Chicago-Kent Class of 2015 (2011-2012 Cycle) Forum

[arae13]

does anyone know when the seat deposit due date is for kent? Since i'm on the deferred list, this will help give me a better idea of when i'll hear my final decision.

Deferred too. Ugh!! And I feel totally in the dark about the process.

were you just recently deferred? I cant believe how long this process for Kent is taking.

I was deferred early-mid January and the only communication I have had with them is when I've initiated it (aka, asking questions about sending new transcripts, LOCIs and LORs). I know their website (which has thankfully been updated to something more visually appealing) gives the equivalent to zero info about deferrals...with the exception of "deferred applicants are not ranked and will be periodically review, though we can't give you a date when a decision will be made."

Looks like we're all going to be stuck in limbo for quite awhile.

[Chi515]

I was deferred early-mid January and the only communication I have had with them is when I've initiated it (aka, asking questions about sending new transcripts, LOCIs and LORs). I know their website (which has thankfully been updated to something more visually appealing) gives the equivalent to zero info about deferrals...with the exception of "deferred applicants are not ranked and will be periodically review, though we can't give you a date when a decision will be made."

Looks like we're all going to be stuck in limbo for quite awhile.[/quote]


I havent been deferred, accepted or denied!!! talk about REALLY being in limbo!

[dems87]

Also, just out of curiosity, is there a Facebook group or another thread on TLS for those attending Kent this upcoming Fall?

I haven't seen an FB group (though c/o 2014 has one) but I just started a thread...Board index --> TLS Class of 2015 Forum --> Chicago-Kent c/o 2015

[swots90]

I was deferred early-mid January and the only communication I have had with them is when I've initiated it (aka, asking questions about sending new transcripts, LOCIs and LORs). I know their website (which has thankfully been updated to something more visually appealing) gives the equivalent to zero info about deferrals...with the exception of "deferred applicants are not ranked and will be periodically review, though we can't give you a date when a decision will be made."

Looks like we're all going to be stuck in limbo for quite awhile.

I havent been deferred, accepted or denied!!! talk about REALLY being in limbo![/quote]

I'm in the exact same boat. I'm really waiting to hear back. I expected to hear back by now considering the application went in at the beginning of January.

For all those people who are still waiting, what are you going to do? I'm going to pay my deposit to my next choice, regardless. If I do get this school, then I'll just consider it $200 gone I suppose.

[motivation]

Can those who are deferred share their number? I'm also deferred, and I'd like to know where I stand.

PM if you like

[iwillonlydothisonce]

Guys,

(1)(a)Be ware of scholarship section breakers. For example: this past year they stuck all the people who have GPA stips in one section. This means that by virtue of having a scholarship and the curve, a good chunk of people will be unable to keep their scholarships, no matter how smart you are.

(1)(b) This past year, more than half of the top 10 students in our year are all in once section (6/10). Go figure.

(2) Make sure you talk to the financial aid office and tell em to take away your stips on your scholarship. People do this, they respond. No guarantees but they do what they can to keep their LSAT median so play your cards.

(3) Only 10% of you will be top 10%. I promise, there are smart people who don't make it, on no account of their intelligence.

(4) Re Employment: IF you are serious about getting a decent job your first summer, DO NOT RELY ON CSO. You need to have cover letters, resume, writing sample for LRW (probably your open memo) good to go on December 1st. Don't worry about grades here, send them in later. Please please do make sure you don't miss any opportunity here.

(5) Not to give you advice on academics, do not come here if you are planning on transferring. Here is why: (a) you won't get ranked until mid summer. (b) They really return grades late. (c) The registrars office folks are slow. (d) While some people pull it off it is generally a bad idea to come to a school if all you plan on doing is transferring out.

(6) IF YOU LISTEN TO NOTHING ELSE THAT I SAY, for Gods sake do not move to Tailor Lofts. The school recommends it but honestly, what they do over there is unconscionable. I won't get specific but you'll have to take my word for how bad it really is. Don't pay more than 1000 for a place, best bet, live somewhere close to the L and commute, PT is over priced and management sucks there as well.

