RPI-Fan's Law School Admissions (Hopefully!) Dynasty

[sooner333]

Congrats on all of the acceptances! I'm currently a 1L and am enjoying the time off for the holidays. Unfortunately I didn't do all of the early work you did because I was working on a campaign job then was wondering if I wanted to take some time off before school. By the time I decided to go to law school and get my stuff all together it was much later than this point last year. However, I'm happy at OU (in-state w/ a partial scholarship) and probably would have been here regardless of when I applied...although UNLV's full scholarship was pretty enticing. Reading this does make me wish I had made me get my act together earlier just to see what would have been out there.

Good luck with the rest of your apps...I'll certainly be following along.

[molson]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

Thanks! Where did you go, if I may ask? Actually, I really, really wanted to go to UIdaho just for its location -- I guess Cornell comes the closest to matching it (but is still way off) -- but practical considerations ruled out that idea.

I ended up at the University of Oregon - loved the area and the law building was brand new. It's a regional school, but the northwest is a region with a very good legal job market compared to the rest of the country. I've worked in Alaska in the past and feel like that'll be my permanent destination, and the law schools most represented up there are U of O and Washington.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by molson

I ended up at the University of Oregon - loved the area and the law building was brand new. It's a regional school, but the northwest is a region with a very good legal job market compared to the rest of the country. I've worked in Alaska in the past and feel like that'll be my permanent destination, and the law schools most represented up there are U of O and Washington.

That's so cool! Alaska and rural Pacific NW in general is kind of my "dream place" to work & live! I guess most of my places probably don't rule that out, and the reason there aren't more east coast grads up there is self-selection.

I've heard what you say about Oregon is true -- little competition for a pretty sizable (and nice, in general) legal market.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by sooner333

Congrats on all of the acceptances! I'm currently a 1L and am enjoying the time off for the holidays. Unfortunately I didn't do all of the early work you did because I was working on a campaign job then was wondering if I wanted to take some time off before school. By the time I decided to go to law school and get my stuff all together it was much later than this point last year. However, I'm happy at OU (in-state w/ a partial scholarship) and probably would have been here regardless of when I applied...although UNLV's full scholarship was pretty enticing. Reading this does make me wish I had made me get my act together earlier just to see what would have been out there.

Good luck with the rest of your apps...I'll certainly be following along.

Thanks for the kind words! Always like hearing other peoples' perspectives, especially when they've made the same type of decisions I'm faced with!

I'm proud of myself for being pretty organized with this whole process. I had only whimsically thought about going to law school prior to last Christmas-time. But, this girl I really really liked broke up with me and I was kind of desolate and just decided that I was going to buckle down and do it. Sounds like a recipe for a bad decision, but I'm so happy now that I am going and am convinced it is the right thing to do.

Graduating a semester late really helped me, I think; I had an easy semester this go-around making the application process not too difficult (and allowing me to send them all out early, which is huge!), I got additional good work experience and a great LOR out of my job this summer, and was able to take the June LSAT, which let me know where I've stood for quite some time.

I have thought about re-taking in February to see if I could get the few points that might make Stanford more realistic for me. I'll really have nothing to lose as they'll be (basically) the only one I'm waiting on at that point. However, I'm afraid I'll get dinged before then and sitting for the test will be worthless. I suppose that scoring well couldn't hurt me in trying to argue for scholarship money. The deadline is January 2, but as I write this I don't want to leave any stone unturned. So far, I really have no regrets about this process; if I don't re-take that might me something I could lament, which I don't want at all.

