calkel (2022-2023)

First of all, thanks to everyone for supporting me throughout this process. With all the negativity out there it's very easy to believe that those headed to law school are doomed to fail.

Sites like this have been extremely helpful to me during the application process, so I'm trying to share as much information as I can to help future applicants. Possibly the best advice I've received from all this was from a former employer who said that all schools are regional outside the top 25. I know many people are obsessed with rankings, but I believe it would have been a mistake for me to attend a tier 2 school in NY over a tier 4 school in CA when I'd rather be in CA. Similarly, I prefer to be in San Diego as opposed to San Francisco to begin my career, so it makes sense for me to attend a school like TJSL over USF or Golden Gate. Florida seems like a decent place to live, however I felt like I would be starting my life over again without my friends and family nearby (plus I wouldn't have access to all the cool hobbies that are available to me in SoCal). My personal advice to others is to look beyond rank and money; go where you'd be most comfortable. If people would like to know the specifics of my rationale please send me a message or leave a comment.

Now I'll share the details of my application for people wondering what, if anything, worked for me.

LSAT: My diagnostic was 146. I took a prep course and increased it to the upper 150s in about a year. Then I took 6 months to study intently on my own by using resources such as top-law-schools.com and buying as many practice tests as I could find. Those practice tests were often in the mid- to upper-160s. I felt good coming out of the exam but fell short of my expectations with a 158. I was a bit discouraged because I thought I needed at least a 160 to get into a school like Hofstra. I did retake but that didn't turn out so well. PM me with questions about that.

GPA: This is where I shot myself in the foot. I had never planned on grad school, but not even brain surgery or other remarkable excuses will reduce the importance of this number. It's a harsh reality, but law schools only care about your numbers. LSDAS really screwed my GPA to something like the bottom 1 percentile. I still don't understand how they justify "normalizing" my 2.6 to a 2.3 from a world-class institution.

Work Experience: The only place where I believe this gave me a boost was at Hofstra. Not to brag, but I believe my resume is outstanding compared to most people coming straight from undergrad. A handwritten note from the administration mentioned how impressed they were with my law firm experience and volunteerism with the ACLU. All my other decisions were fairly predictable given my LSAT and GPA.

Undergrad Factor: There is none. Outside of the top law schools, they don't really care where you went to school or what you majored in.

Personal Statement: I had a fairly unique childhood to write about. My father was a criminal and I have experience living in a foster home. I consider myself a very competent writer, but I don't think I received any sort of boost from this part of the application.

Letters of Rec: I had one great recommendation from an attorney I worked for. I like to think I did good work while I was there. It was great to have their support during all this, especially now when I'm mostly hearing about an oversaturated legal market on various sites and blogs. I had one other recommendation from a professor with whom I'd taken several classes. Those grades ranged from A's to C's and we only got to know each other a little bit during office hours, so what he wrote about me is completely up in the air (especially since I gave him a copy of my transcript, which wasn't exactly impressive).

If I had to do it over again I would try harder to get my LSAT score higher. That's the one area that I could have improved with the most beneficial effect on my cycle. Bad GPAs can be forgivable. I also wish I had found sites like TLS before deciding to drop $1500 on a prep course. There are plenty of smart people on that forum willing to dole out detailed advice. The more tips the better.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you need advice or have questions. I check in every once in a while so please be patient.

1/19/10
I'm going to law school! First notice is an acceptance from Barry. Hadn't given them much serious consideration but they're in a great area and offered $18k/year contingent upon gpa requirements. Scholarship offers will probably be the deciding factor for me.

1/31/10
Just got back from a 10-day cross country excursion to find a letter from Pacific offering me a place on the wait-list. I must admit I was expecting a rejection so this was a nice surprise. Hopefully they give me a chance, I think this school would be a good fit for me.

While in New York I visited the CUNY Queens Law campus and was unimpressed. It was a bit deflating because they were one of the first law schools that I considered applying to. They will be moving to a new building in 2011 so I won't hold their facilities against them, but Queens, and New York in general, is not very pleasant. I don't picture myself working there after graduation so I'll forgo that application and save the money.

2/4/10
Waitlisted at Cal Western. Bummed about this one. It was my first choice. I'll send a LOCI in a few weeks emphasizing how much I would like to attend.

