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.

Invitation

With acceptance calls/emails/mailings going out at a good clip, a number of applicants know where they might be going to school next year. I've detailed my cycle in this blog, but I am just one applicant. If any of you would like to share your results, please feel free to add them to the comments. Thanks.

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.

Promotion

I have achieved one of my personal career goals by getting a promotion to Sr. R&D Scientist. This is the first time in my career that I have been promoted. I left my first job after a year and a half and left that second job for graduate school after two years. I just finished my third year in my current position. Getting this promotion was my major short term career objective. My long term career objectives have evolved with law school in mind. Now I'm wondering if I should use my short term achievement to further my long term goals. Do I tell schools where I am still pending about my promotion?

I knew that I had been put in for a promotion while I was finishing up my applications, and I thought about how it would be nice to mention a promotion in my resume. Schools are looking at my file. I recently went complete at Indiana, and my Minnesota status checker recently showed my In Review date switching to December 11. Every school tells you to let them know if anything in your file changes. I always thought that this was mostly about addresses and things like that, but maybe this kind of information counts. My instincts tell me to just let things be, but a part of me thinks that it might help me at a UVA. Maybe I'll start a thread at TLS. I haven't done that yet.

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.

Law School Exam Answers

The WSJ Law Blog asked a few law professors to complete the statement, "A good law exam answer is..." The result of their survey can be found here.

While the post is interesting by itself, reading about what a law professor looks for while grading an exam has reinforced my feeling that PhD training is an asset in law school. Working through a legal problem sounds like it requires many of the same skills needed to determine which interpretation of some data is the most correct or whether or not the conclusions made in a particular paper are valid. Challenging research problems require you to look at things from every angle in the same manner Tim Wu suggests that different perspectives of a problem impact the legal analysis. There is also no single correct answer in research. We won't have to worry about that undergrad mindset that Paul Secunda mentions either.

Intellectual Curiosity and (Law School) Success

A little while back, Seth Godwin put up this post

"Thirsty

I've noticed that people who read a lot of blogs and a lot of books also tend to be intellectually curious, thirsty for knowledge, quicker to adopt new ideas and more likely to do important work.

I wonder which comes first, the curiosity or the success?"

An article about innovative CEO's in this month Harvard Business Review gives some insight into Seth's question. The five discovery skills mentioned in the free portion of the article clearly suggest that innovative executives are intellectually curious. The article also suggests that their success is a consequence of this curiosity. It's not in the free portion provided in the link, but the article goes on to discuss how learning about a variety of topics allows a person to make unexpected connections between disparate areas of knowledge. A breadth of experience may provide an insight that would not be made by somebody with a more limited perspective.

Those of use with a PhD are bringing a very different perspective to a law school classroom (and a law firm office). I think this perspective will give those of us with a little more school (and life experiences) an edge as law students and lawyers. We've already demonstrated a desire to become experts in an arcane area of study. That knowledge and experience will be a source of unique insights for me both in law school and as a practicing attorney.

Judicial Opinion = Research Paper?

I finally had a chance to read Pennoyer v Neff, the case that was discussed in the CivPro class that I sat in on when I visited U of R. This is the first judicial opinion that I have ever read. I have read hundreds of chemistry research papers (some a little more closely than others, of course), and I can't help but compare one to the other.

Once you get past the differences in content, subject matter, and jargon/language, there are some similarities to a judicial opinion and a research paper. They have a very similar structure. A case, at least Pennoyer v Neff, starts out with an overview of how the case got to SCOTUS, gives a little info on the issues, and then the judge takes over and discusses the decision and how that decision was reached. I felt like I was reading the typical intro, methods, results, discussion, conclusion organization that is common to research papers. It made me feel like I was on semi-familiar ground reading something that is totally new to me. I like to think that my graduate school training will be useful in law school, and finding some dash of familiarity in a complex Supreme Court ruling has given a small boost to my delusion. I've been told that my training will help in a meta kind of way, but it's nice to see that the benefits may be a little more tangible.

Reading the case has also made me feel better about how much time was put into the details of the case during the class discussion. Now I can see the need to make sure that the facts of the case are understood before moving on to the larger implications of the case. There was no discussion of the the dissent in the class, but reading through the dissent emphasized the key parts of the decision. I felt like I had a decent handle on the main points of the case after working through some statements in the dissent. I'll be sure to keep that in mind once I start reading these things for real.

