2011-2012 Cycle Applicants! Forum

[ohyouknow]

3.56/172

Favorite Reach School: NYU
Favorite Target School: Northwestern...does Michigan count?
Favorite Safety School: WUSTL
In ten words or less, what you plan to put in your personal statement: work experience, public interest passions...haven't written yet, and haven't come up with a draw or hook yet.

I'm getting pretty excited! Though I know I'll be bashing my head in with the waiting. I took the LSAT almost a year ago now, so I'm ready to be moving forward with applications.

[anewaphorist]

LSAT: 17X, where X is to be determined in October.
GPA: 4.0
Undergrad: State U in the Southeastern U.S.

Favorite Reach: Stanford
Favorite Match: Chicago
Favorite Safety: Vanderbilt

Personal Statement: An attempt to unify science's knowledge without thought and philosophy's thought without knowledge.

It just seemed wrong to put Yale on the list, because even "reach" understates the crapshoot that is YLS.

[sea15]

sea15 - Sounds interesting to me.

HLS legacy might help if he still keeps active in the alumni network/current administration. If I were you, I'd at least ask him about it.

I'm not sure how active he is with HLS still. Is there even a place on the application to indicate family members who have attended? I guess I should ask him. Can't hurt to apply I guess.

[blehGPAgoodLSAT]

sea15 - Sounds interesting to me.

HLS legacy might help if he still keeps active in the alumni network/current administration. If I were you, I'd at least ask him about it.

I'm not sure how active he is with HLS still. Is there even a place on the application to indicate family members who have attended? I guess I should ask him. Can't hurt to apply I guess.

I doubt there's a place on the application for this. From what I've read on TLS, it would only make a difference if he stays active enough to have someone to pick up the phone and call.

A friend of mine rented a room from an old man who was a HBS grad that stayed active with the school... he was able to make calls and, even though this may not have played a factor, my friend got into HBS with a GMAT score far below their median.

[spek]

LSAC finally received my transcript--pretty exciting to have my official LSAC GPA. I think I'll start following up with my LOR writers soon.

[citykitty]

All I need to do is write my PS. All my LoRs have been sent. June LSAT done. Transcripts processed.

I am struggling with the PS. I know what I want to write about, but I need it to not come off as pessimistic, and therein lies the rub.

[soj]

All I need to do is write my PS. All my LoRs have been sent. June LSAT done. Transcripts processed.

I am struggling with the PS. I know what I want to write about, but I need it to not come off as pessimistic, and therein lies the rub.

Same boat. Let's review each other's PS when we're done.

BTW if we really wanna keep each other motivated, we could give each other deadlines for submitting drafts. Thoughts?

[spek]

All I need to do is write my PS. All my LoRs have been sent. June LSAT done. Transcripts processed.

I am struggling with the PS. I know what I want to write about, but I need it to not come off as pessimistic, and therein lies the rub.

So jealous that you have your LORs in already! That's the one thing I don't really have control over and I'm worried they'll end up delaying my application. Also, the PS is hard =S. I've been working on my third draft for weeks now, just doesn't feel good enough to get feedback on yet. It's pretty frustrating but we still have a lot of time

[citykitty]

All I need to do is write my PS. All my LoRs have been sent. June LSAT done. Transcripts processed.

I am struggling with the PS. I know what I want to write about, but I need it to not come off as pessimistic, and therein lies the rub.

Same boat. Let's review each other's PS when we're done.

BTW if we really wanna keep each other motivated, we could give each other deadlines for submitting drafts. Thoughts?

Sounds good. I'm in.

[Hawkeye Pierce]

All I need to do is write my PS. All my LoRs have been sent. June LSAT done. Transcripts processed.

I am struggling with the PS. I know what I want to write about, but I need it to not come off as pessimistic, and therein lies the rub.

Same boat. Let's review each other's PS when we're done.

BTW if we really wanna keep each other motivated, we could give each other deadlines for submitting drafts. Thoughts?

Sounds good. I'm in.

