Indiana University decision

My big envelope from Indiana came in the mail on Monday. I've been hoping to hear something from them soon. I was a little nervous about my application after I forgot to attach my resume to my application. At least I realized my mistake soon after I submitted my application. I emailed my resume to them and asked that it be included with my file. I guess the resume made it.

With the Indiana decision in, my cycle is complete. While I have to confess that I have flirted with the idea of looking through LSN and finding a school where my numbers are borderline just to see if the PhD gives me an edge, I will not likely do that. For one thing, I don't want to pay an application fee, but the flash drive that had my personal statement and other application files on it broke a few weeks ago. (I just got a new one from WashU so I don't need to replace my old one.) I could pull up my submitted apps and complete my application with those, but I just don't think it's worth it. That probably won't stop me from looking around LSN after I'm finished with this post though.

A detailed analysis of my application cycle will be coming soon. I'm focused on another project right now. More about that later.

In at WashU

I got the email that I had been accepted earlier this week. Only IU remains. If I hadn't gotten the late fee waivers from Wash U and IU, my cycle would be complete already. I will review my results and compare them to other applicants who do not have a PhD once I hear from IU. I also plan on adding some tags to make the blog a little easier to navigate.

Minnesota Decision

It is possible to get accepted at Minnesota with a personal statement that is less than two pages (granted, it's short by a few lines) that does not address a specific reason for applying to Minnesota. I got the call that I had been accepted a few days before Christmas. My package arrived in the mail today with a scholarship offer of $18,000 a year. I thought that Minnesota was the most likely after UVA to reject my application. Now I've been accepted and offered a pretty nice scholarship. There is an applicant on LSN that has numbers very similar to mine (and a few schools that overlap, It will be interesting to see how his cycle compares to mine as he is still in undergrad). He was given a scholarship for $12,000 a year. I guess my career experience and PhD bought me an extra $6,000.

Only IU-Bloomington and Washington University are pending. Once rejections start going out I'll be able to see how much of a boost my PhD gave me in my cycle.

GMU Decision

Following on the heels of my promotion and UVA waiting list (that's what they call it), I got a phone call from GMU while I was driving back to work after getting lunch this afternoon. I have been accepted. GMU is a very good match for me. The PhD patent lawyer that I talked to raved about GMU's IP program. I'm in-state so tuition will be reasonable, and I get the feeling that there are a good number of non-traditional students (I'll have to look into that assertion to be sure). Of the four VA schools that I have applied to, I definitely know the least about Mason. To be fair, I live in Richmond, went to W&M as an undergrad, and thought hard about how to optimize my application for UVA. My familiarity with GMU will definitely increase in the next few months though. I have been waiting on this acceptance to start getting a better idea of the job market for patent attorneys. I am hoping that I can take advantage of my new accepted student status to get some access to recent grads or current students to get a better feel for the market.

UVA Waitlist

I got an email from UVA today telling me that they cannot offer me a spot in the class of 2013 at this time. They have put me on the waiting list. I consider that a small victory. Based on my numbers, I should have been an auto-reject (other applicant with similar numbers have been rejected outright, see the LSN graph here). Some combination of the factors that I discussed previously at least got me a serious look.

I don't know how hard I will push it, but I think I could do a few things to get myself in position for an offer from the waitlist. I could let them know about my promotion. I could take the LSAT again, but that will not happen. I have no desire to start preparing for the LSAT again, but a couple more points on the test in February might merit an admission offer. I would rather spend my time pursuing something with a little more upside. I have been planning on taking the patent bar. Passing the patent bar would show that I am serious about law and demonstrate that I have some aptitude for legal studies. It would be one more thing to separate me from the mass of people on the waitlist while giving me a few more opportunities for summer positions during law school. I'm going to enjoy the holidays, pick a study plan, and get going on patent bar prep in the New Year. I will likely visit the school. I know a 2L in the law school. Maybe he has some helpful insider information.

