bonerland (2022-2023)

Addendum written for poor GPA.
* On a side note I most likely messed up my Undergrad GPA by sending in a transcript from one semester from a CC. The semester did not contribute to my graduation in any way. Actually my graduating college lost the transcript and acted like they never had it. Any thoughts about whether I should have included this?

Great LORs and Softs.

Worked with at risk youth for years.

Masters degree as well.
Honor Fraternity for Masters GPA.

Law School Predictor VS Reality:

Prediction of Epic Fail:

ASU- Reality = Correct.
Ave- Reality = Incorrect.
BC - Reality = Correct.
Bama- Reality = Correct.
CUA - Reality = Correct.
C. William and Mary - Reality = Correct.
Duke - Reality = Correct.
Georgetown - Reality = Correct.
Harvard - Reality = Correct.
LMU- Reality = Correct.
Loyola Chicago - Reality = Correct.
Loyola New Orleans - Reality = Correct, but invited to C.P. ...
Marquette - Reality = Correct.
Northwestern - Reality = Correct.
Ohio State - Reality = Correct.
Pepperdine - Reality = Correct.
Santa Clara - Reality = Correct.
SLU - Reality = Correct.
Stanford - Reality = Correct/Withdrew.
UofA - Reality = Correct.
UCal Berkeley - Reality = Correct.
UChicago - Reality = Correct.
UCLA - Reality = Correct.
UGeorgia - Reality = Correct.
UHawaii - Reality = Correct.
UIowa - Reality = Correct.
UNotre Dame - Reality = Correct.
UOklahoma - Reality = Correct.
UPenn - Reality = Correct.
USD - Reality = Correct.
USF - Reality = Correct.
Villanova - Reality = Correct.
Washington and Lee - Reality = Correct.

LSP predicts that in every instance I stand absolutely no chance for admission. I'm pretty sure they're wrong in at least one instance.

***And they are! ***

Also accepted to
Barry and St Thomas University which were late additions.

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OK so I promised some tips and here they are.

Why should you listen to someone who only got a 151 on their LSAT? Easy! You can learn from my mistakes. I can tell you what I did and then you should do something different.

*Prep tests. I took only 7-8 of these while prepping for the exams. Big mistake. I literally should have taken 30. I did see some improvement, but not like I was hoping to. I tested way below my pretest numbers and I bet that most test takers do too.

*Study time. I was lucky to get an hour a day of Powerscores Bible study time. Honestly being a dad and studying for grad school while working didn't allow me much time at all. Regardless, you need to put in plenty of time, say 2 hours daily.

*Start early. I started getting serious in November for the December test and my "serious" was only what others pre-serious work ethic had been. And know what? My numbers show that!

*Classes. If you have the money, time, and happen to live in the vicinity of a Kaplan test prep center, or whom ever go for it. I live roughly two hours from anywhere so that wasn't going to happen for me.

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My impression of law schools that I applied to currently:

* The Bad. These schools have earned my Hall of Shame nominations. They are: 1. Santa Clara, who has a terrible administrative staff and no clue as to how the Jesuit Intellectual tradition forms their collective approach to learning the law. Tsk tsk tsk! 2. Marquette, did not even look past the numbers and read my essays or recommendations. 3. University of St. Thomas. Seriously you sent a big envelope to reject someone? Freaking window lickers!

* The Suspicious. These schools I cannot prove looked only at the numbers, but it seemed to be acting in that way. Washington and Lee, University of Oklahoma, Cal, Loyola Chicago. Not that I should have gotten in to any of these schools, yet the rejections came so fast it seemed like they never even looked at any other aspect of my application. University of Minnesota gets a special nod here as well. Trying to get me to apply with stats way under the 25% range is deplorable.

*The Good. These schools either had no business looking at my profile seriously and did, or treated me really well along the way. University of Alabama, Notre Dame, and Boston College. Of the schools that impressed me after acceptance that honor falls to Ave Maria and Barry.

*The Rest. The rest didn't nothing to either improve my view of them, nor did they do any damage to my perception of them.

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Random Thoughts!

