UGH - what should I do?! Forum

[johndhi]

171/3.7. I have $15k/year offers from Georgetown and Cornell and waitlist at Berk, Colum, Chicago, Penn, NYU.

What the hell should I do? Cornell and Georgetown want answers on the scholarship money by the end of the week and I think answering re the scholarship means I have to withdraw myself from the waitlists (right?). I live in California and love it here - I probably want to come back to practice. What in God's name am I going to do?! I don't know if I can do better on the LSAT - I scored above my practice range, although with a year I'm sure I could practice my ass off and get higher. I feel like a douche for quitting my job and considering waiting another year now. What would I do in the mean time?

[JollyGreenGiant]

Depends if you really want one of those other schools. I'm guessing a 171/3.7 would get in SOMEWHERE ED but you'd be paying sticker. Also, how late did you apply this cycle?

[johndhi]

I applied mid to late November. Plenty early I thought. I'd prefer Penn and Berkeley to GULC, I think, but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra money and extra year. I wish I'd applied to MV and D, although I thought I wouldn't need to rely on them. Sigh.

Basically, TLS gives me this horrendous idea about the prospects out of GULC, particularly to come back to California. The dude I met there had done really well and was going to Chicago to work at one of the top law firms in the nation. That was encouraging, but I'm really not certain how well I can do in law school. Confident but I have no metric to gauge by.

[im_blue]

I applied mid to late November. Plenty early I thought. I'd prefer Penn and Berkeley to GULC, I think, but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra money and extra year. I wish I'd applied to MV and D, although I thought I wouldn't need to rely on them. Sigh.

Basically, TLS gives me this horrendous idea about the prospects out of GULC, particularly to come back to California. The dude I met there had done really well and was going to Chicago to work at one of the top law firms in the nation. That was encouraging, but I'm really not certain how well I can do in law school. Confident but I have no metric to gauge by.

Mid to late November is plenty early enough, so that doesn't explain your relatively poor cycle. Are you sure your LORs and PS are solid?

[johndhi]

LORs are great, I thought. In retrospect, I'd have done my PS a little different, but I think it's decent. Year+ as paralegal on interesting lawsuit. Will be volunteering internationally for next couple of months. I guess I expected to get into at least NYU and Penn but it didn't happen, now I'm stuck all the way down at Cornell and GULC. I'm resigned to going to GULC, but do you guys think that is an OK decision?

[jayn3]

take one of the scholarships....i'm guessing even if you get in off the wl it'll be sticker. what's cornell's cali placement like?

[johndhi]

take one of the scholarships....i'm guessing even if you get in off the wl it'll be sticker. what's cornell's cali placement like?

I was saying that I'd prefer Columba and Penn at sticker. I'm not sure on Cornell's placement in Cali. They seemed to suggest it was OK if you got inventive/tried hard enough.

[jayn3]

personally, i'd take a partial scholly over being unsure about my plans for next year any day. but if you have a backup plan for next year in case the schools you really want don't offer you a seat, then follow your heart, do something productive for a year, and reapply next cyle.

[You Gotta Have Faith]

This perplexes me. You deserve better from Cornell (at least I think you do, but maybe I'm wrong). Just respond to the one you find more favorable (Cornell or GULC) and stay on the waitlists without asking the school about it. Just don't say anything about it until the school tells you that your scholarship will be revoked if you don't get off the waitlists (assuming they even know... because they don't every single time... believe me, I know).

[johndhi]

This perplexes me. You deserve better from Cornell (at least I think you do, but maybe I'm wrong). Just respond to the one you find more favorable (Cornell or GULC) and stay on the waitlists without asking the school about it. Just don't say anything about it until the school tells you that your scholarship will be revoked if you don't get off the waitlists (assuming they even know... because they don't every single time... believe me, I know).

This sounds really shifty. I definitely don't want to break the contact GULC is asking me to sign. I'm glad to hear you guys think I should have seen better from my cycle but unfortunately that hasn't happened. There's going to be a lot of pressure on me to make top 20% at GULC. I don't know what I'll do if I'm middle of the pack at end of first yr there.

