IOWA 2012 Forum

[typ3]

Regardless of the mixer we should do it-- unless said mixer lasted until 2am?

[Opie]

Regardless of the mixer we should do it-- unless said mixer lasted until 2am?

We are talking about Iowa City. It's perfectly normal for someone to puke in your bushes at 3 am on a Tuesday.

[Trojan228]

Hello everyone! I'm glad to see a thread dedicated to the University of Iowa. Iowa is my number one choice of law schools, and here is a little info about myself:

-Iowa City born and raised
-Undergraduate in Business Management from the University of Arizona (3.59, graduated one year early)
-Spent a summer in London doing an internship and studying
-Two great LoR's (one from a professor who has a JD)

-Taking the LSAT tomorrow morning (averaging about 160 on my practice tests now)

So long as I do well tomorrow morning, what do you think my chances are of making it into the program? I'd love to stay in Iowa City rather than move again, and would also appreciate the in state tuition.

Thanks for any support and information, some people on this website seem to be extremely 'elitist;' and if thats you, please dont even bother to respond. I am not going to hell because I didn't score a 170+


(p.s. the third picture on the main page (excluding the graph) is NOT iowa city. I have lived here my entire life, and can guarantee that much. Haha are those mountains in the background?)

[chrisbru]

Hello everyone! I'm glad to see a thread dedicated to the University of Iowa. Iowa is my number one choice of law schools, and here is a little info about myself:

-Iowa City born and raised
-Undergraduate in Business Management from the University of Arizona (3.59, graduated one year early)
-Spent a summer in London doing an internship and studying
-Two great LoR's (one from a professor who has a JD)

-Taking the LSAT tomorrow morning (averaging about 160 on my practice tests now)

So long as I do well tomorrow morning, what do you think my chances are of making it into the program? I'd love to stay in Iowa City rather than move again, and would also appreciate the in state tuition.

Thanks for any support and information, some people on this website seem to be extremely 'elitist;' and if thats you, please dont even bother to respond. I am not going to hell because I didn't score a 170+

First, this is presumptuous. If you haven't interacted with anyone in this thread, please be kind, and it will be returned.

Second, Good luck on the LSAT tomorrow. Please let us know what your actual score is and we'll be happy to help. Our median numbers are 161/3.64. If you are above both, you're likely to get in. If you're above one, you have some chance. If you're below both, it's harder to get in, but happens. Iowa residency helps.

If you get waitlisted, you can always study more and retake in February in hopes to submit a better score.

I crossed off a few things in your post. I want to point out that these are all good achievements, and I'm not discounting you for those. But the things I crossed off will not have any affect on your application.

Edited for: Answered question.

[laughsalot06]

I'm an Iowa undergraduate alumni as well as an Iowa native and can confirm that the third picture is definitely not Iowa City. Don't get me wrong, Iowa City is amazing, but that's just not what it looks like.

[Opie]

I'm an Iowa undergraduate alumni as well as an Iowa native and can confirm that the third picture is definitely not Iowa City. Don't get me wrong, Iowa City is amazing, but that's just not what it looks like.

I'm 90% certain it's Santa Monica.

--LinkRemoved--

[typ3]

sorry for the oversight, it is fixed. Its meta tags had Iowa pedmall in it so it was one of the first images on google. When I originally pulled it I was trying to figure out what angle of the pedmall it was because it didn't look entirely familiar lol.

[typ3]

Hello everyone! I'm glad to see a thread dedicated to the University of Iowa. Iowa is my number one choice of law schools, and here is a little info about myself:

-Iowa City born and raised
-Undergraduate in Business Management from the University of Arizona (3.59, graduated one year early)
-Spent a summer in London doing an internship and studying
-Two great LoR's (one from a professor who has a JD)

-Taking the LSAT tomorrow morning (averaging about 160 on my practice tests now)

So long as I do well tomorrow morning, what do you think my chances are of making it into the program? I'd love to stay in Iowa City rather than move again, and would also appreciate the in state tuition.

