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Hi everyone. With the class of 2019 application cycle wrapping up, I figured I'd share how my own cycle went as an URM. Hopefully this can be of use to future applicants with similar stats/background. I'm from Houston, Texas and plan on returning after graduation.

STATS:
URM: African-American Male
LSAT: 158, 160
LSAC GPA: 2.76 (strong upward trend last 2 years, but I doubt it matters)
Undergrad Major: Business Marketing (c/o 2013)
Law Interests: Environmental, Civil Rights, politics, BigLaw

SOFTS:
350+ hours of volunteer work for local Zoo and Science Museum prior to college
Division 1 Track and Field Sprinter in undergrad

Post-College Work Experience:
1+ yrs. Data Analyst at a database marketing firm.
1+ yrs. as Volunteer Community Organizer; assisted with a successful campaign to appoint my city's mayor.
2+ yrs. Yelp Brand Ambassador
1+ yrs. Marketing Manager for a small e-waste recycling business.

DIVERSITY:
In my diversity statement I discuss how my family is from an impoverished district of Houston and I grew up with a single mother that risked prison by smuggling my older brother and I into a school district on the other side of the city so we could get a better education. I also briefly discuss being religiously liberal while going to a religiously conservative college. And lastly, I comment on forgiving my father for being absent in my life and developing a relationship with him and the interracial (MA) family he started.

Here are the schools I applied to and my results:

Rejected:
Harvard (my mom insisted lol)
UVA (ED)
Duke (late application. Did both optional essays)
Northwestern (had a pretty good interview but still rejected)
Cornell
Georgetown (dream school so I was disappointed, did the 1 minute optional response video)
UT (ED) ( this was my target school so I was pretty bummed by this one, it was my first rejection)
Emory (was a bit surprised by this rejection)
Vanderbilt (went complete 12/29)

Accepted:
Notre Dame ($$) (wrote Why ND? and A Different Kind of Lawyer essays)
William & Mary ($) (withdrew)
UH
Baylor ($) (withdrew)
South Texas College of Law ($) (withdrew)

Wait-listed:
Columbia
Boston College (withdrew)
SMU Dedman (Huh?? withdrawn)

Pending:
Howard

I'll likely be attending Notre Dame.

TIPS:

* Write and rewrite your personal statement several times. I wished I had worked on my personal statement earlier. I found that as I applied to more and more schools it got better as I tweaked and edited it to tailor it to specific schools. I wish the final product that I have now would have been sent to all of them.

* URM cycles are pretty unpredictable so apply broadly, I recommend applying to at least 15 schools; 5 reaches, 5 targets, 5 safeties.

* That being said, don't waste an application applying to a school you know you don't really want to attend. For instance, I wish I wouldn't have applied to Baylor and South Texas. If those were the only schools I had gotten into, I would simply sit out this year. What happened was at one point during my cycle I had received nothing but rejections so I sort of panicked. If I could do it over, I would have applied to Duke, U. Penn, or NYU instead. Those are obviously reaches, but its worth asking for a fee waiver and giving it a shot.

* Don't assume just because you received an unsolicited fee-waiver from a school that it means you'll likely get in. I got fee waivers from several top schools that ultimately rejected me. UT, Georgetown, Emory and Columbia all sent me fee waivers based on my LSAT score yet I was rejected by all of these and put on the reserve list at Columbia which I'm not too optimistic about.

* If a school has an optional essay, or optional interview, or optional anything, do it.

*Take the advice on this forum with a grain of salt. Some people on TLS are intentionally elitist or condescending, and lot of posters on TLS mean well, but are a bit cynical/pessimistic about your odds. They don't know your story, writing-style etc. Few posters here would have told me I would get into Notre Dame with money. If you want to go to a school then apply, the worst they can tell you is no.

Comments? Questions? Feedback? Let me know.

HTH.

EDITED: Updates on Vandy and a late application to Duke
EDITED: Duke rejection; SMU waitlist.

BastianPC wrote: *Take the advice on this forum with a grain of salt. Some people on TLS are intentionally elitist or condescending, and lot of posters on TLS mean well, but are a bit cynical/pessimistic about your odds. Few posters here would have told me I would get into Notre Dame with money. If you want to go to a school then apply, the worst they can tell you is no.

Comments? Questions? Feedback? Let me know.

HTH.

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on Notre Dame.

Why didn't you post this in the cycle thread? Soon enough there will be plenty of these types of posts and they have the most impact if they all come together.