[jayn3]

I don't know what I'll do if I'm middle of the pack at end of first yr there.

relax in the knowledge that you're still in the T14? middle of the pack at GULC beats top of the pack at the great majority of law schools any day.

[You Gotta Have Faith]

This perplexes me. You deserve better from Cornell (at least I think you do, but maybe I'm wrong). Just respond to the one you find more favorable (Cornell or GULC) and stay on the waitlists without asking the school about it. Just don't say anything about it until the school tells you that your scholarship will be revoked if you don't get off the waitlists (assuming they even know... because they don't every single time... believe me, I know).

This sounds really shifty. I definitely don't want to break the contact GULC is asking me to sign. I'm glad to hear you guys think I should have seen better from my cycle but unfortunately that hasn't happened. There's going to be a lot of pressure on me to make top 20% at GULC. I don't know what I'll do if I'm middle of the pack at end of first yr there.

Ah... in that case I withdraw my comments. I didn't realize you were having to actually sign something. I thought you were just assuming they wanted you to withdraw! Anyhow, good luck with whatever it is that you do

[General Tso]

just deserts for being a prestige whore...are GULC/Cornell really that much better than UCLA?

[johndhi]

just deserts for being a prestige whore...are GULC/Cornell really that much better than UCLA?

Thanks for that. Not sure - I tried to apply to LA twice but application kept crashing so I took it as a sign of bad omens.

[im_blue]

There's going to be a lot of pressure on me to make top 20% at GULC. I don't know what I'll do if I'm middle of the pack at end of first yr there.

I've read on other threads that top 1/3 at GULC is doing fine ITE, which matches up with what a 3L told me.

[General Tso]

just deserts for being a prestige whore...are GULC/Cornell really that much better than UCLA?

Thanks for that. Not sure - I tried to apply to LA twice but application kept crashing so I took it as a sign of bad omens.

Paper?

[mb88]

There's going to be a lot of pressure on me to make top 20% at GULC. I don't know what I'll do if I'm middle of the pack at end of first yr there.

I've read on other threads that top 1/3 at GULC is doing fine ITE, which matches up with what a 3L told me.

But...but....T13? Diploma Mill? GULTTTT?

Seriously, GULC has a bad reputation on TLS for one reason: That it's #14 out of the T14. OP, if you want the scholarship from GULC, go there. You're not going to starve and die because you went to GULC over somewhere else. You certainly don't need to be in the top 20%. I think you may have swallowed too much of what some of the other posters here spew as jokes.

[jayn3]

Seriously, GULC has a bad reputation on TLS for one reason: That it's #14 out of the T14. OP, if you want the scholarship from GULC, go there. You're not going to starve and die because you went to GULC over somewhere else. You certainly don't need to be in the top 20%. I think you may have swallowed too much of what some of the other posters here spew as jokes.

^ this

[Tautology]

Is refusing the money and holding out hope for a school you're on the waitlist for an option you've rejected? $45,000 is a lot for the hope of getting into one of those schools, but you think you won't be happy knowing you might have gotten into one but were forced into taking a spot at GULC/Cornell, perhaps it's worth it.

[BaiAilian2013]

I think answering re the scholarship means I have to withdraw myself from the waitlists (right?).

We don't know! What does the contract say? Some schools (NYU, for example) require you to withdraw from schools you've been admitted to but allow you to stay on waitlists. (After all, waitlists would be pretty pointless otherwise.)

[johndhi]

I think answering re the scholarship means I have to withdraw myself from the waitlists (right?).

We don't know! What does the contract say? Some schools (NYU, for example) require you to withdraw from schools you've been admitted to but allow you to stay on waitlists. (After all, waitlists would be pretty pointless otherwise.)

I asked them this question in an e-mail and received a response today. They told me I need to withdraw from everything - waitlists included.