daoist (2022-2023)

Views: 3282 User Since: 11/11/11

Application Information

F - Fee Waiver A - Attending W - Withdrawn D - Deferred
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# Law School Status Type $$$ Sent Received Complete Interview Date Decision Updated
Temple University F Rejected Type: RA Sent: 02/02/12 Rec: 02/05/12 Comp: 02/10/12 Inter: -- Dec: 03/21/12 Upd: 12 years
Penn State University (Dickinson) F Waitlisted Type: RA Sent: 10/22/11 Rec: 10/22/11 Comp: 11/07/11 Inter: -- Dec: 03/26/12 Upd: 12 years
CUNY Queens College F Accepted W Type: RA Sent: 11/19/11 Rec: 11/19/11 Comp: 11/21/11 Inter: -- Dec: 01/30/12 Upd: 12 years
Hofstra University F WL, Accepted W Type: RA Sent: 11/19/11 Rec: 11/19/11 Comp: 11/19/11 Inter: -- Dec: 03/07/12 Upd: 12 years
Vermont Law School F Accepted W Type: RA $15,000 Sent: 11/04/11 Rec: 11/04/11 Comp: 11/07/11 Inter: -- Dec: 12/09/11 Upd: 12 years
Pace University F PT Accepted W Type: RA $9,000 Sent: 10/15/11 Rec: 10/15/11 Comp: 10/21/11 Inter: -- Dec: 02/09/12 Upd: 12 years
Syracuse University F Accepted W Type: RA $10,000 Sent: 10/02/11 Rec: 10/03/11 Comp: 10/28/11 Inter: -- Dec: 01/11/12 Upd: 12 years
Chicago-Kent College of Law (IIT) F PT Waitlisted Type: RA Sent: 12/02/11 Rec: 12/02/11 Comp: 12/05/11 Inter: -- Dec: 03/06/12 Upd: 12 years
Cleveland State University F PT Accepted Type: RA $5,000 Sent: 11/19/11 Rec: 11/19/11 Comp: 11/21/11 Inter: -- Dec: 02/06/12 Upd: 12 years
Michigan State College of Law F Waitlisted Type: RA Sent: 10/13/11 Rec: 10/14/11 Comp: 10/21/11 Inter: -- Dec: 02/06/12 Upd: 12 years
Lewis and Clark College F PT Accepted Type: RA Sent: 12/17/11 Rec: 12/17/11 Comp: 12/19/11 Inter: -- Dec: 02/02/12 Upd: 12 years
American University F PT Rejected Type: RA Sent: 12/04/11 Rec: 12/04/11 Comp: 12/05/11 Inter: -- Dec: 02/01/12 Upd: 12 years
University of Oregon F Pending Type: RA Sent: 01/27/12 Rec: 01/30/12 Comp: 01/31/12 Inter: -- Dec: -- Upd: 12 years
Seattle University F Accepted Type: RA $6,000 Sent: 11/05/11 Rec: 11/05/11 Comp: 11/05/11 Inter: -- Dec: 01/12/12 Upd: 12 years
University of South Carolina F Accepted Type: RA Sent: 10/24/11 Rec: 10/24/11 Comp: 10/31/11 Inter: -- Dec: 01/20/12 Upd: 12 years
Charleston School of Law F Pending Type: RA Sent: 10/13/11 Rec: 10/13/11 Comp: 10/20/11 Inter: -- Dec: -- Upd: 12 years

Applicant Information

  • LSAT: 157
  • LSAT 2: -
  • LSAT 3: -
  • GRE : -
  • LSAC GPA: 3.22
  • Degree GPA: 3.321
  • School Type: -
  • Major: Journalism & Mass Communicatio

Demographic Information

  • City: -
  • State: South Carolina
  • Race: Caucasian
  • Gender: Man
  • Non-Traditional Applicant: Yes
  • Years out of Undergrad: 1-2 Years

Extra Curricular Information

-

Additional info & updates

--
11/7: "In 1st Review" at Vermont Law per status checker.

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12/1: "In Final Review "at Vermont Law per status checker - hopefully that means a decision is coming soon! Got an amusing little "100 reasons to attend" packet from admissions today as well; freaked out until I opened it up. Don't play with my emotions like that VLS!