(Note: I'm not on my regular computer. I'll add links once I can use Mozilla instead of Explorer. Links added, although I thought I would be adding more when I wrote the post.)

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.

Job Prospects from Insiders

I've decided to use my law school admissions cycle half-time (4 decisions in, 4 more to go) to see what the job market looks like from the front lines. I have spoken to two 3Ls about the job market. Given that one was in Boston and the other in Virginia, they reported very similar situations. For the Boston market, the anxiousness that dominated the class at the end of the summer has been replaced with a grudging resignation to the reality of the economic situation. The BigLaw jobs just aren't out there for most people. A few people have offers from big firms, but many of the 2009 graduates have not started working and many of them have had their offers deferred or rescinded. Having an offer is still no guarantee that a job will be waiting after graduation. People are turning to government, JAG, and clerkships for gainful employment. The demand for these positions has made them unusually competitive.

I heard a similar story from the 3L in VA. People did not have jobs at the start of the semester, but the offers have started to trickle in. The wrinkle is that these jobs are in small or mid-sized firms and not the high paying BigLaw firms (my Boston source sent me a job posting from a small firm in Chicago looking to interview 3L's, the trend must be national).

I've read similar things about the job market online (if I find good links later I'll put them here), but I wanted to see what people in the midst of looking for a job are actually experiencing. I would like to talk to people with a background like mine. I have a plan to find somebody to supplement what I've already heard about the patent law market, especially for people with advanced degrees. Is there a PhD boost for the job market too? I would like to know before I take the plunge.

Ranking by Result

Super Lawyers magazine has released a new ranking of law schools. Schools are ranked by how many super lawyers (whatever that may be, this is how they are selected) they have produced. There are plenty of biases in rankings like this (class size, school location, programs that may help one become a super lawyer (if such a program even exists)), but it is an interesting perspective on legal education.

Is it worth the money

A professor from Vanderbilt has written a paper that tries to determine whether or not law school is worth the investment. This post at the WSJ law blog gives some info about (and a link to) the paper. (The paper is being discussed in a few places. Ann Levine mentioned it in this post and included a link to this brief article on the ABA blog.) The quick answer to the question is that law school is not a good investment for most people, but the professor stresses that there are cases where law school makes financial sense. It is worth delving into the details of the study to determine if his conclusion applies to you. I have started working through the particulars of my situation. With a few acceptances (and scholarship offers) on the table, the time has come for me to start delving into the financial implications of law school. I've been aware of them of course, but I decided to focus on the LSAT and my applications. I also didn't see the point of trying to determine if law school is the right move without a sense of where I would get accepted. I've started working through some of the financial and career risks associated with law school. I'm finding resources. I'll be sure to share any particularly useful insights.

Fordham Dean on the Impact of a Graduate Degree

There is a new interview with Stephen Brown, a Fordham admissions dean at TLS. You can read the whole thing here, but this is what he had to say about graduate degrees and admission:

TLS: How do you view graduate degrees, and do you take graduate GPA into consideration?

Graduate degrees are a plus. They bring diversity of experience to the class, and show us that students take their education seriously.

This is a direct reference to graduate degrees, but this is what they look for in an applicant

TLS: Realistically speaking, how large a part of the admissions process are factors other than a candidate’s GPA and LSAT scores? Of these non-numerical factors, are there any that particularly pique your interest (military service, corporate work experience, Teach for America, etc.)? Can you give examples of what you see as excellent, good, and mediocre non-numerical attributes or accomplishments?

Fordham students are smart, but they’re not pure intellect. The school seeks out mature students who are in touch with the world, and have given law school real thought. Work experience, military service, and Teach for America are all very desirable. Obviously the rankings matter, but the school seeks to admit unusual candidates, and others who will add color to the class. Somewhere in this year’s entering class is a tugboat captain. There are artists, musicians, and students with work experience in a wide range of fields. Any activities that demonstrate a sense of social engagement are looked upon favorably.

Surely a graduate degree and several years of working in a pharmaceutical lab would add color to a class.

