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A letter of continued interest law school admissions will act on does two things: it confirms you would still enrol, and it reports something that has changed since you applied. Across 58 schools the median implied yield is 31.3 percent, our arithmetic on published 509 figures. Verified July 2026.
A short note to a school that has waitlisted or deferred you, confirming you would still attend and reporting anything new since you applied. It is administrative rather than persuasive; The school is maintaining a list of people it might call. Verified July 2026.
Your letter answers the question they actually have, which is whether calling you would work.
That framing settles most of the questions applicants ask about tone and length. You are updating a record, not arguing an appeal.
It is also the only lever you control at this stage, which is why it gets more attention than its effect size deserves.
Four things: that you would enrol if admitted, what has changed since you applied, one specific reason this school in particular, and nothing else. Under 300 words; The enrolment sentence goes first because it is the only sentence the reader needs. Verified July 2026.
Everything after it is supporting material.
The update is what distinguishes a letter worth reading from a letter confirming you are still keen, which they already assumed.
The school-specific reason should be one thing you would do there, not a paragraph of praise. Praise is the part every letter has and no letter is read for.
A grade, a degree completed, a job, a promotion, a finished project, or a higher LSAT score. The test is whether the school could have known it when they made their decision; If they could have known it, it is not an update and including it costs you credibility on the items that are. Verified July 2026.
One real update beats three manufactured ones. Committees read these at volume and padding is visible in the first line of the second paragraph.
Where genuinely nothing has changed, a three-sentence note confirming continued interest is still correct. It just should not pretend to be an update.
Only if it is true, and if it is true say it plainly. An unambiguous statement that you would enrol is worth more than any other sentence in the letter; The school is managing an enrolment gap. Verified July 2026.
The school is managing an enrolment gap. A definite yes reduces their risk, which is the entire currency at this stage of the cycle.
Do not write it to more than one school. Two schools comparing notes is unlikely, but a promise you cannot keep is a bad habit to start a legal career with.
If you would attend only under certain conditions, say what would let you say yes instead of overstating. That is a usable sentence too.
Under 300 words, which is one screen. The reader is checking availability rather than reassessing your file, and a long letter delays the only fact they wanted; Length in this genre reads as anxiety rather than as commitment. Verified July 2026.
That is a claim about how people read email at volume, and we are labelling it as one.
Three short paragraphs is a complete LOCI: still enrolling, here is what changed, here is the specific thing about your school.
Attach nothing unless the school asked for it. An unrequested transcript or new essay is the version of enthusiasm that creates work for somebody.
Within about two weeks of the waitlist notice, then again only when something real changes. Waitlist movement runs from spring into the summer, so the first letter is not your last chance; Sending immediately is fine and sending three days later is fine. Verified July 2026.
What matters is being on the record before the school starts making calls.
The second letter needs a new fact attached. A second letter with nothing new converts you from a candidate into a correspondent.
Where the school publishes its own cadence in the waitlist instructions it sent you, follow that exactly and ignore this paragraph.
No. Some schools state plainly that they want no additional materials from waitlisted applicants, and sending anyway is the one move at this stage that can actively cost you; The instruction arrives with the waitlist notice and is usually one sentence. Verified July 2026.
Read it before you write anything.
Where a school is silent, a single short letter is the safe default. Silence is not a prohibition and a brief note is unlikely to be unwelcome.
Where a school offers a form or a portal field instead, use that rather than email. Routing matters more than eloquence here.
A letter of continued interest removes a reason not to call you rather than creating a reason to call. That is a real but small effect, and no school publishes any figure for how often it precedes an admission. Verified July 2026.
What is computable is the pressure behind the list. Implied yield, matriculants divided by offers, runs across 58 schools with a median of 31.3 percent, our arithmetic on published 509 figures, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist offers or waitlist admits at any school, retrieved July 31, 2026, so no honest source can tell you how often a LOCI precedes an admission. Verified July 2026.
Anyone quoting a LOCI success rate has modelled it or invented it. The letter is worth sending because it is cheap, not because it is powerful.
A complaint about the decision, a comparison to another admit, a deadline, or a threat to withdraw. Each converts a routine note into a reason to close the file; Arguing the original decision was wrong asks the reader to defend a colleague. Verified July 2026.
Nothing good follows from that.
Naming another school's offer is a negotiation move, and a waitlist is not a negotiation. Save it for the aid office at a school that has admitted you.
Warmth and brevity do all the work available here. There is no clever version of this letter that outperforms a clear one.
Every figure on this letters of continued interest page carries a Verified July 2026 stamp because a dated stamp is the only honest way to publish a number that moves. Each source below was retrieved in July 2026 and is linked in full rather than named vaguely, so nothing here is modelled, averaged or inferred.
What it supportsSourceImplied yield inputs, offers and matriculants in each school's own 2025 509 reporthttps://law.temple.edu/wp-content/uploads/Std509InfoReport_2025_Acc.pdfLSAC on the application process and CAShttps://www.lsac.org/applying-law-school/jd-application-process/cas
That you would enrol if admitted, what has changed since you applied, and one specific reason for that school. Under 300 words, nothing attached. Verified July 2026.
Under 300 words, about one screen. The reader is checking availability rather than reassessing your file, so length delays the only fact they wanted. Verified July 2026.
Within about two weeks of the waitlist notice, then only when something real changes. Follow the school's own published cadence where it sets one. Verified July 2026.
They remove a reason not to call you rather than creating a reason to call. No ABA disclosure publishes waitlist admits, so any success rate you have seen was modelled. Verified July 2026.
No. Some schools state they want no additional materials from waitlisted applicants, and sending anyway is the one move at this stage that can actively cost you. Verified July 2026.
Read the waitlist instructions the school sent you before you draft anything. They override every general rule about these letters, including ours. The Lovare Diagnostic takes about fifteen minutes and returns your own numbers against published school data rather than a single probability, and it is free.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
August 5, 2026
August 5, 2026