.
• "2026 cycle date; 2027 not yet posted (checked September 5, 2026)" means the school printed that date with a year, and the year it printed is the cycle that closed this summer. Those dates will move. They are useful now for the shape of the month, not as a deadline to work to.
• Dates with no year are printed by the school without one, on a page that carries no cycle label. They have held in that form on the page as read, and they are still worth re-reading the week you write.
• "No waitlist timing on record (checked September 5, 2026)" means the school's admissions pages we could read publish no date, window, or timing statement for the waitlist. It does not mean the school has no timeline; it means the timeline is not on the page.
• "Page not retrieved (checked September 5, 2026)" means the school's server refused our requests that day, directly and through a public text proxy. One school is in that state.

Nothing here predicts what any school will do, how far a list will move, or when your own decision will come. These are the dates the schools chose to publish about their own process.

What twenty law schools publish about waitlist timing

The sentences behind the dates

Every date in the table comes from one of these, read on September 5, 2026.

• Harvard. Quoted: "To respond to your waitlist offer, please complete the Waitlist Response Form, found on the status checker, by May 1." · "You should submit this letter once you have finalized your initial plans for the fall. For most applicants, it is most effective to wait until late April to draft and submit your LOCI." · "Typically, we do not begin reviewing any LOCI until the last week of April, right around the May 1 decision deadline." · "Each Monday beginning in early May, we will send an update to all waitlisted candidates summarizing our expectations for waitlist movement in the coming week." · "The waitlist will remain active through the summer." · "If you are offered a place in the incoming class, you will have 24 hours to respond to the offer of admission." · On the companion page: "We won't begin releasing any waitlist decisions until after May 1."
• Chicago. Quoted: "submit your Letter of Continued Interest via the Applicant Status Portal by May 1, 2026" · "We will plan to reach out to you via email by May 15, 2026 to explain steps to confirm your position on the waitlist." · "Deposited JD students will be required to submit a second seat deposit on June 15, 2026." · "Historically, the majority our waitlist offers have been sent during June and July, though this can change based on the admissions cycle." · "We often give 3-5 days for you to make your final decision on a deposit deadline." · From the waitlist FAQ: "we typically keep our waitlist open until the first day of classes in the fall" · "to remain on the waitlist, you must confirm your intention to stay on the waitlist by the deadline reflected in the Waitlist Confirmation Email... If you fail to do so, you will be automatically removed from our waitlist." · Dated at the top of the page: "UPDATE - August 12, 2026: In the short-term, we do not expect significant movement on our waitlist. However, the summer can be unpredictable, and we will keep a waitlist through orientation in case the need to turn to it arises."
• Cornell. Quoted: "in the last admissions cycle, some applicants placed on reserve in the fall and winter eventually received offers of admission well before our first deposit deadline in the spring." · "In other cases, we extended offers of admission to those on the reserve list shortly after our second deposit deadline in May and throughout the summer as late as the week before Orientation in August (though we try to avoid such late notice but in the most extraordinary cases)."
• Duke. Quoted: "Applicants who have been admitted to Duke's JD program have until April 24, 2026 to make their tuition deposit and confirm their intent to enroll at Duke." · Log entries: "May 4: Check your email for a link to confirm your interest in remaining on the waitlist (or withdraw your application)." · "May 18: As we explained in last week's webinar, we were very conservative with our initial offers of admission so that we can reach our target class size by admitting from the waitlist." · "May 20: We have made some offers of admission from the waitlist." · "June 5: We are assessing responses to an initial round of offers of admission." · "June 30: In recent weeks, we have made a number of offers of admission and have about reached our target class size." · "July 27: After several offers of admission in a few small batches in recent weeks, we have reached our target class size and are more likely than not set for the year... We will provide a final update when we close the waitlist in late August, but please do let us know if you are still able to maintain flexibility and could consider an offer of admission as we approach the beginning of our orientation program on August 18." · On cadence: "If you are on the waiting list later into the summer, it's not a bad idea to check in periodically (weekly isn't necessary but every 3-4 weeks isn't out of line)."
