Can a law school force you to withdraw your pending applications at other schools in order to accept its offer, thereby effectively forcing you to give up your spots on waitlists?
Yes, it can.
Here’s an example:
I submit this commitment form to formalize my exclusive intent to enroll at the XYZ Law School beginning in the Fall 20XX semester.
In honor of this commitment, I shall:
▪ Withdraw all pending law school applications by May 2;
▪ Remove myself from any law school waitlists by May 2;
▪ Decline any current or future offers of law school admission; and
▪ Refrain from submitting any new law school applications.
Or a school might make a scholarship contingent on withdrawing elsewhere.
Those schools are playing hardball.
Law schools are supposed to abide by the Statement of Good Admissions and Financial Aid Practices created by LSAC. Those rules say that law schools should “allow applicants to freely accept a new offer from a law school even though a scholarship has been accepted, a deposit has been paid, or a commitment has been made to another school.”
LSAC is effectively a consortium of participating law schools, so in theory those law schools all agree to abide by those principles. BUT… and it’s a big one… those rules are not enforceable against law schools. They are simply suggestions, best practices, can’t-we-all-get-along nudges. They are not requirements that bind the law schools.
So when a law school like law school tells you this about staying on its waitlist:
We encourage you to protect your offers at other law schools. As outlined in the Law School Admission Council’s Statement of Good Admissions and Financial Aid Practices, law schools should allow you to remain on waitlists even if you have made an enrollment commitment to their school.
sadly you are in the least powerful position to enforce that rule out of all the parties involved. LSAC doesn’t enforce it. The law schools don’t enforce it. How are you supposed to enforce it against a particular school? LSAC doesn’t tell you how. That “encouraging” school doesn’t tell you how.
Unfortunately, you can’t enforce it.
You could volunteer to be the test case and see what happens if you accept an offer like the one at the top and then don’t abide by the condition to withdraw elsewhere. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t want to be that test case.
I wish schools weren’t putting you in that position. And I bet you dollars to donuts that the hardball schools will continue to keep waitlists of their own and will pull people from other schools when spots open up over the summer. Funny how that works.
Schools have that leverage and you don’t. I wish it were otherwise. Read more about about schools who have played hardball here and here.