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larsoner wrote:I have a question about LORs. I have been working for the last year on an independent math/stats research project with a professor at my school and at the behest of a UN organization, for whom I did an internship about a year ago. The project is finally wrapping up and I am doing the finally write-up. I can probably get the paper published in journal, but first it needs to be edited etc. etc. so I'm certainly not going to have a confirmation on publishing before Stanford (I'm a soft hold) or Harvard (I'm a hold hold) make decisions on me. I'm going to present my work at a small conference in about a month and I have maybe a couple other things to add to a resume (lined up a summer legal internship with a non-profit, have been nominated for distinction in one of my majors), but I don't know if a line on my resume about a small not competitive conference would really capture the awesomeness of actually having finally finished this research that has been eating my life for a year.

So my question. Stanford, my top choice, has an LOR from my research adviser already and I imagine it was pretty good, but if my adviser sent an updated LOR she could talk about how I've finally finished this thing. Do people send updated LORs to Stanford or Harvard? Would that be a terrible idea? Of course I could send them a letter about what I have done, but I think it would be more convincing if I didn't write it, wouldn't it? Should I just send an updated resume?

Sorry this post is so long and thanks for any advise.

azgirl514 wrote:

hellothisisme wrote:I'm assuming my rejection from Berkeley means my chances at Stanford are completely nonexistent.

Oh well... Nothing I didn't know from the get-go.

This is not necessarily true at all! Keep optimistic: Berkeley is known for being a black box when it comes to admissions. There are a few people on TLS with incredible LSAT scores who got into Harvard, Columbia, etc and didn't get into Boalt. Each admissions process is completely different.

jetissent wrote: I actually think it would be better coming from you in an LOCI/update. Adding a few lines to your resume wouldn't make much of a difference but explaining these accomplishments would. I've read several Deans' blog posts about not over doing it on LOR and I think it show much more effort/proactive attention on your part to write up a letter than to ask someone else to. Just my 2 cents though.

Congrats and good luck!

larsoner wrote:Thank you, jetissent and hypothalamus. Still not sure what I'm going to do, but it helps to know that how I should go about this isn't clear to everyone but me.

larsoner wrote:Thank you, jetissent and hypothalamus. Still not sure what I'm going to do, but it helps to know that how I should go about this isn't clear to everyone but me.

azgirl514 wrote:

hellothisisme wrote:I'm assuming my rejection from Berkeley means my chances at Stanford are completely nonexistent.

Oh well... Nothing I didn't know from the get-go.

This is not necessarily true at all! Keep optimistic: Berkeley is known for being a black box when it comes to admissions. There are a few people on TLS with incredible LSAT scores who got into Harvard, Columbia, etc and didn't get into Boalt. Each admissions process is completely different.

Zelda wrote:Who else is waiting?

Looking at 2010-2011 LSN is not giving me much confidence...

Doorkeeper wrote:

Zelda wrote:Who else is waiting?

Looking at 2010-2011 LSN is not giving me much confidence...

Why? I looked back and there were a number of admits anywhere from early March to early April. I think now will be the period where the "soft holds" get admitted.

Zelda wrote:

Doorkeeper wrote:

Zelda wrote:Who else is waiting?

Looking at 2010-2011 LSN is not giving me much confidence...

Why? I looked back and there were a number of admits anywhere from early March to early April. I think now will be the period where the "soft holds" get admitted.

Here are the people on LSN that got in after this time last year:

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/kdubb513 4/8/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/brooklynwegohard 4/7/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/GoneWest 4/6/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/Gr8Gatsby 4/2/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/achtentachtig 4/1/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/badams2 3/31/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/ElMargarita 3/31/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/mps 3/30/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/usonesinbetween 3/30/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/neonx 3/30/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/elchurro 3/28/11
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/jimbo1220 3/11/11

I agree that it isn't like 0 people received good news, but this seems like a pretty limited number to me.

sharktankdean wrote:Yeah i lost a lot of hope for stanford. And i did a rough count and looking at lsn, it seems that this cycle and last cycle are similar in respect to the # of people who had gotten in at this time of the year.

But we have to take into consideration the few people who delete their lsn accounts when their cycle is over...

and the fact that stanford didn't make any decisions last week

when u take everything into consideration....there isn't much hope but at least there is some hope to hold onto.

Aqua wrote:

sharktankdean wrote:Yeah i lost a lot of hope for stanford. And i did a rough count and looking at lsn, it seems that this cycle and last cycle are similar in respect to the # of people who had gotten in at this time of the year.

But we have to take into consideration the few people who delete their lsn accounts when their cycle is over...

and the fact that stanford didn't make any decisions last week

when u take everything into consideration....there isn't much hope but at least there is some hope to hold onto.

I think there is definitely hope! I applied to Berkeley less than a week before the application deadline and I'm from out of state, but I made it through FR2 contrary to TLS wisdom. Until I get a rejection letter, I'm going to stay positive.

sharktankdean wrote:

Aqua wrote:

sharktankdean wrote:Yeah i lost a lot of hope for stanford. And i did a rough count and looking at lsn, it seems that this cycle and last cycle are similar in respect to the # of people who had gotten in at this time of the year.

But we have to take into consideration the few people who delete their lsn accounts when their cycle is over...

and the fact that stanford didn't make any decisions last week

when u take everything into consideration....there isn't much hope but at least there is some hope to hold onto.

I think there is definitely hope! I applied to Berkeley less than a week before the application deadline and I'm from out of state, but I made it through FR2 contrary to TLS wisdom. Until I get a rejection letter, I'm going to stay positive.

i know there is hope... I'm just not sure how MUCH hope there is. Lets see what this week brings I guess.

sharktankdean wrote:LOL. I'll try and stay positive.

hypothalamus wrote:

sharktankdean wrote:LOL. I'll try and stay positive.

I'm taking over from sharktankdean as operator of the pessimism train... LSN tells me to expect a number of rejections this week and next, with the possibility of a few acceptances at the very end of the month.

kindaklueless wrote:Can't imagine last year being terribly predictive. Based on LSN and last year's TLS thread, weren't we just predicting a wave of URM admits last week that didn't came to pass?