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I'm a 3.59/176 splitter (non URM) applying to Harvard and UVA next year. I thought my numbers made UVA a good option, but the LSAC admission likelihood estimator (https://officialguide.lsac.org/Release/ ... ALSAT.aspx) has UVA as the school with the lowest likelihood of accepting me (25-30%). Harvard, on the other hand, is about 55%.

Is this a realistic assessment? More importantly, is there anything I should be doing to improve my likelihood of selection at UVA? It's a close second to Harvard in terms of preference to attend, so I don't think ED would be prudent.

Softs include work as an engineer (~ 1 year), 3 years in the Military (I'm still in), State Department Critical Language Scholarship, and international volunteer experience. I'm a little over 4 years out of UG now.

Thanks for your time.

CenterFringe wrote:I'm a 3.59/176 splitter (non URM) applying to Harvard and UVA next year. I thought my numbers made UVA a good option, but the LSAC admission likelihood estimator (https://officialguide.lsac.org/Release/ ... ALSAT.aspx) has UVA as the school with the lowest likelihood of accepting me (25-30%). Harvard, on the other hand, is about 55%.

Is this a realistic assessment? More importantly, is there anything I should be doing to improve my likelihood of selection at UVA? It's a close second to Harvard in terms of preference to attend, so I don't think ED would be prudent.

Softs include work as an engineer (~ 1 year), 3 years in the Military (I'm still in), State Department Critical Language Scholarship, and international volunteer experience. I'm a little over 4 years out of UG now.

Thanks for your time.

Use http://mylsn.info for chances. UVA tends to waitlist overqualified candidates as a form of yield protection. If you write a "Why X?" essay, you shouldn't have a problem. With your numbers, you should be looking at getting a full ride from them, especially if your GPA is above their 25th percentile. UVA's 25th was a 3.59 last year -- it was hovering a lot lower but has been trending upward these last two years for whatever reason. 55% for Harvard sounds about right. Good luck!

tzzzok wrote:

CenterFringe wrote:I'm a 3.59/176 splitter (non URM) applying to Harvard and UVA next year. I thought my numbers made UVA a good option, but the LSAC admission likelihood estimator (https://officialguide.lsac.org/Release/ ... ALSAT.aspx) has UVA as the school with the lowest likelihood of accepting me (25-30%). Harvard, on the other hand, is about 55%.

Is this a realistic assessment? More importantly, is there anything I should be doing to improve my likelihood of selection at UVA? It's a close second to Harvard in terms of preference to attend, so I don't think ED would be prudent.

Softs include work as an engineer (~ 1 year), 3 years in the Military (I'm still in), State Department Critical Language Scholarship, and international volunteer experience. I'm a little over 4 years out of UG now.

Thanks for your time.

Use http://mylsn.info for chances. UVA tends to waitlist overqualified candidates as a form of yield protection. If you write a "Why X?" essay, you shouldn't have a problem. With your numbers, you should be looking at getting a full ride from them, especially if your GPA is above their 25th percentile. UVA's 25th was a 3.59 last year -- it was hovering a lot lower but has been trending upward these last two years for whatever reason. 55% for Harvard sounds about right. Good luck!

I think this is a super optimistic assessment. OP, please PM me.

Pneumonia wrote:

tzzzok wrote:

CenterFringe wrote:I'm a 3.59/176 splitter (non URM) applying to Harvard and UVA next year. I thought my numbers made UVA a good option, but the LSAC admission likelihood estimator (https://officialguide.lsac.org/Release/ ... ALSAT.aspx) has UVA as the school with the lowest likelihood of accepting me (25-30%). Harvard, on the other hand, is about 55%.

Is this a realistic assessment? More importantly, is there anything I should be doing to improve my likelihood of selection at UVA? It's a close second to Harvard in terms of preference to attend, so I don't think ED would be prudent.

Softs include work as an engineer (~ 1 year), 3 years in the Military (I'm still in), State Department Critical Language Scholarship, and international volunteer experience. I'm a little over 4 years out of UG now.

Thanks for your time.

Use http://mylsn.info for chances. UVA tends to waitlist overqualified candidates as a form of yield protection. If you write a "Why X?" essay, you shouldn't have a problem. With your numbers, you should be looking at getting a full ride from them, especially if your GPA is above their 25th percentile. UVA's 25th was a 3.59 last year -- it was hovering a lot lower but has been trending upward these last two years for whatever reason. 55% for Harvard sounds about right. Good luck!

I think this is a super optimistic assessment. OP, please PM me.

http://mylsn.info/gd0lx4/ 64% of people around OP's numbers got in the last 3 cycles. Obviously a small, biased sample size, but he definitely seems to have a good shot.

Thanks for the reply, it was quite helpful. I had no idea UVA was so reticent to accept splitters. I'll write a Why UVA addendum and see what happens. Since the only other school I'm applying to is Harvard, I'd really hate to not get into UVA because they thought I was just blanketing the T-14.

CenterFringe wrote:Thanks for the reply, it was quite helpful. I had no idea UVA was so reticent to accept splitters. I'll write a Why UVA addendum and see what happens. Since the only other school I'm applying to is Harvard, I'd really hate to not get into UVA because they thought I was just blanketing the T-14.

I think you're getting the wrong message here. UVA is generally actually pretty splitter friendly BUT they tend to yield protect heavily (meaning they will waitlist applicants who they think are overqualified and won't likely go to UVA even if admitted). This is why the advice is to write a "Why UVA" essay with your app so as to let them know that you are actually interested in attending even though your stats could get you into higher ranking schools.

Also, why would you only apply to H and UVA? If nothing else, apply elsewhere just in case or at least use them as leverage for $. Your stats are good enough to get plenty of fee waivers.

sleepingjoker wrote:

CenterFringe wrote:Thanks for the reply, it was quite helpful. I had no idea UVA was so reticent to accept splitters. I'll write a Why UVA addendum and see what happens. Since the only other school I'm applying to is Harvard, I'd really hate to not get into UVA because they thought I was just blanketing the T-14.

Also, why would you only apply to H and UVA? If nothing else, apply elsewhere just in case or at least use them as leverage for $. Your stats are good enough to get plenty of fee waivers.

Do this. It could make a huge difference in your scholarship chances if you are able to negotiate using other offers

sleepingjoker wrote:

CenterFringe wrote:Thanks for the reply, it was quite helpful. I had no idea UVA was so reticent to accept splitters. I'll write a Why UVA addendum and see what happens. Since the only other school I'm applying to is Harvard, I'd really hate to not get into UVA because they thought I was just blanketing the T-14.

I think you're getting the wrong message here. UVA is generally actually pretty splitter friendly BUT they tend to yield protect heavily (meaning they will waitlist applicants who they think are overqualified and won't likely go to UVA even if admitted). This is why the advice is to write a "Why UVA" essay with your app so as to let them know that you are actually interested in attending even though your stats could get you into higher ranking schools

Also, why would you only apply to H and UVA? If nothing else, apply elsewhere just in case or at least use them as leverage for $. Your stats are good enough to get plenty of fee waivers.

Those are the only two T-10 schools I'm interested in attending. I figured, why apply somewhere I don't want to go? You make a lot of sense though; I didn't know about fee waivers and negotiating scholarship using offers from other Law Schools.

CenterFringe wrote: Those are the only two T-10 schools I'm interested in attending. I figured, why apply somewhere I don't want to go? You make a lot of sense though; I didn't know about fee waivers and negotiating scholarship using offers from other Law Schools.

Yea thats a really bad idea. Apply everywhere unless money is just toilet paper to you.

*By everywhere I mean t14.