*You might think that getting an advanced degree would make up for a lousy undergrad GPA. If you did, you'd be wrong. I'm graduating with an MA and an overall GPA of 3.93. I was flat out rejected by the school that I just dominated in my field. Numbers to some might not be everything, but to many they are the only thing!

*I had been considering retesting, but at this point in my life I am better off choosing a school and trying to transfer. As a Non-trad, time isn't exactly a luxury I have to waste anymore. No complaints though! I'm glad to have lived the life I have so far. And I don't think a year in one of the schools I was admitted to is a bad thing.

*I still have a friend on a wait list. The date is 7/21/2011. That's pretty amazing. I can't but help think that by keeping her mouth shut until she was officially placed on the wait list helped her out. Perhaps I'm wrong but I doubt it. If I had it to do over I wouldn't have called those schools at the end of April/May, but would have waited for them to get ahold of me.

*Actually my name comes from a Simpson's House of Horror episode. Classic.
** Scholarships, assuming I get any, will be by year.

When you got a whole bunch of waivers why not double down?

I expect to get into maybe 1-3 schools on this list, but I'm not too concerned. Might just as well ride out this cycle and test again when I have the time to study properly.

Good luck in your cycles too!

Applied to schools from Nov. to Dec, but took the Dec. LSAT so results are just starting to come in.

10/08/10 Bonerland had to turn down an offer to play the half-time show in the Super Bowl due to a prior engagement. While I am disappointed, I am sure that whoever they find will put on a great performance.

1/13/11 Rejected from Washington and Lee via status checker. For a first ding this one didn't hurt at all, contrary to what I thought I would feel.

1/20/11 Santa Clara and BC are in committee.

1/24/11 Emailed saying my applications are complete for Santa Clara, USF, and Catholic U.

1/25/11 Just found out I was dinged by Marquette via snail mail a couple days ago. I'm not in Rome for this ding, so it hurts a bit more. The letter was dated on 1/19/11. When updating college information in the college section itself, I noticed that often when I place a date in complete it shows up in received. Odd....

1/27/11 Dinged at Oklahoma. That information could have come sooner. On a positive (I hope) note Loyola Chicago is sending their decision through the mail.

1/28/11 Dinged at Cal. If this cycle was a classic Nam movie from the 80's, this is where everyone would be getting blown up. Not upset though. Cal is a great school, it's just Berkley I can't stand. =P

2/1/11 Dinged at Loyola Chicago. Nice classy letter in the small envelope.

2/06/11 Crap!

2/8/11 For the umpteenth time my inbox has emails from Cooley, University of Minnesota (guess they want to seem more selective), Quinnipiac and Charlotte School of Law. No thanks!

2/9/11 More mail from Quinnipiac. I'm considering filing a restraining order...

2/13/11 Just a quick update on my dates. I'm probably going to take them down due to the fact that when I enter a date into one category it will inevitably be placed in another category. IE I put down the date received and it is then placed in the complete category. Other than that it's been slow. Real slow....

2/15/11 Shot down at UGA. No email or letter, just a classless update on my status check. Will not reapply when I retake.

***UPDATE***
A very nice letter did arrive some days later. So I am eating crow and manning up.

2/17/11 Shot down at UIowa via status checker. No letter or email yet either. Honestly Georgia and Iowa are bad breaker-uppers. Have the class to send a letter or at least an email! While both are good schools (and heartfelt kudos to those who did get in), I don't get the feeling that I will miss out on anything.

***UPDATE***
A very nice letter arrived some days later. Eating more crow and manning up. Perhaps Iowa and Georgia should just send nice emails or have a status checker that says decision mailed.

2/18/11 Dinged at Penn via a beautiful email. NOW THAT IS HOW YOU REJECT SOMEONE!
... Dinged at Northwestern in odd fashion, but the notice was respectful. Told to check status and then download a letter, which then told me I was out. LOL. Didn't expect to get into either school, so oddly enough it's the way the let me down that will dictate if I will apply to them when I retest.