• Emory. Quoted: "It is most helpful for us to know about your continued interest just before we are most likely to make waitlist offers, which is around the time of our first and second deposit deadlines, April 30 and May 30." · "If you do not submit the form within two weeks of that email, we will presume you have made other plans and will withdraw your application." · "Decisions will be communicated throughout the spring and summer, up to and including August."
• Northwestern. Quoted: "We maintain the Waitlist throughout the summer months and we may make offers of admission to candidates as late as the first week of classes." · "A member of our team will send you an invitation to the waitlist interview portal (which contains both the video and written questions) within the next two business days."
• Notre Dame. Quoted: "The earliest that the Admissions Committee may extend offers of admission to waitlisted candidates is after the initial deposit deadline has passed on April 15." · "After the initial deposit deadline for admitted students passes on May 1, the Admissions Committee has a better sense of the size of the incoming class and will determine if there is available space in the class." · "Letters of Continued Interest (LOCIs) are optional and may be sent at any time during an applicant's time on the waitlist. However, we find that they are most helpful as we approach our evaluation period for waitlisted candidates in early-to-mid April." · "You may submit a LOCI at any time, but our office has found that such documents are most helpful as we near possible consideration of admission from the waitlist in late-April." · "The bulk of any admissions offers will likely occur in May. The Admissions Committee may continue to make offers through the summer as necessary." · "Our second deposit deadline is June 1." · "Welcome Week for the Law School is typically the third week of August."
• NYU. Quoted: "In recent years, we have admitted applicants as early as May and as late as the end of August." · "We will continue to make offers from the waitlist, if we have space, until orientation in late August." · "You should remain on the waitlist only if you are interested in enrolling in August 2026 and are able to do so."
• Penn. Quoted: "If offers of admission are extended from the waitlist, these offers are typically extended between May and the beginning of August."
• Texas. Quoted: "In general, most of the wait list activity occurs between May 1 and July 15 with some activity after that date leading into our Orientation in August." · "We will send monthly updates so that students are informed of their status and of our timeline." · "Most students admitted off of the wait list will receive a phone call."
• Berkeley. Quoted: "Decision notifications are sent to applicants as decisions are made. For the majority of applicants this is usually by mid-March." · "Our goal every year is to have all decisions transmitted to applicants by April 1." · "An admitted applicant has several weeks to respond to the offer, but in no case is an applicant required to respond before April 1." · "Waitlist admissions can take place as late as August 14."
• Stanford. Quoted: "The Office of Admissions will make every effort to send applicants a first response (accept, deny or wait list) by April 30."
• WashU. Quoted, from the session listing: "Waitlist Update" · "May 6 | 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm" · "Attend to learn more about WashU Law's decision timeline and general information about our waitlist process."
• Yale. The only waitlist sentence on the application-process page is not about timing: "Transfer applicants and applicants admitted from the waitlist are not eligible for deferrals."
• Georgetown. The only waitlist sentence on the FAQ is not about timing: "Early Decision applicants who are deferred from receiving a final decision in the initial review or placed on the waitlist are released from their commitment to Georgetown Law and will be considered later in the cycle as Regular Decision applicants."
• Columbia, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Michigan. No waitlist date, window, or timing statement on the pages we could read on September 5, 2026.
• Virginia. The waitlist FAQ refused our requests on September 5, 2026, directly and through a public text proxy, so no Virginia date appears above.

