Hey all, thanks in advance for any input. I've done some checking around on the resource/number-plugging sites, but as I seem to be in an especially grey area during this era of falling means, I wanted to consult TLS's collective expertise. I'm from the Midwest and attended a state flagship Big Ten public university. I'm not a URM (white male here). My softs are somewhat average to hopefully-not-too-below average--nothing particularly prestigious and little to no extracurricular activities. That said, I was a 4-year graduate who triple-majored (just in social science and humanities degrees) while working at least 20 and often 30 or so hours/week. More personal to me, my family is about a decade removed from bankruptcy, and I'm both a first-generation university and prospective law student (my grandparents are farmers, my dad was a first-semester drop-out at a college no one has ever heard of, and my mom has a 2-year/Tech School degree as a non-traditional student). My work history is nothing noteworthy in the area of prestige, but I have been consistently employed since age 15, and I'm working a run-of-the-mill, bland full-time job at the moment (complete with some internal accolades but nothing that's going to make much of a difference to adcoms). Whenever they're finished, I expect to have a pair of good LoRs. No particular GPA trend. My last two semesters were probably my best two, but my final GPA is actually the same as my freshman year GPA (consistency, right?). I'd assume this all adds up to not really helping or hurting my hard numbers very much.
So, I expect that I'm more-or-less a lock for non-T14 schools in the region with likelihood of significant aid. It also seems like I'd have a very high chance of admission to Cornell and Georgetown and respectably solid chances at Michigan and Duke. My chances of YHS are approaching, if not outright, 0%, so probably won't bother. Past there is where things become murky. I really have no geographic stipulations, although staying in the Midwest and more specifically the Chicago area would probably be the least adventurous/most practical choice. Do I have a chance at CCN--particularly Chicago as my first choice? Are some more likely than others, and is there a likelihood of any money whatsoever even if I would be accepted? Where do Northwestern/Berkeley fall in the rankings nowadays? Are Virginia or Penn at all likely? Any chance of money at these? I'm planning on doing the wise thing and just sending out a large number of applications, but I'm anxious and would like to have more fine-tuned expectations going into the cycle. In other words, help make time fly while I await my LoRs