Thanks for any support and information, some people on this website seem to be extremely 'elitist;' and if thats you, please dont even bother to respond. I am not going to hell because I didn't score a 170+

First, this is presumptuous. If you haven't interacted with anyone in this thread, please be kind, and it will be returned.

Second, Good luck on the LSAT tomorrow. Please let us know what your actual score is and we'll be happy to help. Our median numbers are 161/3.64. If you are above both, you're likely to get in. If you're above one, you have some chance. If you're below both, it's harder to get in, but happens. Iowa residency helps.

If you get waitlisted, you can always study more and retake in February in hopes to submit a better score.

I crossed off a few things in your post. I want to point out that these are all good achievements, and I'm not discounting you for those. But the things I crossed off will not have any affect on your application.

I crossed off a few more things. A 160 3.59 will get you into the program. However, you're not going to get $. Not to be elitist, but if you can pull your score up 5/6 points you're looking at banking 60k in tuition via scholarship. Law school applications are very cut and dry. Your softs only matter if you're on the bubble. Ultimately Iowa admissions is hamstrung by two things. 1st they need to fill 50% of the class Iowa residents hence you can get in with much lower numbers as a resident. 2nd they need to keep their medians high to keep their USNews rank which has slipped from 18 a decade or so ago to 26. This has resulted in a greater shift to providing scholarship $ for out of state students. I know under the previous dean the faculty had an entire project geared around boosting the law school rank but it wasn't to much avail.


The big joke about law school admissions and I don't have the source anymore but it was a former admissions dean is that applicants spend hours upon hours pouring over their application. When the law school receives it they take your gpa and your lsat score and throw away the rest of your application. Unfortunately, this seems to be pretty true. Your softs only really matter if they are amazing-- TFA, Peace Corp., Congressional Clerkship, lettered D1 Athlete at a AQ school, and up. Everyone for the most part has some sort of commendable work experience.

[Opie]

sorry for the oversight, it is fixed. Its meta tags had Iowa pedmall in it so it was one of the first images on google. When I originally pulled it I was trying to figure out what angle of the pedmall it was because it didn't look entirely familiar lol.

That looks more like it! Hmm.. I could go for a Dean Martini waffle about now.

[chrisbru]

So, what all happens at the ASW? I'm picturing a cross between the movies Cedar Rapids and the Hangover.

Forgot to answer this question, sorry Opie!

Thursday night: Reception with remarks from dean, faculty and students there to mingle with, appetizerish food, free wine and cash bar for rest. Good place to meet people, and organize a way to get to know other prospective students after this event. We did a bar crawl, had about 30 ASW'ers show up and a couple 1L's. Typ3 and I will try to be at the dinner, and may even organize something for you guys to do that night.

Friday:
Early morning (9 am, I think) with a lot of speakers. Dean Byrd will talk (he's the freaking man), some student panels, etc. Interesting, and informative if you're on the fence. If you're a for-sure attendee, skip the morning session.

Lunch is provided, I think?

After lunch is a building tour, some more mingling with people, etc.

Friday night, if you choose to stick around (you should) definitely explore the ped mall more with your potential classmates. Even if you went here (which I know you did, but for all reading this) it may have changed since you have been here, and new people always provide new perspectives.



TL;DR: ASW is worth it. Come. If you're 100% on Iowa, skip Friday morning. Definitely party while you're here, and if you're coming, let me or Typ3 know and we'll make sure you're included in our festivities so you can see what life outside of the school is like.

[Trojan228]

Thank you everyone for the information. I would like to include in my personal statement the information regarding London and Arizona somehow. The challenge of going out of state/ country are experiences that helps define who I am; and is why I included that information. (Will help augment my personal statement, IMO).