I should bug you two when the deadline is looming to make sure you've been making progress

And I'll play:

Favorite Reach: Harvard
Favorite Match: Columbia
Favorite Safety: Virginia

GPA: 3.86, LSAT: 173, transcript processed. I know that one letter of rec has been sent by a prof, but it hasn't been received by LSAC yet. Going to drop in to the other prof's office hours next week to update him on my LSAT score and see how he's doing on the letter.

[JDndMSW]

So annoyed about my GPA issues! I lucked out and was able to get some F's turned to W's from my first semester way back when. One of the request was denied because the instructor is no longer at the University, well i tracked him down but he has yet to respond to my email. It doesn't really matter though because I cannot send my transcripts in until my summer school class grade is posted. This class also pisses me off because her syllabus said NOTHING about awarding any +/- grades and she gave me an A- when I received a 570/600... I've been emailing her about this because I don't know any professors at my school who give an A- to a 95%. I also have ANOTHER dispute with a professor over a grade who told me through email she was going to "bump" my grade from an A- to an A but on my transcript it says A-. She has now decided to retire all of a sudden and from talking to her department it seems like I am SOL on that one... GRRR. This GPA stuff is just frustrating because I can be anywhere from a 3.53 to to 3.64 which is a pretty important difference considering i am applying almost solely in CA!
P.S. We just got word about the massive cuts in funding that the CSU's are having to take so I wonder what will happen to the UC's!

[mickeyD]

I really hope you're right. I tried following up by calling the department office but apparently she's not on campus for the summer and won't be back until the fall. I will try to catch up her then, if I get a hold of her by mid-September she'll still have plenty of time, I'm not submitting my apps until I receive my October retake scores.

I just took the June test, anyone have any idea when we should start hearing back for fee waivers? Also do you think a URM 170 should be good enough to get fee waivers from T14 schools? Money is a big issue.

Oh def. I'm non-URM 171 w/ shitty GPA and I got Columbia, Penn, Michigan, Northwestern, and UVA fee waivers. Here's the thread from last year with dates: Fee Waivers. It looks like he didn't update much past mid-September, and none of the T-14s issued until 9/1, so you have a couple of months at least. If they haven't come by, say, 3 weeks or so before you want to submit your app, no harm in requesting one. If not for merit (which would give you at least Chicago, NYU, Duke, Cornell, GTown as well as those I listed before), then for need.

Sounds good! I am definitely hoping to avoid app fees, I want to "blanket the T14" but that's a little difficult at $75-$100 an app, not to mention the LSAC report fee.

Really nervous being a URM splitter, (3.5/170 PR), everyone says these cycles are unpredictable so I really hope I don't get shut out. I've seen some LSN profiles similar to mine get into Columbia and MVP $$, and then some get WLed at all of MVP. Hopefully an Oct. retake will remove some uncertainty.

[AntipodeanPhil]

LSAT: 174 (real score)
LSAC GPA: none (I have a foreign UG degree, with a "superior" rating)

I have a PhD from a solidly T1 US school, with two publications and one year of experience as a temporary faculty member. May be unemployed when applying. PS about how my PhD research led me to law school.

Favorite reach: Harvard
Favorite match: Columbia? They seem to like high LSAT internationals
Favorite safety: Vandy

[meatball122]

3.8 / 168 / 5 years military with 3 combat deployments

Favorite reach: Any T6 and I'll poop my pants (out of happiness)
Favorite match: Penn
Favorite safety: USC or George Washington

[Hedwig]

The PS is definitely the most irritating part of the application.

[georgia32]

I was wondering, what is the best way to approach a prof about a LOR? Conveniently I am facebook friends with one teacher who I am thinking about asking, but we were never very close. I am new to the application process, so any advice would be appreciated.

[Hawkeye Pierce]

I was wondering, what is the best way to approach a prof about a LOR? Conveniently I am facebook friends with one teacher who I am thinking about asking, but we were never very close. I am new to the application process, so any advice would be appreciated.