[RPI-Fan]

Quick update:

1) I am re-taking the LSAT on Saturday for shits-and-giggles to see if I can't pull a miracle score out of nowhere... haven't done much studying whatsoever. On the couple practice tests I did, I was doing a bit better on Logical Reasoning, but bad on Games. Alas, maybe I'll pick up some easy games (the games I was doing were from when they were harder, I believe).
2) More acceptances: not sure where I left off, but, in at NYU, UVA (current #1), Penn, Wisconsin.
2a) Waitlisted at Northwestern -- a bit surprising as I have pretty good (in my opinion) work experience, but it's all while I've been pursuing undergrad studies (even though ~1 year of it is completely full-time 8-5 professional job). Alas, not particularly disappointed -- can't imagine any way I would've gone there over UVA/Michigan (other than a full scholarship, which wouldn't have happened anyways...)
3) Going to visit UVA at some point in February and March. Have been in contact with the hockey coach about playing hockey there and it looks pretty good in that regard.
4) Waiting for the thin envelope from Stanford & Harvard so I can really make my mind up on UVA...

[Izulde]

Congratulations on the UVA acceptance!

[digamma]

Woot! Congrats on UVA! You would be the third FOFC'er (that I know of) to be a Law Hoo!

[Barkeep49]

What has made UVA your #1?

[MalcPow]

Congrats, more great news. You've got so many good options you should really start thinking seriously about where you might want to be post-graduation (if location is important to you). Different schools naturally feed into different markets, and if that's not where you want to be you might have to work a little harder to get the opportunities you're looking for geographically. Most of your classmates at UVA are going to feed into DC or NY, and if you do well you'll have great clerkship opportunities to boot. At the same time, if you know you want to be in New York and NYU is giving you some money or something, you should probably go there, even over a Harvard.

It sounds like you're stoked about UVA and you should be, it's an awesome school. I'll just chime in as the wet blanket and say it's really critical to take a step back and remove yourself from the "application process" before making a decision. I've seen it play out with my wife, myself, and a bunch of friends, and it's very easy to get caught up in the abstract game of rankings and name reputations and a lot of nebulous fluff and end up making a bad value decision. You've got enough options that you should step out of the applicant mindset and evaluate these places as institutions you are hiring to prepare you for where you want to be three years from now (and beyond obviously) and show you a decent time in between. There's a sort of euphoric "I got into X awesome school" that can really cloud that stuff so it's good to put a check on yourself.

Congrats again though, you can't mess this up that much with those options.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Great stuff here, RPI.

I'm glad I caught this thread out of the corner of my eye while on the "Main Forums" page.

Congrats on all the acceptances. That's a hell of an accomplishment. Your level of organization is fantastic.

Based on the schools you've already been accepted to, it will really come down to where you want to live and, to a lesser extent, where you may see yourself working in the future. (I just read MalcPow's post above and he summed all that up quite well).

You have a ton of options, which is awesome.

In the end, of course, you should go to Michigan.

Great school, great small, college town, great college hockey, great college sports in general. Just think how much fun it will be to be in Ann Arbor for the first three years of the Coach Rod Era!

[RPI-Fan]

Thanks all the very kind and generous comments.

Regarding what MalcPow has said, I think I've done a good job already of evaluating things from different perspectives. After all, if I really was caught up in the whirlwind of rankings and reputation, wouldn't I be dead-set on NYU even though I know I won't like the campus? One of the reasons UVA is a high choice for me is because I'll be able to play club hockey there.

UT would be my dream place to be, but that is a significant drop in prestige and would affect, in my estimation, job prospects in a manner that I'm not prepared to accept. If UT decides to give me more money (in other words, a full ride), I'll have a VERY tough decision as I won't need to hedge against not doing as well in law school as I hope. But, I think that UT is unlikely to offer any more money.

There are really the only two foreseeable things that could knock me off of UVA as of right now -- more money at UT, or an acceptance to Harvard/Stanford. UVA just has the right combination of rankings/prestige, LOCATION (this is huge), and student body makeup (not particularly diverse, which I'm actually a fan of... sue me).

[MalcPow]

Cool beans man, keep us posted. I didn't mean to sound condescending on anything, just trying to share some experience.

Are you thinking you want to pursue a big firm corporate job?

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by MalcPow

Cool beans man, keep us posted. I didn't mean to sound condescending on anything, just trying to share some experience.

Are you thinking you want to pursue a big firm corporate job?