2/19/11 Dinged at Santa Clara. I sat in on a class here in the early fall and thought the teacher was wonderful. However, I also talked to people in admissions when I went to visit prior to my LSAT test and was not impressed by them at all. I miss out on that particular teacher, but I'm not sure I missed out on the experience at Santa Clara as a whole. Good luck to all that go there. Just pretty sure that I would have been unhappy there. As their rivals say "Buck the Froncos!"

2/24/11 I'm not one to usually talk about nothing, but it is slow right now! Odd considering I'm waiting to hear back from 20 schools. I'll just have to be more patient and wait for the flying monkeys to come to me I guess.

2/25/11 The Flying Monkeys attack!!! And ding me from Ohio State. Damn you Flying Monkeys!!!
***More flying monkeys on the horizon. Catholic U. decision rendered to be mailed via status checker, so that's a negative response.
***Flying monkeys from Hell unleash doom and banish me from the University of Hawaii. Incredibly nice message that tops Penn as the "best way to let someone down" rejection email.

2/28/11 Today was a sucker punch sort of day. Dinged at Catholic, which was expected. Loyola Ding was expected, but when the status checker says decision mailed on 2/28 and later on that day I get invited to a prospective student internet session it began to give me hope. For why would someone invite another to a Q and A session after they had been rejected? Yet here we are. Perhaps I will log into that session and ask: "what sort of sick freak would invite someone to a prospective student session after they had been rejected?" Still things could be a lot worse. I still got my health!

3/1/11 Decision mailed from USD to arrive in a few days.

3/4/11 Dinged at USD. If I had cared a ton about going to USD I would have gone here: http://nooooooooooooooo.com/ and hit the button. SD would have been nice though.

***Just got an email from Santa Clara asking to attend a function. Are you serious? HA!***

3/5/11 Got a huge pack in the mail!
.
.
.
.
Turns out it was only Quinnipiac trying to make out with me again. But hey, the school looks beautiful and I hope their students are happy.

3/7/11 USF and SLU decisions mailed.
***Got Ave Maria packet in the mail today. $5,000 per year assuming I maintain a 3.0 GPA. It's good to finally get some good news.

3/8/11 Accepted at Barry University via status checker. Packet to follow. It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

3/10/11 Dinged at USF and Duke. Way to ruin my high USF! On another note, I actually really like USF, partially because if your numbers sucked like mine do, there was the chance you could work your butt off and get merit scholarships for 2L and 3L. Duke is Duke and I never expected to get in there. Which is too bad, because I wanted to see Dick Vitale attempt to make out with Coach K.

3/11/11 Dinged at Loyola: New Orleans. I was kind of surprised by this actually. I was invited to the conditional program of which I have only heard bad things. Anyone else hear anything about this program?

*** Dinged at Saint Louis University as well. Nice letter, a bit of a reach that was apparently too far.

With that said I expect to only get into St. Thomas University in Miami of the remaining schools. Time for a reflective "Do you believe in miracles?" moment.

3/14/11 Packet arrived from Barry with a scholarship of $9,000 per year with a stipulation of keeping a GPA of 2.8. The median GPA at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_school_GPA_curvesis
is listed as 2.71.

3/15/11 Dinged at William and Mary. Nice email. Kind of forgot about this school.

3/16/11 Ran into the brother of the dean at Loyola University Chicago Law School today at work. lol. Where the hell were you two months ago?!

3/18/11 Dinged at Georgetown and UCLA. Both schools would have been fun, but neither would have been my top pick rankings notwithstanding.

3/22/11 Dinged at Harvard. Apparently my animal magnetism was too much for the old lady. And life goes on...
*** 9 schools left to hear from. I'm surprised it's taking this long...***

3/23/11 Dinged at ASU, so I guess that means no gear with the tanned fat frenchman logo on it. Let's hope heaven is really easier to get into than ASU! ;)

3/24/11 Dinged at the University of Chicago through a really nice letter. No getting drunk at the Indiana Jones house for me. =*(

***Accepted at St. Thomas University in Miami. That and Duke getting a beat down made for a great night! =)

3/28/11 Packet form St. Thomas U. arrived today. $5,000 a year scholarship provided that I stay in the top 25% of the class. Personally, I do harbor secret fantasies of running around Miami and busting drug dealers with a cool sidekick. Then I see myself kicking back at some bar as scantily clad women in bikinis inexcusably saunter about the place as I enjoy life. Still, I don't think Miami is the place for me. That could change though.

