Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall) Class of 2015 Forum

[thelawschoolproject]

So no one's heard anything about matching scholarships?

Not I. And...if I haven't heard anything by Monday I'm going to have to let Berkeley go.

[lblelalr]

So no one's heard anything about matching scholarships?

Not I. And...if I haven't heard anything by Monday I'm going to have to let Berkeley go.

we should all call and find out what's going on. apply some pressure TLS!

[thelawschoolproject]

So no one's heard anything about matching scholarships?

Not I. And...if I haven't heard anything by Monday I'm going to have to let Berkeley go.

we should all call and find out what's going on. apply some pressure TLS!

I called two days ago. Apparently they are releasing money this week and next week. She said the final offers would go out some time in June.

I'm hoping this is just like an alternate thing, where Berkeley gives money to those who withdrew/didn't send in the final letter of intent to attend.

[poe]

So no one's heard anything about matching scholarships?

Not I. And...if I haven't heard anything by Monday I'm going to have to let Berkeley go.

we should all call and find out what's going on. apply some pressure TLS!

I called two days ago. Apparently they are releasing money this week and next week. She said the final offers would go out some time in June.

I'm hoping this is just like an alternate thing, where Berkeley gives money to those who withdrew/didn't send in the final letter of intent to attend.

[jungminnee]

Just called also. She said that scholarships come out in waves and the office would try to get them all out by May 15, though she didn't guarantee it. Also asked if we would be notified if we weren't offered any scholarship $ and she said we would.

[catwomangirl]

The wait is killing me dead.

[mushybrain]

Yeah this is killing me. Re: waves, I think I've only seen two people mention scholarships and those were the big presidential ones or whatever they're called. Sooo are they doing the non-TLS waves first or is the first wave yet to come? I hate not knowing whether I'm looking at a quarter mil in debt...

[Aspen]

Do you think committing now will reduce your chances of getting scholarships?

[smokeylarue]

Anyone know how Berkeley did in OCI this past fall 2011? Debating between here and Columbia and Columbia just released their OCI 2011 figures which were pretty impressive.

[Real Madrid]

How necessary is a car at Boalt? I'm thinking about selling mine.

[Aspen]

How necessary is a car at Boalt? I'm thinking about selling mine.

It's not necessary if you're fine with just staying in the Bay Area all the time but I had a car even when I lived in San Francisco and I never regretted it! It's just amazing being able to go up to Napa/Sonoma/Yosemite/Lake Tahoe/Monterey/Santa Cruz/LA etc. whenever you want. A lot of my friends in SF were all like, "Omg only having a bike is soooo good" but then would get out of control jealous and want to tag along whenever I'd go out of town because they had island fever.

[FavoriteColorGRUE]

Do you think committing now will reduce your chances of getting scholarships?

I'm interested in this as well....

[bigtexmex]

How necessary is a car at Boalt? I'm thinking about selling mine.

It's not necessary if you're fine with just staying in the Bay Area all the time but I had a car even when I lived in San Francisco and I never regretted it! It's just amazing being able to go up to Napa/Sonoma/Yosemite/Lake Tahoe/Monterey/Santa Cruz/LA etc. whenever you want. A lot of my friends in SF were all like, "Omg only having a bike is soooo good" but then would get out of control jealous and want to tag along whenever I'd go out of town because they had island fever.

Also, while it's not LA, there is something cool about driving around with your windows rolled down driving down the coast with the music blasting.

[smokeylarue]

After visiting , I can definitely say a car is not necessary. Parking seems like it could be huge bitch too, it seems like almost everyone lives close by and walks to campus and/or takes a bus.

[EvelynS]

Does anyone know if withdrawing from wait lists are required or expected???? ABA is very vague about their guidlines to law schools regarding requirements and procedures of accepting their admission. I am almost sure that I will be attending Berkeley in Fall, but still would prefer to stay on Columbia's wait list.

[mushybrain]

They can't require it to my knowledge but they expect it, though this certainly makes it sound required so I would be interested to know.
"I accept admission to Berkeley Law School. I will definitely enroll as a member of the Class of 2015 in August. I will withdraw my application and remove myself from waiting lists at all other law schools immediately. I agree to notify the Admissions Office if my plans change subsequently so as to affect my enrollment in August."

[SaintFond]

How necessary is a car at Boalt? I'm thinking about selling mine.

Not necessary, though walking around can get tiresome.

