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hey guys,

ive got a conundrum. i only applied to two schools this year, berkeley and la cause ive been in california all my life and cant really see myself leaving. berkeley came back a reject, but i got in to ucla. should i just wait the year and try to get into CCN? i plan on working in california after school, what will my prospects be in cali from ucla? i just got out of undergrad, and i have no clue what i'd do for a year. should i just go to ucla, and possibly try to transfer? im sure id be happy at ucla, im just worried about finding a job afterwards.

aggies215 wrote:hey guys,

ive got a conundrum. i only applied to two schools this year, berkeley and la cause ive been in california all my life and cant really see myself leaving. berkeley came back a reject, but i got in to ucla. should i just wait the year and try to get into CCN? i plan on working in california after school, what will my prospects be in cali from ucla? i just got out of undergrad, and i have no clue what i'd do for a year. should i just go to ucla, and possibly try to transfer? im sure id be happy at ucla, im just worried about finding a job afterwards.

Wait.

Apply early next cycle. You're a lock at NYU and have a good shot at CC.

Also, you should get $$ options at other T14s if you can avoid being yield protected.

Don't do UCLA without full ride+.

aggies215 wrote:hey guys,

ive got a conundrum. i only applied to two schools this year, berkeley and la cause ive been in california all my life and cant really see myself leaving. berkeley came back a reject, but i got in to ucla. should i just wait the year and try to get into CCN? i plan on working in california after school, what will my prospects be in cali from ucla? i just got out of undergrad, and i have no clue what i'd do for a year. should i just go to ucla, and possibly try to transfer? im sure id be happy at ucla, im just worried about finding a job afterwards.

why hadn't you applied to stanford?

plum wrote:

aggies215 wrote:hey guys,

ive got a conundrum. i only applied to two schools this year, berkeley and la cause ive been in california all my life and cant really see myself leaving. berkeley came back a reject, but i got in to ucla. should i just wait the year and try to get into CCN? i plan on working in california after school, what will my prospects be in cali from ucla? i just got out of undergrad, and i have no clue what i'd do for a year. should i just go to ucla, and possibly try to transfer? im sure id be happy at ucla, im just worried about finding a job afterwards.

why hadn't you applied to stanford?

my softs are pretty much nonexistent; i double majored in biochem and a social science so i was pretty bogged down. I could've shot them an app i suppose, but i figured my chances weren't that great. my 173 is off a retake, in an unrelated note. my first was a 171 thanks for the responses!

I'm not sure how much of an advantage CCN is if you are 100% sure that you want to stay in California; I think you can make a reasonable case for UCLA, if you got money from UCLA (especially if it means saving a year). So the bigger question I'd ask is if you got money from UCLA.

If you applied late and missed out on money, I'd definitely recommend re-applying, and broadening your scope. You have great numbers for Columbia all the way down, and you'd have a shot at Stanford (bad softs aside, you might be able to parlay the local angle). Part of your goal should be to get big scholarships in the event you want to leverage them for Berkeley, UCLA, or USC money. You have the potential for a free ride from a regional powerhouse in your market--and knowing where you want to practice is a big advantage career wise--so definitely DO NOT pay sticker for anywhere this year.

Also: Why not USC? UCLA places better, I think, but you should be applying widely to increase chances for big money.

You are definitely selling yourself short if you go to UCLA this year. The retake isn't a big deal.

I'm not sure how much of an advantage CCN is if you are 100% sure that you want to stay in California

CCN would be a huge advantage. Even lower T14 would be a reasonable advantage. Additionally, OP has a legit shot at HYS.

nealric wrote:You are definitely selling yourself short if you go to UCLA this year. The retake isn't a big deal.

I'm not sure how much of an advantage CCN is if you are 100% sure that you want to stay in California

CCN would be a huge advantage. Even lower T14 would be a reasonable advantage. Additionally, OP has a legit shot at HYS.

Lower t14 for the California market really isn't an advantage. Going to Cornell when you want to practice in California is a bad idea.

Like I said, though, I think UCLA with $$$ is reasonable if you know you want to practice in Cali. The advantages in placement from CCN are offset by the low cost of UCLA and the networking opportunities for the home market. This isn't as a big of a deal because OP already has contacts in Cali, but I don't think UCLA $$$ is a bad bet for someone intent on Cali -- it is held in very high regard in its home market.

nealric wrote: CCN would be a huge advantage. Even lower T14 would be a reasonable advantage. Additionally, OP has a legit shot at HYS.

UCLA's basically a lower T14 already. Adjusted for CA, it's effectively a lower T14.

aggies215 wrote:hey guys,

ive got a conundrum. i only applied to two schools this year, berkeley and la cause ive been in california all my life and cant really see myself leaving. berkeley came back a reject, but i got in to ucla. should i just wait the year and try to get into CCN? i plan on working in california after school, what will my prospects be in cali from ucla? i just got out of undergrad, and i have no clue what i'd do for a year. should i just go to ucla, and possibly try to transfer? im sure id be happy at ucla, im just worried about finding a job afterwards.

You've been on TLS for 2 years, so I'm not sure why you didn't do more research before applying to only 2 schools, one of which is a real GPA whore. Either waiting for a year to apply to CCN or attending UCLA this year are reasonable options, but what would you do for the year off?