2/11/10
Waitlisted at Hofstra. I'm seeing a pattern here. It's probably that the schools think I'm definitely qualified, they just don't want to hurt their GPA medians, and ultimately their rankings, by admitting me. Although I find New York unappealing, Hofstra is farther out on Long Island and gives a better shot at landing the big paychecks than similar schools. We'll see what happens.

2/16/10
Rejected at Miami via status checker. This one was expected as it was quite a reach with my numbers.

Waitlisted at Loyola New Orleans. This was sort of a safety for me, so I don't know what's up. I'm not totally excited about the idea of practicing in Louisiana anyways.

2/22/10
Rejected at St. John's. Just as well, seeing how I've already decided against New York.

3/1/10
Waitlisted at Golden Gate. I'm sort of indifferent about this because it's expensive to life in SF and not car-friendly. However, they have a record of better employment placements than my other prospects.

3/1/10
Accepted at Thomas Jefferson. As much as I'd like to stay in San Diego the cost to attend far outweighs any benefits. I'll try to negotiate for merit aid and just hope for the best.

3/3/10
Rejected at Southwestern. I thought I had a good shot at a waitlist. Stetson mailed its decision today as well.

3/5/10
Rejected at American. That was fast.

3/8/10
Rejected at Stetson. FSU is giving me grief because final dispositions for past offenses do not exist. I thought we were supposed to err on the side of disclosure, but now I'll have to send a correction denying those incidents. So much for law school integrity.

3/10/10
Rejected at Loyola Chicago. Whatever. Not really into cold climates. On a related note, I will be visiting Orlando for Accepted Students Day in the middle of spring break. Possible side-trip to Daytona Beach.

3/17/10
As expected, rejected at Loyola Los Angeles.

3/19/10
Email from Hofstra stating that I was accepted off the waitlist. It's nice to have another option, but, depending on my visit next week, I think I prefer the Florida climate. Competition for jobs also seems stiffer in New York.

3/22/10
Rejected at Santa Clara today. Even though it was sort of expected, it's the school I most wanted to attend.

Went to Thomas Jefferson's open house over the weekend, and was unimpressed. The faculty seems great on the other hand, and the new facilities appear promising. Unfortunately they suffer from low bar passage rates (48% last year) and high tuition and living costs. Maybe they should spend less time on moot court and trial team and more on bar prep. Definitely not worth sticker.

3/29/10
Rejected at Hawaii by email and rejected at University of San Francisco.

Just got back from Orlando and really liked it. The weather was great and there's plenty to do. Downtown is a great place to hang out at night, and beaches are amazing if you don't mind the traffic and tolls.

4/1/10
Received an email from financial aid at Thomas Jefferson congratulating me. Apparently she forgot to include the scholarship offer in the email. At first I thought it was a reminder that the deposit deadline is approaching, but the admissions director later left me a message on my phone to make sure I received my offer of $10k/year. All I can say is it's about time; I sent an inquiry about scholarship availability weeks ago. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but Barry offered me nearly twice that much and their tuition is $5k/year less. Plus the cost of living is substantially higher in San Diego. As much as I'd like to stay in-state, I still don't think it's worth the potential debt.

4/5/10
Acceptance package from Hofstra finally came in the mail. There was a nice handwritten note from the admissions staff telling me that they were impressed with my extracurriculars. Before I started my cycle I thought that if I could somehow get into Hofstra I would definitely end up there, seeing how it's a top 100 school. And I assumed I blew my chances with my LSAT score. Although I'm very happy with this acceptance, I'm no longer very interested in the possibility of beginning my legal career in New York. I wouldn't mind living there for three years of school, but not much more than that. It's nice to have this option, but my primary concerns are 1) location and 2) cost. Not necessarily in that order.

4/10/10
Rejected from Houston by status checker. Rejected at DePaul.

4/14/10
Paid my deposit to Thomas Jefferson today. I was leaning heavily towards Barry, but Thomas Jefferson's scholarship offer was the turning point for me. I will have the opportunity to increase the scholarship if I'm at the top of my class. It will be more expensive for now, but I've decided San Diego is the best place for me. Quality of living is ideal and my friends and family are nearby. Also, the facilities and faculty are much better at Thomas Jefferson than Barry. But in the end, San Diego is where I want to work, so that's where I will go to school.

4/16/10
Waitlisted at UNLV by email.

5/19/10
In at Cal Western. This will be a difficult decision, but TJSL is the front-runner at the moment with the scholarship offer and brand new facilities.