lwilliams12 (2022-2023)

It's not about where I'm rejected from; it's about where I'm accepted at.

Although I would prefer to stay in Texas, I am casting my net widely. Thus, if I get a fee waiver from a good law school (approx. top 100 or better), then I will apply to it. Also of note, I am a nineteen year old applicant.

11-06-11: I have been really shocked by the amount of fee waivers I have received; I had no idea that would receive 40 fee waivers. Nonetheless, it is quite a pleasant surprise. So far, I have been "applying up" so I am not expecting to be accepted into each school I have applied to. As of now, with most of my applications in, my top three are as follows: UT, UH, Texas Tech. I'm not holding my breath whatsoever for UT, but I have an outside shot at UH. Texas Tech is the "safe" school; the school I should get accepted at. Also, Michigan State has unofficially offered me a full ride before I applied, so if they officially offer it to me after I apply, then there is an excellent chance I will develop even more of an acute dissatisfaction of cold weather.

11-15-11: I was notified yesterday afternoon via phone call of my acceptance to Michigan State. It definitely felt good to have my cycle start off with an acceptance rather than a rejection. This morning when I checked my email, I was notified by the University of Miami I was accepted there. Living in Miami in the nice, warm weather for three years definitely sounds enjoyable; however, right now I am just excited to start my cycle off 2-0.

11-18-11: I was notified via email yesterday of Washington and Lee's decision to waitlist me. Thought I would get a straight rejection there so I am pleased with the waitlist decision. Also, these fee waivers just keep coming in; I have more fee waivers than I know what to do with! I have about fifty fee waivers and all but about five of them were unsolicited. Because of the numerous amount of fee waivers I have received along with the high amount of schools I have applied to, I am becoming much more selective in where I apply. The waiting though, is starting to make me antzy. Waiting three months for a simple yes or no answer is going to be rough.

11-19-11: Woke up to a rejection via email from the University of Texas. No surprise there, but it nonetheless is a little disappointing.

12-03-11: Such a busy time of the semester! Work and school are hard enough; waiting for the law schools to render a decision on my file just adds to the stress. I am pretty much done with my applications; it would take an exceptional school to send me a fee waiver for me to apply now. I don't think I'll apply to the University of Colorado anymore because of they sent me an expired fee waiver code and when I contacted them regarding the expired code they gave me, they sent me the exact same code...again. My thought on that is that if they won't take the time to correct an issue now, they probably won't take the time to correct an issue when I'm there, either. As of now though, I'm really leaning towards UH; I do hope I get accepted there. Also, IU-Bloomington sent me an email stating that I qualified for a merit scholarship so that is definitely a highlight so far. I'm pretty skeptical that I will be accepted there, let alone offered a scholarship to attend. However, the email did raise my hopes of acceptance there.

12-06-11: Accepted via email at both DePaul and Texas Tech today! DePaul has an excellent legal writing program that I am interested in, but it is in Chicago. I am definitely relieved to have been accepted into Texas Tech because it gives me a good option to stay in Texas at an affordable cost. Definitely a good day today!

12-10-11: Yesterday I was accepted via phone call to the University of Nebraksa-Lincoln. Good school, just unsure of the Nebraska market after graduation.

12-23-11: Accepted to Drexel and Catholic via email a couple days ago. While Drexel did offer a good sum of money, it is located in the oversaturated legal market of Philadelphia, has only provisional accreditation, and did not offer to pay for full tuition. Catholic is a good school in a great location, Washington D.C. They did offer me a little money as well, but I have to maintain a 3.2 GPA to renew it. Definitely more impressed with Catholic than Drexel at this point, even though neither are number one on the list.

01-01-12: Accepted via email to Kansas with 3/4 tuition scholarship first year decreasing to 1/3 tuition both 2L & 3L years. Since Kansas had a better offer than Nebraska, it is now slightly more preferable than Nebraska. Also, I was excited to learn earlier during the holiday break that I earned a 4.0 for the semester!

01-12-12: Accepted to Seton Hall via mail with a little over 1/2 tuition scholarship covered given that I stay in the top half of my class. I was pleasantly surprised to be admitted here, let alone the recepient of good sized scholarship. Nonetheless, the cost of living in New Jersey is extremely high and quite a deterrent to attending school in Newark.

01-14-12: Waitlisted via status checker at Iowa. No big surprise there. Accepted to Arkansas via snail mail with less than 1/2 scholarship so I probably won't be attending there. Illinois-Champaign sent me an email saying I was neither rejected nor accepted and have been pushed to the next round of admission decisions. Arizona rejected me via snail mail; jerks.

01-18-12: Accepted to Penn State via email with information to follow regarding potential scholarship in the official acceptance letter that will come via snail mail. I like Penn State and all that it offers, but, as in the case with Drexel, am very unsure of the Pennsylvania market after graduation. However, I am inclined to believe that Penn State Law, with a much broader alumni base, carries much more weight in Pennsylvania than does Drexel's law school.

