Top Law Schools

I've heard from a number of people that not submitting the "Why Penn" essay for Penn Law is a huge black eye on your application, especially if you fall either above or below their 25/75th percentiles. (same for Cornell)

I received a fee waiver & priority track invitation from Duke today. I think I'm willing to take them up on their offer, but I see this optional essay on their application. If one is applying with numbers a bit over the 75th percentile at Duke, would not submitting this optional essay win me a big fat waitlist/decline? If the essay really is virtually required, what sort of topics have others written on?

Also, is the Duke Law priority track really as good as it sounds? Are there any strings attached at all? It'd be quite nice to hear in 10 days...

I did not see that much on the Duke Law priority track in the Duke Law profile at http://www.top-law-schools.com/duke-law-school.html

i wrote my duke law optional essay in about 30 minutes...edited it over night, and then submitted it.

i also did the duke law priority track thing, which is amazing. i submitted my application on october 13. it reached duke on october 20.

i got my letter of acceptance to duke on october 28. it is incredible to know 15 days after submitting the application that you were accepted to a T14 school.

by the way, my lsat and gpa are both abover duke's 75% but i still did the optional essay figuring it couldn't hurt. just don't worry about it too much. i actually reworked my yale 250-word essay to apply to duke and submitted it.

which subject did/will you choose, if I may ask? I'm having a hard time deciding what to write about!

ps. I got a fee-waiver today, but not a fast track option--I'd take the fact that you did as a *pretty good sign* (my gpa beat the 75th percentile, but my lsat's in the middle). So congrats!

Thanks, Jena.

I'm really undecided on what I'm going to write about. I'm tempted to use my Yale essay with some slight changes, but really that had nothing to do with academics. I dunno.. the prompt isn't very clear, imho. They want to know about your ability to contribute to the classroom but caution you not to write a "personal narrative." I'm tempted to write about the two law-related college courses I've taken (one with the legendary Akhil Amar from Yale Law who, amazingly, teaches an undergrad course on Constitutional Law) and why that has interested me in the law, but then that doesn't really show analytical ability. Maybe I'll write about something to do with cyberlaw, which is the topic of a class I'm taking now.. then I can analyze some issue we're talking about in class in the context of how these 2 courses have influenced me.

Sorry, long answer to a short question on the essay for the Duke Law priority track, but I'm sort of thinking as I type here.

I have a man crush on amar. I loved him when I read one of his books and then I found out he consulted for west wing, he is my hero basically.

bumping this instead of starting a new thread.

For priority track people: How long from "under review" to receipt of decision? Ive been under review since 1/6/10. Any chance I'll hear back this week/early next week?