Grades during undergrad showed steady improvement throughout my 4 years.
-This was addressed in personal statement
Even though I love Texas, I chose not to apply to South Texas, Texas Tech, Texas Wesleyan, or St. Mary's because I decided early on that I'd rather go to a top 100 law school out of the state rather than a T3 or T4 in Texas.
-Yes, I did apply to a couple out of state T3 schools. But, Mercer has the best legal writing program in the country and Ole Miss is located in one of my favorite parts of the country (AND has a great alumni network, I know a few Ole Miss law grads here in TX).
-I found Arizona State (reach), University of San Francisco, O.U. (reach), and Arkansas Fayetteville to each be very appealing out of state law schools in the top 100 for various reasons.
_____*ADVISE*_______
toplawschools.com is a forum that can be extremely helpful during the law school application process. I learned a great deal of information about the LSAT, LOR, LOCI, rankings, various schools, what to expect my first year, and even OCI's and potential future job placement. BUT, take everything you read on TLS with a grain of salt. Nowhere else have I ever seen such a stuck-up, pessimistic group of individuals as I've found on TLS.
lawschoolpredictor.com is a waste of time. Go ahead and enter my numbers in that calculator and see what you get. Compare it to what actually happened in my cycle with acceptances and rejections. LSP basically predicts that with my numbers you can't hardly get in anywhere. Sure, I did have some decent "soft factors" that LSP can't take into consideration, but so does everyone else applying to law school.
lawschoolnumbers.com I found to be the most helpful when applying. While there's no way of knowing exactly how honest members are being (with what their numbers are and where they got accepted), I believe you can still trust it to give you an idea of what you can expect with your numbers when you apply.
___________________________________________________
3/xx/11 - ASU was the first school to tell me anything. I got the one page rejection letter in the mail. They could have just been honest and said, "Hell no." and they wouldn't have hurt my feelings.
-Being a Texas resident with a 158/2.8, ASU was one hell of a reach.
3/xx/11 - I got accepted to Arkansas and Mercer. I finally had some choices!
- I also received a couple rejection letters: Baylor & SMU; not terribly surprised but still disappointed because I grew up in Dallas and SMU places the best in the city.
3/xx/11 - I chose not to attend Mercer fairly quickly. They didn't offer a scholarship and I don't really have any ties to Georgia. I applied in hopes of getting scholly $$ and I liked that they had the #1 legal writing program in the country.
-I have some relatives in Arkansas, and UA-Fay is much closer to immediate family in TX than Georgia
-The $8,000 1st year scholarship from UA-Fay isn't much but it's another factor making UA-Fay an easy decision over Mercer.
-MAILED SEAT DEPOSIT to Arkansas!!
5/11/11 - Well, OU wasn't just waiting for my birthday to get around to sending me an acceptance letter and taking me off its WL. My b-day has now passed and I still haven't heard anything. I've sent a LOCI, additional LOR, visited the school, and sent a follow-up thank you letter after the visit.
I'm not giving up. However, I am starting to run out of ideas for ways to show them I want in. I suppose patience and prayers will have to do... other ideas are welcome.
6/1/11 - Received an email from USF offering acceptance and giving me about 1 week to send them a $350 seat deposit. I'm glad to see this but mostly because it means I am capable of getting off of a waitlist and that I still may have a shot at OU.
6/13/11 - I emailed Alan Guerrero at USF and respectfully turned down the offer of admission.
6/14/11 - JUST GOT THE CALL, I'VE BEEN ACCEPTED OFF OF OU'S WAITLIST
Have you tried writing a "Letter of Continued Interest?" If not, I would look into writing at least one strongly worded letter--detailing, first and foremost, why you're still interested in the school, and secondly, the reasons why you'd be a good fit for that school. Good-luck! My wishes are with you, my friend.