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12/2: "Re-review in February" at MSU per status checker; guess admissions wants to see if any of those above 160/3.5 full rides will commit. First decision of my cycle is a waitlist - jeez.

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12/9: "Admitted" at Vermont Law per status checker! Vermont is my first choice, so it's going to take $$ at most of the other schools on my list to persuade me from here on out. Update: $15k at Vermont - effectively a 1/3 scholly - reduces 2012 tuition costs to what I consider to be a manageable level, but it definitely does not eliminate potential debt. May attempt to negotiate.

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12/10: Received the official snail mail letter from the Dean of Admissions at MSU stating that my application will be re-reviewed in February in order to "assess [it] in light of the greater applicant pool." I'm invited to supplement my app with additional materials that "relate to [my] academic potential and/or [my] interest in Michigan State University" - ie submit a LoCI, which I'll be doing soon. It says that I may submit via email, but I'd rather snail mail it so that I can be sure it gets added to my file. The deadline for any supplemental material is January 15.

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12/12: Sent LoCI to MSU Law today. Ended up doing so via email rather than snail mail - less overhead and less chance of drawing the ire of the admissions committee, as it was specifically stated to submit all additional materials via email.

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1/11: Accepted at Syracuse via snail mail. Didn't submit the financial aid essay, so I'm assuming no scholly info is coming. With the Vermont acceptance/scholly, 'Cuse is out of the running anyway - expensive school in an oversaturated market with too many higher-ranked schools.

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1/12: Waitlisted at Hofstra via status checker, accepted at Seattle via status checker (admit packet came a couple weeks later - $6k scholly). Not worried about Hofstra - once again, lower-ranked school in an oversaturated market. Seattle is in the running, but I'm rather disappointed with the small scholly. Tuition there will be almost $40k this year, so $6k doesn't particularly cut it - not to mention cost of living. May attempt to negotiate once all of these ducks are in a row.

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1/20: Accepted at South Carolina Law via snail mail. Decent and established school (despite its recent USNWR drop) - been around for two centuries. Facilities are outdated (I know this personally - walked by the law school every day as a MassComm undergrad at USC), but with the new dean they appear to be working on things. I'm in-state, so even without a scholly tuition is relatively cheap at $21k. I'd have to take on some debt, but not an outstanding amount. Big downside is a lack of desire to practice in South Carolina and strong urge to get out of the southeast. I simply don't want to live here for the rest of my life - never fully assimilated, and while a USC JD works well in this state (and perhaps in other nearby southeastern states), it won't travel far.

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1/30: Accepted at CUNY via status checker, no scholarship information yet. Yes, CUNY is yet another low-ranked school in the oversaturated NY market, but this one is different - it's a niche school, exclusively public interest oriented. It's also cheap, even out-of-state, at around $20k. If they offer me a decent scholly I'll at least consider it - the possibility of graduating law school almost debt-free is an enticing one, and I'm firmly set on the PI path.

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2/1: Rejected at American via email and status checker; first ding of my cycle. Stings a bit, but I was never very enthralled with the idea of practicing in D.C., and tuition there is an arm and a leg. Yes, it is (barely) in the vaunted "Tier 1," but with virtually no hope of a scholly if I'd been accepted, I probably would have passed anyway. I'm all about mitigating my law school debt as much as possible.

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2/2: Snail mail acceptance arrived from CUNY today - no scholarship information included, so I'm assuming that means nothing for me. Surprising given my numbers and its ranking, but so be it. Looks as if old CUNY's out of the running. Despite the PI focus, I simply can't justify taking on $80k debt for any low T3 in the NY market - I'll have a hard time justifying it even for a T2 or low T1.

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2/3: Accepted at Lewis & Clark via Admitted Students Website. Have to say that I'm pretty excited about this one, as L&C was a reach. Tuition is not overly expensive - I'd be part time so that I could keep my current employment (national company with a presence in Portland), enviro law program is outstanding, public interest is a big deal in general there, it's a high T2 and top of the foodchain in the state of Oregon (less worry of securing employment by graduation, though still not nonexistent by any means). The positives for L&C are many, and I just might end up there. Great news to get after the rejection at American the other day.

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2/6: Waitlisted at MSU. I mean really now, that's just salt in the wound. Withdrawing.

