Is 30 schools too many to apply to? Forum

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BeerMaker

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Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by BeerMaker » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:15 pm

I put together my list and I narrowed it down to 30. Is that insane or fairly normal?

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JamMasterJ

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by JamMasterJ » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:16 pm

BeerMaker wrote:I put together my list and I narrowed it down to 30. Is that insane or fairly normal?
stats, schools and preferred location?

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DocHawkeye

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by DocHawkeye » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:17 pm

Isn't that somewhere close to 15% of all accredited law schools in the United States?

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Kilpatrick

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by Kilpatrick » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:18 pm

If you have a fee waiver, its not that crazy. I had a fee waiver so I applied to 20+. In retrospect though, I wasted money on some schools I definitely wouldn't have gone to just because I was paranoid about not getting in anywhere better and some I had no realistic shot at. If you don't have a fee waiver and you're actually spending ~100 bucks on each school - yes it's insane.

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by bk1 » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:21 pm

It's on the high side.

If you have fee waivers or something that gives you a lot of reaches then it might be okay (e.g. being a 2.95/170, having 2 DUI's, etc).

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bmp

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by bmp » Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:03 pm

that's a bit high IMO. I'm applying to 13. Good luck either way!

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FeelTheHeat

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by FeelTheHeat » Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:05 pm

Kilpatrick wrote:If you have a fee waiver, its not that crazy. I had a fee waiver so I applied to 20+. In retrospect though, I wasted money on some schools I definitely wouldn't have gone to just because I was paranoid about not getting in anywhere better and some I had no realistic shot at. If you don't have a fee waiver and you're actually spending ~100 bucks on each school - yes it's insane.
Pretty much this

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20160810

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by 20160810 » Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:21 am

Even with fee waivers this is stupid, as you're still spending $12 x 30. Only apply to schools you'd actually attend.

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PDaddy

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by PDaddy » Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:42 am

I can think of a consideration which makes it reasonable to apply to as many schools as you can: $cholarships!

It's not that crazy because the x-factor is that you can predict neither where you will get money nor how much will be offered. Applying only to schools that you would attend removes from the calculus schools that might offer you money that you could then use as leverage against more desirable peer schools that offer you less money or none at all.

For example, let's say you got into UCLA and USC, but USC offered you $30K/yr while UCLA offered you $15K/yr. Let's also say that you strongly preferred UCLA. This would present a scenario in which you could use USC's offer to get more money from UCLA. Schools know about this game and play it all the time, and they do not like to lose to peer schools.

Defining "peer" by rankings and other factors such as geography, specialties, etc, you could theoretically do this with Pepperdine and Loyola (CA), Virginia and Penn, Duke and Vanderbilt, Hastings and Davis, Michigan and Chicago, Suffolk and Howard, Brooklyn and Cardozo, Cornell and GULC, Illinois and Fordham, etc.

Apply to as many schools as you can afford to apply to, but maintain the quality of your applications. If you are paying out-of-pocket for apps and/or the quality of your apps is suffering, it's a bad idea to apply to a lot of schools. Otherwise, 30 apps is not that crazy.

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071816

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by 071816 » Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:54 am

Depends. I applied to 18 but got fee waivers for half of them. I probably wouldn't apply to 30 if you aren't getting a significant amount of fee waivers though. Plus, 30 just seems a little excessive regardless. But to each his own I guess. If money isn't a concern I don't see how applying to an assload of schools could hurt you.

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by ringo » Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:45 am

PDaddy wrote: Defining "peer" by rankings and other factors such as geography, specialties, etc, you could theoretically do this with Pepperdine and Loyola (CA), Virginia and Penn, Duke and Vanderbilt, Hastings and Davis, Michigan and Chicago, Suffolk and Howard, Brooklyn and Cardozo, Cornell and GULC, Illinois and Fordham, etc.
Is this list credited? Specifically Duke/Vandy. I was saving my non-T14 apps for after I heard from Duke and now that I'm in I wasn't going to bother (even with fee waivers), but if Vanderbilt could offer some leverage...

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by Aqualibrium » Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:58 am

I applied to nearly 30 schools, almost all with fee waivers, and actually ended up going to a school that I never thought I would actually attend. If you've got the money to do it, do it. You never know what might change between the time you apply and the time when you need to make a decision. In my case, I ended up going to school for free in a place where I've been very happy for the past three years.
Last edited by Aqualibrium on Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by bk1 » Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:58 am

ringo wrote:
PDaddy wrote: Defining "peer" by rankings and other factors such as geography, specialties, etc, you could theoretically do this with Pepperdine and Loyola (CA), Virginia and Penn, Duke and Vanderbilt, Hastings and Davis, Michigan and Chicago, Suffolk and Howard, Brooklyn and Cardozo, Cornell and GULC, Illinois and Fordham, etc.
Is this list credited? Specifically Duke/Vandy. I was saving my non-T14 apps for after I heard from Duke and now that I'm in I wasn't going to bother (even with fee waivers), but if Vanderbilt could offer some leverage...
Schools don't need to be exactly peer for you to leverage scholarships, they just need to be close enough. However if the school is lower you'll need more money to leverage. For example Duke probably wouldn't care about $5k/year scholarship to Vandy whereas they might care about $5k/year scholarship to UVa. But Duke might consider a $20k/year scholarship to Vandy (and give you something like $5k/year, hypothetically).