Uncertain

Having concluded my three part attempt to convince myself that my PhD will be more than three letters on my resume in my post-research life, I was hoping to have something new to write about on the admissions front this evening. People who occupy my region of the LSN graphs have been getting accepted at Minnesota and WashU at a pretty good clip in the last few days. I make a conscious effort to avoid reading anything into the order of admissions decisions, but knowing that I could hear something soon makes my heart speed up just a little bit every time I check my email (which if frequent) or get a call on my cell phone (which is rare). All of this uncertainty is trying my nerves.

I'm still not certain making the move to law school is the 100% right move for me. You would think that I am fully on board with the idea of leaving my job and attending law school, I have gone to the trouble of taking the LSAT and writing a personal statement (the difficulties of which I have chronicled in this blog) after all, but I am still conflicted on the wisdom of this decision. I know I can succeed in law school and as a lawyer, but it is the best move for me right now?

I've discussed my motivation for law school, but my thinking has continued to evolve in the months since I wrote that post. Now that I have been accepted by the two schools that I wanted the most, Richmond and W&M, I have been working through the reality of attending law school. My last few posts hint at my fears. The job market for lawyers is really in the toilet. There seems to be a consensus that IP lawyers are more marketable than the average lawyer, but that is not enough to allay all of my fears. Good grades will help me get a job, but there is no guarantee that I will be at the top of my class. While I think I would be a very good law student (and lawyer, of course), who knows what will happen once I'm actually in school.

The next few weeks should be telling. Acceptances, stuff at work, things should be coming to a crescendo quickly.

Snail Mail Surprises

This weekend has seen two unusual and unexpected pieces of mail show up in my mailbox. On Thursday I received an envelope with something thick and sturdy inside. It was an issue of the Alabama Law Review with a hand written note from Page, the very nice lady who called to tell me that I had been accepted by Alabama. With my outstanding credentials, they thought I might be interested in one of their four journals. Maybe this was prompted by my graduate school publications. There has been no word of other accepted students getting a copy of the Alabama Law Review on TLS. It's an interesting and intriguing recruiting technique. I haven't thought much about law journals while in graduate school, but it is likely something that I will pursue. This mailing has me thinking about it a little more seriously now.

I got a small envelope from Indiana-Bloomington on Saturday. They sent a note telling me that I have been given a fee waiver and a small brochure about the school. I was immediately intrigued, but I wasn't sure if I should apply. I knew that Indiana was the highest ranked school with a "strong consider" prediction for me on LSP. While seeing if my PhD would give me an edge in admissions was not really in play for IU, looking through the brochure gave me a very good reason to apply. Aid awards are based on the usual LSAT and GPA, as well as leadership potential, work experience, contribution to class diversity, and other factors indicating success in the profession of law. I took a look at last years graph for IU on LSN. There were some nice aid packages given to people with numbers very similar to mine. I have already submitted my application. We'll see if they give me a similar scholarship package.

California Gold Strike

So I take a trip to California (for work, not pleasure) and big law school stuff starts to happen. I was chatting with some reps for a company that makes pharmaceutical testing equipment when I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I took a peek at my phone and saw a number with an 804 area code. That's the Richmond area code. I excused myself from my conversation and took the call. Sure enough, it was Dean Rahman calling to congratulate me on my acceptance to law school at the University of Richmond. While I knew that I had a very good shot at U of R when I got my LSAT score, there was always that fear of having something go wrong during the application process. I was also happy to hear that I will be given the opportunity to apply for the Marshall scholarship. If I get that scholarship, I will be attending U of R in the fall.

I also received my letter from Washington and Lee while I was in CA. My wife let me know that it was an offer of acceptance. I was never really sure how things would go for me at W&L so I was happy to get my offer so early in the process.