I just walked into the professor's office during his office hours, chatted with him a little bit, and asked him if he could write me a letter of recommendation. If you can't do that, an email should suffice.

[Cartman]

@ the OP, waiting for the cycle to start is ridiculous! It's almost as bad as waiting the 3 weeks for LSAT scores to come out! It does feel as if it's dragging on and on and on.

In other news:
162/169(Retake)/3.32

Reach: UT Austin or U of Washington (UW Averages LSAT scores, so even with a 169 it's a reach. Also, my GPA is low.)
Target: University of California Irvine
Safety:Lewis and Clark

Good news: For the last 2 years (since transferring from a community college to university) my GPA has been a 3.78, so a strong upward grade trend. Good letters of recommendation.

Anyone feel like chancing those schools?

[descartesb4thehorse]

I was wondering, what is the best way to approach a prof about a LOR? Conveniently I am facebook friends with one teacher who I am thinking about asking, but we were never very close. I am new to the application process, so any advice would be appreciated.

I just walked into the professor's office during his office hours, chatted with him a little bit, and asked him if he could write me a letter of recommendation. If you can't do that, an email should suffice.

I agree. It's a LOT harder to get these once you're out of school, even if just for a year if you've left the city/town your UG is in. An email works perfectly fine, and you should ready it with a resume or draft of your personal statement or a paper you wrote for them in the past so they have something to work with. If they don't get back to you, a call is probably the credited response for a follow-up (there are definitely still profs out there who rarely use/secretly despise email).

Facebook is never credited.

[descartesb4thehorse]

@ the OP, waiting for the cycle to start is ridiculous! It's almost as bad as waiting the 3 weeks for LSAT scores to come out! It does feel as if it's dragging on and on and on.

In other news:
162/169(Retake)/3.32

Reach: UT Austin or U of Washington (UW Averages LSAT scores, so even with a 169 it's a reach. Also, my GPA is low.)
Target: University of California Irvine
Safety:Lewis and Clark

Good news: For the last 2 years (since transferring from a community college to university) my GPA has been a 3.78, so a strong upward grade trend. Good letters of recommendation.

Anyone feel like chancing those schools?

Congrats on the higher LSAT! Are you instate at UT or Washington? That'll help to chance you. Looks like you want to end up on the west coast, but I would throw apps to some schools between UT and Washington in the late-teens/twenties - especially IUB and UIUC because you're probably looking at $$$ that you may be able to use to leverage Washington if you get it. I'd also apply to Cornell since that's probably your safest T-14 bet that may offer $$ that Texas might pay attention to. I'd say UT is definitely a good reach - you're not a lock but you've definitely got a good shot if your app plays right.

Irvine? Do you mean Hastings?

[amc987]

FWIW I am an AA male, but I am extremely skeptical of this diversity boost I keep hearing so much about. Somehow I don't think it's quite as evenly applied as everyone suggests, and as a reverse splitter (as compared to most URMs), I'm a bit nervous about the process (despite things working out for previous applicants with #s similar to mine on LSN). I could've also used a few more points on the LSAT. The creator of the sea floor geology passage can suck it, as can whichever genius at LSAC decided on the curve for the June test. Nevertheless...

LSAT: 169 (retake)
GPA: 3.5 @ HYP with upward trend (hopefully this helps some because I had ~3.8 soph-sr year and sub 3.0 freshman year)

Reach: Harvard/Stanford, Columbia/NYU
Target: Penn/Michigan/UVA
Safety: USC/GWU? (I'm not good with safeties).

[Cartman]

@ the OP, waiting for the cycle to start is ridiculous! It's almost as bad as waiting the 3 weeks for LSAT scores to come out! It does feel as if it's dragging on and on and on.

In other news:
162/169(Retake)/3.32

Reach: UT Austin or U of Washington (UW Averages LSAT scores, so even with a 169 it's a reach. Also, my GPA is low.)
Target: University of California Irvine
Safety:Lewis and Clark

Good news: For the last 2 years (since transferring from a community college to university) my GPA has been a 3.78, so a strong upward grade trend. Good letters of recommendation.