I would love to get some $$$, but am much more concerned with getting IN than worrying about scholarship money at this time. If I hadn't messed up a Logical Game drawing on my last PT, I could have scored 6 more points fairly easily (raw score ponts translating into about a 164). You never know how things are going to happen on test day though. I could get a 165 if it plays my strengths, or I could get a 155 if things go terribly wrong.

I'll do my best tomorrow, and hope to report a 160+ score later in October.

Regarding the elitest statement; I was merely making an observation about TLS as a whole, rather than this specific thread.

Thanks again everyone, and best of luck to my fellow test takers tomorrow!

[chrisbru]

Thank you everyone for the information. I would like to include in my personal statement the information regarding London and Arizona somehow. The challenge of going out of state/ country are experiences that helps define who I am; and is why I included that information. (Will help augment my personal statement, IMO).

I would love to get some $$$, but am much more concerned with getting IN than worrying about scholarship money at this time. If I hadn't messed up a Logical Game drawing on my last PT, I could have scored 6 more points fairly easily (raw score ponts translating into about a 164). You never know how things are going to happen on test day though. I could get a 165 if it plays my strengths, or I could get a 155 if things go terribly wrong.

I'll do my best tomorrow, and hope to report a 160+ score later in October.

Regarding the elitest statement; I was merely making an observation about TLS as a whole, rather than this specific thread.

Thanks again everyone, and best of luck to my fellow test takers tomorrow!

Rock that test man. Feel free to ask questions in the meantime, but bring us a score (You'll get it Thursday or Friday Oct 20th or 21st if history repeats itself as it often does) and we'll give you a good guess of how much $$$ you'll get. Trust me, as a resident with your GPA, if you do well on that LSAT, you won't be paying sticker to come here.

[Trojan228]

Rock that test man. Feel free to ask questions in the meantime, but bring us a score (You'll get it Thursday or Friday Oct 20th or 21st if history repeats itself as it often does) and we'll give you a good guess of how much $$$ you'll get. Trust me, as a resident with your GPA, if you do well on that LSAT, you won't be paying sticker to come here.

Actually I do have a question. Does Iowa require an 'evaluation' to be submitted to the LSAC? To my knowledge, and correct me if I'm wrong, Iowa doesn't and furthermore doesn't require any 'essay' type of submission.

[chrisbru]

Rock that test man. Feel free to ask questions in the meantime, but bring us a score (You'll get it Thursday or Friday Oct 20th or 21st if history repeats itself as it often does) and we'll give you a good guess of how much $$$ you'll get. Trust me, as a resident with your GPA, if you do well on that LSAT, you won't be paying sticker to come here.

Actually I do have a question. Does Iowa require an 'evaluation' to be submitted to the LSAC? To my knowledge, and correct me if I'm wrong, Iowa doesn't and furthermore doesn't require any 'essay' type of submission.

They didn't last year. LSAC should tell you when you do the application online what you need to submit though.

You do have to submit a Personal Statement though. Which is an "essay" type submission, I guess.

[Opie]

About to go dark for LSAT at T-00:01:56.

Can anyone tell me how long this thing usually takes? Not that anyone is probably up.

[Opie]

About to go dark for LSAT at T-00:01:56.

Can anyone tell me how long this thing usually takes? Not that anyone is probably up.

4.5 hours on the nose if anyone is wondering. And I think it went pretty well!

[chrisbru]

About to go dark for LSAT at T-00:01:56.

Can anyone tell me how long this thing usually takes? Not that anyone is probably up.

4.5 hours on the nose if anyone is wondering. And I think it went pretty well!

Glad you felt good about it! Let us know how you did when you get your score in a few weeks!

[Opie]

Oh, I will. Now it's on to the process of writing a million essays.

[Opie]

Anything in particular that should go into a why Iowa essay this cycle?

[chrisbru]

Anything in particular that should go into a why Iowa essay this cycle?

Because it's likely we'll be the higher ranked of the two U of I's this year, due to the Illinois median misreporting scandal?