Dude. You have a legit shot at CCN and an outside shot at HS. Any would be better than UCLA even for Cali.

rayiner wrote:Dude. You have a legit shot at CCN and an outside shot at HS. Any would be better than UCLA even for Cali.

agreed w/ this part, emphasis on outside shot for HS though. Y is out because of no softs and numbers arent there. H has been really tough on retakers and low GPA's this cycle...this cycle, you'd be prob reject at H, maybe WL. i dont know if that will change next, but i dont see why JR would. S is a GPA whore...sub-3.8 hurts you and so do the lack of softs.

but for CCN, i could definitely see you getting into one of those 3 at least, esp. if you apply beginning of the next semester. maybe do something meaningful the yr off as well?

Might want to reassess your PS. Straight-up rejection w/ those stats doesn't make a lot of sense.

MrKappus wrote:Might want to reassess your PS. Straight-up rejection w/ those stats doesn't make a lot of sense.

+1. I know Berk loves the GPA, but a straight-up reject with a 173/3.77... Somethings off.

I would def take the year off and apply to HSCCNB next cycle. You could spend the time improving your softs and application packages, and you would be able to apply in late September (really early). If you do this, you will surely get acceptances; and I think anyone of these acceptances would be better for you than UCLA (unless UCLA is offering some serious cash).

it wasnt a straight up reject technically; i got sent to fac review. i applied pretty late in the cycle (late december), so i wasnt too surprised. i think the main problem is i have no idea what id do for the year, any suggestions?

Reapply, and have someone with superior writing skills re-read and edit your personal statement. The only reason you should have been a reject at Boalt with a 173/3.77 is if your PS read something along the lines of "I want to go to law school so that I can one day be president and make the Negroes slaves again."

aggies215 wrote:it wasnt a straight up reject technically; i got sent to fac review. i applied pretty late in the cycle (late december), so i wasnt too surprised. i think the main problem is i have no idea what id do for the year, any suggestions?

I don't think it really matters what you do as far as helping your application; meaning like, you're only going to be able to improve your softs so much..

But maybe you could do some charity work? Get a job? Relax and hangout..?

I'm just saying that's what I would do with those numbers, because I think if you apply early and whatnot you can get into some pretty banging schools.. But I don't know your exact situation

Do you have any scholarhsip money to UCLA? If not, then I would definitely wait until next year. By gaining work experience, applying early, and writing a better PS I think you should be a lock for at least 75k in scholarship money there. Plus you should apply to Stanford, Berkeley, USC, and any other school that you like. Even if you only make 25k this year. by waiting it would be like you earned 100k salary when you consider next year's scholly offers.

straight up reject from Berkeley isn't that surprising... pretty sure they do it as a form of YP for a large category of high LSAT/ decent GPA students this year.

For example, I had a straight up ding from them with a 3.9+, 173+ when I had scholarships to CCN... I guess my lack of interest in them did come through in my application tho.

We are ignoring the fact that OP has a legitimate shot at Berkeley next year, esp. if they do something worthwhile with this year. Late applications cam hurt your chances a lot. Get an app in first thing to Berkeley next year and hit CCN and UCLA again. At least you should get some money from UCLA and one of CCN maybe w/ $

Na_Swatch wrote:straight up reject from Berkeley isn't that surprising... pretty sure they do it as a form of YP for a large category of high LSAT/ decent GPA students this year.

For example, I had a straight up ding from them with a 3.9+, 173+ when I had scholarships to CCN... I guess my lack of interest in them did come through in my application tho.

Had to have been a serious lack of interest

Cilent21 wrote:

Na_Swatch wrote:straight up reject from Berkeley isn't that surprising... pretty sure they do it as a form of YP for a large category of high LSAT/ decent GPA students this year.

For example, I had a straight up ding from them with a 3.9+, 173+ when I had scholarships to CCN... I guess my lack of interest in them did come through in my application tho.

Had to have been a serious lack of interest

it wasnt that serious.. i mean it was the same interest I showed CCN and I had very different results there.

Na_Swatch wrote:straight up reject from Berkeley isn't that surprising... pretty sure they do it as a form of YP for a large category of high LSAT/ decent GPA students this year.

For example, I had a straight up ding from them with a 3.9+, 173+ when I had scholarships to CCN... I guess my lack of interest in them did come through in my application tho.

Yeah, I was dinged there too with 3.8/172. Late Jan application, and I didn't bother tweaking my PS and resume just for them. They didn't take kindly to that, I suppose, but there can't have been any red flags other than that -- I'm in at NYU and wl'd at Harvard. Boalt really wants to know that you want Boalt, not just law school.

clintonius wrote:

Na_Swatch wrote:straight up reject from Berkeley isn't that surprising... pretty sure they do it as a form of YP for a large category of high LSAT/ decent GPA students this year.

For example, I had a straight up ding from them with a 3.9+, 173+ when I had scholarships to CCN... I guess my lack of interest in them did come through in my application tho.

Yeah, I was dinged there too with 3.8/172. Late Jan application, and I didn't bother tweaking my PS and resume just for them. They didn't take kindly to that, I suppose, but there can't have been any red flags other than that -- I'm in at NYU and wl'd at Harvard. Boalt really wants to know that you want Boalt, not just law school.

yep.. just from a lot of cases it seems they did YP with straight up rejects once they figured a person likely wasn't coming/ had options they were going to choose over Berkeley.

reapply. you get to wait a year for the market to rebound as well.

Ayup.

Anyways, to the OP, I echo the advice to wait and apply early next cycle.