Short answer: yes. I like high-pressure situations where you have to work hard, so I don't see why I wouldn't want that type of job, especially with the pay they offer.

[MalcPow]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

Short answer: yes. I like high-pressure situations where you have to work hard, so I don't see why I wouldn't want that type of job, especially with the pay they offer.

Do you have a significant other?

[RPI-Fan]

Just got back from the LSAT.

My predicted score range: 166 - 176 (most likely near the lower end of that range). For posterity's sake, here's what my min & max wrong predictions are:

LG: 0/2
LR1: 2/4
RC: 1/3
LR2: 2/5
Total: 5/14

[RPI-Fan]

Sorry for the long delay. Quick update is that I'm going to UVA. Got dinged at Yale and Stanford (those stung), waitlisted at Cal and Northwestern (didn't care about those), and was (and still am) deferred at Harvard. Sent Harvard a letter saying I'll go if you call, up to and including the first day of classes, but I'm 100% making my plans on that not happening. If it comes up I'll figure things out on the fly. As I said though that's a virtual impossibility so just ignoring that factor.

Cornell made me a very good scholarship offer, but I wanted a change of pace that they couldn't offer. UT's offer wasn't very flattering and I was downright turned off by a number of things there when I visited the school. For some reason I never got all that high on Duke. Didn't visit there. When I visited UVA I was super sick and wasn't blown away, but comparing it to my UT visit (where I was in a great mood and desperately wanted to love it but really did not like it) it is a really awesome place that isn't missing much at all. I'll be able to play hockey there so I won't feel like I'm leaving something on the table in that regard.

I got into NYU but never ended up seriously considering it because I just know how much I hate NYC. It's too bad because it's so highly regarded but alas I know I'm putting myself in a better position to succeed at UVA with some scholarship money (NYU would have undoubtedly cost the "sticker price") than at NYU.

Perhaps a further update later if anyone is still following...

Oh, I also took the February LSAT and absolutely bombed. Didn't feel great walking out, but definitely thought it was a realistic possibility I could have improved my score from the first time. Alas, that couldn't have been further from the truth.

[Izulde]

Congratulations on all your success and I'm sure you'll love UVA!

[molson]

Charlottesville is a great town, I'm sure you're like it.

Remember to balance your life down there - I have a co-worker that went to Cornell that is jealous of my past exploits at Oregon (She spent a little TOO much time in the library). At the end of the day, we have the same job, so I clearly came out ahead.

[MalcPow]

Congrats man! Not to toot your horn here, but you really rocked this process. Good luck at UVA!

[digamma]

Sweet...welcome to the UVA Law Hoos contingent.

[lcjjdnh]

Bit late on this, but congrats on the final decision. As I mentioned earlier in thread, I'm considering law school. I'll likely start my own thread this summer about the application process. Perhaps I'll start some time soon with my reviews of all the schools.

[Mountain]

iFirst of all congratulations on getting offers from so many fine law schools you must be an exceptional student in order to have received so much attention. The tier one law schools UVA, Duke, Stanford, Yale, Havard, N.Y.U. are extremely helpful if not almost necessary to getting into the large law firms that pay starting associates in the $150,000 range a year to start. But remember what your quality of life is going to be like at those firms as an associate.

Most will have anywhere from a 2,000 to 2,400 billable hours per year requirement to keep your job and stay on partnership track To accomplish that you will have to work 55-65 hours per week. If you go to a school in the second tier say Georgia, Florida, Wisonsin, Notre Dame .... you can still obtain the types of jobs available for the first tier students as long as you're in the top 10-15% percent of your class and you could get a free ride. If you don't want to be in the big law firm/corporate life then you really don't need to attend a top tier school anyway. And from your offers its not like you're droopping from UVA to an one of those unaccredited law schools that try to recruit everybody they can. Every other type of job in the legal profession you can get without having to go to tier one. Just a thought from a lawyer who went to Univeristy of South Carolina and saw several of my classmates getting offers from Wall Street firms anyway.