NB: I didn't start out posting any of this stuff on my profile. Today is 2010/04/21, and I just went back through my inbox to fill out the process from the very beginning until 2010/03/10, the date when I first started posting updates in this space. Hope I didn't forget anything important! PM me with questions.
2009/11/09: received an email informing me of the date of my HLS phone interview (2009/11/16)
2009/11/16: had the HLS phone interview--very straightforward, not at all intimidating, very open-ended; accepted at Duke via email
2009/11/23: accepted into HLS by voicemail
2009/11/28: withdrew from Duke via email--not going to wait for merit scholarship decision, though I had received info about some full scholarship offering
2010/12/01-31: one .. very ... long .... month ..... of ...... waiting
2010/01/22: in @ Columbia with Hamilton via hefty mailed packet
2010/02/04: Josh Rubenstein @ HLS wants to put me "in touch with current HLS students who have faced the same decision in previous years" [regarding offers of admission and merit scholarships]
2010/02/05: congratulations email from Kenneth Lafler @ HLS financial aid on the Hamilton at Columbia and discusses Harvard's competing resources; accepted @ Chicago via phone call
2010/02/12: email from Dean Schizer @ Columbia regarding Hamilton Fellowship with a highly personalized message that discussed my personal statement in considerable depth
2010/02/23: financial aid (merit scholarship) email from Chicago--not very personalized, as is the case with everything from Chicago
2010/03/06-08: HLS admitted students weekend--the experience was great!
2010/03/10: At this point, I'm pretty sure my round is going to end with two big-time rejections.
2010/04/10: Went to one day of Columbia's ASP because of the Hamilton... visited like five classes and in about four of them people were clearly bored. I was bored, too. Then I heard from Columbia students that the Hamilton is really just money and that the faculty mentor program doesn't mean anything; conversely, at both HLS and Columbia, I heard professors love to work with students on research. That's two-strikes-you're-out for Columbia. On a related note, recently discovered that YLS isn't even top 20 for IP/Cyber, which means I would be stupid to go there when that area is what I want to study. HLS is tops for IP/Cyber faculty according to Leitner. En bref: I'm going there, unless I get into Stanford. Vilken lttnad!
2010/04/15: SLS just called... I'm going to Palo Alto this weekend... Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
haven't gotten any packet from SLS, but Dean Deal said it's in the mail... probably won't arrive until after i get back
coincidentally (??), HLS just sent me a personal email four minutes after I posted here... and nixxers let me know that I'm being watched in TLS? a bit creepy, i'll have to say...
actually, make that three emails from HLS in the space of a few hours (?)
2010/04/19: got my rejection email from Yale on my iphone yesterday while here at Stanford... would have forgotten that i had an application still out if they hadn't emailed me ;-) at this point, i can't figure out whether HLS or SLS would be better in the end for cyberlaw academia...
BTW, now that my cycle is complete, I wanted to say why I think my YLS250 was risky: I wrote about my Christian faith, and not in a wishy-washy, p-c, relativistic way. several advisers with whom I spoke warned me ~not~ to write on this topic if I wanted to maximize my chances at YLS. I told them that if Yale were to reject me because of this 250, then it clearly wouldn't be the right fit for me, anyway. i'm not implying that yls in fact rejected me for this reason--I have no idea what the deciding factors were--but i do feel very much at peace with the outcome! i'm not going to compromise on or conceal my beliefs just to maximize my chances at one law school.
2010/04/20: leaning strongly toward Stanford and their JD/MSCS program. did Dean Deal write everyone from the East Coast that little "Move West, young man!" note? (just picked up my acceptance packet today after getting back from the ASW) well, even if she did, I think I'm going to follow her advice!
2010/04/21: withdrew formally from Chicago via form submitted online; haven't formally withdrawn from Columbia or Harvard because I've got a advising appointment at career services on Monday
2010/04/22: withdrew formally from Columbia after receiving financial aid offers from HLS and SLS
2010/04/23: Okay... so about two days ago, I was decided on Stanford, now I'm unsure again. hmmm...
2010/04/27: I'm now quite sure SLS is the right place for me in fall 2011. I gave HLS a chance to convince me otherwise when JR emailed me, but after barraging me with emails expressing a willingness to talk, no one at HLS took the time to respond to my replies... (??) sending in my decision letters today
2010/04/30: got the withdrawal confirmation from HLS; also got another email from JR asking me why I chose SLS over HLS... i explained my reasoning, and I made sure to mention the inaccessibility of the HLS professors; he emailed me back with congratulations again and said he was sorry I couldn't reach the HLS professors with whom he had put me in contact
I kinda feel bad for withdrawing--as I told him, if I could do a joint JD-JD between Harvard and Stanford, I would! but I think SLS is the way better choice for me if I have to choose
2010/05/03: SLS officially approved my deferral this morning--yay for SLS class of 2014! in the meantime, i'm working on a finance web2.0 startup
