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Hi everyone. I know this topic has been beat to death, but I didn't find a thread that matched my situation so I thought I'd give it a shot.

3.71 (LSAC, school was higher), Math major, 168-174
Softs:
10 years out of school
Taught math and history, high school and college level
Elected public official
National board of political party
Campaign management experience
MS - Math, similar GPA
Decent publications, one in a law review, decent media exposure

Offers:
WUSTL Webster Society (scholarship for public interest) - stipend, mentorship with Judge Webster, dinner with chancellor, etc. 3 per year. Alumni seem to compete well for circuit clerkships, and with my bio on their website, the school would devote its resources to helping me succeed. This offer requires commitment on April 1.

Vanderbilt - scholarship brings 3 year tuition down to $40k.

COL seems similar, Nashville can be done somewhat lower for same quality, but WUSTL can be done lower by taking lower quality housing. I value my comfort, so for me, Nashville would be somewhat cheaper.

I am riding out some waitlists, and waiting for decisions at several schools (Harvard, Northwestern, Michigan, and Columbia no answers yet; WL at Chicago, Cornell, Penn, and Duke. I would take Chicago off WL at sticker, but can't say the same for the rest.) Those aren't the problem, though, the problem is the Vanderbilt offer I have in hand and would have to give up to commit at WUSTL.

I want to work in politics/policy, and Vanderbilt has faculty with much better connections there, and a much better clerkship showing. They have alumni doing exactly what I want to do and a strong alumni network; at WUSTL I wouldn't have the same strength of connections. At the same time, WUSTL would do more to help me, at Vanderbilt I'm just another student. My goals are clerkship, then Justice or State, or else a firm with DC connections. I also am interested in parliamentary law, and would love to be a legislative parliamentarian at some point in my career. Vanderbilt has a recent alum doing this job.

Webster Society alumni get circuit clerkships, but I haven't seen any with feeder judges, whereas at Vanderbilt there are many with feeders (and one clerking for Srinavasan next year). Vanderbilt gets more firms with strong DC connections and has stronger government placement.

Any thoughts?

Why go to law school if the things you want to do can be done without it?

Policy/ ect, those jobs will always be network and not because you're a law grad.

Don't go to either school with those goals. Those two schools fight in a weight class far below what you're looking for.

When did you apply to all of your choices?

I made all applications in September except Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Michigan, where I applied in December.

Neither. Do not go to either. You will not get what you want out of either of those law schools. If your lsat was in that higher range, you would be going to a much better school for free. retake and its not even close.

The Webster fellowship from WUSTL would likely guarantee you a job if you are personable and can "carry" a good conversation and with the low col in St Louis you'd graduate debt free. I'm pretty sure you were at admitted student day at Vandy. Personally if I were you and had your numbers (if you are 173-174 range) I would deposit at WUSTL and hope for HYSCC... Withdraw from WUSTL before the refund deadline if you get into one of those 5. Your numbers are better than mine and Vandy will likely cost us a similar amount of money... I'm 99.9% commited to Vandy (depending on my June retake and deciding not to pursue another work year) but you will probably have elite options. If you had the LMSA at Vandy I would have taken that over any of the options. Slight bias but take that advice as you may.

First, are you saying that you took the LSAT twice and got a 174 the second time or are you giving a range in which your LSAT falls? If you're a 3.71/174, you are underperforming your cycle and something is wrong. Chicago, Cornell, and Duke should have taken you.

Second, please share your actual cost of attendance at both schools. Also, your discussion of the cost of living in St. Louis and Nashville doesn't quite sound right to me, as Nashville has surprisingly expensive housing around Vanderbilt.

As things stand now, I don't think you can pass up the WUSTL scholarship. I'd deposit on April 1st and see what else happens.

Yeah, something doesn't seem to add up here regarding the OP's options. I'd think there would be something from the T14.

Sorry, it's two takes, a 168 and a 174. I will work out COL more fully and get back on that.

As for the acceptances elsewhere, I would have thought so too, but it seems those schools disagreed.

Just to add: obviously my goals are unlikely to be achieved from these schools. They're unlikely to be achieved even from higher ranked schools. My plan is to shoot for them, but also construct a path to something more achievable. Graduating debt-free would make a big difference in what that looks like, and would be very nice.

Your results make somewhat more sense if the schools considered you as a 3.7/168, but they make no sense with you being a 3.7/174. I'm harping on this because your best move might be to sit this one out and retake your cycle.

You are still waiting on HNMC, I realize that, but with your goals, I would have definitely expected to see UVA on your school list too. If they looked at you as a 3.71/174, you would get great money, they place well into DC and they punch above their weight on clerkships.

Send The University of Chicago a letter of continued interest and continue to wait until the remaining 4 make decisions. It sounds like something went terribly wrong with your app based on your numbers.