SMU Dedman applicants c/o 2019 (2015-2016) Forum

[BeatriceButler]

Went complete on 4/12 and still have not heard anything. The website states that decisions will be made by the end of April. Because it is already May 2, I am wondering if I should contact the admission's office or not? Any suggestions?

Based on your completion date I'm assuming you applied pretty late in the game. They'll get back to you at some point, though hard to say when based on that 4/12 date. I would wait at least a full month after going complete before I contacted admissions. I feel like it took at least that long for them to get back to me, and I went complete very early January.

[nonamer]

Has anyone had any luck negotiating money after submitting the reconsideration form, or a bump in general?
I just sent mine and was not given more. which really surprised me... I was accepted into every school in Texas, except UT, and a few out of state schools including Cornell, where I have deposit down..

SMU gave me about a 30% scholarship. I have better offers from all other schools.

I like SMU a lot and it's one of my top choices but taking out too many loans is a concern. Anyone have any advise?

[BeatriceButler]

Has anyone had any luck negotiating money after submitting the reconsideration form, or a bump in general?
I just sent mine and was not given more. which really surprised me... I was accepted into every school in Texas, except UT, and a few out of state schools including Cornell, where I have deposit down..

SMU gave me about a 30% scholarship. I have better offers from all other schools.

I like SMU a lot and it's one of my top choices but taking out too many loans is a concern. Anyone have any advise?

Look at Patriot's post on page 12 of this thread and you will see that he had his scholarship $ bumped up after sending in the reconsideration form, although it appears that he is more the exception than the rule.

If you sent your reconsideration form in already and did not receive an increase, then I believe you don't really have any other options other than to accept your scholarship by paying the deposit or withdraw (although I'm not 100% confident in that so some one correct me if I'm wrong).

This is getting off topic for the scope of this thread, but I would think long and hard about where you want to practice (geographic region/city), what type of law you want to practice (big law, boutique firm litigation, govt., etc) before you make a decision. I would then look at how each school you're interested in places in that geographic area and field of law. As far as how much you're willing to borrow in loans, that's totally subjective and differs from person to person. PM me if you want to talk about those things in greater detail.

[p1921]

Has anyone had any luck negotiating money after submitting the reconsideration form, or a bump in general?
I just sent mine and was not given more. which really surprised me... I was accepted into every school in Texas, except UT, and a few out of state schools including Cornell, where I have deposit down..

SMU gave me about a 30% scholarship. I have better offers from all other schools.

I like SMU a lot and it's one of my top choices but taking out too many loans is a concern. Anyone have any advise?

Look at Patriot's post on page 12 of this thread and you will see that he had his scholarship $ bumped up after sending in the reconsideration form, although it appears that he is more the exception than the rule.

If you sent your reconsideration form in already and did not receive an increase, then I believe you don't really have any other options other than to accept your scholarship by paying the deposit or withdraw (although I'm not 100% confident in that so some one correct me if I'm wrong).

This is getting off topic for the scope of this thread, but I would think long and hard about where you want to practice (geographic region/city), what type of law you want to practice (big law, boutique firm litigation, govt., etc) before you make a decision. I would then look at how each school you're interested in places in that geographic area and field of law. As far as how much you're willing to borrow in loans, that's totally subjective and differs from person to person. PM me if you want to talk about those things in greater detail.

This is generally true, but not for Cornell. A T14 degree has a pretty wide net.

A little off topic, but that's an odd cycle where you got into Cornell but not UT, and SMU only gave you 30%. Do you have a particularly interesting background or something?

[Stevoman]

This is generally true, but not for Cornell. A T14 degree has a pretty wide net.

A little off topic, but that's an odd cycle where you got into Cornell but not UT, and SMU only gave you 30%. Do you have a particularly interesting background or something?

Perhaps I misunderstood him, but I think BeatriceButler's point was something along the lines of "Don't just go to SMU because they gave you more money than Cornell." Which I think is very good advice, since as you correctly point out, a Cornell JD is much more portable than an SMU JD.

I love the school, but I'm not blind to the reality that SMU doesn't have much clout outside Texas (or even Dallas for that matter).

[p1921]

This is generally true, but not for Cornell. A T14 degree has a pretty wide net.

A little off topic, but that's an odd cycle where you got into Cornell but not UT, and SMU only gave you 30%. Do you have a particularly interesting background or something?

Perhaps I misunderstood him, but I think BeatriceButler's point was something along the lines of "Don't just go to SMU because they gave you more money than Cornell." Which I think is very good advice, since as you correctly point out, a Cornell JD is much more portable than an SMU JD.

