Applications will be going in soon

I was all set to submit my application to GMU today. Well, they don't start accepting electronic applications until Thursday. I will likely wait a few days to submit my application, I don't want to be in that first batch of applications after all. I plan to talk to the GMU reps at the VCU graduate school fair on Thursday. I will be sure to ask them how long it will take for me to hear about their decision.

Here is the list of schools that I will be applying to this cycle. The list might grow, it's still early in the process after all, but I will be applying to these schools.

School	"Percentile"	Prediction
UVA	1.0	Deny
Vandy	11.8	Deny
Washington U	42.5	Consider
Minn	31.3	Weak Consider
W&M	34.1	Weak Consider
GMU	47.1	Consider
W&L	53.2	Consider
Richmond	>50	Admit

As previously mentioned, the "percentile" is an extrapolation of the data on lawschoolpredictor.com. (The guy who runs the site has added a new feature that lets you know the percentage of applicants that were accepted at or below whatever numbers you enter. I stuck with my calculation just to be consistent, but that value is also helpful. You can put my numbers in if you're curious how I stack up against previous classes.) The prediction is also the prediction from LSP.

Given that I'm almost ready to start submitting applications, I have a profile on lawschoolnumber.com. You can check me out my profile here (I'm phdboost over there too).

Law School Fairs

Assuming that there are no issues with my popping over to campus during my lunch, I will be attending the graduate school fair at VCU on October 1. I found a list of the schools that will be attending the fair. I will talk to the people from W&M, GMU, and Richmond (I want that fee waiver). If I have time, I'll pop over to the UNC, BU, and Michigan State tables. I want to ask them about how my grades will be evaluated in light of my advanced degree and career experience (not work experience).

I would really like to drive down to W&M later that afternoon to visit their fair. It looks like most of the schools at VCU will be making the hour drive down to Williamsburg, but Vanderbilt will be there, along with Michigan and a few other top tier law schools that will not be at VCU (here's their attendee list). I would love to go down there, talk to a few schools, and have dinner at Paul's Deli (I've been craving a Hot Holly for months), but I don't want to leave the wife alone with the kids. I actually walked through the grad school fair when I was an undergrad at W&M. Too bad I did not know that I would be applying to law school a decade later.

Applications are almost ready

My second LOR has been processed by LSAC. That means that the only thing between me and a submitted application is a complete personal statement. I just went through my active applications on LSAC.org to make sure that my two good essays will be enough to submit my applications. It looks like I'm in good shape. I have a third statement, but that one was written with one of my safety schools in mind. Now that I am not applying to that school, I will not worry about making some fairly major fixes to that essay. I did just discover that W&L's application has an optional essay about how I handled an ethical dilemma. I have a good situation in mind, but I'm not sure if I want to write that essay. Ann Levine says that whoever reads my file will think I'm lazy for not writing it, but I don't want to write an essay that comes off as a stretch. Maybe I'll jot something down and see how I feel about it in a day or two.

I plan on having most of my applications submitted by October 1. (Or a day or two after as I need to visit U of R at the VCU graduate school fair to get my fee wiaver.) I'm getting crushed at work right now, but I think I'll still have enough mental energy in the evenings to get my applications in shape over the next week or so. It will be nice to relax again without worrying about writing an essay or getting an application in shape. I'm not keen on waiting to hear back from the schools though.

Seth Godwin's Hierarchy of Success

This is just a great post from Seth Godwin. I had to share it on my own blog.

Why I'm OK with Applying in mid-October

There is evidence on TLS that quite a few people are trying to get their applications in as early as possible. My reference book for applying to law school discusses when to submit applications in nice detail, and I have no reason to question her advice. Ann Levine says that it really doesn't help to apply as soon as a school starts taking applications. Besides needing to work a few bugs out of the system at the beginning of the cycle, the people who will be making the admissions decisions aren't even in the office. They're on the road trying to recruit new students. Here is a list of the schools that will be at William and Mary's graduate and professional school fair next month. These people aren't going to be reading files. In Ann's opinion, your application is still in plenty early if it gets there before Halloween. Getting it in before Thanksgiving is still early enough to take advantage of rolling admissions (there are more seats available at the beginning of the cycle).

I've discovered another reason to hold back on submitting applications. Fee waivers are still rolling in at a nice clip. I got three today for crying out loud (Cordozo, St. Louis, and the one I'm about to mention)! I thought I was set on which schools I would be applying to, but just this evening I got a fee waiver from Washington University in St. Louis. I will definitely take them up on their offer. I also got a letter from U of R letting me know that they'll be at VCU's law school fair. If I pay them a visit at said event, they will happily provide a fee waiver. Seeing as they were the only school that I did not have a waiver for, I will pop on over there during my lunch break on October 1 and say hello.