[lats19nys]

Does anyone know if withdrawing from wait lists are required or expected???? ABA is very vague about their guidlines to law schools regarding requirements and procedures of accepting their admission. I am almost sure that I will be attending Berkeley in Fall, but still would prefer to stay on Columbia's wait list.

I'm 99 percent sure you don't actually have to withdraw waitlists. One of the reasons Berkeley keeps talking about your word being important is I think a bit of a psychological ploy to get people to comply with their wishes. I mean, I think it does work though. I would feel really bad about not withdrawing especially by June 1st I guess. It's tricky.

[EvelynS]

Does anyone know if withdrawing from wait lists are required or expected???? ABA is very vague about their guidlines to law schools regarding requirements and procedures of accepting their admission. I am almost sure that I will be attending Berkeley in Fall, but still would prefer to stay on Columbia's wait list.

I'm 99 percent sure you don't actually have to withdraw waitlists. One of the reasons Berkeley keeps talking about your word being important is I think a bit of a psychological ploy to get people to comply with their wishes. I mean, I think it does work though. I would feel really bad about not withdrawing especially by June 1st I guess. It's tricky.

According to LSAC STmt of Good Admission, I should not be required to do that, but their language is still very vague and tricky:
"After April 1, except under binding early decision plans, every
accepted applicant should be free to accept a new offer from
a law school even though a scholarship has been accepted,
a deposit has been paid, or a committment has been made
to another school. To provide applicants with an uncoerced
choice among various law schools, no excessive
nonrefundable deposit should be required solely to maintain
a place in the class. Beginning on May 15 of each year, law
schools that participate in the Commitment Overlap Service
will be provided with information concerning all enrollment
commitments to any law school made by those applicants
who have indicated an intention to enroll in that school’s
entering class. A law school should clearly communicate its
policies on multiple enrollment commitments upon admission."

If I got it correctly, the Overlap thing is for those who deposited at multiple law schools. I want to submit a 2nd response form to B, but their waiting list policies bother me a little bit.

[catwomangirl]

Money today? Anybody?

[SaintFond]

Yeah, I want to know if Berkeley has shown anyone the money too.

[Aspen]

So is staying on waitlists ok then? I got waitlisted at STTTanford and Harvard. I definitely don't want to go to Harvard and prefer Berkeley to Stanford but in the off chance I get off I'd be given a calculated financial aid offer that I could maybe present to Berkeley... it'll be late but I know someone who did that at Boalt a couple years back. I've been given 20 k in need based financial aid so far (is that good for law school?) but UVA and Penn didn't give me any aid I could sent a matching scholarship for. Since its need based I'm nervous about that aid disappearing even though I don't anticipate my family and I making significantly more money in the next two years. Sorry if this is super convoluted and sounds like major first world problems but if anyone has any advice that'd be great

[SaintFond]

So is staying on waitlists ok then? I got waitlisted at STTTanford and Harvard. I definitely don't want to go to Harvard and prefer Berkeley to Stanford but in the off chance I get off I'd be given a calculated financial aid offer that I could maybe present to Berkeley... it'll be late but I know someone who did that at Boalt a couple years back. I've been given 20 k in need based financial aid so far (is that good for law school?) but UVA and Penn didn't give me any aid I could sent a matching scholarship for. Since its need based I'm nervous about that aid disappearing even though I don't anticipate my family and I making significantly more money in the next two years. Sorry if this is super convoluted and sounds like major first world problems but if anyone has any advice that'd be great

I just spoke to someone from LSAC on the phone. She said that seat deposits become visible to all participating schools on May 15. I asked her whether wait-listings would, and she said no.

So it sounds like Berkeley actually has no way of knowing whether you are on a waitlist at all. On the other hand, those who are waitlisting you might be annoyed if you have already accepted admission to a school, though it's unclear whether they would ever take retaliatory action. I know that schools generally take Early Decision shenanigans very seriously, but I don't know whether a school who has waitlisted you would actually snitch on you to your accepted school. Somehow I doubt it.

Regardless, you have until May 15. I asked the rep for LSAC how long it takes after requesting a removal from waitlist or reneging on acceptance that the schools notify the LSAC, and she said it's really up to the school.

[Virgil777]

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[poe]

I met a couple of really cool people at ASW who seemed genuinely interested in attending Berkeley but who have now decided to go to other schools because they got tired of waiting around for scholarship info...

I'm sure this isn't uncommon. Berkeley has probably been the slowest school about getting scholarship info out there, basically forcing people to deposit elsewhere or risk losing their existing T14 scholarships. You'd think this would hurt their yield...