tsiddons (2022-2023)

12/1/2010: LSAT score was a disappointment, but I'll live with it. Essentially winged it as my travel schedule for work precluded me from committing much time to really studying for it. Probably could have scored a bit higher if I had taken a course or something, but what can you do? I've got 16 apps out there- someone decent will let me in.

12/1/2010: Just finished submitting my first round of apps...

12/2/2010: Second(and final) round of apps are done. Time to play the waiting game.

12/9/2010: Got bored and applied to Marquette today. What's another $62?

12/10/2010: Marquette actually looks pretty cool. If Marquette, San Diego, or Cincinnati work out, I'd be amped. If not, I'm hoping for Miami, South Carolina, Temple, Southwestern or IU-Indy . The rest I'm still kind of "meh" on.

In Review at Kent and Southwestern. Feel good about my chances at Southwestern but not so much at Kent. Wouldn't be devastated to be shot down by either, though it'd be great to start off with a couple acceptances.

12/14/2010: Woke up to an email from Miami saying to check my status. "On Hold" until April 30th- I guess that's fancy talk for waitlisted. Disappointing. Not because I was dying to go to Miami(I wasn't), but because of what this might mean for the rest of the cycle. Thought I had a pretty good shot there, so suddenly feeling less optimistic about my chances elsewhere.

12/15/2010: Ah, more good news- not accepted to USD's early decision program. Kind of saw that one coming, but still a bummer. They'll re-review my file in the new year. Still seems like longshot with my LSAT.

12/20/2010: "In Committee" at Santa Clara. With Southwestern and Kent also In Review, hopefully I'll get a few more decisions in the next couple weeks.

12/31/2010: Impatience has gotten the best of me again. Applied to three more schools this morning(Baltimore, Widener, and Washburn)- hoping to be offered some money since I don't think many of my other schools will. But I'm done applying to schools for real this time. Probably not, though.

1/3/2011: Waitlisted at Drexel via status checker. My 14th choice. Time to start drinking heavily.

1/6/2011: Accepted at Dayton and Washburn via phone calls today. Obviously not my top choices but it feels great to get those first acceptances. Washburn said I got a scholarship and I should find out more about that next week. If it's anything substantial, who knows? Maybe I could live in Topeka...

"Final Review" at Kent. Decision at Loyola-Chicago as well, should get that in the mail next week. Not optimistic about either.

1/10/2011: First outright rejection: Kent, via status checker. Going away for work the next couple weeks, expecting to come back to at least a couple more decisions.

1/11/2011: Was just telling my roommate I didn't like Loyola-Chicago very much. Turns out the feeling was mutual. No harm, no foul.

1/12/2011: Re-Review at Michigan State in February. Yikes- that was supposed to be a safety school of sorts. Topeka is sounding better and better.

1/15/2011: Now that I've gotten a few decisions and have a better idea of what I'm looking at, I figured I'd re-rank my schools. I'm sure this will change over the next few weeks and there's always the chance I'll get bored and apply to other schools in the meantime. But here's what I'm thinking:

1. South Carolina(probably a longshot)
2. Cincinnati(bigger longshot)
3. San Diego(biggest long shot)
4. Temple(longshot- sensing a theme)
5. Marquette
6. Southwestern
7. Miami
8. IU-Indy
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Penn State, San Fran, Santa Clara: Can't remember why I applied to these schools in the first place. At least at the moment, I can't see any conceivable reason I'd go to those schools if I had other options.

Dayton, Washburn, Widener: Could be convinced to attend these schools if the scholarships are good enough(or if I'm rejected everywhere else)

Drexel, Michigan State: Will probably withdraw my name from these schools once I get accepted into a school not named Dayton, Washburn, or Widener.

Baltimore: Haven't done much research on this one yet.

1/18/11: Rejected at Cincinnati today. Kind of expected, but its still a bummer. Was holding out hope on that one. On the bright side, I was given $11,000/year at Washburn. Meaning once I qualify for in-state tuition(2nd semester of 1st year), my tuition would be a measley $5,000/year. Tempting. But still...Topeka???

1/24/11: Applied to 5 more schools last week: Charleston, Valpo, UMKC, Campbell, and TJSL. Justified it by getting fee waivers for all of them. I feel like I need to have someone I know change my password without telling me in order to get this habit under control. Anyway, the intention was to apply to more schools that might give me similar scholarships to Washburn, basically as a way to avoid talking myself into actually going to Washburn. In NC for work this week, so swung by Campbell. Everyone seemed really nice, and the building was brand new, but there was something I didn't love about it- can't put my finger on it though. Had a way better impression of Cincy when I visited there a couple weeks back. Too bad those assholes rejected me.