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 Applicant Profile

My assertion that I will be on the accept/reject borderline at UVA is not just wishful thinking. I have three reasons for feeling this way. One, my LSAT score is competitive. It's a little below the median, but it's definitely in the competitive range. Two, I am a Virginia resident. This could be a significant factor in the evaluation of my application. Three, UVA's applicant profile in the official ABA guide to law schools. (Use this link to access a list of schools, click on the school, click on the Law School Description, and scroll to the bottom to see the applicant profile.)

This is most of UVA's applicant profile. After stating that they use more than LSAT and GPA to make admissions decisions, they provide this information:

Each applicant is assessed as an individual, taking into account not only LSAT scores and undergraduate grades, but also the strength of an applicant’s undergraduate
or graduate curriculum, trends in grades, the maturing effect of experiences since college, the nature and quality of any work experience, significant achievement in extracurricular activities, service in the military, contributions to campus or community through service and leadership, and personal qualities. (Click here to see the entire profile)

I take them at their word. In looking through these attributes, I think I will get a little positive credit for curriculum strength, maturing effect of experiences since college, and work experience. All of those individual factors don't mean much by themselves, but taken together, they could really make a difference to my application. In any event, that's why I think I'm on the fence.

UVA application strategy

I have mentioned that I am complete at UVa, but I neglected to mention my application strategy. I'll give a quick review of what I've done for other schools before getting into my UVA application.

Early on in this process, I planned on sending a variety of essays with each application. I nixed the diversity statement (for the reasons given here). I wrote the optional essay for W&M (I used a personal statement draft), but I did not write the optional essay for W&L (they say that there is no penalty for not writing it). I have submitted my resume with every application. My personal statement was just under 500 words (thanks to the limits imposed by U of R and George Mason (although Mason just wants something in the ballpark of the 500 word limit). It's not quite 2 pages. Minnesota suggests 2 to 5 pages. I like my statement the way that it is and thought it would be a mistake to tack something on just to make it 2 pages. I had not written an essay expressing my desire to attend a particular school, until UVa anyway.

There is a debate raging over on TLS on whether or not it is prudent to submit a Why X statement with every application. The debate was prompted by somebody posting that an admissions dean at Harvard said a Why Harvard statement will only hurt an application. These posts (here and here) were clearly written after reading the Harvard post and freaking out about writing one for UVA. UVA is an interesting application because, while they do not request an essay explaining why you are applying to UVA, the admissions dean gave an interview and said that they will look at them if they are in the application. You can read the entire interview here, but this is the relevant portion to the Why UVA question;

TLS: Since UVA doesn't have an optional "why UVA?" essay, what are some good ways applicants can indicate a strong interest in UVA?

Applicants can and do submit “why UVA” essays all the time. We just do not specifically ask for them. I also get a number of “why X Law School” essays all the time, where X is (accidentally) not Virginia Law. That is a sure way to get yourself wait-listed or rejected.

I almost submitted my application without the Why UVA essay. I was one click away from submitting my application when I remembered that I wanted to submit that additional essay. I thought about not writing it, but then I realized that I could address my motivations for law school in the Why UVA statement. I also knew that I could write an essay that would be more than I really like the campus and think I would like living in C'ville for three years. I want IP and UVA has TWO IP clinics. I also have family reasons for staying close to central Virginia. Those three elements, I want IP, you have IP clinics and your location works for me, are the three paragraphs of my Why UVA statement (although I called it a Statement of Interest in my actual application). I feel like it adds something to my application. How likely is it that somebody else will have the same essay in their application package?

My take on the Harvard comment is pretty simple. How unique is each Why Harvard essay? Would you really want to read a few thousand essays that all pretty much say the same thing? Why put something in your application that just makes you look more like everybody else? I wrote one for UVA because I suspect that I will be very much on the borderline of the admission/waitlist//reject line. I wanted to have something in there that will help give the committee more insight into me and my plans for law school. If you don't have anything unique to say, don't say anthing at all.

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.

Law Schools want to see direction?

I have applied to most of the schools on my list (see my LSN profile for the details), but I have not pulled the trigger on UVA and Vanderbilt. There are two reasons for this. One, my aforementioned reluctance to pay the Vandy application fee. I have sent them an email seeing if they will give me a fee waiver. I have also been thinking over my decision to forego mentioning why I am applying to law school in my personal statement. I think I need to say something about it in my application, and an interview with Ann Levine (author of my law school admissions guidebook) has reinforced that thinking.