Anyone feel like chancing those schools?

Congrats on the higher LSAT! Are you instate at UT or Washington? That'll help to chance you. Looks like you want to end up on the west coast, but I would throw apps to some schools between UT and Washington in the late-teens/twenties - especially IUB and UIUC because you're probably looking at $$$ that you may be able to use to leverage Washington if you get it. I'd also apply to Cornell since that's probably your safest T-14 bet that may offer $$ that Texas might pay attention to. I'd say UT is definitely a good reach - you're not a lock but you've definitely got a good shot if your app plays right.

Irvine? Do you mean Hastings?

I'm actually instate at California, so it won't help me there on either count =\ I would preferably like to stay west coast, but I would go as far as Texas if I got into UT Austin. Also, you might have to help me with some of the acronyms - IUB and UIUC? And that's a great idea, seeing where else I get into and what gives me money as leverage, especially if I get waitlisted.

As for Irvine, I actually mean UC Irvine - which is confusing for lots of people, especially if you don't live in California. UC Irvine is a brand new law school that opened up in Southern California just a couple years ago, and it only recently got its provisional accreditation so it isn't yet ranked. Though based on its selectivity, the fact that it's got some amazing staff members (including the Dean), and the fact that it's trying to be competitive with UCLA and USC means that it's probably going to be a Tier one school when it does, if not top 30 pretty quickly. I'm sure when new schools open up they don't automatically get placed into the top 20, but it's certainly aiming to be. Hastings is a good idea though, especially since I live in the Bay Area. I bet I would also have a good shot at Davis, I'm just not sure if I would like it (though I confess I haven't been to Davis before.) I suppose throwing in an app to Cornell wouldn't hurt either. Thanks for the advice! Do you know of any success stories where applicants were able to use other acceptances as leverage at a school?

[descartesb4thehorse]

@ the OP, waiting for the cycle to start is ridiculous! It's almost as bad as waiting the 3 weeks for LSAT scores to come out! It does feel as if it's dragging on and on and on.

In other news:
162/169(Retake)/3.32

Reach: UT Austin or U of Washington (UW Averages LSAT scores, so even with a 169 it's a reach. Also, my GPA is low.)
Target: University of California Irvine
Safety:Lewis and Clark

Good news: For the last 2 years (since transferring from a community college to university) my GPA has been a 3.78, so a strong upward grade trend. Good letters of recommendation.

Anyone feel like chancing those schools?

Congrats on the higher LSAT! Are you instate at UT or Washington? That'll help to chance you. Looks like you want to end up on the west coast, but I would throw apps to some schools between UT and Washington in the late-teens/twenties - especially IUB and UIUC because you're probably looking at $$$ that you may be able to use to leverage Washington if you get it. I'd also apply to Cornell since that's probably your safest T-14 bet that may offer $$ that Texas might pay attention to. I'd say UT is definitely a good reach - you're not a lock but you've definitely got a good shot if your app plays right.

Irvine? Do you mean Hastings?

I'm actually instate at California, so it won't help me there on either count =\ I would preferably like to stay west coast, but I would go as far as Texas if I got into UT Austin. Also, you might have to help me with some of the acronyms - IUB and UIUC? And that's a great idea, seeing where else I get into and what gives me money as leverage, especially if I get waitlisted.

As for Irvine, I actually mean UC Irvine - which is confusing for lots of people, especially if you don't live in California. UC Irvine is a brand new law school that opened up in Southern California just a couple years ago, and it only recently got its provisional accreditation so it isn't yet ranked. Though based on its selectivity, the fact that it's got some amazing staff members (including the Dean), and the fact that it's trying to be competitive with UCLA and USC means that it's probably going to be a Tier one school when it does, if not top 30 pretty quickly. I'm sure when new schools open up they don't automatically get placed into the top 20, but it's certainly aiming to be. Hastings is a good idea though, especially since I live in the Bay Area. I bet I would also have a good shot at Davis, I'm just not sure if I would like it (though I confess I haven't been to Davis before.) I suppose throwing in an app to Cornell wouldn't hurt either. Thanks for the advice! Do you know of any success stories where applicants were able to use other acceptances as leverage at a school?

