Weird cycle? Forum

[MisterT]

Hi everyone

This has been a slightly annoying cycle for me. It is a fact that high scoring applicants are up this time around, as well as the overall number of applications. Must be the economy, stupid. Anyway, after hearing back from all but one school yet, I am slightly underwhelmed at the outcome. I applied to all T14 schools and have been waitlisted by EVERY single one (bar HLS, Berkeley and Yale who dinged me + Stanford who I have yet to hear back from). Not one acceptance. So I have decided to accept an offer for a 1 year MSc at the London School of Economics - my plan B - and wait a year or two before applying again.

So here are my stats:

• International Undergrad but US citizen
  
  KJD
  
  174/"Average" trancript evaluation
  
  Above average softs (acc. to TLS forum definition)

And here are my theories on what went wrong:

• I applied at the very end of the cycle
  
  I am a "splitter" in a splitter-unfriendly cycle (I am actually in the top 10% of my class and wrote an addendum/had my school acknowledge, but alas LSACs evaluation remained even after I had them look at it again.. this in itself was a big let down but nothing could be done.)
  
  My undergraduate degree is only 3 years im length - on my LSAC transcript evaluation this meant my degree wasn't equivalent to a US degree. Berkeley and Yale specifically said this would make me ineligible wheras a WL from other schools suggest this isn't always the case.

Has anyone had a similar experience? I know that there aren't many international applicants and thus schools may not know how to deal with them as well or may see us as a liability, but honestly I never thought that I would get a WL from every single school. It could well be a combination of any of the above, or something I haven't thought of. Please understand I'm just looking for possible answers (and solutions for next time), so open to any theories. It would seem if I was really such an unattractive applicant that I would have been dinged at some of the better schools like Chicago, but honestly I have no clue what to make of it all.

Cheers.

[QuentonCassidy]

...My undergraduate degree is only 3 years im length - on my LSAC transcript evaluation this meant my degree wasn't equivalent to a US degree. Berkeley and Yale specifically said this would make me ineligible wheras a WL from other schools suggest this isn't always the case....

I have no brilliant insight or basis for this, but this immediately stands out to me as what could be your major issue. Hopefully another poster has some specific experience with this issue, but I would definitely look into that.

[MisterT]

...My undergraduate degree is only 3 years im length - on my LSAC transcript evaluation this meant my degree wasn't equivalent to a US degree. Berkeley and Yale specifically said this would make me ineligible wheras a WL from other schools suggest this isn't always the case....

I have no brilliant insight or basis for this, but this immediately stands out to me as what could be your major issue. Hopefully another poster has some specific experience with this issue, but I would definitely look into that.

That's what I thought, but since I am on a WL at many schools, it seems not to be a true deal breaker.

[Nekrowizard]

I think applying at the end of the cycle hurts pretty significantly. I had the same LSAT, a low GPA, and applied in February or something. I got waitlisted everywhere (didn't apply to HYS). I did end up getting in off some waitlists in the T6 in the end. So I would apply earlier next time, and hope that this was your main issue. You might ride out some waitlists to see what happens just for future reference.

If your issue actually was your undergrad degree, you're kind of fucked, aren't you? Like, what could you do to fix that? Is your degree from a real place (I assume so, because you're going to LSE)? If it's from like the Polytechnic University of Siberia, I could see it being a bigger problem.

[MisterT]

I think applying at the end of the cycle hurts pretty significantly. I had the same LSAT, a low GPA, and applied in February or something. I got waitlisted everywhere (didn't apply to HYS). I did end up getting in off some waitlists in the T6 in the end. So I would apply earlier next time, and hope that this was your main issue. You might ride out some waitlists to see what happens just for future reference.

If your issue actually was your undergrad degree, you're kind of fucked, aren't you? Like, what could you do to fix that? Is your degree from a real place (I assume so, because you're going to LSE)? If it's from like the Polytechnic University of Siberia, I could see it being a bigger problem.

The issue about the undergrad degree is more complex, but seems to not be the main reason for the waitlists. My degree was from a real, well ranked school. I was just kind of astounded how LSAC wants your undergrad to be 4 years in length when it doesn't matter for other graduate degrees, and how this was far from obvious when reading through the requirements to apply as an international student.

It also seems like many who applied late were waitlisted everywhere if they had numbers that would otherwise get them in, so I'm hoping to turn WL into admits next cycle and even get an offer from HYS.

ETA: I'm also hoping that a degree from LSE will suggest that I wasn't lying in my addendum about my grades being actually not so bad rather than AACRAO's "average" rating. How arbitrary the whole process has felt..