1/28/11: Been traveling for the last couple weeks- expected to come home to a few more decisions. Not so much. Got a letter from Marquette informing me of being waitlisted. It'd be great to go there, but the reality of paying sticker price at a lot of these schools has started to set in, so even if I was admitted, I'm not even sure I'd go. Staying on the waitlist anyway, just to keep my options open.

Only other worthwhile thing in the mail was a letter from Chicago-Kent telling me what an impressive law school applicant I am, and they encourage me to check out their school and apply. They'll even waive my application fee for me. Unfortunately, those assholes(I feel like I'm started to use that term quite a bit when talking about law schools) rejected me 2 weeks ago. Talk about kicking me when I'm down.

On the bright side, got an email from UMKC today telling me how I'm one of their most stellar applicants, and they'd love to talk with me over the phone. First thought: If I'm one of their most stellar applicants, how sad for them. Second thought: Between Washburn and now UMKC, they love me in Kansas.(And yes, I'm aware UMKC is in MIssouri...just go with it.)

1/29/11: Accepted at Charleston School of Law via email today. Love Charleston, did my undergrad there, and would love to move back one day. Don't love that it's a for-profit school but could probably get over that hang-up if they offered me a decent scholarship. Will find out about that in early March. Will definitely not pay anything close to sticker price here. Good start to the weekend though!

2/1/11: Rejected at Temple today. Despite the fact that I'm committed at this point to only going some place that gives me money, it'd still be nice if I could get accepted somewhere other than a T4 school. Shit- I'd settle for a T3 at this point just to boost my pride a bit. This 155 is way more of a scarlet letter than I thought it'd be. On the bright side, I used to work at Temple, so I can take solace in the fact that it's a pretty ugly place(campus-wise and people-wise). True story.

2/2/11: In at Widener(Delaware campus). Could see myself going there if the price is right. That said, they linked me to my "online acceptance packet." It'd be extremely lame if they didn't mail me a real one.

2/4/11: Rejected at Penn State. Probably a good thing. Can't stand their football team. Emailed Widener asking for more money, we'll see how that goes. Just saw their curve is a 2.3 and my scholarship is dependent on a 3.0. It's going to take a hell of a lot of money to get me there at this point. All signs still pointing to Washburn. Desperately trying to find new signs.

2/8/11: Working in Baltimore this week and just took an unofficial(self guided) tour of their school. I really liked what I saw of it. It was nice to see students who seemed happy (the first time that's actually happened) and there seemed to be a lot of cool things happening. Came back to my hotel and checked my status there and turns out I was accepted. Quite the coincidence. Excited about that, but I can't imagine I'll get much (if any) scholarship money.

Got a phone call from UMKC today trying to set up a phone interview with the admissions committee. So that's happening next week. Decision Rendered at San Fran, so when I get back from Baltimore I'm expecting to have received their rejection letter. Haven't heard anything back from Widener about my request for more money- I'm guessing that's not happening. Oh well.

2/8/11: Just got an email from Widener explaining my scholarship was non-negotiable. Well that makes that decision easy. A nothing scholarship contingent on a 3.0 gpa (when their curve is 2.3)? No thanks.

2/9/11: $16,000/year at Dayton which is about half tuition- pretty nice. Plus, I love Ohio. It's definitely still in play. Wondering if I could get them to increase it. Official tour at UBalt tomorrow and attending their sports law symposium in the afternoon. Working in Charleston next week so scheduled a visit with them for next Wednesday before my phone interview with UMKC. Dayton and Washburn still leading the charge.

2/11/11: Just got back from the week in Baltimore. Really loved everything I learned about UBalt while visiting yesterday, but the reality of paying for it set in when I talked with financial aid. Out of State Tuition Total Cost of Living(housing, food, books, travel, etc) is about $60,000/year. There's not a chance in hell I'm putting myself in that kind of debt for Baltimore. Seems like a nice place, but I'll pass.

Came home to a waitlist letter from USF. Better than a rejection I guess, but there's another school I'd never put myself in massive debt to attend. Won't be sending back their waitlist form so some totally clueless (or extremely rich) person hoping to get off their waitlist and pay full price just moved up a spot. You're welcome.