I love the school, but I'm not blind to the reality that SMU doesn't have much clout outside Texas (or even Dallas for that matter).

You may be right, and I agree they shouldn't just go to SMU because they gave more money than Cornell. Sorry if that wasn't clear, I'm balls deep in contracts and brain is pretty fried.

I should get some sleep tonight...

[nonamer]

I was hoping to hear from someone that got a bump of scholarship money after already trying to negotiate once lol
Was really hopeful that SMU bumped offers at the end of the cycle to entice some towards SMU..

Actually Cornell gave about 40% scholarship, which is about the same cost of SMU given Cornell's cost. I wanted to stay in Texas, but I have heard from CLS's current students/alumni/faculty that it's not unheard of to go back to Texas and get something in biglaw.

For those of you wondering why i'm so torn between these schools it's because I'm from Dallas and my fiance will be working in Dallas. I'm torn between Ithaca and Dallas. Two very different places. Also, I have never lived that far up North and I'm a bit reluctant of not being able to come back and practice in Texas.

PS. I am a reverse splitter.. The LSAT just wasnt my kind of test, but my gpa was great. I also had great softs and a very unique life story.

[Stevoman]

You should have mentioned earlier that you fiance is in Dallas and you both want to work here, lol. In that case, look at it this way: If you do well at SMU, employment in Dallas is virtually guaranteed, but not necessarily good employment. If you do well at Cornell, good employment is virtually guaranteed, but not necessarily in Dallas.

I'm not going to sugar coat this: If you're shooting for big law, you need to do really well at SMU. They're not a T14 and big firms will get high ranked UT/UH/Baylor graduates before digging down into the lower ranked SMU graduates.

[BeatriceButler]

Nonamer,

Are you dead set on landing a Big Law position?

Also what would be worse in your mind.. Landing a Big Law position in the north east coming out of Cornell, but unable to land Big Law in Texas? Or going to SMU and landing a small firm position in Dallas, but striking out for Texas Big Law?

Feel for you and your situation with your significant other. A part of why I chose to stay in Dallas at SMU was for similar reasons.

[mornincounselor]

I was hoping to hear from someone that got a bump of scholarship money after already trying to negotiate once lol
Was really hopeful that SMU bumped offers at the end of the cycle to entice some towards SMU..

Actually Cornell gave about 40% scholarship, which is about the same cost of SMU given Cornell's cost. I wanted to stay in Texas, but I have heard from CLS's current students/alumni/faculty that it's not unheard of to go back to Texas and get something in biglaw.

For those of you wondering why i'm so torn between these schools it's because I'm from Dallas and my fiance will be working in Dallas. I'm torn between Ithaca and Dallas. Two very different places. Also, I have never lived that far up North and I'm a bit reluctant of not being able to come back and practice in Texas.

PS. I am a reverse splitter.. The LSAT just wasnt my kind of test, but my gpa was great. I also had great softs and a very unique life story.

You stand to get very biased suggestions posting this in the SMU Applicants thread, but I'm just here to say if Cornell costs the same as SMU you should really consider Cornell, they have literally one of the top 5(ish) BL rates in the country. You shouldn't really draw conclusions based on the percentage of their class which end up in Texas, because surely very few of their students want to end up in Texas.

If you think it would be helpful start a thread in the Choices forum, but I bet you it will be overwhelming Cornell. Also, consider asking about degree portability in the Cornell question thread, but I'd imagine if you have ties to Dallas it wouldn't be all that hard to land from Cornell.

[elduderino55]

Hey there! Anyone have an idea of how SMU deals with their waitlists? (When they start using it, do they start using it, how many...etc.?) Any info would be great. Thank in advance!

[texasrangersjb]

Hey there! Anyone have an idea of how SMU deals with their waitlists? (When they start using it, do they start using it, how many...etc.?) Any info would be great. Thank in advance!

Think the party moved over here http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&t=261215

Maybe try that thread.

[elduderino55]

Hey there! Anyone have an idea of how SMU deals with their waitlists? (When they start using it, do they start using it, how many...etc.?) Any info would be great. Thank in advance!

Think the party moved over here http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&t=261215

Maybe try that thread.

haha Thanks!

[eagle2a]

Hi All,

I graduated from SMU this year and just passed the bar. Willing to try and answer any questions you may have.

any recommendations for easy upper division classes

sorry for hijacking your thread 1L's