3/29/11 Dinged from Arizona today. It reads decision mailed, minus the lucky blue "congratulations" on it. Looks like Derrick Williams won't be the only guy absent from the old pueblo next year...

4/1/11 Very slow week in terms of official news. I called some of the schools I have yet to hear from with mixed results. Some were very nice and pleasant and gave great info. Others were clearly burned out and ready to scream. In those cases I was just my pleasant "please and thank you, mam" self. I was glad to see that schools I should have been denied from actually seem to be looking at my file.

And yes, I know that numbers like mine often mean I get looked at much later than the people with 3.96 and 170 stats. Still making it past the first round of the process, as one school of the 5 remaining commented, is better than a flat out rejection. It shows that they are really considering my prospects versus letting solely the numbers dictate my fate.

4/2/11 Dinged at Pepperdine. No California Love for me!

4/4/11 Official ding from UofA arrived today. A nice letter that was personally signed (not computerized) by someone. Perhaps a secretary? Review at Villanova was updated to today's date. Soooo.....UConn or Butler?

4/9/11 Not a darn thing is happening around here. This did crack me up a few weeks ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QS0q3mGPGg Enjoy!

4/11/11 Decision rendered from BC via status check. No email following up. If the law gods like me a waitlist. If not, then that's a ridiculous long wait to get dinged.

4/14/11 Dinged at Villanova. Sorry Spankatola!

4/16/11 Dinged at Alabama. I talked to the office about a week ago where I was told I had made it past the first round of cuts after being reviewed. I then said I would send out updated transcripts from my current university which shows an improved grade. Dinged before they received them. Dang it!

4/18/11 Dinged at Boston College. Not a surprise, still kind of sad that there has been no love from the social justice crowd. Only Notre Dame and St. Thomas left...

4/20/11 Dinged at Notre Dame via email. This, I think, would have been the most enjoyable school on my list. There is always next year!

4/24/11 Happy Easter!

4/26/11 The ding letter from Notre Dame arrived. It was nicely written. Not the best of the cycle, but clearly not the worst. Still waiting on UST and I'm cool with that. No need for me to give them a call. I'm also contemplating writing a little bit about the mistakes that I made in this admissions cycle concerning some study habits I had prior to taking the LSAT. We'll see.

4/30/11 Yesterday UST had updated the status checker to decision sent. I think we all know what that will mean in terms of a negative response, but I'll wait till I get word in writing to update my profile further. So this is the apparent end of the current cycle.

I hope this helps out any who are looking into these schools that I've applied to and have similar numbers. I will post some tips in my extracurricular section dealing with things I did well on, things I failed to do well on and what I believed would have helped me to do better.

Thanks for all who commented, and if you want to hear more about my plans for the future you should feel free to send me a message. Love Ya! God bless!

5/2/11 I was surprised that when I went to the post office my box had a large white envelope in it. With anticipation I looked at the large white envelope and noticed something. Only one piece of paper in it. I said "You've got to be kidding me!" I then opened it up and sure enough it was a rejection. Nicely worded, but seriously guys, a big envelope? What the hell are you thinking?

LOL, so that's the end of this cycle for me. I will post in a few days about what I've decided to do. Take care till then!

5/3/11 Ok so I've put up a few tips that I wish I had followed when I was prepping for the LSAT. I also have given my impression of various schools and how well they've performed according to an objective grading system sanctioned by yours truly.

5/27/11 I've decided where I am attending next year. Certain numbers were invariable altered, blah blah blah. If you want to know just message me and I'll let you know the finer details. Good luck!

6/28/11 Villanova sent me an email saying that I had been rejected. Hey Villa! You sent that same letter months ago! It's mistakes like this that make me feel better about not getting in at school X.