Top Law Schools

Multiple LSAT - 2011/2 Cancel, 2011/12 165, 2012/2 170
Top 15 Private, LSDAS GPA 3.49 (3.62), mediocre softs

What are my chances? I prefer NYU over Penn (location) but LSP says I have no shot at NYU RD or ED (Deny) but some chances at Penn (Might Consider with RD, Consider with ED). I'm willing to pay sticker, so I was thinking of EDing one of these two schools. What do you guys think?

Because Penn now has two rounds of EDs (Source), I would ED NYU and, if waitlisted/rejected, ED Penn. You may have to check if NYU has any stipulations regarding multiple EDs in a single cycle.

In terms of your chances, you're practically autoadmit at Penn if you ED.
Here are the results from LSN who people who EDed to Penn and who had numbers of 170+ and 3.4+:
Penn Stats

NYU's ED chart doesn't have ED applicants near the 170/3.4X mark. Because you are below both medians, it's very unlikely you'll get in, although the continuing decline in applicants may make it harder to predict your chances.

If NYU does have a stipulation that you can't ED again in the same year, I would ED to Penn. Penn's placement is T6 worthy.

ed penn, then come work in ny

I'd say only ED to NYU if you're willing to hang out on the WL for a couple months

Enjoy Penn.

Thanks everyone for the insight. I guess the consensus is that I should ED Penn. Do you guys think I have decent chance at Penn with RD as well?

domori wrote:Thanks everyone for the insight. I guess the consensus is that I should ED Penn. Do you guys think I have decent chance at Penn with RD as well?

yes but would you rather have:
1) (RD NYU, RD Penn) 10% chance at NYU and 40-50% chance at Penn (percentages may be way off, I'm not going to LSN to try to verify)
2) (ED NYU, RD Penn) 30-40% chance at NYU and 40-50% chance at Penn
or
3) (RD NYU, ED Penn) 10% chance at NYU and 90% chance at Penn?

I had almost the exact same stats as you and I applied ED to Penn. Here was my reasoning.

Employment: I had no interest in PI, so for jobs, Penn was probably slightly above NYU for me (I didn't have delusions of grandeur in thinking that I absolutely needed V10 in NYC).

Social: I have lots of friends and family in NYC, so I wanted to be at least close to there. Obviously, living in NYC would be ideal in terms of convenience, but the cost of living is extremely high and Philly is only an hour away.

Cost of Attendance: I had big scholarships during UG, so fortunately, my family has enough money to fund my law school education without incurring debt. And with my stats, I wasn't going to get much money from either Penn or NYU, so Penn got a slight edge for lower COA.

Misc: I wanted to be on a campus setting again, which Penn obviously has and NYU doesn't.

NYU's a great school and were my stats a bit better, I would've applied RD to both NYU and Penn and mulled it over for a long time if I got accepted to both. But in my situation, a near-guarantee of acceptance to Penn through ED wasn't worth giving up just for a long-shot chance at NYU.

domori wrote:Thanks everyone for the insight. I guess the consensus is that I should ED Penn. Do you guys think I have decent chance at Penn with RD as well?

Rd would be dicier. But if you blanket the t14 you'll get some bites for sure even if not penn.

top30man wrote:

domori wrote:Thanks everyone for the insight. I guess the consensus is that I should ED Penn. Do you guys think I have decent chance at Penn with RD as well?

Rd would be dicier. But if you blanket the t14 you'll get some bites for sure even if not penn.

on top of that, the schools you'll get RD will probably be DCG (N if you have work experience). The only one of those that place remotely close to Penn is Cornell.

NYU's ED contract says you can't ED to more than one school in an annual cycle.

The answer obviously depends on multiple factors, but I would ED to Penn if I were in your shoes.

Again, thanks everyone for the input. I'm really grateful for the help.
JamMasterJ says that I have 90% chance at Penn with ED - Is this fairly accurate assumption?

KevinP wrote:NYU's ED contract says you can't ED to more than one school in an annual cycle.