Wisdom from Wisconsin

Wisconsin sent me some information via the postal service. I was flipping through the book and noticed that they have a nice section where they talk about how they evaluate certain factors in an application. A couple of them are particularly relevant to my situation.

To quote from the material:

Graduate Study

Although the mere experience of graduate study does not, in our judgment, significantly increase the quality of law school performance, strong recent graduate work plus a strong LSAT may overcome weaker college grades. Also, an interesting background of graduate study may be a favorable factor in itself.

Time interval between college graduation and application to law school

We have some evidence that applicants at least a year out of college, especially those with strong recent LSAT scores, will have a better academic record in law school than their numerical credentials suggest. The post-college experience, whether in work or volunteer activity, may be a favorable factor as well.

I find the phrasing of the graduate school comments very interesting. They stress that simply going to graduate school doesn't seem to result in superior performance in law school, but that experience can mitigate a low undergrad GPA. This comment is consistent with what I have heard from two admissions reps. The time interval also raises a couple of interesting points. It supports my previous comments about how the LSAT determines whether you'll be looked at seriously and this other stuff is just the material that they use to differentiate one 168 from another 168.

This comment is also consistent with something my brother told me. He's an older law student and he claims that his law school friends, other older students, are doing better in their studies than the younger crowd. That makes sense to me. For one, if you're going to law school after working for a couple of years, you really want to be there. Working a regular job also makes it easier to treat school like a job (at least that was my experience in grad school). I'm glad to see that at least one school recognizes that a couple years of real life will make a difference in how somebody does in law school.

The Wisconsin view book discuss some other factors, quality of undergraduate institution, college grading and course selection patterns are just a couple of topics that are discussed. They provide some interesting insight into the thinking of at least one law school on these soft factors. If nothing else, it's solid information about factors that mean far more to the nontraditional applicant than those fresh from their undergraduate studies.

Vanderbilt is back on my list

After doing a little poking around on LSN, I have decided not to apply to some places that have been on my list. My numbers put me in the green dots at LSN for Illinois. It's the same story at Georgia. My numbers would very likely get me into Lewis and Clark, Tennessee, and Cincinnati as well. Rather than spend the money to apply to these schools for the expected ego boosting acceptance email/letter/call, I am going to apply those funds to a Vanderbilt application fee.

I'm applying to Vanderbilt for a couple of reasons. I want to stay in the Southeast for one thing, but I noticed that they stressed three aspects of the Class of 2012 that apply to me as well. One, their median LSAT is a 168, which is my score. Two, they point out that their students have a variety of experiences from various professional pursuits and are a little more advanced in age. That would describe a 33 year old like me. They also make a point to be very precise in how many members of the class have advanced degrees. That's me again. People with my numbers were waitlisted at Vanderbilt last year, at least those have an LSN profile anyway. Will my experience and advanced degree get me over that hump?

The deeper I get into this law school admissions game, the more I have come to the conclusion that the LSAT score determines whether or not you will be seriously considered at a particular school. The GPA and other factors are used to select from those people with the appropriate LSAT scores. I think my LSAT score makes me competitive at Vanderbilt, and my experience will be enough to mitigate my less than stellar GPA. This blog is all about the effect of a PhD and other experiences on law school admissions. I think I'm a good fit for Vanderbilt. Let's hope they agree.

Getting Personal

As I mentioned in a post following my visit to U of R, I've been working on getting my resume into shape. My employer provided a resume workshop last week. One of our recruiters came in and gave us specific advice about how we should present ourselves to potential employers. Most resume tips are not geared toward scientists, so it was nice to have somebody come in and give us some good insight on how a resume is reviewed. He had some good tips and even offered to take a look at our resume once we had incorporated a few of the ideas that were offered in the workshop. I took him up on his offer, and he gave me a few tips that I thought were pretty minor but actually made a big impact when I incorporated them.

That's all well and good for employment, but what about law school. I am debating whether or not to include a personal section. It would be pretty small, it would basically just mention that I've been married for 10 years and have two kids. I don't have time to hike, run marathons, or pursue a passion for French cooking. I like NASCAR (it killed me to watch the Nationwide race from Richmond on TV tonight rather than actually seeing it live. I know people knock NASCAR, but the races are a very intense experience. You can see how much the cars are sliding around through the corners, it is very loud, and you can smell the gas and burning rubber. I highly recommend going if you're ever given the chance. And spend the money on renting the Sprint Vision or whatever they call those things. Listening to drivers and crew chiefs talk about the car brings a whole new dimension to the race. You can't listen to Bill Belichek tell Tom Brady which play to run (not that the jargon would make any sense anyway), but you can hear Kasey Kahne (my favorite driver) tell Kenny Francis (his crew chief) how much his car sucks.) but how lame would a statement about being a NASCAR fan look on a resume? I have given serious thought to mentioning that I won an NFL pick-em pool last year, but I don't want to give the impression that I'm a degenerate gambler. (It's just an office thing, no big deal.)

