Merit fee waivers:
Boston U, Cornell, Duke (PT), Emory, Georgetown, NYU, Northwestern, U-AL, UCLA, U-IL, U-IA, U Mich, U-MN, U Penn, USC, UT, UVA, Vanderbilt, Wash U, W&M
***
11/23/09: Status checker e-mails from Harvard and UVA.
11/24/09: Status checker e-mail from U Chicago.
12/10/09: First acceptance! Via a phone call from Minnesota.
12/11/09: Letter of acceptance from Cornell (composed 12/07), and also invited to apply for the Dean's Scholarship! Requires an additional 500-word essay to be submitted by 2/12.
12/14/09: Letter of acceptance from Minnesota came today, complete with a $20,000/year scholarship offer (must maintain a 2.5 GPA). This ends up being 58% of current non-resident tuition ($34,726/year).
12/15/09: E-mail of acceptance from Washington University. They said they're considering my application for a Scholars in Law Award! Judging from what I've read online, I probably won't hear anything more until March or so.
12/18/09: Letter of acceptance from Georgetown (composed 12/14). They included a nice hand-written note about my personal statement. It's been a great, crazy week!
12/30/09: Status checker e-mail from Northwestern. I ended up not opting for an interview because it is already too late for off-campus appointments. If I had known they would close so early, I would have applied much sooner! I have no idea how this will affect my application, but I submitted a "Why Northwestern?" essay just in case.
01/06/10: Status checker e-mail from U Michigan.
01/13/10: Acceptance via phone call from Boston U!
01/23/10: Acceptance letter from U Michigan (dated 1/19)!
02/05/10: Acceptance email from Northwestern! I guess not having an interview didn't hurt me too much after all.
02/06/10: Dean's Scholarship notification from U Michigan for $22,500/year (dated 1/28)! The letter notes that the scholarship makes me ineligible for additional need-based grants. Must maintain a 2.0 GPA. This ends up being 49% of current non-resident tuition ($46,010/year).
02/11/10: Put on "Hold" by Columbia in a letter (dated 2/09). Apparently this is different from a waitlist in that I'm guaranteed a decision by 4/21. Invited to submit additional materials until 3/31.
02/12/10: Withdrew from University of Minnesota and Boston University.
02/19/10: Rejected from Harvard via email. No surprise there, but I figured it was worth a shot.
02/23/10: Scholarship letter from Boston U (dated 2/16) offering $20,000/year, apparently no strings attached, or at least no GPA requirement listed. Loan eligibility also included. This ends up being 52% of current tuition ($38,816/year). But I already withdrew last week. Was this a glitch?
02/24/10: Letter of rejection from Stanford (dated 2/22). Also not a surprise, but I had kept some hope alive anyway.
02/25/10: Email from Wash U today notifying me of a Scholars in Law award! $34,000/year with no GPA requirements. This ends up being 78% of current tuition ($43,420/year).
03/05/10: Phone call and email of acceptance today from Chicago!
03/08/10: Wow, Dean's Scholarship letter from Cornell (composed 3/03)! $40,000/year, but have to accept by 4/01/10. Not much time to decide at all! I haven't even visited yet. This ends up being 78% of current tuition ($51,150/year).
03/13/10: Withdrew from Washington University.
03/15/10: Put on Virginia's waitlist, and withdrew.
03/23/10: Received scholarship info from Northwestern via email. $20,000/year, no GPA requirements. This ends up being 42% of current tuition ($47,202/year).
04/12/10: After a lot of thought and debate, I've decided that Cornell wasn't the best choice for my goals. It was a really tough deal to turn down, and I'm still worried that it wasn't the right decision. I also got a revised offer from Northwestern for a $70K scholarship, so this is now 49% of current tuition.
04/16/10: Northwestern's deadline was today, and after much debate, I decided to withdraw. Now it's between Michigan and U Chicago! I also withdrew from Georgetown today.
04/21/10: Put on reserve by Columbia. Notification was by letter, composed on 4/20.
04/24/10: Finally put on NYU's waitlist. Notification was by letter, composed on 4/15. And my cycle is officially finished!
04/27/10: U Chicago is very tempting, but I think I've finally made my decision. Michigan was one of my top choices going in, and it looks like it's where I'll end up!
04/29/10: Withdrew from U Chicago.
05/15/10: Withdrew from NYU's waitlist.
07/16/10: Finally withdrew from Columbia's waitlist.
that cornell $ is ridiculous. congratulations!!!!!