Note: Scholarship figures are annual amounts.
11/01: I think I'm done with my apps at this point. I'm still considering the schools that I have remaining on my list as "Not Applied", but the only one that I'm leaning towards applying to is Cincinnati. It's interesting to me that Loyola Chicago wasn't even on my list a month ago but may now be my number two choice.
11/03: I sent in my app for Cincinnati. This makes 15 apps and should be the complete set. I'll keep the other ones up for awhile until I definitely decide not to apply to them.
11/19: I added one more school to the list (Minnesota). I'm now seriously considering pursuing a career in academia and it behooves one to get into the best possible school that one can if one is looking at becoming a professor. Minnesota is a well regarded school and offers the dual degree program that I am interested in. My chances are probably not great, but, it can't hurt to try.
11/21: In at Pitt. I was starting to get worried that I hadn't heard from any school yet. It's nice to get that first response, especially when it's yes.
I also added one final school (Alabama) for a total of 17. That will definitely complete my list, especially since Pitt is a school that I am very interested in.
11/25: In at American. I had a package setting in front of my door when I got back from Thanksgiving in New Jersey. The rental office was closed for the past three days in my apartment complex. I'm glad the mailman thought to leave it for me.
12/03: I received an e-mail from the Dean of Sturm Law that I'm in at Denver. I'll update it if I get any info on scholarship funds.
12/05: I received a call from the Admissions Office of Loyola University Chicago and I'm in. The acceptance letter will be sent out to me on Monday.
12/08: In at Kentucky. I received a package today that contained a letter signed by Associate Dean Bakert with an in-coming class schedule and a summary of the school. I also received my admitted students package from Denver. It contains the usual. No info on $ though other than standard financial aid.
I have to say that I am rather surprised that all five decisions that I have received so far have been positive. I know these are not from highly ranked schools, but, given my age, poor GPA during my first undergrad go 'round, and my serious lack of extracurriculars, I fully expected to get rejected by most schools above the 71-80 ranking on the US News list. That is why I applied to so many schools.
12/21: Received an e-mail from the Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at the University of Cincinnati to tell me that I've been accepted. A formal package will be sent within a week.
1/8: After not hearing from any school since before Christmas, I received a letter today from Minnesota telling me that they've placed my application on hold. I have a feeling that that is merely a way station on the road to rejection.
1/11: Received my acceptance today from Syracuse along with notice that I've been selected for the Dean's Scholarship, which is a renewable $21,500/yr scholarship. That's very tempting.
1/24: Received an e-mail from the Senior Assistant Dean for Admissions that I've been admitted to Alabama. Now it gets interesting.
1/26: I received two scholarship offers in the mail today. The first one is a very small one from Kentucky for $3,000/yr, which hardly seems worth the effort by Kentucky to even award it. The second offer came from Cincinnati, who divided it up in an odd way: $10,000 the first year and $6,000 the second and third year; it works out to $7,333.33/yr. I'm not sure why they didn't just make it $7,300/yr and be done with it.
1/29: I received a call from the Dean of Admissions at Nebraska and I'm in. Nine down, eight to go.
2/1: I received my scholarship in the mail today from Nebraska. It's $10,000/yr.
2/2: Received a letter from Iowa today that placed me in their hold category. I decided to also switch Florida State and Minnesota to Deferred since I received similar letters from them already.
2/8: I received an e-mail from Minnesota today that all but told me that I was being rejected. They again mentioned that they have a highly selective process and that they want to see how the cycle shakes out before they cut ties with me. I guess in other years they have reached down to applicants on my level--which is probably why they are keeping me around--but usually do not wind up accepting them.
2/12: I'm fairly close to beginning my withdrawals from some of the schools that I've been accepted to. I believe that I have winnowed the possibles from my acceptances down to four schools: American, Denver, Nebraska, and Syracuse. Georgia, Minnesota, and Virginia are the schools that I remain the most interested in from the pending or deferred categories and the ones who could most affect my decision if I am accepted to them. Regardless, I'd like to have my number of schools narrowed down to no more than five by March 15, with the final decision made by the end of April.
2/16: I received a letter from San Diego today and I've been accepted. San Diego is an intriguing possibility, but I don't think I can go there without some scholarship money. I didn't realize before I applied there how expensive it is to live in San Diego. It's even more expensive than Northern Virginia, which is pricey in its own right.
3/3: I completed my withdrawal from Cincinnati tonight. I decided that I want to go to a much bigger school. Good luck to any folks who are on the waitlist at UC. I hope this gets you an acceptance.
3/8: I completed my withdrawal from Loyola Chicago this morning. While I was very interested in the idea of attending school in Chicago, I decided that the expense of going to school at Loyola was not worth it. Loyola is a good school for general law but has a weak international law program, which is what I am interested in studying. Good luck to those waiting to hear from Loyola.