The calendar, month by month

Everything below is assembled from the cells in the table. No month carries a claim that is not one of those sentences.

February

No school in this set publishes a February waitlist date. That is the finding, and it matters, because February is when the waitlist letter is most often written. Two things are on record for the period. Cornell describes a reserve list that fills early: "some applicants placed on reserve in the fall and winter eventually received offers of admission well before our first deposit deadline in the spring." And Berkeley is still working through first decisions, "usually by mid-March" for most applicants. At Harvard, a letter written in February is governed by a sentence about April: "we do not begin reviewing any LOCI until the last week of April." At Chicago it is governed by a deadline in May. February is the month in which most of the schools in this table have published nothing that happens.

March

Berkeley's window closes here for most people: "For the majority of applicants this is usually by mid-March," ahead of the stated goal of "all decisions transmitted to applicants by April 1." Beyond that, March is empty on every page in this set. Duke's dated log for the cycle just closed begins in May. Notre Dame's earliest published offer date is April at the earliest. Texas dates its first activity to May 1. Nothing in the table names March as a month in which waitlist offers are made.

April

April is where the published calendar actually starts, and it starts with money rather than letters.

• April 1. Berkeley: "Our goal every year is to have all decisions transmitted to applicants by April 1," and an admitted applicant is never "required to respond before April 1."
• Early-to-mid April. Notre Dame's stated window for a letter: "most helpful as we approach our evaluation period for waitlisted candidates in early-to-mid April." A second answer on the same page says "late-April." Both are quoted above; the page publishes both.
• April 15. Notre Dame: "The earliest that the Admissions Committee may extend offers of admission to waitlisted candidates is after the initial deposit deadline has passed on April 15." A different answer on the same page puts the initial deposit deadline at May 1. This is an unresolved conflict inside one school's page, not a discrepancy between schools.
• April 24, 2026. Duke's tuition deposit deadline for admitted applicants, printed with the year. Duke's own log picks up three weeks later, on May 4, with a link to confirm interest in remaining on the waitlist. It is a 2026 date and will move.
• Late April. Harvard: "it is most effective to wait until late April to draft and submit your LOCI," because "we do not begin reviewing any LOCI until the last week of April."
• April 30. Two schools, unrelated. Emory's first deposit deadline, one of the two dates it names as the moment a letter is most useful. Stanford's target for a first response of "accept, deny or wait list."

May

May is the densest month on every page that publishes anything, and the reason is the same everywhere: deposits.

• May 1. Harvard's Waitlist Response Form deadline, and the date it calls "the May 1 decision deadline." Chicago's deposit deadline and the deadline for the waitlist letter itself: "submit your Letter of Continued Interest via the Applicant Status Portal by May 1, 2026." Texas's start line: "most of the wait list activity occurs between May 1 and July 15." And Notre Dame's other stated initial deposit deadline.
• Early May. Harvard begins a weekly rhythm: "Each Monday beginning in early May, we will send an update to all waitlisted candidates summarizing our expectations for waitlist movement in the coming week." Harvard also states that nothing is released before this point: "We won't begin releasing any waitlist decisions until after May 1."
• May 4. Duke's log: "Check your email for a link to confirm your interest in remaining on the waitlist (or withdraw your application)." A confirmation step, not an offer.
• May 6. WashU runs a scheduled "Waitlist Update" session, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm, "to learn more about WashU Law's decision timeline."
• May 15, 2026. Chicago: "We will plan to reach out to you via email by May 15, 2026 to explain steps to confirm your position on the waitlist." Chicago attaches a consequence to that email: miss the confirmation deadline it sets and "you will be automatically removed from our waitlist."
• May 18 and May 20. Duke's log records the first offers of the cycle: "May 20: We have made some offers of admission from the waitlist."
• May 30. Emory's second deposit deadline, the second of the two dates it names for a letter.
• Through May. Notre Dame: "The bulk of any admissions offers will likely occur in May." NYU: offers "as early as May." Penn: offers "typically extended between May and the beginning of August." Cornell: offers "shortly after our second deposit deadline in May."

June

• June 1. Notre Dame's second deposit deadline.
• June 5. Duke's log: "We are assessing responses to an initial round of offers of admission."
• June 15, 2026. Chicago: "Deposited JD students will be required to submit a second seat deposit on June 15, 2026." It is the second date on Chicago's page at which deposited students are asked to reconfirm.
• June 30. Duke's log: "In recent weeks, we have made a number of offers of admission and have about reached our target class size."
• Through June. Chicago is the one school that publishes where its volume sits: "Historically, the majority our waitlist offers have been sent during June and July." Notre Dame continues "through the summer as necessary."

July

• July 15. Texas's stated end of the main period: "most of the wait list activity occurs between May 1 and July 15 with some activity after that date leading into our Orientation in August."
• July 27. Duke's last log entry for the cycle just closed: "we have reached our target class size and are more likely than not set for the year," with a note that "it would not be surprising if you need to commit to other plans for the fall."
• Through July. The second half of Chicago's published June-and-July window.

August

Six schools publish an August end point, and they are not the same end point.

• August 12, 2026. Chicago's dated status note: "In the short-term, we do not expect significant movement on our waitlist. However, the summer can be unpredictable, and we will keep a waitlist through orientation."
• August 14. Berkeley: "Waitlist admissions can take place as late as August 14."
• August 18. Duke's orientation start, and the reference point for its closure: "We will provide a final update when we close the waitlist in late August."
• Third week of August. Notre Dame's Welcome Week.
• Late August. NYU: offers "as late as the end of August," continuing "until orientation in late August."
• The week before Orientation. Cornell, which says it tries to avoid such late notice "but in the most extraordinary cases."
• The first week of classes. Northwestern: "We maintain the Waitlist throughout the summer months and we may make offers of admission to candidates as late as the first week of classes." Chicago's parallel line: "we typically keep our waitlist open until the first day of classes in the fall." Emory: decisions "up to and including August." Texas: "some activity after that date leading into our Orientation in August."