(7) The library is not open all night, and closes early saturday. This matters!

(8) IF you are 22 years old, have a good GPA, can find something worthwhile resume wise to do for a year (anything legal) and can retake the LSAT to get you a strong score, please seriously consider this. I'm not harping on people for scores or trying to make anyone feel bad. Law school in general is a trade school. You are going to be paying out of your nose to come here. IF you are going to spend 200,000 anyway, one year off is not going to hurt you if you can get yourself into a stronger school.

(9) Be advised, this school is being sued among others for allegedly misrepresenting its employment numbers. When Villanova's Dean admitted that they fudged numbers a few years ago, they slipped into tier 3. This is drastic and can have a devastating effect on your ability to get a job at a law firm.

(10) Find out what your casebooks are a couple weeks before class and order them used on amazon.com and save a couple hundred dollars. This is up to you, if you feel strongly about having a book with no writing in it, go for it. But seriously, you'll realize pretty quickly that reading for class is overrated (not that you shouldn't do it.)

(11) I just want you to consider these points. I'm not trying to get anyone down. You can succeed by coming to Kent. My SOLE PURPOSE in posting this is to enhance transparency. Always remember, if you go to a T2, it IS going to be an uphill battle and percentages have it that the majority doesn't win the way they intended to win when they came in.

Good luck. I mean absolutely no offense to anyone.

PS. I am not responding to PM's. This will by my only post

[station4]

Guys,

(1)(a)Be ware of scholarship section breakers. For example: this past year they stuck all the people who have GPA stips in one section. This means that by virtue of having a scholarship and the curve, a good chunk of people will be unable to keep their scholarships, no matter how smart you are.

(1)(b) This past year, more than half of the top 10 students in our year are all in once section (6/10). Go figure.

(2) Make sure you talk to the financial aid office and tell em to take away your stips on your scholarship. People do this, they respond. No guarantees but they do what they can to keep their LSAT median so play your cards.

(3) Only 10% of you will be top 10%. I promise, there are smart people who don't make it, on no account of their intelligence.

(4) Re Employment: IF you are serious about getting a decent job your first summer, DO NOT RELY ON CSO. You need to have cover letters, resume, writing sample for LRW (probably your open memo) good to go on December 1st. Don't worry about grades here, send them in later. Please please do make sure you don't miss any opportunity here.

(5) Not to give you advice on academics, do not come here if you are planning on transferring. Here is why: (a) you won't get ranked until mid summer. (b) They really return grades late. (c) The registrars office folks are slow. (d) While some people pull it off it is generally a bad idea to come to a school if all you plan on doing is transferring out.

(6) IF YOU LISTEN TO NOTHING ELSE THAT I SAY, for Gods sake do not move to Tailor Lofts. The school recommends it but honestly, what they do over there is unconscionable. I won't get specific but you'll have to take my word for how bad it really is. Don't pay more than 1000 for a place, best bet, live somewhere close to the L and commute, PT is over priced and management sucks there as well.

(7) The library is not open all night, and closes early saturday. This matters!

(8) IF you are 22 years old, have a good GPA, can find something worthwhile resume wise to do for a year (anything legal) and can retake the LSAT to get you a strong score, please seriously consider this. I'm not harping on people for scores or trying to make anyone feel bad. Law school in general is a trade school. You are going to be paying out of your nose to come here. IF you are going to spend 200,000 anyway, one year off is not going to hurt you if you can get yourself into a stronger school.

(9) Be advised, this school is being sued among others for allegedly misrepresenting its employment numbers. When Villanova's Dean admitted that they fudged numbers a few years ago, they slipped into tier 3. This is drastic and can have a devastating effect on your ability to get a job at a law firm.

(10) Find out what your casebooks are a couple weeks before class and order them used on amazon.com and save a couple hundred dollars. This is up to you, if you feel strongly about having a book with no writing in it, go for it. But seriously, you'll realize pretty quickly that reading for class is overrated (not that you shouldn't do it.)