I applied to 8 schools and have heard back from 4. I've been in the first wave of acceptances for all 4 schools that have accepted me so far. Looking at the graphs on LSN for W&M, Alabama, and W&L, my GPA makes me one of the lower (or lowest) green dots for each school. Maybe there is something to this PhD boost. I know that UVA has been accepting people under Regular Admission (as opposed to binding Early Decision). I have not heard a peep from them so I am not in the first wave of UVA acceptances. Actually, the status checkers at the other 4 schools have not budged in weeks. Nobody else has heard from the other non-UVA schools either. When I do hear something from GMU, WashU, UVA, or Minnesota, I will be sure to report it here.

Acceptance Packages

The letter from W&M promised in the status checker was in my mailbox today. It was a thin envelope containing 3 pieces of paper. One was the official offer letter with info about seat deposit deadlines. There was also an invitation to their accepted student day. It's in March. The third sheet was very unexpected. They're giving me scholarship money. It's not much, $6,000 a year, but that's $6,000 more than I was expecting.

I also got the huge envelope from Alabama. They sent a couple of hand written notes from various dean's telling me that they hope I come down. There was a binder with housing information and other factoids about the area. I flipped through it pretty quickly this afternoon. I also flipped through the viewbook that came in the mail a couple of days ago with a letter informing me of my fee waiver. Thanks, Bama, but you've already accepted me.

To wrap up the busy day, two more status checker links were delivered to my email inbox. One was from WashU. It only said I was complete, but that's more than I knew before the checker. The other one was from W&L. This one tells me that a decision has been made and a letter is in the mail. A few hours later, a second email came mentioning some kind of technical difficulty and an apology for any confusion. Some people on TLS saw their status change from decision made to simply complete. I checked mine again earlier this evening and it still said that a decision has been made. The TLS thread has some reports of people calling the school to find out what's going on, but I don't put much stock in any of those comments. I guess we'll see what comes in the mail next week.

I was hoping for a callback from Dean Rahman, but my cell phone was silent. A few people have indicated that they were accepted over on LSN so I'm pretty confident that I would have gotten good news if I hadn't been reading with my 2 year old. If they call at 8:15 in the evening, they might call over the weekend.

Acceptance #2 (and maybe #3)

I usually don't log into my status checkers at work, but when the email with the W&M status checker came this morning, I decided to take a quick peek. I'm glad I took the time. Down in the mailings section there was a nice little, Congrats, admit package mailed 11/5. I was expecting to hear from them next week so this was a very pleasant surprise. Being a W&M alum, I very much wanted to be accepted into the law school. Getting into W&M was the goal that I set for myself at the very beginning of this process. I am very happy to have W&M as a definite law school option.

As for maybe #3, I was very surprised to see that somebody called my cell phone and left a message while I was putting my kids to bed tonight. I didn't recognize the number, but it was from the local area code. It was a call from Dean Rahman (it's sad that typing her name makes me think of Raman Spectroscopy). She is an admissions dean at U of R. She's going to call me back. I assumed it was a call to let me know that I had been accepted. (I checked the Richmond admissions thread from last year on TLS to check my hunch. They do call to let you know you've been accepted.) This was also a surprise. I called U of R on Monday to see if my Dean's Certificates had arrived. My VCU letter was there, but they didn't have the letter from W&M. When I talked to W&M, they told me that they would send a copy of the original out right away. Maybe they found my W&M certificate after I contacted them because I don't see the letter getting to U of R from Williamsburg, that letter making it into my file, and my file being reviewed in a few days. I just hope she calls tomorrow. I'm going to a conference out in LA next week.

UVA complete, Alabama Decision

My application cycle concluded today when I emailed my in-state forms to UVa. I got an email back about an hour later telling me that I was approved for in-state tuition. (The staff at UVa is really on the ball. After submitting my application last night, I got an email early this morning letting me know my application had been received. The email also had a link to another status checker.) Barring any surprise fee waivers from a top 20 school (I received number 30 today, from Pitt), I am finished with my law school applications.

