Top Law Schools

I've been using hourumd to check my chances at schools, and so far, UCLA is the lowest ranked school I'm applying to with a 90% acceptance rate for people with my numbers. I frankly wouldn't go to any other school under UCLA, but am I being overconfident? Should I apply to some schools ranked in the late teens, just so I have the option? Or should I really just be applying to schools that I would go to if accepted?

drosth wrote:I've been using hourumd to check my chances at schools, and so far, UCLA is the lowest ranked school I'm applying to with a 90% acceptance rate for people with my numbers. I frankly wouldn't go to any other school under UCLA, but am I being overconfident? Should I apply to some schools ranked in the late teens, just so I have the option? Or should I really just be applying to schools that I would go to if accepted?

Pointless to apply at schools you wouldn't go to. It is a waste of time and money.

JCFindley wrote:

drosth wrote:I've been using hourumd to check my chances at schools, and so far, UCLA is the lowest ranked school I'm applying to with a 90% acceptance rate for people with my numbers. I frankly wouldn't go to any other school under UCLA, but am I being overconfident? Should I apply to some schools ranked in the late teens, just so I have the option? Or should I really just be applying to schools that I would go to if accepted?

Pointless to apply at schools you wouldn't go to. It is a waste of time and money.

Not if you can use it for scholarship negotiations. If you do aply to these kinds of schools, try to get a fee waiver.

JCFindley wrote:

drosth wrote:I've been using hourumd to check my chances at schools, and so far, UCLA is the lowest ranked school I'm applying to with a 90% acceptance rate for people with my numbers. I frankly wouldn't go to any other school under UCLA, but am I being overconfident? Should I apply to some schools ranked in the late teens, just so I have the option? Or should I really just be applying to schools that I would go to if accepted?

Pointless to apply at schools you wouldn't go to. It is a waste of time and money.

Eh, not necessarily. You may be able to use lower school scholarship offers to leverage better scholarships at schools you actually want to go to.

moonman157 wrote:

JCFindley wrote:

drosth wrote:I've been using hourumd to check my chances at schools, and so far, UCLA is the lowest ranked school I'm applying to with a 90% acceptance rate for people with my numbers. I frankly wouldn't go to any other school under UCLA, but am I being overconfident? Should I apply to some schools ranked in the late teens, just so I have the option? Or should I really just be applying to schools that I would go to if accepted?

Pointless to apply at schools you wouldn't go to. It is a waste of time and money.

Not if you can use it for scholarship negotiations. If you do aply to these kinds of schools, try to get a fee waiver.

For scholarship negotiations, it's typically best to use admission from a peer school. For example, full ride to UC Davis/Hastings likely won't impress Berkeley/Stanford, but $ from UVA/Columbia could have an impact on scholarship negotiations with B/S. Applying to lower-ranked schools wouldn't do much for OP, I don't think. Apply to one or two tops as backups, but honestly, if you have a shitty cycle, re-apply.

also FWIW i've heard hourumd is horribly inaccurate/not reliable at all, but that's just my .02.

calidancer2 wrote:

moonman157 wrote:

JCFindley wrote:

drosth wrote:I've been using hourumd to check my chances at schools, and so far, UCLA is the lowest ranked school I'm applying to with a 90% acceptance rate for people with my numbers. I frankly wouldn't go to any other school under UCLA, but am I being overconfident? Should I apply to some schools ranked in the late teens, just so I have the option? Or should I really just be applying to schools that I would go to if accepted?

Pointless to apply at schools you wouldn't go to. It is a waste of time and money.

Not if you can use it for scholarship negotiations. If you do aply to these kinds of schools, try to get a fee waiver.

For scholarship negotiations, it's typically best to use admission from a peer school. For example, full ride to UC Davis/Hastings likely won't impress Berkeley/Stanford, but $ from UVA/Columbia could have an impact on scholarship negotiations with B/S. Applying to lower-ranked schools wouldn't do much for OP, I don't think. Apply to one or two tops as backups, but honestly, if you have a shitty cycle, re-apply.

also FWIW i've heard hourumd is horribly inaccurate/not reliable at all, but that's just my .02.

Only speaking from my own experience here, but I found this to be the case as well. I had several full scholarships from non-T14 law schools and got nowhere in my leveraging negotiations with a T14 that I was accepted to.

calidancer2 wrote:
also FWIW i've heard hourumd is horribly inaccurate/not reliable at all, but that's just my .02.

Really? That sucks. LSN isn't too helpful because (for some reason) most people who have my numbers don't bother updating whether they got accepted or not. Is there any other calculator I should be looking at?

drosth wrote:

calidancer2 wrote:
also FWIW i've heard hourumd is horribly inaccurate/not reliable at all, but that's just my .02.

Really? That sucks. LSN isn't too helpful because (for some reason) most people who have my numbers don't bother updating whether they got accepted or not. Is there any other calculator I should be looking at?

What are your numbers?

You should definitely apply to USC as it's a natural peer with UCLA. Try getting a fee waiver from Texas or Vanderbilt, which will allow you to negotiate

Four Ten wrote:
Only speaking from my own experience here, but I found this to be the case as well. I had several full scholarships from non-T14 law schools and got nowhere in my leveraging negotiations with a T14 that I was accepted to.

This.

Peer schools can be a game changer though.

JCFindley wrote:

Four Ten wrote:
Only speaking from my own experience here, but I found this to be the case as well. I had several full scholarships from non-T14 law schools and got nowhere in my leveraging negotiations with a T14 that I was accepted to.

This.

Peer schools can be a game changer though.

Columbia won't believe you (or care) if you said you'd turn them down for a free ride at NYLS. But if you tell them you hot money at NYU, they might try to match it

Anyone have any info on Cornell? Hourumd shows that they're pretty stingy on scholarship money, so I'm thinking of skipping them (would probably use them as a bargaining chip). But if it's unreliable, I'd want to double-check just to make sure I'm not making a mistake.

EDIT: Before anyone things I'm dissing Cornell, I'm not. I just want to explore outside of my state.