I forgot to include before that I received an additional scholarship from Kentucky; it's an additional $10,800 that, in essence, gives me the in-state tuition rate. Way to go Kentucky.
3/12: I withdrew from Nebraska today. It came down to a choice between Nebraska and Denver. The masters portion of the joint degree program that I want to pursue is at Denver for Nebraska Law. I figured that if I've been accepted to Denver already, it makes no sense to go to Nebraska when there seems to be not much difference between the two law schools.
3/14: I'm guessing that I've been accepted to Florida State. I received an email from them about admitted students day. I suppose there is something that should arrive in the mail either Saturday or Monday.
3/16: I completed my withdrawal letters for Alabama and San Diego. I am not entirely happy with withdrawing from either school, which leads me to believe that it won't be any easier picking a school going forward.
Alabama was difficult because it was the highest US News ranked school that has accepted me so far. However, since I'm also doing a masters while in school, I need to consider that also, and the masters program at Alabama that I want to pursue was just not what I was looking for.
My withdrawal from San Diego was more about cost. It's an expensive school for what you get. It's fairly average in both the law and masters programs that I want to puruse, but it's high end money. Not to mention that San Diego is an expensive place to live.
I'm now down to six schools left to which I've been accepted and five schools that still have yet to make a decision.
3/18: I completed my withdrawals from Florida State and Kentucky today. Kentucky was a little difficult to let go of because it was going to be very reasonably priced and Kentucky has a very well respected master's in international relations program. But, I still have Syracuse to go, which has both characteristics that Kentucky has plus a more robust international law program.
3/22: I mailed in my withdrawal letter to Denver today. It was a little easier to do so after I received my financial aid letter from Pitt yesterday. I'm not getting any need-based aid from Pitt, but they are providing me with Stafford loans for the full amount of my non-scholarship tuition.
I also received my financial aid letter from American, and I'm less than impressed. It barely covered half of my projected expenses. Not what I'd call enticing. I'm still waiting on a letter from Syracuse.
3/24: I have been put on the waitlist by Florida, but I'm not going to stay on it. This surprises me a bit. Florida was one of the schools that I expected to receive a fairly easy acceptance from. Oh well, it was low on my list anyway.
3/25: I just saw via the Admissions Status option on Georgia's website that I've been waitlisted there as well. This is another waitlist that I won't be waiting on. Georgia's a nice school, but it's not worth the agita of getting a late acceptance and having to decide on whether or not to back out of the school that you've already said that you'll attend.
3/26: I got waitlisted at Iowa as well. I won't be staying on this one either. It looks like the remainder of my choices are going to be waitlists at best. Barring a miracle acceptance from Virginia--or maybe Minnesota--it looks like I'll be going to Pitt.
4/3: I've been placed on the general waitlist for state residents by UVa, which basically means I have about zippy chance of getting in. I'll stay on the waitlist, but it looks like I'll be headed to Pittsburgh in August.
4/7: I sent in my withdrawals to American and Syracuse today. As of today I am attending Pitt Law. I'm going to stay on the Virginia waitlist, but if they don't accept me off the list by June 15, I'll start seriously looking for some place to live in the Pittsburgh area. Also, I'm still interested in Minnesota, so, if they see fit to accept me, I'll give them a serious look. At this point it looks like Southern Cal is going to be too expensive.
4/21: I figured that since I was contacted by Georgia about my plans for the fall, I would consider that as an acceptance off of the waitlist.
4/22: My first rejection was received today from Southern Cal. I suppose it's a good thing that I decided long ago that it was way too expensive to live in LA; it took most of the sting out of it.
5/29: After much fiddling around, I finally heard from the Univ. of Minnesota. I received a call from their admissions office asking me if I was still in the market, so to say, for a law school. I told them that I had already decided to attend Pitt. I'm not sure how to classify that on my profile. I'm guessing that the only reason they wanted to know if I was still interested was to see if I would accept an acceptance. If they were going to reject me, they probably would have done so already. However, I think I'll keep it at deferred and just let this statement speak for itself.
I also sent in my second deposit to Pitt this week. I'm going to begin the housing search fairly soon. I'm still working full time and finishing up at GMU this summer, but I have enough time--I think--to find a place. To those of you who have decided to attend Pitt: I'll see you there. I'll be easy to pick out; I'll be the short, bald guy with glasses.
7/21: I received my official notice from UVa recently that I won't be pulled off of the waitlist. They said that they are already overenrolled for the upcoming year and that they got a lot more applications this year than they usually get. I wonder if anyone got pulled off of the waitlist this year.
planning on attending in the fall..if so where did u get accepted