In a strange symmetry, I got a call from Page at the University of Alabama. She was calling to welcome me to Alabama law. My admission letter and Admitted Student Packet should be arriving in a couple of weeks.

Waiting Games

I requested fee waivers from Vanderbilt and Emory. These, with UVA, will be my major reach schools. I will have to wait and see what they have to say about my polite request for a fee waiver.

Waiting to hear about a fee waiver will be nothing compared to waiting to hear about admissions decisions. I was mentally prepared to not hear anything until mid-November, until I came across this thread on Alabama admissions at TLS. Knowing that I might hear something soon has shaken my mental preparations. Having two status checkers (GMU and Minnesota) have also made me a little more obsessive about my status. I let myself check those once a day. My residence status has gone from out-of-state to in-state at GMU. Other than that, neither one of them has changed. I can be patient, but it would be nice to have one decision. Just to get the ball rolling.

Application 1 has been submitted

My first application has been submitted. I bit on Alabama's offer of $20 for iTunes if I submitted an application. I got the email on Thursday and had my application in that night. The fine print on the email said that supplies were limited so I wanted to be sure to get my materials in ASAP. I haven't heard anything back from them, but it looks like everything has made its way through LSAC. Hopefully I'll hear something in the next day or two. Alabama is an attractive option. The tuition is reasonable and they place well in the southeast (I kind of which I had mentioned that somewhere in my application).

lawschoolpredictor.com has me as a consider with 55% of previous classes have my numbers or below at Alabama. The algorithm that determines the prediction has been tweaked to handle some more special cases. See the site for more details. I noticed that my first Admit prediction has moved up to UC Davis from Florida. Other than that, I didn't notice any changes in my prediction profile.

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).

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.

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.

Letter of Recommendation

The author of my admissions reference book, Ann Levine, had a blog talk radio show about tips for non-traditional applicants. There was a lengthy discussion about how people who have been out of school for a few years go about getting letters of recommendation. You can listen to the show (I linked to it above) to see what her panel had to say about their letters. I'll tell you about mine right now.

I have requested two LOR. One was from my graduate school research adviser. We worked very closely for 4 years so he knows me very well. I asked him to address a few things in his letter. I wanted his letter to be the graduate school experience piece of my application. I asked him to discuss the sophistication of my laser experiments (I did degenerate four wave mixing experiments with a femtosecond laser system in case you were wondering). I also asked him to mention the impact factor of the journal that published my papers. (Again, in case you were wondering I have a communication in JACS, three papers in JPC journals (2 in B and 1 in C), and one in Applied Physics.) There were a few other things I asked him to mention as well. I got lucky and caught him between trips to Europe. He got his letter in quickly. It took LSAC about a week to process it. He told me he tried to make it strong. Let's hope he was successful.

My second letter is coming from my old manager. She's only my old manager because she was promoted. I mentioned before that I was a little uneasy about asking her for a letter, but she was very supportive when we talked about it. Everybody moves on to other things, she told me. She still hasn't written her letter, but I'm hoping she took care of it on her way to China this week. I'll remind her that I need it by early September when she gets back next week. I also asked her to address a few topics. I'm going to law school to help me reach a leadership position in the pharmaceutical industry. I will be addressing that in my personal statement (after weeks of trying, I think I finally have a topic that will let me get to my ambitions in a way that tells the adcoms about me) and I want to make sure that there is an informed opinion that will support my ability to achieve that ambition.

WE? How about CE!