I used to workout, but I gave that up to study for the LSAT and write personal statements (and blog posts). I only travel for work (nothing sucks more than riding an elevator with people headed to the beach all day when you're heading to a pharmaceutical plant on the southern coast of Puerto Rico for 12 hours or so). I don't know any other languages (although if I keep getting sent to Puerto Rico that might change), and I have a yard service so it's not like I garden or anything like that. I'm always reading a book (I'm reading Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence right now), but I think being an avid reader is a pretty generic statement on a resume. I think the family thing is thin, but it is something substantial. I don't really have any other hobbies because I have kids, so the fact that I am a parent explains why I don't have any other activities. I'm leaning towards putting it on because I want the adcoms to know that I am married with two kids and there is no other place in my application to mention this simple fact. I'll put it on and see how I feel about it in a couple of weeks.

This personal thing is a little strange for me. I'm so used to being very professional in looking for jobs that including information like this is almost uncomfortable. I feel like I'm getting too personal on a document that is about my professional experiences and achievements. I will approach law school like a job I have had a hard time taking down that wall. I dealt with it in my personal statement too. I think I have managed to handle it in a way that lets them get to know me, but it's still a very awkward situation for me.

Lots of Love Letters

Just a quick post before I go to bed. Today has been a banner day for correspondence from law schools. I had three emails waiting for me this morning (a fee waiver from Georgia, a hey look at us message from Michigan State, and a note telling me where University of Illinois reps will be during the law school fair season (this is a phenomenon that I have only recently discovered and will discuss in a future post)), I had two letters in my mailbox (one from Kentucky and one from Richmond telling me which fairs they would be attending), and I just checked my email to see another message, this one from the University of Arkansas (no fee waiver as their fee is already waived for everybody who applies). 'Tis the season I guess.

Application Itch

I was going to apply somewhere that didn't require two letters of recommendation (I only have one in LSAC), but the only place I could find that didn't require 2 was Richmond. I want that application to be very tight. I'm not ready to pull that trigger just yet. I took a quick look at a very handy website, appreqs.com, and found that Baylor only requires 1. I have a few waiver for Baylor. Maybe I'll submit that application just to see what the process is like and have that first submission out of my way.

Sample Set - Take 3

I've been reconsidering which schools will get my application. My thinking has been based on two factors: 1) How much money I want to spend on my applications, and 2) How much more time I want to spend on personal statements and other essays. Schools that I considered applying to but left off my original list have waived their application fee. This makes the application decision a no-brainer for W&L and Illinois (especially in light of Dean Press's comments about the value of a Ph.D. and work experience).

Notre Dame and UCLA are off of my list. I just don't see myself at either school. I'm on the fence about Duke and Vanderbilt. I would like to apply to both, I'm just not sure if I want to spend the money. I'm also not sure about the additional essays. I just don't know if I have a "Why Duke" essay in me. I know why I want to apply. It fits right in with my motivation for law school, but after spending a couple of months on my personal statements (I have three that are very close to being finished), I just don't know if I want to write another essay. I'm going to take a look at their website and see what I can find to link my interests with their program. Regardless of how well I can write that essay, there is still the issue of paying the application fee. I know the fee waivers for Duke and Vanderbilt have gone out, and, no surprise, I have not gotten one to either school. I would really like to take a shot, but do I want to spend $150+ to find out if I'll be admitted?

So here is my revised school list. I'll think about whether or not I want to apply to Duke and Vandy in the next week or two. I would guess that I may apply to one. It's pretty likely that I'll drop one of them. I need to look into both a little more before I make a firm decision one way or the other.

School	"Percentile"	Prediction
Duke	5.9	Deny
UVA	1.0	Deny
Vandy	11.8	Deny
Minn	31.3	Weak Consider
Illinois	51.8	Consider
W&M	34.1	Weak Consider
GMU	47.1	Consider
W&L	53.2	Consider
Cinncinnatti	>50	Strong Consider
Tennessee	>50	Admit
Lewis and Clark	>50	Strong Consider
Richmond	>50	Admit

I've replaced to schools where my numbers have me as an auto-rejection with two considers. A quick look at Law School Numbers tells me that I have a very good shot at the new additions. My numbers definitely have me out at Duke, but I could be in the waitlist range at Vanderbilt. Will the Ph.D. get me an admit? It's still early. We'll see how things go for me in the next couple of weeks.

GPA in Context

I found a site that tracks changes in the GPA at different schools. William and Mary happens to have some data on the site. It turns out that my GPA is almost right at my class average. The average GPA in 1998, the year I graduated, was 3.08. I am only 0.03 from the average. For all intents and purposes, I'm at the average. I'm not proud of that, but it's better than I thought. The average GPA for the class of 2005 was 3.23. Yikes, it's a good thing my GPA is less critical to an admissions decision that those people that graduated a few years ago.