I, too, am debating between NYU and Penn, and am weighing the use of ED v RD at both. The information above is new to me, though, and is obviously a game changer. If true, the NYU ED --> UVA ED (and even the potential NYU ED --> Penn ED in the unlikely chance of a super quick NYU app turnaround) would be off the table.

Just curious if anybody could verify / dispute this... A quick google search resulted in NYU's ED contract, in which I find no mention of such a stipulation: https://www.law.nyu.edu/ecm_dlv2/groups ... 058361.pdf

Possible confusion, though, could lie in that last line of subtext: "I also understand that I am not permitted to enter a binding early decision agreement with any other law school." But this seems to me to only prohibit concurrent ED contracts (this contract my be outdated, though, as it has no date of publish on it).

Am I missing something?

ImTheWiz wrote:

KevinP wrote:NYU's ED contract says you can't ED to more than one school in an annual cycle.

I, too, am debating between NYU and Penn, and am weighing the use of ED v RD at both. The information above is new to me, though, and is obviously a game changer. If true, the NYU ED --> UVA ED (and even the potential NYU ED --> Penn ED in the unlikely chance of a super quick NYU app turnaround) would be off the table.

Just curious if anybody could verify / dispute this... A quick google search resulted in NYU's ED contract, in which I find no mention of such a stipulation: https://www.law.nyu.edu/ecm_dlv2/groups ... 058361.pdf

Possible confusion, though, could lie in that last line of subtext: "I also understand that I am not permitted to enter a binding early decision agreement with any other law school." But this seems to me to only prohibit concurrent ED contracts (this contract my be outdated, though, as it has no date of publish on it).

Am I missing something?

"An Early Decision applicant to NYU School of Law may not be
an Early Decision applicant to any other law school during the
same annual admissions cycle."

It was literally the second sentence of the contract.

Edit: ED to Penn. You're essentially a lock there and Penn will be your best option.

Bgibbs wrote:

ImTheWiz wrote:

KevinP wrote:NYU's ED contract says you can't ED to more than one school in an annual cycle.

I, too, am debating between NYU and Penn, and am weighing the use of ED v RD at both. The information above is new to me, though, and is obviously a game changer. If true, the NYU ED --> UVA ED (and even the potential NYU ED --> Penn ED in the unlikely chance of a super quick NYU app turnaround) would be off the table.

Just curious if anybody could verify / dispute this... A quick google search resulted in NYU's ED contract, in which I find no mention of such a stipulation: https://www.law.nyu.edu/ecm_dlv2/groups ... 058361.pdf

Possible confusion, though, could lie in that last line of subtext: "I also understand that I am not permitted to enter a binding early decision agreement with any other law school." But this seems to me to only prohibit concurrent ED contracts (this contract my be outdated, though, as it has no date of publish on it).

Am I missing something?

"An Early Decision applicant to NYU School of Law may not be
an Early Decision applicant to any other law school during the
same annual admissions cycle."

It was literally the second sentence of the contract.

Edit: ED to Penn. You're essentially a lock there and Penn will be your best option.

Oh man, breezed right over it haha (note to self: pay attention during Contracts). Well that sucks.

ED to Penn. It really plays to the strengths of your numbers and maximizes what you're looking for.

I'll ED to Penn. Thanks everyone.

domori wrote:I'll ED to Penn. Thanks everyone.

probably the right call, unless you were hellbent on public interest

Is it only NYU where you can't ED twice? With Penn's new second round ED I was planning to use one ED in the fall and then ED to Penn as a backup.

Not hellbent on PI, but I do love the city of New York

domori wrote:Not hellbent on PI, but I do love the city of New York

well, fortunately, Penn places more students in New York than anywhere else so I would think your chances of ending up there after graduation are pretty solid. Also, when you eventually end up paying sticker, I think you'd come out with a little less debt from a low cost of living city like Philly than NY. Not enough to make the decision on, but a little boost in Penn's favor.