I was skimming through the TLS forums again this afternoon and came across a post about the perceived value of work experience. I say perceived because the more of these things I read, the more I realize that these people really have no idea what the hell they're talking about. If you've been working some entry level job at some office job, that experience really won't be worth much. But if you've been out of school for 10+ years and have held positions with some real responsibility, how can something like that not be taken into account during the application review? Every applicant and every situation is different. How can you make a post about there is no value to work experience when you are not aware of the nature and extent of that experience for every applicant? While it is likely that a job like mine won't get me into Harvard, my experience has to be considered given that my GPA was established a decade ago. For somebody a year or two out of school, work experience probably won't count for much because they haven't done anything in their career. Let's just agree with the TLS post and say that work experience doesn't mean much. Career experience does matter. If it doesn't, this whole law school application carnival should just be junked for a webpage where you enter your GPA and LSAT score.

Thank you, Zeus

A perfect control for my little investigation has appeared in the 2009-2010 application cycle at LSN. Dionysus has a 3.15 GPA with a 168 LSAT score. If you click on his user name you will go to his profile. He's been looking at lawschoolpredictor.com. Several of his schools are right where our numbers go from deny to weak consider. He's a white guy like me and he doesn't mention any significant softs in his post. Thanks for posting a profile, Dionysus. Good luck with your applications.

The Sample Set - Take 2

I am not satisfied with my list of schools. The selection process was too arbitrary. I want to apply to schools where I have a real chance at being admitted, but I would also like to have some kind of gauge to rank the schools by how likely I am to be admitted. The deny/weak consider labels on lawschoolpredictor.com are just too broad to separate the deny where I have zero chance from a place where I have a small but realistic chance of admission. Well, the index calculation that is used to make that deny/weak consider prediction provides information that has allowed me to select schools that are nicely spread out on a scale of admissions probability. A little bit of data entry into Excel and a few simple calculations later, I have a number that gives me an idea of which pile my file would end up in on the admission dean's desk. Here's my "percentile" the top 30 or so schools. I stopped doing the math after most of the predictions were admit or consider/strong consider. You can click on the image to make it easier to read.
I think the predictor puts you at a weak consider if your index number is at the 25% percentile value (the "percentile" is given on the y axis in the graph; I can send you my spreadsheet if you would like to try this exercise yourself. I just calculated the equation that describes the line made by the index values at 25,50, and 75%. I used this equation to calculate the "percentile" that my index value would have on this scale to give myself an idea of how far out of or inside the acceptance window my numbers put me.). Looking at my number like this allows me to see that my deny at a place like Texas or UCLA is actually very close to a weak consider. I have looked through these new numbers and changed my mind on which schools I will be applying to in the next couple of months.

I am not going to apply anywhere that my index "percentile" is negative. As I said in my first sample set post, I live in Virginia so I was happy to see that I'm just on the positive side for UVA. Here is my new list with the "percentile" value that I calculated.

Here is my new list of schools along with the prediction and the calculated "percentile" value.

School	"Percentile"	Prediction
Duke	5.9	Deny
UVA	1.0	Deny
UCLA	20.6	Deny
Vandy	11.8	Deny
Minn	31.3	Weak Consider
Notre Dame	25.7	Weak Consider
W&M	34.1	Weak Consider
GMU	47.1	Consider
Cinncinnatti	>50	Strong Consider
Tennessee	>50	Admit
Lewis and Clark	>50	Strong Consider
Richmond	>50	Admit

I would like to apply to Cornell and Georgetown, but my application fee funds are limited. At this point I have a nice mix of schools that combine my desires for a law school and a nice range of admission probability, at least using my admittedly arbitrary and potentially totally meaningless way of gauging my likelihood of admission to different schools. At least I was able to come up with a non-arbitrary way of seeing where I fall in the deny continuum for the more competitive programs.

I did a quick check at LSN. My numbers fall right in a thicket of deny and waitlist spots for places like Duke, UVA, and Vanderbilt. There is nobody in their system with my numbers so I don't have the ideal control, but there are enough people with numbers near mine who applied to some of these schools to confirm that there aren't very many acceptance letters going out to people with numbers like mine. We'll see if my big softs, the PhD and my work experience, will get me over the edge. Maybe there will be somebody else in this cycle on LSN with a 168 and 3.0ish GPA.