There's quite a few people in the 3/16 batch with no red flags, though. I don't have a red flag, and although I had a 2.95 GPA, I have a Master's Degree and 3 years of really good WE, and also some above average volunteer experience. Also, I moved my score up from 162 to 168 with the February retake, which they were aware of.

It's true that UF rejected people with 169s last year with low GPAs, though, so anything could happen.

You should be in the accepted group , so who knows. We both seem to go back and forth as to what all this means for 3/16 DLIT's. We will find out soon! It would be hard to believe that they are rejections.

Someone convince me my 3/16 DIT at 162/3.62 is an acceptance just to make me feel better over the weekend.

You're accepted. Have a good weekend.

The best case I can make is the 3/11 waitlists. These applicants had generally lower numbers than us 3/16'ers (3/11'ers had sub-160 lsats). If they really wanted to waitlist us, they could have put us in that group. According to this topic, in 2009 there was only one large batch of waitlists sent out (3/20). Granted, there was not another batch of acceptances sent after the WL's, but we're being positive here- there was only ONE batch.

Because our numbers are generally higher than the 3/11 WL'ers, we can safely say that our group is not getting rejected. Furthermore, because one batch of WL's already went out, we can conclude that the 3/16'ers are accepted!

To add to this line of reasoning, we (3/16'ers) are all strong applicants but not as strong as the 3/5 acceptances which is why we were held. But we're stronger than the 3/11 waitlisters. So I think UF was just waiting to make a decision on us middle of the road applicants and we will all be accepted (positive thinking).

The best case I can make for this being a batch of acceptances is that I'm in it. I mean who wouldn't want me.

Other than Georgia of course. Oh and William and Mary. Not to mention Arizona, Washington and Lee, and Wake.

On second thought its not looking good for this batch

It's also possible that 3/16 is a mix of acceptances and waitlists since we seem to be less than sure things but higher than the WLers. I'd be surprised if 3/16 contains rejections, though.

So I went to the ASD today and here are some of my thoughts...

Facilities/building
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the facilities at UF. It was very clean and the classrooms were very nice. Comparing UF and FSU's law school buildings, I must say that I was much more impressed with what UF has to offer. Their library is very spacious and has lots of windows/lighting. The reading room is also law-students-only which is great seeing as the rest of the library is open to the undergraduate student body at UF. There also seems to be a lot of parking around the campus, a lot more than FSU. Also, I think that Gainesville is much cleaner than Tallahassee overall (and Gainesville has TWO Chipotles whereas Tallahassee doesn't even have one..).

Presentations
The dean and the guy that puts together the curriculum were very boring and seemed a little fake at times when answering questions. The alumni panel which included a judge, someone who worked in the state attorney's office, and someone in private practice was very informative. Each of the three alumni gave us a little back story on how they got to their current occupations and it was nice to have stories from both the public and private sector. The student presentations which included 1Ls 2Ls and 3Ls were also interesting. They answered questions for us and seemed pretty genuine in their answers. It was pretty obvious by their responses, coupled with those of the alumni that UF's "national" reach doesn't extend beyond Florida unless you're at the tipidy-top of your class and have some awesome connections.

They also had three professors talk to us about the quality of the faculty at the law school. They ensured us that all the faculty at UF is very approachable and of course they're super, super awesome (everyone tries to sell their school to us). They also touched on some of the clinics, certificate programs and study aboard opportunities at UF. Nothing here really struck me as extraordinary as it seems most law schools offer similar programs. They sort of exaggerated the national reach of UF though again they made it pretty obvious that UF is the king of Florida and that's where most UF grads go.

Scholarships/financial aid
Carol Huber gave us a presentation about the whole financial aid deal. Apparently about 50/300 students receive merit scholarships and the median grant is about $4,000 (ranging from something like 2k-15k). Carol told us that UF current has more offers out there than they actually have to distribute for merit aid, so I guess they assume some of these people will withdraw. I personally asked her during the presentation if there was a certain date that we should essentially throw in the towel and conclude that we're not going to get any sort of merit aid. Her response was that scholarships are distributed until the end of March but sometimes they get money freed up from students withdrawing and could potentially give out merit aid up to the first week before classes.

did anyone explain what qualifies for a merit scholarship. I thought a poster got 18k with a 162.