(11) I just want you to consider these points. I'm not trying to get anyone down. You can succeed by coming to Kent. My SOLE PURPOSE in posting this is to enhance transparency. Always remember, if you go to a T2, it IS going to be an uphill battle and percentages have it that the majority doesn't win the way they intended to win when they came in.

Good luck. I mean absolutely no offense to anyone.

PS. I am not responding to PM's. This will by my only post

Thanks for the post. This sort of perspective is actually really helpful. Maybe you will reconsider the latter half of the bolded stance? It seems like LUC/Kent/DePaul have almost no current students or recent alums who post, so all you have are 0Ls speculating and students from other schools cruising by to troll.

[Denver0211]

Thank you so much for a thoughtful reply about your experiences at Kent. Do you have any additional information regarding to lawsuits filed against Kent? I did some due diligence and found minimal information, but the information that I did find gleaned as much insight to the ensuing lawsuits as Kent provides deferred students.

It seems that these types of lawsuits that are perpetuated by alumni hinge on the fact that they were not able to find jobs within the "stated average" for alumni. What I don't see is information regarding the plaintiffs job history, GPA, extra-curricular activities, etc...Just because you graduate from a law school, does not guarantee a job. Neither does any degree from any institution.

So if you could please provide additional information that would be very helpful for us making this major decision.

[iwillonlydothisonce]

I don't have specific information about the law suit. There are current 3L's who are part of the class action but the majority of the P's are not currently students. I'm sorry I wasn't meaning to come across as someone who had information that was not available to the public in regards to this suit. I just know that a lot of people who might be reading these threads might not have heard of it and many of them also might not have followed the Villanova story.

In regards to employment numbers I am not really sure how much they were misrepresented if at all. At this point everything is still an allegation. It is not clear when the suit will be decided.

As far as job prospects go from Kent you all should probably know that it is a really rough economy right now. I think Northwestern, our neighbors a few blocks to the north, had OCI placement this past year somewhere in the 60% ball park and 9 mo's post grad employment number of closer to 80% NLJ250. (I know these numbers are not absolute but you can easily find them.)

Kent has an OCI. You need to be around the top 3rd to participate in the most basic capacity. There are a few NLJ250 firms that come. To even be considered for the v100's that do come you need to be in the 5-10%. And many firms in Chicago do not come to our OCI. There is a resume drop system. What that means is, if you do well (say top 1%) the school makes your resume available for firms like Kirkland and Mayer etc. to look at. If they are interested they get in touch with you. You will not interview with them at OCI. (As is the case with everything else, this might change in the future... I don't know.)

If you want to work for biglaw, it is false to think that your goal is impossible at Kent. It is just extremely difficult in this economy. I know you might have other concerns, I encourage you to get in touch with 3L's that you have some sort of connection with (family, friends, under grad alum network etc. etc.) and talk to them. Ask them what they are doing. If they have a job at a firm pick their brains to see how they got their job. See if you want to do something like that.

Get very familiar with your learning style. Read Getting to Maybe. Read the Torts E&E (not to learn torts but to get familiar with what matters in class... elements, rules, policy etc.) You want to be very familiar with your professors. Listen to every word in class (your class mates will be on gchat or facebook or whatever, don't do this.) Your professors don't teach you anything so it is tempting to zone out. Law school classes aren't going to be like lectures where you are "taught" how to analyze a "Statute of Frauds" issue. The professor will probably just outline some elements for you and start asking a bunch of questions and keep going (seemingly) off the track talking to themselves. You don't have to copy down everything they say but keep track of their argument chains and how they reach their conclusions. Then when you encounter those issues on the exam, your outline will have those arguments, it will have the rules and policy from the cases, and when you write out your answer you will hit more points than someone who zoned out and read Emmanuel's and just parrots back the BLL. (Btw do LEEWS. Again its just to get yourself familiar with the beast you are going to be dealing with.)

