Top Law Schools

I have been a lurker for some time and finally made the leap to poster.

Non-traditional (older - think - much older) senior at a large state university in the South.

145 (I know, I flubbed it, retaking in the fall)/3.94.

As a McNair Scholar I designed original undergrad research from proposal to publication, three time presenter at research conferences, won an award for one of the presentations, presenting again in the coming spring, published last spring, numerous honor society memberships, got a write-up on the uni website because it was cool sounding, probably middle of the road softs otherwise. I qualify for McNair as a first-gen with true financial need. I am married to the most wonderful young lady in the world who is also a senior (and a McNair Scholar) at the same uni. I work full-time, attend school full-time, have two households (one traditional home and an old boat we live on to attend school) on either side of the state, a high-school age son, and very little time for anything other than my studies.

LSAC fee waiver. Unemployed or underemployed since 2008 when my field (civil engineering/land surveying) was decimated and I have not recovered yet.

My question is this - why would one want anonymity on a forum designed to assist with professional school? It would seem to me that if one was recognized by adcoms, they would have a better idea of what they were investing in.

I have a bad habit of only looking at things from one point of view so I may be missing something important.

What if you're playing up your interest in one school just in hopes of getting a scholarship offer from another? What if you're discussing less than flattering facts about yourself, background, resume, etc. that you don't necessarily want to disclose? There's lots of reasons to desire the anomynity, i think.

I've been outed. I don't care. YMMV

It doesn't matter if you only post boring stuff, but if you want to tell people to go fuck themselves on a regular basis it's probably best to stay anonymous.

Cause lots of people (myself included) have said some dumb shit on the internet, and other TLSers love trolling each other and having idiotic debates about more dumb shit. If you are cautious and dont trash on schools/other posters or heedlessly spread misinformation, your anonymity may be less important.

Fwiw its pretty easy for adcoms to tell using facebook and your application/tls profile who you are

StillIll wrote:What if you're playing up your interest in one school just in hopes of getting a scholarship offer from another? What if you're discussing less than flattering facts about yourself, background, resume, etc. that you don't necessarily want to disclose? There's lots of reasons to desire the anomynity, i think.

I would expect adcoms to be quite familiar and comfortable with the first scenario. I doubt the others would apply to me (not that I don’t have unflattering things in my past – everyone does..

Cicero76 wrote:I've been outed. I don't care. YMMV

I probably wouldn’t as well.

Ludovico Technique wrote:It doesn't matter if you only post boring stuff, but if you want to tell people to go fuck themselves on a regular basis it's probably best to stay anonymous.

Crap – now I have to change my username……….or maybe not.

jbagelboy wrote:Cause lots of people (myself included) have said some dumb shit on the internet, and other TLSers love trolling each other and having idiotic debates about more dumb shit. If you are cautious and dont trash on schools/other posters or heedlessly spread misinformation, your anonymity may be less important.

Fwiw its pretty easy for adcoms to tell using facebook and your application/tls profile who you are

I feel the same way – it takes me about ten minutes to find everything that anyone’s ever posted anywhere and everywhere so……….


Thanks everyone for the input.

For one, you just said "I have a bad habit of not being able to see other points of view". An adcomm could see that and think "He'd make a terrible lawyer/law school student." Not saying you are, because what do I know I'm an 0L.

Or they could see my response to you just now and think "Man, that guy seems kind of like an asshole", or "He speaks like a sailor, that's not who we want representing us" etc etc etc. Basically, you want them to be judging you on your application and merits, not on what you said one Sunday afternoon to some race-baiter in the lounge (random example!).

I'm probably in pretty big trouble of being outted, I've put way more on this website that would be advisable even with my attempts at damage control.

Geno67 wrote:
My question is this - why would one want anonymity on a forum designed to assist with professional school? It would seem to me that if one was recognized by adcoms, they would have a better idea of what they were investing in.

I have a bad habit of only looking at things from one point of view so I may be missing something important.

As you get later into the admissions cycle, things like admissions/scholarship offers that may be peers to each other are going to matter. If you disclose such an offer or out yourself before then, it's easy for the other schools who are considering you to decide one way or the other based on that information. A "lesser" offer in their eyes may not be one in yours, so if you want all your options, you don't want to discourage anyone from giving you the choices.

::grain of salt:: I of course am totally guilty of outing myself, so what would I know? I got into a very very awkward situation when I paraphrased a law school professor once about deciding between schools and he hadn't wanted that attribution. So I mean, bad things can happen...

..

You posted a question full of personal information to ask if you should be anonymous. It is already too late. Your description is so specific that adcomms and other students wil immediateky know who you are.

