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.