Honestly, just be honest about why Iowa is the perfect school for you... A school near your family with a great reputation, faculty, and placement back in Des Moines.

[sebastian0622]

Anything in particular that should go into a why Iowa essay this cycle?

I have some suggestions to help tailor your answer to Iowa Law in particular:

- "The Time I Built a Library in My Legos DeathStar"
- "The Merits of Tailgating without Alcohol"
- "How my Modeling Career Prepared me for Torts and Anti-Trust"
- "But Drake is, like, not Ranked and Shit"
- "A Perfect Fit: Why I Like Both Firms that Came to OCI Last Year"
- "How Iditarod Training Led me to Iowa City Last January"
- "I Really Like Your Policy of Term Limits for Deans. Oh Shit, that's not a Policy?"
- "All of My Containers are Spill-proof"
- "Accept Me, Bitch: My Blackmail Photos are Racier than Matsumoto's"
- "A Dedicated CSO: Finding Iowa Professors Better Jobs Since 1998"
- "Iowa Law and the Titanic: A Historical Comparison"

[chrisbru]

Anything in particular that should go into a why Iowa essay this cycle?

I have some suggestions to help tailor your answer to Iowa Law in particular:

- "The Time I Built a Library in My Legos DeathStar"
- "The Merits of Tailgating without Alcohol"
- "How my Modeling Career Prepared me for Torts and Anti-Trust"
- "But Drake is, like, not Ranked and Shit"
- "A Perfect Fit: Why I Like Both Firms that Came to OCI Last Year"
- "How Iditarod Training Led me to Iowa City Last January"
- "I Really Like Your Policy of Term Limits for Deans. Oh Shit, that's not a Policy?"
- "All of My Containers are Spill-proof"
- "Accept Me, Bitch: My Blackmail Photos are Racier than Matsumoto's"
- "A Dedicated CSO: Finding Iowa Professors Better Jobs Since 1998"
- "Iowa Law and the Titanic: A Historical Comparison"

I don't know who you are... And this isn't helpful at all to people posting ITT... But, I do find it hilarious. Especially bolded.

[Ernert]

Hey Iowa students, couple questions:

1) How is placement in Nebraska compared to other schools? I have family ties there and imagine that since NE doesn't have any T1 schools (UNL is the closest), that Iowa might clean up there, but also realize that Omaha/Lincoln may value Creighton and UNL grads higher just because of the clearer NE times.

2) How is the age range at the school? The website says 21-43 with no median/mean, so I was wondering if it feels like there are a larger number of K-JD's, or more non-trads?

Thanks for the help so far!

[chrisbru]

Hey Iowa students, couple questions:

1) How is placement in Nebraska compared to other schools? I have family ties there and imagine that since NE doesn't have any T1 schools (UNL is the closest), that Iowa might clean up there, but also realize that Omaha/Lincoln may value Creighton and UNL grads higher just because of the clearer NE times.

2) How is the age range at the school? The website says 21-43 with no median/mean, so I was wondering if it feels like there are a larger number of K-JD's, or more non-trads?

Thanks for the help so far!

1) If you have ties to NE, you should do better there coming out of Iowa than UNL. A lot of law firms prefer hiring people with ties, because it means they are likely to stay there.

2) Average age is 24. Median is 23. The vast majority of the 1Ls are straight from UG or 1-2 years out of UG, but there are a handful of non-trads as well. There isn't a very clear divider though, all ages hang around together.

[mapnoren]

From my experience...if you have a strong connection to Nebraska, attend the best school you can get into. However, attending an elite Midwest school would convince the top Omaha firms that you are serious about living in Nebraska. Iowa is better than Nebraska or Creighton in regard to Omaha placement. However, if you have a connection, why not go to WUSTL? It is more respected than Iowa, and you will stand out to potential employers as they are swimming through the endless supply of Nebraska, Creighton, and Iowa resumes.