She was interviewed by some students at Fordham, and she mentioned that law schools are looking for direction in applicants. While I am clearly not the unemployed undergrad with nothing better to do with 3 years and $150,000 that she was talking about, I still think I need to tell law schools why I'm leaving my well paying job with good prospects to pursue a JD. I have added a paragraph to my main PS that gets at my key motivations for law school. If I reread it an don't like it, I'll just submit my original, but if I think it helps my case, I'll go forward with it in my application.

A Personal Decision

I have decided to ditch a personal statement that describes my motivation for going to law school. I have been working on it for months, and I have not been happy with anything that I have written. Every draft has a major flaw that I just can't find a way to fix. Looking at what I have going on at work and with the family in the next few weeks, I don't have time to rework my latest statement into something that I would feel comfortable submitting with my applications. I would rather have my applications in early than delay submission until the middle of November.

My wife read the statement that I submitted to Richmond, George Mason, and Alabama. She thought it was good. That's high praise from her. I would rather use a statement that is good than something that is merely adequate. Science Ph.D.s go for patent law enough that admission committees will likely assume that's why I'm applying. I'm fine with that. Michelle over at ask.com read my statement, and she thought I should address my law school motivations to make the statement really solid. I thought I needed to address my motivations as well. That is why I've been working so hard to get a statement that conveyed my reasons for pursuing law school. Unfortunately, those statements were usually more about the pharmaceutical industry than me.

The point of this blog is to see how soft factors like the personal statement impact law school admissions decisions. We'll see how I do with a statement that does not directly discuss my motivations for law school.

W&L Personal Statement Advice

Washington and Lee has a nice blog entry on writing a personal statement. It's nice to hear what the people reading the applications are looking for in the personal statement. It makes me feel good about my one decent statement (I'll post it after all of my decisions are in). Good luck to everybody with their personal statements. They're tough to write.

Diversity Statement?

I originally intended to write a diversity statement. I'm 33, married, two kids, advanced degree in a technical subject, career experience with some meaningful responsibility, publications in high impact journals. I am definitely not the traditional law school applicant. When it came time to write the statement, I realized that most of what makes me unique is easy to see in other parts of my application. Why make the admissions committee read another essay that is basically a restatement of my resume? The only thing that was not addressed in elsewhere in my file was my family information. I think that's relevant to law school admissions. I just added a personal section to my resume and mentioned that I'm married and have 2 kids (I would never include it in my professional resume). The phrasing of requests for diversity statements gives me the impression that they want things that cannot be directly addressed in the application form. All of my diversity is right there for them to see.

I'm on the fence about a paragraph or two expressing my interest in UVa and Vanderbilt (my reach schools). There is not a request for insight into why I am applying to UVa or Vandy, but the conventional wisdom seems to be to include one anyway, assuming you can say something that will add to the application. I would not send something that was general and vague just to say that I had sent the essay. I would want there to be a solid connection between something the school offers and some element of my legal interests or something related to my background. Wash U has a center focused on using empirical techniques to study legal questions. That connects directly to my research experience. I added a statement to that affect where they ask for why I am interested in Wash U in the application. I might write a Why UVa essay, but there is a good chance that I will not. When I'm not sure about my application strategy, I refer to my Law School Admissions reference. The tone of her optional essay chapter sounds like you should give the school what they want and leave it at that. I might look at it again to help me make my decision.

So diversity statement, definitely no. Maybe (but probably not) on the Why X essays.

Personal Statement Tip

I just finished up what I think is a very solid first draft for my latest personal statement. I started it on Friday afternoon. I had a good chunk of it written in 4 hours of fairly consistent effort. I spent 45 minutes or so on it last night, and just wrapped it up while watching football on TV and the computer. This is much different than the hours of effort I needed to put in to generate my previous PS drafts. My tip is this, if you need to work and rework a statement to make it work, just drop it and start over. I finally found a hook that allowed me to express three themes that I have been trying to work into my previous statements. Hunt for an approach to your topic until you find one that lends itself to the themes you want to develop. This statement basically wrote itself. I feel like I can write again.

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.

