03-15: First 2 envelopes, from Georgetown and Berkeley. A little surprised to hear from them so early, and quite shocked to be accepted at Georgetown. The Berkeley rejection was entirely expected (and I was dubious of my prospects at any of the T14 when I discovered what LSAT was reporting my GPA as), but I see an excellent fit between my interests and Georgetown.... and Andy writes that he agrees.
Found out later the same day that I've been accepted to a 2 year masters program in the theory and practice of human rights at Oslo (where tuition is free for everyone, international students included).
04-02: Penn email informing me of waitlist status. Updated resumes, letters of reference, additional essay, etc. encouraged.
04-05: Gone decision at UVa and UM. It seems this will mean waitlist, which really isn't any kind of decision at all.
04-07-08: Junk mail from Cooley.... wtf?
04-10-08: General non-resident waitlist from Virginia, a.k.a. rejection. For the curious, their letter says applications are up 20% this year, and the medians for students thus far admitted are 171 and 3.82... but these numbers will certainly drop as people withdraw.
Checked the Illinois status checker a little later... "Current Status: Deny". So much for safeties.
04-14: Columbia letter of rejection in the mailbox. Strangely, the online status-check merely says 'complete'.
Still haven't received my Michigan letter, even though it was sent over a week ago.
Georgetown stuff keeps rolling in, though. Last week it was a faculty directory and handbook on their international law offerings, today a little organizer and info package from a student ambassador. Noticed that it was postmarked April 2.... just another reminder of how bad Canada Post really is.
04-16: The expected waitlist letter from Michigan is actually a letter of rejection.
04-17: Received an email from Illinois informing me that I've been admitted, and with a guaranteed $75,000 over 3 years. This is a bit strange considering that their status checker, which now reads 'Admit', read 'Deny' only a few days ago. Why do they have to complicate things by giving me money?
04-20: Email from Case telling me I've gone complete. That didn't take too long, did it?
04-23: Priority waitlisted at Fordham. It sounds as though this is the first time they've had two different waitlists. Basically it means I would have been admitted if I had applied earlier, but they ended up getting 15% more applications than expected.
I'm guessing I'll hear from Northwestern in early to mid May, once the seat deposits are in. But who knows when I'll hear from GWU, as I haven't gotten so much as a peep from them so far, and they don't seem to have an online status check.
The more I look at schools, the more attractive they look. There are a lot of great things to I've discovered at all of the schools I've applied to, which is kind of bad because it makes the decision-making process so much more difficult. Well, there are worse problems to have.
05-05: Visited GULC. Liked DC more than I expected to, but GULC was as expected, i.e., large, institutional, faceless, and uninspiring. Admissions staff were not terribly helpful or welcoming. The facilities are not hugely impressive, and I wonder what I'm getting myself into by signing up for housing in Gewirz. If only curriculum B and their international offerings didn't look so damn good.
05-06: Took the GW tour. Unlike GULC, they have daily tours, and the admissions office was very friendly and helpful, arranging for me to talk with Dean Richard. Apparently I was waitlisted on March 20th, but they only send out letters, which take about 2 weeks to reach Canada. The facilities are so much more attractive at GW, and they don't have any security at the doors either, which is great. I was pleasantly surpried by GW, as the person I talked to on the phone about booking a spot on the tour was quite unprofessional and brusque.
05-07: Visited UVa. The law school is gorgeous, and the rest of UVa isn't too shabby, either. The buildings, library, and classes put GULC to shame, and the admissions office is a lot more helpful, too. I'm not totally sold on Charlottesville, but the atmosphere was a lot less fratty than I'd been expecting. Gewirz hall, on the other hand...
05-09: Mail from Case Western essentially telling me they're YPing me. I'm sure they'd hoped I'd have withdrawn by now.
05-13: Accepted at Fordham via phone & email.
05-15: Placed on NU's "shortened summer waitlist."
06-02: Effectively withdrawn from Fordham and NU.
06-20: Waitlisted at Case via mail.
On Georgetown!