Defining "similar" and "rank" Forum

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Holodigm

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Defining "similar" and "rank"

Post by Holodigm » Mon Mar 14, 2016 5:33 pm

Hi all. Got a couple questions that may be obvious, but looking for some specificity (if possible).

We all know about the willingness of schools to consider offers from similarly ranked schools. Unfortunately I didn't plan my applications with that in mind and so my scholarship offers are from all over the place, to the point where (like the subject says) my negotiating power varies greatly depending on their definitions of both "similar" and "rank".

I'll start with "rank", because it's probably the easier question - whose rank do these schools consider? Or is it even uniform? Outside of T14, these different rankings can vary wildly. Also, do any of these schools ever take specialty rankings into account? That would also complicate the situation, if so.

And how similar does "similar" have to be in order to be "similar"? Is mid T1 comparable to bottom T1 (ie 20 vs 50)? Again, I'm not talking about T14 or stuff like Berkeley's rigid "not top 10? lol" philosophy. I'm trying to learn how far down schools are willing to look.

Here are the specifics, to explain my situation. It could of course change, but at the moment my interests lie in a hybrid of IP and entertainment law. With 170/3.67, as a probably borderline nontraditional student, USC offered me $105k - obviously, I'd like to negotiate up. Loyola LA has offered me near-full at $144k, Southwestern and U of Houston both offered me full, and Santa Clara's offered me $90k (but I'll probably leave this one out of it). If specialty rankings ARE considered, Houston and Santa Clara both rank in IP, and significantly higher than USC. Depending on who you ask (we'll use Law Street Media for this) Southwestern and Loyola are ranked higher for entertainment, especially Southwestern. If specialty rankings are dismissed, then my negotiating power decreases...a lot...BUT. As of Wednesday Houston will be considered a bottom T1 school by US News, and already is by other rankings. So really...how much ammo is in my chamber?

Keep in mind I'm still waiting on a ton of schools - UCLA, Berkeley, Cornell, Virginia, NYU, UT, Harvard (lol), and Stanford (lol). I'm also about to submit LOCIs for Duke and GWU. So with all that, I have no doubt the overall answer is "wait". I'm okay with that. But USC has a scholarship acceptance deadline of April 1, and with that around the corner I have to start considering the possibility those schools won't get back in time.

Any feedback is appreciated - thoughts, comments, threats, anything.

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