trbenton13 (2022-2023)

-Interned for Indiana House of Representatives W&M Committee in 2007.
- Received professional award for contributions to the Chamber.

-Worked as Fiscal and Legislative Analyst for Arizona State Senate Finance Committee 2008 Session.
-Received professional award for outstanding service and contributions to the chamber.

-Will have MA in Economics with about a 3.5 in May of 2010.

-Worked as an academic tutor and instructor for 3 semesters in undergrad.

-Mock Trial attorney in undergrad

-Managed Indiana House of Reps campaign in 2004.

My UGPA is low, I know. That resulted from not knowing what I wanted to do in college early on and also not caring much about college in the beginning. I have very big upward trend in my grades and had a 3.6 first semester my senior year and a 3.9 second semester. I have almost a 3.5 in my M.A. in Economics program.

Rankings are how I have ranked the schools that I have already been admitted to. Of course these will change as time goes on... at least hopefully.

2/16/2010 - American status changed to "Decision Made". No decision listed. I've seen on a lot of other people's profiles that this happened and then a package came a couple days later for their acceptance... hoping that's what is going to happen.

2/17/2010 - Admitted to MSU via call from Director of Admissions. - I got the acceptance packet several days later. They can't give me any money my first year (probably due to my GPA) however if after my first year I am in the top 50%, I can get half, three-fourths, or full tuition for my second and third years. I don't know if this is open to everyone at MSU or what. I'm also assuming that it depends where in the top 50% you land as to how much tuition you get for your second and third years.

2/18/2010 - Admitted to Indiana Univ. @ Indy via e-mail. Still nothing from American. Most people on here had their package come 2 days later, so I'm hoping I still have a chance. I'm dreading the idea of a small white envelope.

2/19/2010 - Still nothing from American. I would have figured even a rejection letter would have gotten here today. I'm fairly certain I've been rejected from them... but still clinging on to hope that maybe the acceptance package is stalled in D.C. due to all the snow they've had. Maybe all of that has backed up their system a few days. After all, as USPS.gov says, Priority Mail shipping times, while typically 2-3 days, are not guaranteed and can take up to 7 days and have been known to take up to 14.

2/20/2010 - Little white envelope from American. Rejected, of course. From all of the D.C. schools I applied to I thought I'd have the best shot at American.

2/25/2010 - In at Rutgers-Camden via a really nice personal e-mail telling me how "very, very impressed" the entire admissions committee and Dean was on my personal statement.

2/25/2010 - GMU status says decision in 2-4 weeks. Hoping I get a phone call tomorrow.

2/26/2010 - Rejected to U of Illinois via e-mail. No huge surprise there.

2/27/2010 - Little white envelope from George Mason. "We were very impressed with your professional accomplishments." But basically we're more impressed with other people. Acceptance to Creighton with $2,500 a year "Dean's Scholarship". Considering they cost about 12 times that amount... I'm not at all impressed.

3/2/2010 - Status changed to "Decision Made" at U of Maryland.

3/3/2010 - Status changed to "Decision Made" at Loyola Chicago
Put on the "Hold" list at Case Western. They stipulate very clearly that it is NOT a waitlist. I don't know what the difference is... but apparently there is one.

3/5/2010 - Rejection letter from Maryland. Not really surprised... more just wishing I had gotten into one of the DC area schools, since I'm sure I'll get rejected from GW at some point. Now my rejections=acceptances.

3/6/2010 - Waitlisted at Loyola Chicago. This I was pretty surprised at. They're ranked a bit below IU Indy and Rutgers, both of which I've been accepted to.

3/8/2010 - In at Marquette via little white envelope. Also, received an e-mail from Valparaiso University addressing me as an admitted student. Received a large white envelope from them today: Admitted.

3/15/2010 - Little white envelope from ASU. Rejected. Completely did not see that one coming. I had significant ties to the state and figured I'd get admitted.

3/19/2010 - Rejected at W&M via e-mail. No surprise there. Rejected at GW via snail mail. Also no surprise there. I was wondering when they were gonna get here. I was actually starting to get concerned it got lost in the mail.

3/24/2010 - Status changed to "Decision reached; notification pending." at W&L.

3/25/2010 - Rejected from Baylor via snail mail. Not really that surprised since I've seen how difficult this cycle seems to be. Really just waiting on IU Bloomington, UNC, UConn, Temple and Villanova now.

3/29/2010 - Rejected at W&L via small white envelope. No surprise there.

4/5/2010 - Rejected at U of AZ via status checker.

4/12/2010 - Rejected from OSU via e-mail. Rejected from Pepperdine via snail mail. Rejected from U Wisconsin via e-mail.

4/15/2010 - Waitlisted at Wake Forest via e-mail. First non-rejection from a tier 1! That's exciting... especially this late in the game

4/17/2010 - Rejected at UConn via snail mail. A bit surprised just because I wasn't too far away from their 25th GPA and pretty much at their 25th LSAT I think. I was hoping my softs would at least put me on a wait list. Oh well.

4/19/2010 - Rejcted at U of FL via snail mail.

4/22/2010 - Waitlisted at Villanova via Status Check.

7/9/2010 - Accepted to Villanova via e-mail.

All in all I'm just pretty disgusted with the law admissions process. I'm not too happy that decisions about me were made regarding numbers and decisions about other people who had almost the same exact numbers were made on other things... not their merits. If I get rejected from a school within 3 weeks of applying, and someone with the same LSAT score and a bit lower of a GPA gets accepted and a $15,000 scholarship... there's something wrong with that.