My personal opinion is that it is better to be anonymous. Do you want adcoms to read: I have no treal interest in school A, but they are going to give me more money so I need to string them along so I can get more money from school B?

You can always decide to give up anonymity but you can't reclaim it.

Why do you want to go to law school? What do you hope to achieve?

CyanIdes Of March wrote:For one, you just said "I have a bad habit of not being able to see other points of view". An adcomm could see that and think "He'd make a terrible lawyer/law school student." Not saying you are, because what do I know I'm an 0L.

Or they could see my response to you just now and think "Man, that guy seems kind of like an asshole", or "He speaks like a sailor, that's not who we want representing us" etc etc etc. Basically, you want them to be judging you on your application and merits, not on what you said one Sunday afternoon to some race-baiter in the lounge (random example!).

I'm probably in pretty big trouble of being outted, I've put way more on this website that would be advisable even with my attempts at damage control.

lol

You live on a boat during the school year? that sounds bad ass.

..

dr123 wrote:You live on a boat during the school year? that sounds bad ass.

Got a friend who does that. His annual costs are about 3 months worth of rent for anyone elsr

My only gripe with TLS is the inability to delete all of one's posts/deleting an account. Would starting a new account count as alting? I'd imagine there are some people who would like to contribute more but are unable to do so because of what they've revealed in prior, permanent posts.

howlery wrote:My only gripe with TLS is the inability to delete all of one's posts/deleting an account. Would starting a new account count as alting? I'd imagine there are some people who would like to contribute more but are unable to do so because of what they've revealed in prior, permanent posts.

You can never abandon a username and start over

Geno67 wrote:


145 (I know, I flubbed it, retaking in the fall)/3.94.

The LSAT retake threads are pretty good on here...

But in all seriousness I would imagine that most ADCOMS understand there is usually at least a small dichotomy in who you are online, and who you are in person.

/

I spoke with an adcom, and they knew who I was on TLS. They check.

NoodleyOne wrote:I spoke with an adcom, and they knew who I was on TLS. They check.

I have a hard time believing this. How do they connect the username to a name on an application?

jlb251 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:I spoke with an adcom, and they knew who I was on TLS. They check.

I have a hard time believing this. How do they connect the username to a name on an application?

Because people post a lot of identifying information. If you're someone who posted your GPA, LSAT, the kind of UG you went to, and all your softs, under your username, it's not hard to match applicants with that username.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

jlb251 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:I spoke with an adcom, and they knew who I was on TLS. They check.

I have a hard time believing this. How do they connect the username to a name on an application?

Because people post a lot of identifying information. If you're someone who posted your GPA, LSAT, the kind of UG you went to, and all your softs, under your username, it's not hard to match applicants with that username.

That is true, it's very possible to make the connections, but that could also take some time. Do they really take the time to sift through that information?

jlb251 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:I spoke with an adcom, and they knew who I was on TLS. They check.

I have a hard time believing this. How do they connect the username to a name on an application?

You forget that you've given them a LOT of information about you on your application. They know your GPA, LSAT, undergrad school, UG GPA, any grad school you did, your jobs, race, whatever personal info you included in your PS, DS and addenda. All they have to do is read a person's posting history. I don't know if the adcomms at Northwestern have ever bothered to ID me, but it would take them about 4 minutes. How many female hockey playing engineers from Oregon do you think they had apply in 2010, get accepted, defer a year, and matriculate in 2012?

Now, if you fudge your GPA/LSAT on TLS a few decimal points, never ever mention where you went to school or where you're from, and never mention any personal details that you might have included in your application packet, a school probably can't ID you.

jlb251 wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

jlb251 wrote:

NoodleyOne wrote:I spoke with an adcom, and they knew who I was on TLS. They check.

I have a hard time believing this. How do they connect the username to a name on an application?

Because people post a lot of identifying information. If you're someone who posted your GPA, LSAT, the kind of UG you went to, and all your softs, under your username, it's not hard to match applicants with that username.

That is true, it's very possible to make the connections, but that could also take some time. Do they really take the time to sift through that information?

Like rink said, it really doesn't take that long. Plenty of people who ask for application help here post some big long opening post with all their details in one place. If you're at all comfortable with the search function, that's not hard to find.

Now, I have no idea how frequently adcomms do this, and I'm sure they don't for auto-dings, but if they're on the fence about you they might. I think they also sometimes browse around here to see what people are generally saying about their schools (it's a useful sort of focus group), and they might figure people out while doing that (hello Whatever School Class of Whatever Year threads!).

I had an admissions officer from the law school at my UG mention (and thank me) for a post that I made once, and I still received a full ride. Don't say anything you wouldn't say in person, and you'll be fine.