What is posted for 2027, and what is not

Four of the dates above carry a printed year, and the year they carry is 2026: Chicago's May 1, May 15 and June 15 dates and its August 12 status note, and Duke's April 24 deposit and its dated log. Those pages describe the cycle that closed this summer. As of September 5, 2026, no school in this set has posted a 2027 waitlist calendar, which is the expected state in early September, since the applications that produce next spring's waitlists have not been filed yet.

The dates without a printed year behave differently. Harvard's May 1, Emory's April 30 and May 30, Notre Dame's April 15 and June 1, Texas's May 1 to July 15, Berkeley's April 1 and August 14 and Stanford's April 30 are published as standing statements of how the office works, not as this-year announcements. They are the dates to plan around, and they are also the dates to re-read, because a page that carries no year is a page that can be edited without anything looking different.

Two schools make re-reading easy. Duke publishes a running log and dates every entry. Chicago dates its status note at the top of the waitlist page. If you are on either list, those two pages tell you what the office has already done this cycle rather than what it did last time.

What the calendar changes about when you write

Four practical consequences follow from the cells above, and none of them is a claim about your chances.

The form comes before the letter, and only the form has a stated consequence. Harvard's response form is due "by May 1." Emory withdraws the application if its form is not returned "within two weeks of that email." Chicago removes you from the waitlist if you do not answer its confirmation email by the deadline that email sets. Duke's May 4 log entry is a confirmation link. No school in this set attaches a consequence like that to the letter. Answer the form on the day it arrives, then write.

At two schools, writing early is writing into a queue. Harvard says review does not start until the last week of April and asks you to wait until late April, once you have "finalized your initial plans for the fall." Notre Dame points at April for the same reason. A letter sent in February at those schools is not read earlier; it is read at the same time as everyone else's, and it was written before you knew what you would have to say.

One school publishes a hard deadline for the letter. Chicago's was May 1, 2026, via the portal only. If Chicago is on your list, the letter has a due date and the due date is not the same as the deposit date at other schools.

Decisions arrive with a clock attached. Harvard: "you will have 24 hours to respond to the offer of admission." Chicago: "We often give 3-5 days for you to make your final decision on a deposit deadline." Texas: "Most students admitted off of the wait list will receive a phone call." Whatever you need in order to answer, including anything you would want to ask a financial aid office, is worth settling before a call arrives in July rather than during it.

The month you are in also decides what a letter can honestly contain. In April, spring grades are usually not final. In June, they are, and so is a summer job, a bar-adjacent internship, or a move to the city. Every school in the companion table that describes content asks for what is new since the file was last read, and the calendar is what determines whether anything is.

Before you send

Read the school's own waitlist page the week you write, not the version you read in March, and check the date on any status note it carries. Then check your draft against that page rather than a general schedule. When you have a draft, the law school waitlist letter rubric reviews it against the instructions you paste in, including the school's stated timing, channel and cadence. For the rest of the law shelf, the law school personal statement review covers statements, addenda and why-school essays, and the law school essays hub indexes them.

Each school's authorship, AI and assistance rules are its own, they differ, and several are not published on the waitlist page at all. Read the rules that apply to you before using any review, and submit only your own writing.

Sources

All pages read on September 5, 2026.

• Harvard Law School - Application Toolkit: The Waitlist and The Waitlist Before May 1
• University of Chicago Law School - Waitlist Process 2026 and Waitlist FAQ
• Columbia Law School - Application Information Update
• Cornell Law School - JD FAQ
• Duke Law School - Waitlist
• Emory University School of Law - JD FAQs
• Northwestern Pritzker School of Law - FAQs for Applicants on the Waitlist
• Notre Dame Law School - For Waitlisted Students
• NYU School of Law - JD Waitlist Information
• University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School - JD FAQs
• University of Texas School of Law - Admissions FAQs
• Berkeley Law - After You've Applied
• Georgetown Law - JD Admissions FAQ
• Stanford Law School - JD Application Process
• Yale Law School - Application Process
• UCLA School of Law - First-Year JD Applicants
• Vanderbilt Law School - JD Admissions
• WashU Law - Waitlist Update session
• University of Michigan Law School - JD Admissions FAQs
• University of Virginia School of Law: the waitlist FAQ refused our requests on September 5, 2026, directly and through a public text proxy, so no Virginia date is stated here.