01-28-12: Waitlisted at the University of Houston via status checker. Being very familiar with the Houston area, UH was a top choice so it is a little disappointing not to be accepted. However, I'm not surprised because the numbers weren't in my favor. As of right now, Michigan State is shaping up to be my top choice.

01-30-12: Accepted at the University of Mississippi via snail mail. In one of the stranger occurrences in this cycle, I received my acceptance packet before I did my acceptance letter. I was quite surprised when I opened up the packet to find all the admitted student information, but not the acceptance letter. I called the admissions office and the lady told me the acceptance letter should be there soon. Once I know whether or not I am offered a scholarship there, I will know more on whether or not I would like to attend. I will probably not attend there without a scholarship there though.

02-06-12: Received a letter in the mail from SMU a few days ago stating that they will hold my file and evaluate it with the regular applicant pool, not the early applicant pool. Penn State offered a small scholarship, quite insignificant when compared to total cost of attendance. Thus, it does not be look like I will attend there next fall. On a positive note, I have been looking at housing options at Michigan State and housing prices there seem on par, if not cheaper, than here in Texas.

02-10-12: Waitlisted at Georgia State via status checker a couple days ago. I'm pretty indifferent to that decision because GSU was very low on my list to begin with. Also waitlisted at Indiana via email notification. This school was much higher on my list, but I am not all too surprised at the decision. IU usually is hard to get into and my numbers were not on par with other admitted students.

02-13-12: Denied at Baylor for Fall 2012 via snail mail; however, accepted for Spring 2013 in same letter. I will count this not as a rejection, but as an acceptance. I am very excited about this since Baylor was one of my top choices from the start, even though it is very expensive. If I can somehow finance attending there, this is where I'll go.

02-23-12: Accepted at South Texas and rejected at Ohio State via email today. Not surprised on either decision, really. I do not believe South Texas offered me a scholarship so it would be hard to justify going to that school over Baylor and Texas Tech, in my opinion. However, it is located within an excellent legal market and I am very familiar with the Houston area as well. Also, I withdrew from Georgia State's waitlist. On another note, I've been looking into financing law school and, with the income-based repayment and grad-plus loans, it's looking very feasible.

02-24-12: Accepted to St. Johns via email with small scholarship. It's pretty low on my list considering its cost and location. Living and working in New York City is a plus to a lot of different people; to me, it is not. It's safe to say right now that my decision is shaping up between Baylor and Michigan State, with Texas Tech (and SMU & UH) still in the background.

03-05-12: Waitlisted at Illinois via email. Not surprised there, will end up withdrawing from their wait list because I highly doubt that I would receive any scholarship money if I were to even make it off the wait list.

03-22-12: Waitlisted at Emory via email. Relatively surprised with that decision because I thought, given its status as a top 25 school, I would be rejected. Also, received my official acceptance letter for Baylor for Spring 2013, but no scholarship offer. In other news, I have been busy making plans about law school. If you're wondering where I will be attending, there's really no easy answer. Here's the plan though: I've already submitted a Letter of Continued Interest to UH, will ride its waitlist out, and will attend no matter what if offered a spot. SMU is second on the list and I will attend SMU over Baylor, but not UH. Although SMU has not made a decision on my file, I am expecting to be waitlisted there as well. Thus, I will ride two waitlists out and hope to be admitted to at least one of the two through the wait list. If I am not admitted to either one though, I will attend Baylor starting Spring of 2013.

03-24-12: This last semester, with three writing intensive classes, is rough! Waitlisted at Washington University (St. Louis) via email Friday. Similar situation with Emory as I was happily surprised with Washington that I did not get a straight rejection.

03-26-12: Phone call and email today from Baylor awarding me a scholarship to attend with the stipulation I maintain a 2.75. Although it was not as significant as other scholarships I have been awarded, I was nonetheless excited to receive it.

04-20-12: I had a wonderful trip to Philadelphia this past weekend to visit Drexel Law School- flight and hotel paid for by Drexel. I was glad I got the opportunity to visit, but I did not feel very comfortable there. Philadelphia seemed quite a bit different than Texas and, while some people may love Philadelphia, it's not my cup of tea. In other news, I was waitlisted at Brooklyn via email. No big deal there, as its location is not very desirable to me. Now I am just waiting on my last decision: SMU. Could they possibly take any more longer?

05-03-12: Accepted at SMU today! Made a phone call to the their admissions office because I had not received a decision letter yet, and was informed that I was accepted with 1/3 tuition scholarship! If it weren't for finals, today would be an all around great day! (On that note, never take three writing intensive courses in one semester.) The competition is now solely between UH and SMU; Baylor, per my admission to SMU, is not in consideration anymore. If I am not accepted to UH off their waitlist, then I will be attending SMU this fall.

05-16-12: So excited to have graduated this past Friday! While I will certainly miss all my friends that I have made at Texas A&M, I'm excited to start this new chapter in my life. The night I graduated, I made it official: I submitted my deposit to SMU and will be attending there beginning Fall 2012. This cycle has been rough at times, but it sure has been an experience I'll never forget. Thanks for keeping up with me and good luck to all the future law students out there; I hope this blog has given you a little insight on how the admissions process works!