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thederangedwang

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by thederangedwang » Wed Oct 26, 2011 11:44 am

I'm applying to 8 and that's only after several of my friends and advisors urged me to apply to more,

initially i was only going for 5 schools...im sure u guessed it, imho 30 is excessive...i dont see why the need for so many...

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by bk1 » Wed Oct 26, 2011 12:15 pm

thederangedwang wrote:I'm applying to 8 and that's only after several of my friends and advisors urged me to apply to more,

initially i was only going for 5 schools...im sure u guessed it, imho 30 is excessive...i dont see why the need for so many...
I applied to around 25 schools. Rejected by 11, waitlisted by 11, accepted by 3.

You really can't make categorical statements like this when people with certain number combinations and/or softs are justified in applying to many schools due to the erratic nature that their cycle may take.

thederangedwang

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by thederangedwang » Wed Oct 26, 2011 12:18 pm

bk187 wrote:
thederangedwang wrote:I'm applying to 8 and that's only after several of my friends and advisors urged me to apply to more,

initially i was only going for 5 schools...im sure u guessed it, imho 30 is excessive...i dont see why the need for so many...
I applied to around 25 schools. Rejected by 11, waitlisted by 11, accepted by 3.

You really can't make categorical statements like this when people with certain number combinations and/or softs are justified in applying to many schools due to the erratic nature that their cycle may take.
i agree with you for the most part, but those stats, 11 reject, 11 waitlist, and 3 accept, would to me indicate that you shot a bit high or you were overly optimistic by a bit.

i think 15 schools is good, with 20 being really really high...i think 30 is plain and simply excessive...if the op is realistic with his chances, then 30 is excessive

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by 071816 » Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:46 pm

thederangedwang wrote:
bk187 wrote:
thederangedwang wrote:I'm applying to 8 and that's only after several of my friends and advisors urged me to apply to more,

initially i was only going for 5 schools...im sure u guessed it, imho 30 is excessive...i dont see why the need for so many...
I applied to around 25 schools. Rejected by 11, waitlisted by 11, accepted by 3.

You really can't make categorical statements like this when people with certain number combinations and/or softs are justified in applying to many schools due to the erratic nature that their cycle may take.
i agree with you for the most part, but those stats, 11 reject, 11 waitlist, and 3 accept, would to me indicate that you shot a bit high or you were overly optimistic by a bit.

i think 15 schools is good, with 20 being really really high...i think 30 is plain and simply excessive...if the op is realistic with his chances, then 30 is excessive
What the hell is wrong with shooting too high? I don't get people that are super conservative with their applications. It can never hurt you to apply broadly (assuming you don't have money issues). I was admitted to a school I thought I had no chance of getting into and it worked out well. If I never would have applied there, I obviously never would have gotten in. There is really no hard and fast rule here.

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smokeylarue

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by smokeylarue » Wed Oct 26, 2011 4:14 pm

I think 30 is way too many.

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BeerMaker

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by BeerMaker » Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:14 pm

I think I'll try and narrow it down to 20. I don't know where I want to go. I am very indecisive. This is not going to be good :)

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tryingtowin

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by tryingtowin » Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:39 pm

I applied to 80,
waitlisted by 50, rejected by 29 and excepted to 1.. :oops:

The more applications the better!!

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thelawschoolproject

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by thelawschoolproject » Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:46 pm

SBL wrote:Even with fee waivers this is stupid, as you're still spending $12 $16 x 30. Only apply to schools you'd actually attend.
FTFY

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Kilpatrick

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by Kilpatrick » Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:46 pm

tryingtowin wrote:I applied to 80,
waitlisted by 50, rejected by 29 and excepted to 1.. :oops:

The more applications the better!!
I think I see what the problem was.

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thelawschoolproject

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by thelawschoolproject » Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:47 pm

Kilpatrick wrote:
tryingtowin wrote:I applied to 80,
waitlisted by 50, rejected by 29 and excepted to 1.. :oops:

The more applications the better!!
I think I see what the problem was.
Thought this . . . just didn't have the balls to say it. +1 to you.

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tryingtowin

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by tryingtowin » Wed Oct 26, 2011 6:05 pm

Kilpatrick wrote:
tryingtowin wrote:I applied to 80,
waitlisted by 50, rejected by 29 and excepted to 1.. :oops:

The more applications the better!!
I think I see what the problem was.
laughing hard! :lol:

Laughing harder at those who took my post seriously

and laughing hardest at those who thought it was an accident. :mrgreen:

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BeerMaker

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Re: Is 30 schools too many to apply to?

Post by BeerMaker » Wed Oct 26, 2011 6:16 pm

HAHAHAHA...... I'm rolling! I wonder what the record is for person denied by the most schools.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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