Anmar (2022-2023)

-Ran family business for 8 years
-worked full time through college
-university athletic team
-lots of community volunteer work
-several college clubs

Started a business while in college, took a long break to pursue the business, and it hurt the GPA. Finished strong

8/3 Added all the schools that I intend to apply for. I'm still receiving fee waivers, and I plan to apply to every school that sends one. Because of my low GPA, I feel its best to cast a wide net and hope someone will take a chance on me.

9/23 I'm going to the Forum tomorrow in Los Angeles. Fee waivers have been pouring in and many schools have offered fee waivers if I stop by their table. I'm really nervous, Hoping I can somehow sneak into Lewis & Clark or Hastings. I went to an application workshop at Hastings, it was pretty informative about their app process. Santa Clara's workshop wasn't that great.

9/26 So at the forum, I picked up 4 fee waivers and was promised several more. Some reps gave me their e-mail address and asked me to contact them for a fee waiver. I was very aggressive in asking. My hope is that the accumulated value of waivers will pay for my trip to the forum. I think the most important part of the forum was meeting with a pre-law adviser. I took my resume and personal statement and received some very good advice. These advisers were difficult to get to so I advise trying to see them early.

10/8 I've hit a bit of a snag. I feel good about everything except my personal statement. My goal is to have applications in before the end of October so I need to get over this writer's block and hammer out a really good essay. I've got a compelling story and I've written several iterations already, but I would like something that just comes off the page. Ugh.

12/29 Its been awhile since I've added comments, but as you can see, most of my applications are out. I know its getting late in the game but there are still a few schools that I'd like to apply to. I'm really excited that I got into Denver, although no scholarship offer was made.

I've started a new job recently with a major well-known company and I'm really enjoying it. I work long hours and the money sucks, but its keeping me from doing online status checks 10 times a day. It will be interesting to see if they promote me before I have to make a decision on Law School. If there is a career path here, and job prospects for lawyers don't improve, It may not be in my best interest to jump into law school. Becoming an attorney is still my dream though.

1/5 Lewis and Clark held a reception in San Francisco last night. I was able to meet the some current students, some alumni, and the dean. Speaking with the students was a complete waste of time. I had nothing in common with them and it seemed like many were the fresh out of college types who are going to law school just because its something to do. I had a great conversation with an Alumni who had gone to law school in his late 20's and went through the evening program. He provided a lot of really great insight into L&C, the evening program, and law school in general. The dean was also an interesting guy, He'd spent a lot of time working in D.C. I'm thinking of compiling a short list of the biggest things I've learned while going through this process for people who are following this. Right on top I would remind people to not get too caught up in the hype. I believe that everyone possesses a little part of the truth and you need to obtain various pieces from different people. I've come to understand that law school applicants and even a lot of first years are still pretty clueless.

As a side note, I was accepted to Seton Hall today via online status checker. I'm over the moon. Its a really good school and I hope that acceptances continue to roll in.

Last thing: I think my browser doesn't get along with the website. I'm unable to properly put in dates. The app dates are all correct, but if a second date is listed, that's the date i received my decision.

1/15 I got an e-mail from the dean of admissions at Depaul saying that I'll be getting an acceptance packet soon. This cycle is going better than I thought it would.

Several people now have asked me for tips and advice on how I'm getting acceptances with such a crap GPA. There were 3 key points to my strategy.

Preparedness; I wanted to show law schools that I was taking this seriously, so I took the LSAT early and I applied early. I had my letters of rec done back in november. I went to the forum and met school reps. Anytime I had the chance to go meet someone at an open house or law school event, I went.

Shotgun: as mentioned previously, I applied to as many schools as I could that I would want to attend and have a reasonable shot at.

Deflection: The most important thing I did was showing adcoms that my GPA does not reflect my academic capabilities. I wrote a very simple addendum as to why my GPA sucked. I mentioned it (although it wasn't the main subject) in my personal statement. I showed in my resume that I was working 40 hours a week while going to school. I got a very good letter from a professor. Someone told me that adcoms are going to look at my GPA, and become curious about me, what happened in my life. Why did it take me 11 years to finish school and why was my GPA so poor? I tried to take advantage of that curiosity and wonder in my personal statement and put the pieces together for the reader.

Can you all tell I'm feeling more confident about Law School?