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2/10: Snail mail acceptance arrived from L&C - no merit scholarship unfortunately. Still, of all the schools I've been accepted at thus far, L&C tops my list for a multitude of reasons. I'll be contacting the Financial Aid office in the near future in an attempt to be reconsidered for merit aid and to discuss my other options short of taking out private loans - an action that I am absolutely averse to.

Also received a snail mail acceptance from Cleveland State, along with a $5k scholarship (3.1 GPA stip). I'd be part time day, and their part time program is apparently well respected (#42 in the nation and #1 in the state). Tuition would be around $15k with the scholly, well within my limits. COL is also very reasonable in Cleveland, but the city is in poor health (crime, poverty) and let's face it, at the end of the day I'd be living in Ohio. This concerns me, mostly due to the fact that the professor who taught the only law class I've had the privilege of taking up to this point (the amazing and awe-inspiring Erik Collins for any USC J-School students perusing my LSN - class was Media Law as an undergrad) had four "Rules of Life" which he revealed to us over the course of our semester together. The very first one - and the only one I've remembered to this day - was, and I quote, "Never go to Ohio."

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02/13: Snail mail acceptance arrived from Pace Law - per the included letter, merit scholarship information will be forthcoming soon. Pace is a decent school for environmental law, but because I've been accepted at both VLS and L&C I'm not very interested in attending, and nothing short of a full ride scholly is likely to change my mind.

Also received the snail mail waitlist notification from MSU. Apparently us waitlisters get an update in early March, so I may stick with it until then simply in search of some closure (just accept or reject me, for christ sake). Even if I'm accepted off the waitlist, though, I doubt I'll attend as tuition is pretty high. Being deferred and then waitlisted put a bad taste in my mouth anyway.

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03/15: Withdrew from a few schools this morning. Made me somewhat sad to do so at VLS, but it's the best choice. I simply refuse to take on an ungodly amount of debt for my legal education; I'm too rational of a human being.

At this point my decision has come down to South Carolina or L&C, and I'm leaning heavily toward USC. The costs associated with transplanting myself to Portland - along with transferring my job and the fact that I will still barely break even - just make me too uneasy. I love L&C, and for what I want to do it is one of the best schools out there, but I can't bring myself to assume the amount of debt it would require to attend comfortably. As for USC, while I have never truly felt like a South Carolinian despite living here for the majority of my life, the city of Columbia is somewhat of a diamond in the roughage. I was very happy living there as an undergraduate, and I've missed it since I left after graduation. There is a very decent enviro law program in place at the law school, and the fact that animal law is basically nonexistent can be taken as a challenge - I'm already looking into starting up a student ALDF chapter once I arrive.

For all intents and purposes it would appear that my cycle will be ending very soon.

Visitor Comments

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Re: MSU
Thursday, November 10 2011 at 07:00 PM

Theresa, From what I've gathered this whole "re-review" deal is basically a deferral. MSU is trying to improve its US News ranking, so it's taking folks at certain numbers (that would have been admits in the past) and deferring their decisions until February - ostensibly to see how many applicants with numbers above their current 75th percentile will accept a full ride scholly offer. If most of them end up committing to higher ranked schools us re-reviewers will probably be admitted in February. So we're better off than if we were straight up waitlisted, but we get to play "hurry up and wait" for yet another two months. Regardless, I plan on submitting a LoCI as soon as I hear from them via email/snail mail; figure it can't hurt any.

Hofstra
Monday, December 19 2011 at 07:00 PM

Hey! Sorry to hear about Hofstra... but I suppose waitlisted is way better than a rejection! It's one of my top choices so when I saw you were waitlisted, my heart sank since my I scored the same as you on the LSAT and my GPA's slightly lower than yours. Anyway, here's to hoping you get some good news soon :)

Re: Hofstra
Thursday, November 10 2011 at 07:00 PM

Not too worried about my waitlisting at Hofstra - the Vermont and Seattle acceptances knock it out of the running, so I'll be freeing up a seat for someone else soon. Good luck to you!

good stuff dog
Tuesday, January 10 2012 at 07:00 PM

keeping an eye on you chief... looks like you got a solid cycle going...

Re: Hofstra
Thursday, November 10 2011 at 07:00 PM

Definitely not attending; I simply haven't gotten around to submitting my notice of withdrawal yet. Thanks, and good luck in your cycle!