druss3ll (2022-2023)

Patent Agent

Cycle Recap for anyone reviewing this next year. Applied very late in the season to twenty-six schools. In retrospect, that was overkill as, when all was said and done, the thought of actually attending some of those schools or moving to some of those places was cringeworthy. Cincinatti anyone? What was I thinking?

Oh yes, I was thinking: SHIT! It's February and I've been putting off these apps for no good reason ever since September when I bombed my LSAT by not sleeping the night before. I should apply everywhere so I don't have to spend another year at a shitty job in a bad economy just waiting for a chance to get into school. Bad plan.

Chances are if you're reading this you're not the type of person who will end up in my situation, but then again, I'm here too. Moral of the story, if you know you aren't going to get in to a school, don't apply. You wont be the one outlier on the chart unless you are a minority or a foreigner. Seriously, notice the (URM) next to every outlier on every chart.

Second, only apply to schools you really actually want to attend.

Third, dont try and make the decision about which schools fit that description a month before deadlines, or under any sort of pressure for that matter. Send your apps in early early early. Finish them a month before admissions even opens, because while they sit on a shelf somewhere you will decide you have to change x,y,z.

Fourth, sleep before the LSAT. Take at least a dozen, full-length, TIMED, no exceptions practice tests before the real thing. Knock your average score down by 2-3 points and use that as your yardstick for which schools you should be applying to. Oh, and bring a snack to the test.

Fifth, apply to a healthy mix of safeties, goals, and reaches. By reach I dont mean send your 165/3.4 to Harvard. Maybe just Vandy.

Have as many sets of (intelligent) eyes as possible review your essay. I found out all sorts of things about the tone of mine that i thought I had sufficiently masked and ended up with several rewrites. For anyone who wrote decent papers in undergrad, I'm sure this isn't a surprise. For all you engineers out there, trust me, it's truth. PS, law schools want to make sweet love to engineering and hard -science students, so take heart.

Good Luck, I hope my profile proves more useful than the ones I had to view through my cycle.

Devon

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Predictions: 7 Acceptances - 7 Waitlists - 12 Rejections
Results: 10 Acceptances - 5 Waitlists - 10 Rejections
It doesn't add up because IUB asked if I still wanted to be considered after I had already accepted GMU, so I withdrew before decision.
I've now withdrawn from all my other acceptances, so good luck to the waitlisters out there.
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5/19 - Rejected at Davis.
Score: 10-5-10
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5/6 - Accepted at Houston.
Score: 10-5-9
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4/27 - Acceptance email from Kent. I told them thank you but if you wanted this acceptance to be relevant you would have sent it before April 15th.
Score: 9-5-9
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4/24 - Rejection letter from Notre Dame. Oh Alma Mater, I love you anyway
Score: 8-5-9
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4/13 - Rejection email from Minnesota.
Score: 8-5-8
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4/9 - Received a letter from IUB asking if I was still interested since they've taken so long to make a decision. Replied with a formal withdrawal email.
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4/5 - Finally a formal acceptance from Tulane.
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3/29 - In via status checker at Temple. Waitlisted via email at W&L. Rejected via snail by WUSTL.
Score: 8-5-7
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3/26 - Letter finally arrived from Santa Clara. In with $10k/yr
Score: 7-4-6
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3/24 - Waitlist letter in the mail from Maryland.
Score: 6-4-6
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3/23 - Decision made and mailed from Santa Clara today. Gonna take a while to get here from Cali though. Also got an email from IU-B informing me that my application has been complete since 2/9. wow they're slow. glad i dont have to go there and deal with that type of administration.
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3/22 - Waitlisted via status checker for Villanova. Snailjected from UCLA, of course.
Score:6-3-6
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3/19 - Waitlisted at UConn via snail mail. Decision rendered at Maryland according to the status checker. I guess its in the mail then.
Score: 6-2-5
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3/18 - Rejected from Hastings via snail.
Score: 6-1-5
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3/17 - Wake status checker just says: Congratulations. So, congratulations to me!
Score: 6-1-4
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3/17 - Email today inviting me to a cocktail reception for admitted students with local Tulane grads. Haven't heard anything official from them, but I'll treat it as an acceptance.
Score: 5-1-4
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3/16 - Cincinnati acceptance. I had been worried that I spelled the city wrong on my apps, but I guess not. Irrelevant anyway.
Score: 4-1-4
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3/15 - Gtown rejection email dated from the 10th finally came through today. Mason, here I come!
Score: 3-1-4
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3/9 - Letters at home yesterday, accepted at L&C and rejected at GW, both as expected. Now I just need the official ding from Gtown and I'm done.
Score: 3-1-3
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3/8 - Accepted at Mason for PT! In-state tuition is a huge factor here (only $16k). If I can manage to land a job at the PTO in the next month or two I will have my dream package lined up. Only two factors could change my decision, Gtown and GW. But let's take a glance to the left, check on my numbers, and remember to be realistic.
Score: 2-1-2
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2/26 - Email rejection from Illinois. Had neither expectations of acceptance nor of attendance should I be unexpectedly accepted. I only applied because it was free, so here we are.
Score: 1-1-2
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2/24 - Waitlisted by PSU via email. Damn.
Score: 1-1-1
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2/17 - Received acceptance from Maine in the mail.
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2/9 - Accepted at Maine via status checker. At least I'm going to law school somewhere now! Still hoping for Nova or UConn, but I would be thrilled to live in Portland. Also under review at Penn State now.
Score: 1-0-1
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2/3 - Rejected from American. Can't say I'm too surprised, but as the first response from anyone so far it does sting a bit. Come on Mason, be nicer to me.
Score: 0-0-1
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2/1 - American status changed to Decision Made. No email so no waitlist. Waiting for the mail to tell me straight forward rejection or accept.
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1/15 - Been working in Patent Law for 3 1/2 years now. Hopefully my engineering degree, good work history and good recommendations from boss/colleagues help counter-balance my embarrassing undergraduate performance.

Predictions: 7 Acceptances - 7 Waitlists - 12 Rejections