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Got into my first T14 yesterday (Michigan). I'm on the priority reserve at Duke and regular waitlist at Gtown and I want to send a LOCI to speed things along. Should I mention my Michigan acceptance in the letter? Obviously I don't want to make it sound like I'm no longer interested, but I feel like it would help to show that I've been given an offer from one of their peers. Thanks in advance!

Noooo. Save mentioning competing schools for the financial aid negotiations. Bringing it up now is a real poke in the eye, it's like saying 'I'm good enough for The University of F-ing Michigan but not for Duke??? WTF's wrong with you"?

By the way, I'm usually all about going to the higher ranked school, but UM/Duke is a tougher call. Note that on the USN&WR rankings, UM actually has a better reputation among peers and, more relevantly at hiring time, among lawyers. There are two reasons for that. First, UM's numbers are artificially low because as a state school it is required to admit a large percentage of its class from among Michigan residences. Michigan residents are smart, but only so many of them get above 170 AND turn down better schools elsewhere. So UM's rankings get hurt, but its non-resident students had to have bigger numbers than the typical Duke student. Second, UM used to be ranked a lot higher. In my day, in fact, it was in the top 5! That was a long time ago, but not for the people who are hiring you today, i.e., people my age who instinctively think of UM as the better school because historically, at least, it was the better school.

Keep up an LOCI campaign, of course. UM/Duke is a nice choice to have, it's just that it's a hard one as well. Plus, it can't hurt when you get to talking money.

Forget Georgetown. You've got a much bigger fish on the line, and one already in the boat.

Dan Sullivan

SullivanLSAC wrote:Noooo. Save mentioning competing schools for the financial aid negotiations. Bringing it up now is a real poke in the eye, it's like saying 'I'm good enough for The University of F-ing Michigan but not for Duke??? WTF's wrong with you"?

By the way, I'm usually all about going to the higher ranked school, but UM/Duke is a tougher call. Note that on the USN&WR rankings, UM actually has a better reputation among peers and, more relevantly at hiring time, among lawyers. There are two reasons for that. First, UM's numbers are artificially low because as a state school it is required to admit a large percentage of its class from among Michigan residences. Michigan residents are smart, but only so many of them get above 170 AND turn down better schools elsewhere. So UM's rankings get hurt, but its non-resident students had to have bigger numbers than the typical Duke student. Second, UM used to be ranked a lot higher. In my day, in fact, it was in the top 5! That was a long time ago, but not for the people who are hiring you today, i.e., people my age who instinctively think of UM as the better school because historically, at least, it was the better school.

Keep up an LOCI campaign, of course. UM/Duke is a nice choice to have, it's just that it's a hard one as well. Plus, it can't hurt when you get to talking money.

Forget Georgetown. You've got a much bigger fish on the line, and one already in the boat.

Dan Sullivan

Thanks for your thoughtful response Dan. Glad to have this clarified.