Did you ask anyone on TLS for advice?

fliptrip wrote:

BastianPC wrote: *Take the advice on this forum with a grain of salt. Some people on TLS are intentionally elitist or condescending, and lot of posters on TLS mean well, but are a bit cynical/pessimistic about your odds. Few posters here would have told me I would get into Notre Dame with money. If you want to go to a school then apply, the worst they can tell you is no.

Comments? Questions? Feedback? Let me know.

HTH.

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on Notre Dame.

Why didn't you post this in the cycle thread? Soon enough there will be plenty of these types of posts and they have the most impact if they all come together.

Did you ask anyone on TLS for advice?

Hi, this is my first post, I figured it would be appropriate to just post it under URM. I can post it the other thread instead if it'll be more helpful.

No I did not ask anyone on TLS for advice directly.

Don't give up on Columbia. This cycle seems to be weird.Spivey says to hang on and stay in contact with schools.
http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/underw ... happening/

Tls2016 wrote:Don't give up on Columbia. This cycle seems to be weird.Spivey says to hang on and stay in contact with schools.
http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/underw ... happening/

Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it. Do you have any pointers on the proper way to "stay in contact" with them?

Next week I'll be sending them a LOCI, but beyond that what else can I do?

BastianPC wrote:

Tls2016 wrote:Don't give up on Columbia. This cycle seems to be weird.Spivey says to hang on and stay in contact with schools.
http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/underw ... happening/

Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it. Do you have any pointers on the proper way to "stay in contact" with them?

Next week I'll be sending them a LOCI, but beyond that what else can I do?

LOCI is good. Visiting may be good but probably not practical for you if you live far away. Updating anything that changes on your resume counts too.
Mike Spivey has a thread where he answers questions. I'm sure this has been answered many times.
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... start=4875

It looks like he did a webinar about being on waitlists. Maybe you could find a replay of that?

Good luck!

I found this webinar made by Spivey on waitlist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-pr_cmbq44

Very good job, and thanks for doing this. Very inspiring to see a sub 3.0 candidate getting Columbia waitlisted!

Thanks for this. Good Fortune to you.

Tls2016 wrote:I found this webinar made by Spivey on waitlist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-pr_cmbq44

Thank you! It was informative, I sent an LOCI to Columbia last week.

MarkScott wrote:Thanks for this. Good Fortune to you.

You're welcome, and thank you for the kind regards.

Congrats on Notre Dame! Glad to have another AA from Houston, TX! You had an interesting choice of schools. Any reason why you picked schools like ND, William & Mary, and Emory if you want to work in Houston?

PrezRand wrote:Congrats on Notre Dame! Glad to have another AA from Houston, TX! You had an interesting choice of schools. Any reason why you picked schools like ND, William & Mary, and Emory if you want to work in Houston?

Thank you. My understanding of Notre Dame is that its reputation and respect somewhat exceeds its ranking. Its alums are spread out nationally so while Chicago is its main market, you can return home and successfully compete in most cases. I also have a distant cousin who's married to a ND law alum and he tells me that he has old friends/classmates working at respectable firms in the Houston area.

As for William & Mary and Emory, they sent me fee waivers asking me to apply. I also have a mentor of sorts who graduated from Harvard working at Baker Botts, he advised me to go to the highest ranking school I gained admission to, strive my best in my studies, and that things will fall into place. So I applied broadly, I didn't know what to expect considering my GPA.

W&M and Emory weren't high on my list of desired schools however.

BastianPC wrote:

PrezRand wrote:Congrats on Notre Dame! Glad to have another AA from Houston, TX! You had an interesting choice of schools. Any reason why you picked schools like ND, William & Mary, and Emory if you want to work in Houston?

Thank you. My understanding of Notre Dame is that its reputation and respect somewhat exceeds its ranking. Its alums are spread out nationally so while Chicago is its main market, you can return home and successfully compete in most cases. I also have a distant cousin who's married to a ND law alum and he tells me that he has old friends/classmates working at respectable firms in the Houston area.

As for William & Mary and Emory, they sent me fee waivers asking me to apply. I also have a mentor of sorts who graduated from Harvard working at Baker Botts, he advised me to go to the highest ranking school I gained admission to, strive my best in my studies, and that things will fall into place. So I applied broadly, I didn't know what to expect considering my GPA.

W&M and Emory weren't high on my list of desired schools however.

That's good to know!

greatspirit wrote:Very good job, and thanks for doing this. Very inspiring to see a sub 3.0 candidate getting Columbia waitlisted!

Thanks and you're welcome man, glad to help! Good luck to your cycle.