Northwestern (reapply) vs. Fordham Forum

[jj55]

I was recently waitlisted at Northwestern after being on hold. Fordham is my only other acceptance.

I would like to eventually work in New York City or Chicago, with a preference for New York. Since I'll be paying sticker at either school, I want a BigLaw equivalent salary to pay off the debt.

Stats: 170 LSAT, 3.4x GPA, 1 year of work experience. Also, I did an on-campus interview at Northwestern.

I would probably be happy at Fordham, but I prefer Northwestern by a long shot. It places better in just about every category, and I would prefer to live in Chicago as a student than New York (although like I said, I would prefer the opposite for work).

I'm considering reapplying Early Decision to Northwestern the first day they will accept applications this fall. I'm not going to retake the LSAT, and my GPA is obviously frozen, but I would have 2 years of work experience at that point, which Northwestern clearly prefers to 1. However, I'm worried that if I do that and get waitlisted again, I run the risk that Fordham won't accept me after turning them down this year, or otherwise I'll have wasted a year I could have been at Fordham.

Any thoughts?

[romothesavior]

I was recently waitlisted at Northwestern after being on hold. Fordham is my only other acceptance.

I would like to eventually work in New York City or Chicago, with a preference for New York. Since I'll be paying sticker at either school, I want a BigLaw equivalent salary to pay off the debt.

Stats: 170 LSAT, 3.4x GPA, 1 year of work experience. Also, I did an on-campus interview at Northwestern.

I would probably be happy at Fordham, but I prefer Northwestern by a long shot. It places better in just about every category, and I would prefer to live in Chicago as a student than New York (although like I said, I would prefer the opposite for work).

I'm considering reapplying Early Decision to Northwestern the first day they will accept applications this fall. I'm not going to retake the LSAT, and my GPA is obviously frozen, but I would have 2 years of work experience at that point, which Northwestern clearly prefers to 1. However, I'm worried that if I do that and get waitlisted again, I run the risk that Fordham won't accept me after turning them down this year, or otherwise I'll have wasted a year I could have been at Fordham.

Any thoughts?

Why would you not re-take? Even a point or two would make you a virtual ED lock for Northwestern with some WE. Are you just too lazy to do it, or do you not feel like it is possible to improve?

If it is the former, MAN UP AND DO IT! If it is the latter, then why? Did you work as hard as you possibly could to get that 170? Are there areas where you could improve?

It is possible to get into NW without a re-take, but I think most adcomms are going to see that you applied the year before and see that your application has made no discernable improvement in that year. That may turn them off. Just a thought...

[jj55]

Why would you not re-take? Even a point or two would make you a virtual ED lock for Northwestern with some WE. Are you just too lazy to do it, or do you not feel like it is possible to improve?

If it is the former, MAN UP AND DO IT! If it is the latter, then why? Did you work as hard as you possibly could to get that 170? Are there areas where you could improve?

It is possible to get into NW without a re-take, but I think most adcomms are going to see that you applied the year before and see that your application has made no discernable improvement in that year. That may turn them off. Just a thought...

It's possible that I could do a point or two better, but I think there's a good chance I could get a worse score. I prepared a lot last fall before I took the December test, and I think the 170 is representative of what I can do on the test. I'm just not sure a retake is worth the risk.

[jks289]

Waiting to reapply to NW is only a good plan if you have a career plan between now and then. I think an extra year of WE is probably crucial with those numbers. But I think add significant WE (get promoted, head a initiative, whatever) and ED, and you might have a shot. Good luck!

[09042014]

Why would you not re-take? Even a point or two would make you a virtual ED lock for Northwestern with some WE. Are you just too lazy to do it, or do you not feel like it is possible to improve?

If it is the former, MAN UP AND DO IT! If it is the latter, then why? Did you work as hard as you possibly could to get that 170? Are there areas where you could improve?

It is possible to get into NW without a re-take, but I think most adcomms are going to see that you applied the year before and see that your application has made no discernable improvement in that year. That may turn them off. Just a thought...

It's possible that I could do a point or two better, but I think there's a good chance I could get a worse score. I prepared a lot last fall before I took the December test, and I think the 170 is representative of what I can do on the test. I'm just not sure a retake is worth the risk.

I think you are already have a great chance at NU Ed (and a good chance at getting off the waitlist), but NU doesn't care about retakes at all. Getting 172 would seal it to 99%.

Send a LOCI to NU tomorrow saying that if you get in, you will attend no mater what.

[jj55]

I think you are already have a great chance at NU Ed (and a good chance at getting off the waitlist), but NU doesn't care about retakes at all. Getting 172 would seal it to 99%.

Send a LOCI to NU tomorrow saying that if you get in, you will attend no mater what.

Before I was waitlisted, I sent an LOCI and an e-mail note saying that I will unconditionally accept their offer. I'm working on another letter though and am going to try to get a recommendation from my employer. The best case is certainly to get off the waitlist and attend this fall.

[jj55]

Any other thoughts?

[NayBoer]

Any other thoughts?

It doesn't matter if you retake lower. I retook in Jun and got 172 and re-retook in Sep and got 168. Still got into NU with ED.