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177 LSAT, 3.8 GPA, URM from a T10

He applied ED to his alma mater’s law school which also included an early scholarship program.

Got into a school in the 14-20 range but just got moved into regular decision for his top choice, his alma mater’s law school.

As someone who is familiar with med school admissions, my impression is that how he interviewed would be the most likely cause.

He’s deciding between changing his essays, his LoR, but based on my experience, an interview seems to be the area to focus on to change.

What is the read on his situation?

A lot of schools don’t like to look like they favor/auto-admit their alums, so that may be playing a part here.

Law school admissions are nothing like med school admissions, and interviews are actually exceedingly rare. If he actually interviewed for admission, sure, it’s possible he screwed it up. But I’d be surprised it that were dispositive; I think interview/essays/LoR would all carry about the same weight, which is much less than GPA/LSAT. They can help you stand out when done well or hurt you if done particularly badly, but most of the time they don’t move the needle (everyone who gets into a T10 is going to have good materials so it’s a wash).

In any case, he hasn’t been rejected yet, so it may be alumni status + maybe not standing out quite as much as the other people accepted early. If early admission comes with a scholarship at this T10 (which isn’t exactly a thing, but never mind), it’s going to be competitive enough that schools can look for things aside from stellar statistics. Depends what else your brother has to offer.

I don’t think this is a sign that he should redo everything about his application, though. Certainly if he hasn’t had outside input on his essays/LoR and can get that (not always possible for LoRs), it’s always worth doing. But in this kind of context, there’s no point in trying to switch everything up based on one admissions decision. Another adcomm may love the materials as is; no way to know.