I got 30k with a 162, I'm Hispanic.

..

The parking lot looked a lot bigger than the one outside the law school building at FSU. Maybe there's a parking lot I don't know about next the FSU law school? Not sure, but it's always been super jammed packed every time I've looked (I'm an FSU undergrad).

No she didn't but it seems like being a URM really, really helps. I was surprised they actually admitted that such a low number (~17%) get merit scholarships. UF's ultra-stingy reputation seems to have a lot of truth to it.

That fully explains a "merit" scholarship. Thanks for the info. Makes sense, since UF offered my sister much less with a 172 and 4.0 in chemistry, she's now at U of Chicago law. Go figure.

.

I hope she wrote them a very... forceful withdrawal email.

lawduder, thanks for the thoughts. It's always good to read people's opinions and I'm pleased to hear something about the ASD since I'm pretty disappointed I missed it.

I find it a bit concerning that a UF degree gets you nothing outside of Florida. I guess you have to be pretty sure where you want to work. Also, the "merit" scholarships are officially a joke? I'm pretty disappointed not to have received ANYTHING with numbers well above their medians. I know in-state tuition is low but not with offers from better ranked out-of-state schools that match or are lower than sticker in-state. Tsk tsk UF.

Something else to note about in-state. Carol explained that it will be increasing at a rate of 15% per year for who knows how long. Tuition is currently about $14,500 but will be over $16,000 in the fall and spring. I think it's reasonable to expect to be paying around 20-21k for tuition in your third year. One of the alumni (the guy in private practice) was able to land a job in DC working for Jones Day, but he explained that he only got the job because he had done research for a professor who gave him an extraordinary recommendation when the hiring partner decided to call her. Still, as I mentioned above, it was pretty clear that UF is the Florida powerhouse, especially from the current students perspective.

Parking on the rest of main campus is still awful during the day, but parking at the law school isn't too bad anymore. During my 1L year, it could be bad if you didn't get to the law school before 8 or 9am, but parking hasn't been so bad since the school decreased its class size by approx. 25%. (And since most 1L's have 8 or 9am classes, and even many 2L's have 9am classes due to a mandatory legal drafting class, you're normally in pretty good shape.) And since this upcoming year will be the the second year that we've had a reduced class coming in as 1L's, the situation should improve even more.

Haha, I was sitting almost right in front of you duder.

Second what Lawduder said about the facilities. I visited FSU the day before the UF ASD and found UF's facilities glitter by comparison. Also second impressions about Gainesville vs. Tallahassee. My wife came along on my trip and mentioned that Tallahassee looked rundown and sketchy in comparison to G'ville. Funny, I also got the impression that the parking around UF was more than adequate as compared to FSU. FSU seems crammed into downtown Tallahassee.
Selling of the school got a little old, but I guess that's to be expected. Presenters let a little air out the UF balloon by harping on how hard 1L life is. I overheard several people saying stuff like, "do they really want us to go here?"
Lots of talk about making sure that you have study/life balance. I asked several students if they had been admitted to UF and FSU, most had. When asked why they chose UF, almost all attributed their choice to the network and to the fact that "every attorney I asked said that I should go to UF." When I went to FSU to check out the school, I got the impression (based on conversations with a professor and an admissions department guy) that people who are inclined to go into gov't may self-select to FSU as there's plenty of that in Tallahassee.
On a personal note, good luck to the 3/16 DLIT Crew. A few red flags in the mix would definitely help lead to a diverse student body.

While I don't know much about Tallahassee, Gainesville is very poor once you leave the university area, if that's what you mean by "sketchy." Looks can be deceiving.

Tallahassee is also very poor, even around the university area.