Leverage is a necessary part of this game. I am an alum of the 10-11 cycle, and I applied pretty liberally to places because I like options. If not for my late apps (some hours before the deadline), it would have been a pretty good plan. When I told my mom I was reapplying, she said "well, to less schools, right?" and I said, "well, actually, more." You absolutely are able to leverage scholarship offers; for some really well-reputed places, even saying "I got in to X" will get you more money at a lower-ranked place. Considering most of the T15-T35 should give you a fee waiver (if not automatically, it doesn't hurt to request one), it won't be that expensive and may save you $$ at the place you end up matriculating.

IUB - Indiana University (Bloomington) and UIUC - Illinois @ Urbana/Champaign. They as well as WUSTL (Washington University - St. Louis) love LSATs >168. If you have good cause for the 162 (illness, etc.), it may not hurt to write an LSAT addendum for Washington so they may just consider the 169. Indiana has been giving out 120k scholarships this cycle like candy, but unfortunately nowhere else will honor that at face value. (For instance, ND, even though it's in the same state and ranked the same, will not match a 120k offer from IUB). A lot of places will up their offer (even significantly) with a good scholarship offer somewhere at or above their ranking. (You won't get UT to offer you more money because of a scholarship at Washington, for instance.)

Since you're in-state, definitely try for UCLA as well. Be careful about L&C as a safety- apply early. They filled up their class quickly this year and had to defer all applicants who applied late, even locks, and offered them spot on the waitlist. I didn't follow the rest of the drama, whether many/most of them got off of the waitlist, but just be sure to apply before or around Thanksgiving.

[Dany]

I was wondering, what is the best way to approach a prof about a LOR? Conveniently I am facebook friends with one teacher who I am thinking about asking, but we were never very close. I am new to the application process, so any advice would be appreciated.

If you weren't very close, make sure you make it easy for them to write the letter. This means giving them everything they'll need. I'd get in contact first by email, asking to meet with them to talk about a letter of recommendation for law school. If they say sure, get everything ready and bring it to them.

I needed a third LOR and ended up getting it from a prof I only had one class with. I met with her, talked about law school, and gave her absolutely everything she'd need to write a great letter. This included work from her class, my resume, a letter to her to keep on hand thanking her for writing it and remind her of the date I needed it by, my transcript, and the LSAC form all in a neat folder. It sucks having to get one from someone you're not close to, but if you do it right, you can make a great impression and get a good letter. For what it's worth, she called the packet of info I gave her the absolute most helpful thing a student had done while asking for a recommendation and that it reflected really well on me.

And remember - professors want to help you. Writing LORs is part of their job, and in my experience they were more than happy to help.

[Hawkeye Pierce]

I was wondering, what is the best way to approach a prof about a LOR? Conveniently I am facebook friends with one teacher who I am thinking about asking, but we were never very close. I am new to the application process, so any advice would be appreciated.

If you weren't very close, make sure you make it easy for them to write the letter. This means giving them everything they'll need. I'd get in contact first by email, asking to meet with them to talk about a letter of recommendation for law school. If they say sure, get everything ready and bring it to them.

I needed a third LOR and ended up getting it from a prof I only had one class with. I met with her, talked about law school, and gave her absolutely everything she'd need to write a great letter. This included work from her class, my resume, a letter to her to keep on hand thanking her for writing it and remind her of the date I needed it by, my transcript, and the LSAC form all in a neat folder. It sucks having to get one from someone you're not close to, but if you do it right, you can make a great impression and get a good letter. For what it's worth, she called the packet of info I gave her the absolute most helpful thing a student had done while asking for a recommendation and that it reflected really well on me.

And remember - professors want to help you. Writing LORs is part of their job, and in my experience they were more than happy to help.

Absolutely right!