2/14/11: 2 acceptance packets in the mail today: Baltimore and Thomas Jefferson. Was expecting Baltimore's to arrive, but TJSL was a nice surprise. If style points count for anything(they don't), then Thomas Jefferson would be the big winner. Their acceptance packet was by far the most exciting one I've gotten so far. Nothing about scholarships in either envelope- and I'm guessing neither will be able to offer anything competitive to Washburn's if/when scholarship awards are sent out anyway. Nice to have more options though. Speaking of Washburn, got a phone call last night from a 2L asking if I had any questions. Spoke for about 20 minutes- the personal touch there really does make a difference. No other school has come close.

2/16/11: Busy day today. Working in Charleston this week and it's great to be back. 70 and sunny, palm trees, and $2 PBRs at every bar- I've missed this place. Visited the Law School here today. The admissions guy is a complete tool. Tried telling me (in these exact words) that $200,000 of debt is worth taking on for the privilege of being in Charleston. Uh. I'd love to go to school here, but it's a 4th tier, for-profit, provisionally accredited school. He kept trying to sell the city. Had nothing to say when I prompted him to sell the school. He said they're pretty stingy with scholarships so that should make turning them down pretty easy when the time comes.

Phone interview with UMKC this afternoon. Spoke with a professor and he was a very down-to-earth guy. I think the interview pretty well, though I wasn't all that concerned about my chances of getting in. He said I'd probably get in-state tuition for my first year, which is nice. That still puts the school at $14,000/yr. Will have to decide if being in KC is worth $9000 more per year than being in Topeka. I'm thinking no, but we'll see.

Also found out that I was accepted at Valpo. Not much of a surprise but still good news. I guess I'll find out about scholarships when they send the official packet. Still nothing from Campbell. At the risk of sounding totally arrogant, I'm surprised it's taking them this long to accept me.

2/22/11: Couple things in the mail today. Got the official acceptance from Valpo. Nothing about scholarships inside, so I guess I'll have to wait for that. Emailed about my acceptance to UMKC. Not much of a shock but nice to have it official. Also got my official scholarship letter from Dayton. Contingent on being in the top 40% of my class. Seems simple enough...

Got my award from TJSL - $18,000/year. Sounds nice to say, but their yearly tuition is $38,000. So, you know, that's not happening.

Haven't heard back from Washburn regarding my request for more money. At first I thought their silence was a good thing: Since they've been so responsive to everything previously, I figured that meant they were taking my request under advisement. Now that it's been over a week with no word, it's starting to seem like they're just being dicks and ignoring me. I can live with that. It was worth a shot, at least.

2/23/11: Accepted at Campbell via status checker. They won't be doing scholarship review until March 15th. That seems entirely too late for them to be a consideration.

3/28/11: Been awhile since I've updated. Very busy couple of weeks. Decided to wait a year before going to law school. I'm going to retake the LSATs in June and will do it the right way this time- take a course(which starts next week), study, etc. My 155 was much more of a burden than I thought it'd be going into this, and I figure if I get my score up into the 160s, it'll open a lot more doors for me in terms of which schools I get into. Or at the very least, get me significantly more money at some of the schools I'm into right now. If I can't go to a real quality school, I'm not willing to put myself into 6-figure debt for a random school out in Kansas or Indiana or anywhere else. I quit my job last week, and got a job at a law firm starting in 2 weeks. While I love my current job, the hope is that working at the law firm will strengthen my resume for the next cycle, learn from a group of accomplished lawyers, and make some connections that will hopefully provide me with opportunities in the future. It's upsetting to put it off for another year, since I was/still am excited about a handful of the schools I got into. But I feel like I'd be selling myself short if I rested on my 155 and didn't at least try and improve on it. The experience at the law firm(and hopefully a recommendation letter or two from there) should also help, even if only a little bit.

I got into Southwestern recently, and my South Carolina letter is in the mail, so I should get that decision relatively soon. Nothing from IU-Indy or Santa Clara yet. IU-Indy and South Carolina are both schools I'll probably apply to again next year, regardless of what I score on my LSATs in June. San Diego, Marquette, and Baltimore are also schools I'll consider again next fall. I guess it all depends how much I go up. The only way this decision will backfire is if I don't go up at all. And at that point, if I can't beat a 155 after taking this class, maybe I should rethink the whole law school thing anyway. I feel like that'd be a pretty good sign I may not be cut out for it. So, regardless of how it turns out....it's win-win.