Finally remember that all that matters is the exam at the end of semester. You might get some minor class participation points and so on, but don't stress about being called on in class. Most people look like idiots in the beginning, its all good. Briefing cases is an interesting idea if you are clueless. But its more work than is necessary.

And finally I really don't want to continue posting here under this alias. As a current 2L I'd rather not say more than what I've said already, all kinds of people troll TLS (you would be surprised) so risking outing myself in light of this conversation is not a risk I am willing to take. Hope you understand.

Good luck everyone. As long as you know enough about the risks you are able to accept the risks, and if you accept the risks, then you are not going to have a "I wish I knew" moment down the road. Ciao.

[Denver0211]

Your post is much appreciated! Still hoping to get into Kent.

[sammyk]

Hey Guys!

Congrats to all those who were accepted! Also, Good Luck to all who are waiting or on the wait list!

I just wanted to know how long this school takes to get to applications?! I have been complete and in review since Feb 15th! Wow! I guess no news is good news? yikes..

[lawschool4me]

Hey all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Just thought I'd share for those still in limbo, I applied mid-February to Chicago-Kent, just heard back that I was admitted. 8k/yr also, no stips. Good luck to those still waiting.

[favrefire4]

Withdrawing. Hopefully that opens up a spot for someone else on here!

[ashen]

Anyone thinking about housing yet?

[artorres]

yeah i was deferred middle of march. I dont expect to hear back until June. If i hear back sooner even better, but i'm crossing my fingers.

The fact that you are deferred (and not waitlisted) sounds like a serious consideration. By the end of next week, the school should know how many seats remain open following the Monday tuition deposit deadline. My guess is that you will hear a lot sooner than June. Best of luck!

[ValerOn1820]

in review since the beginning of Feb - strange sitution...

[Denver0211]

yeah i was deferred middle of march. I dont expect to hear back until June. If i hear back sooner even better, but i'm crossing my fingers.

The fact that you are deferred (and not waitlisted) sounds like a serious consideration. By the end of next week, the school should know how many seats remain open following the Monday tuition deposit deadline. My guess is that you will hear a lot sooner than June. Best of luck!

May I ask what you mean by "serious consideration"? To my knowledge Kent does not have a wait listed category and that the deferred category is "essentially" how Kent views wait listing.

So i'm just holding my breath!

[artorres]

yeah i was deferred middle of march. I dont expect to hear back until June. If i hear back sooner even better, but i'm crossing my fingers.

The fact that you are deferred (and not waitlisted) sounds like a serious consideration. By the end of next week, the school should know how many seats remain open following the Monday tuition deposit deadline. My guess is that you will hear a lot sooner than June. Best of luck!

May I ask what you mean by "serious consideration"? To my knowledge Kent does not have a wait listed category and that the deferred category is "essentially" how Kent views wait listing.

So i'm just holding my breath!

I read many people using either the word "waitlisted" or "deferred". I was completely under the impression that they were two distinctive states of the world. If I misspoke, I apologize. In any case, many people are indicating withdrawal on LSN so I hope your time in the deferred category is coming to an end soon.

[Ohiobumpkin]

Officially withdrew. Best of luck everybody!

[rma]

Withdrew today.

Best of luck to those on the WL.

[Abrennan]

I've also been deferred...I told them I'd send them another letter of recommendation which they seemed interested in. I am also W/L at Loyola Chicago....oh life.

[Denver0211]

I spoke with Kent the other day and they mentioned they would start re-reviewing deferred applicants early May. Good luck to everyone that has been deferred! I hope we all get in...somehow.

[ashen]

So what does everyone think of the new employment stats for 2011...

[crv8623]

So what does everyone think of the new employment stats for 2011...

Link?

[ashen]

So what does everyone think of the new employment stats for 2011...

Link?

http://placementsummary.abaquestionnaire.org/home.aspx
I only took a quick glance so I may be wrong, but in terms of employment percentages and number of students in 101+ sized firms, it seems to me that Chicago-Kent did the best of the "Chicago Trio" this year.