Top Law Schools

Hello! I'm wondering what folks think about my chances for T14 generally. I'm 4 years out of undergrad and have been working in voting rights since I graduated. Wasn't a great student until I started taking classes about the gender/race/law my senior year, which I'm addressing in a GPA addendum. 2 strong LoRs from professors, one from current boss. I'm also a gay woman, if that matters. Here's my list currently for apps:

T14: NYU, Georgetown, Cornell, Michigan (I'm an alum), Northwestern
non T14: Fordham, GW

Might throw in a Yale because ya never know, or something. I'm also considering applying ED to Northwestern.

Am I targeting the right places? I'm a splitter for all T14, but hoping time out of school + awesome LoRs + interesting work + excellent PS will get me in to maybe one.

Apply broadly across the T13. I wouldn't bother with HYS, though. You're below 25ths/medians across all three.

Don't bother with Fordham or GW. If you want to throw apps at some T20 schools, like WashU, that wouldn't be a bad idea. But you have a decent shot at admission to a splitter-friendly T13.

Just don't get weirdly picky about which top schools you want to apply to. Your current list is too narrow, and there's no reason to ignore schools like UVA, Duke, etc.

cavalier1138 wrote:Apply broadly across the T13. I wouldn't bother with HYS, though. You're below 25ths/medians across all three.

Don't bother with Fordham or GW. If you want to throw apps at some T20 schools, like WashU, that wouldn't be a bad idea. But you have a decent shot at admission to a splitter-friendly T13.

Just don't get weirdly picky about which top schools you want to apply to. Your current list is too narrow, and there's no reason to ignore schools like UVA, Duke, etc.

Thanks! As a gay person, I actually really do not want to be in the south. I'm curious about why Fordham or GW are bad ideas?

You should apply to most of the T14 - definitely include Berkeley

throwaway2304 wrote:I'm curious about why Fordham or GW are bad ideas?

I think the assumption was that you can do better.

My LSN puts you at 0% chance for Yale/Harvard/Stanford/Columbia, but the rest of the T14 is fair game.

throwaway2304 wrote:

cavalier1138 wrote:Apply broadly across the T13. I wouldn't bother with HYS, though. You're below 25ths/medians across all three.

Don't bother with Fordham or GW. If you want to throw apps at some T20 schools, like WashU, that wouldn't be a bad idea. But you have a decent shot at admission to a splitter-friendly T13.

Just don't get weirdly picky about which top schools you want to apply to. Your current list is too narrow, and there's no reason to ignore schools like UVA, Duke, etc.

Thanks! As a gay person, I actually really do not want to be in the south. I'm curious about why Fordham or GW are bad ideas?

General advice is that splitters should apply broadly to maximize scholarship leverage. Like if UVA gives you a big scholarship, then you can use that to negotiate a bigger scholarship with a Berkeley, for example.

throwaway2304 wrote:

cavalier1138 wrote:Apply broadly across the T13. I wouldn't bother with HYS, though. You're below 25ths/medians across all three.

Don't bother with Fordham or GW. If you want to throw apps at some T20 schools, like WashU, that wouldn't be a bad idea. But you have a decent shot at admission to a splitter-friendly T13.

Just don't get weirdly picky about which top schools you want to apply to. Your current list is too narrow, and there's no reason to ignore schools like UVA, Duke, etc.

Thanks! As a gay person, I actually really do not want to be in the south. I'm curious about why Fordham or GW are bad ideas?

In addition to the aforementioned scholarship negotiation reasons, I wouldn't really consider UVA or Duke to be "The South" (certainly not the part of the South you're thinking of). Both schools are in heavily liberal pockets, and it's not like either one really relegates you to remaining in Virginia or North Carolina. But those were just example schools. The rest of the T13 are very much not southern.

throwaway2304 wrote:Thanks! As a gay person, I actually really do not want to be in the south.

That's wasting an opportunity due to lack of knowledge. Cville/Durham are great cities, and UVA/Duke give you great opportunities professionally. Don't let an anti-Southern bias stifle your future opportunities.

Pennoyer v. Meh wrote:

throwaway2304 wrote:Thanks! As a gay person, I actually really do not want to be in the south.

That's wasting an opportunity due to lack of knowledge. Cville/Durham are great cities, and UVA/Duke give you great opportunities professionally. Don't let an anti-Southern bias stifle your future opportunities.

Speaking to Charlottesville in particular, it's a terrific town and the neo-Nazi brouhaha is absolutely not representative of day-to-day life there. (Charlottesville being a typical liberal college town aside, even Virginia as a whole isn't really "the South," at least not the way I think OP intended to use the phrase. Virginia's rapidly becoming a reliably blue state.)

In any case, as cav points out, really the only school in the T13 that's arguably located in "the South" (as in, located in a red state) is Duke (and as pointed out ITT, even Durham is a blue bubble). So at most, if living in NC is not an option, blanket the T13 from CCN down, excluding Duke.