Conversation with a PhD Patent Attorney

I had a very interesting conversation with a practicing patent attorney who has a chemistry PhD. I had a few questions for him. My first was which law schools are good for patent law. I know what US News says about this, but I was curious what an insider (who has been involved in recruiting) has to say about it. He was very high on GMU (which I found surprising) and GW (which isn't too surprising). He rated GW as the best school for patent law. I thought that was an interesting wrinkle. Everybody is so high on Cal for patents. This guy is on the east coast. It's easy to forget how regional law is when looking at national rankings. If you're on the east coast and are interesting in patent law, why go all the way to Cal (if you can get in) when you can stay close to the Atlantic and go to GW or GMU?

I also asked him about the market for patent attorneys. It is no secret that law students are having a hard time finding jobs (read more about the legal job market here), but can that generalization be extended to those who have suffered through a graduate program? The way he put, if 3 or 4 of 10 people in a class have a position at graduation, it will be more like 8 or 9 of 10 people with a technical background will have an offer. That technical background is important. My take away is that there is definitely an advantage to have a PhD when it comes to finding a job. This guy was able to get a summer associate position as a 1L with a big firm in DC because he had a technical degree. Granted this was when the economy was better, but I think it illustrates that having something rare, like a technical PhD, does make it easier to separate yourself from the crowd and find a job.

From my very limited experience with studying law (mostly from conversations with my brother about his classes), it sounds like there are parallels between preparing a research paper and legal writing. In science you use other papers to build your case for a particular interpretation of some data. The law also uses citations, but previously decided cases are used as the research material. I asked if my impression of this relationship was valid. There are overlaps in this type of skill. The real advantage to the graduate degree is training in analytical thinking. Firms like that you have that background in thinking hard about a problem and finding a solution.

It was a very enlightening conversation. It was very refreshing to get an inside view of the industry rather than relying on the Internet, especially from somebody with a similar background. I'm trying to get as much information as I can to make sure that this is the right move for my career. This conversation makes me very comfortable with the decision.

The Song Remains the Same

I ran over to VCU to get my fee waiver from U of R during my lunch break this afternoon. While I was waiting for some people to leave the table, I talked to one of the other reps about her law school. I gave her my story, PhD, mediocre undergrad grades, and career experience. She gave me the same feedback that I've gotten from other sources. She reassured me that my grades are not bad. They look at how my grades stack up against the rest of my class (I'm average) and they also know that laboratory science GPA's are typically a little lower than those of people who majored in the humanities. She pointed out that science majors tend to spend more time in the classroom (absolutely, especially with the labs). The distance between now and then makes my grades less meaningful in their evaluation of my application. This puts much more emphasis on my LSAT score. When I told her my score was a 168, she let me know that I will have some very nice options for law school. As I was filling out an information card, she told that, based on her experience, her colleagues in admissions like applicants like and I should be ambitious with my applications.

With that, I picked up my U of R fee waiver and left. I really wanted to talk to the UNC rep, but there was a crowd at the table the entire time I was in the room. I also asked the William and Mary rep a question about their application. They ask for an employment history in the application. I asked if it would be ok to just refer to my attached resume. Yes, that is an acceptable (and preferred) way to submit my employment history. I stopped by on my way to the U of R table from my conversation with the other rep about my situation.

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.

GPA Addendum Decision

One last benefit of my visit to U of R. Given that my undergraduate GPA will not be taken too seriously, thank God, I will not be writing an addendum to address my sophomore year dip. This was something I debated doing earlier. My visit clearly indicates that I don't need to put too much emphasis on anything relating to my grades.

More on U of R visit

Here a few things I forgot to note in my previous post about my visit to Richmond Law.

1) If my GPA is being trumped by what I've done since undergrad, that means that I really need to make sure my resume captures my industry and graduate school experience. As I have finally had some success with my personal statement, I will start focusing on my resume. I have one now, but I think it could be better. (As a side note, I was reading a TLS forum about resume length. Don't worry about length and focus on content people! Although I have to agree with a few of the replies. Nobody in or right out of college should have a resume longer than a page.)

2) I tested my personal statement topic on the admissions rep I spoke to yesterday. She seemed intrigued. Of course I didn't say, this is what I'm writing about in my personal statement, but when I gave her my business card and she saw that I have a PhD and I work for a pharmaceutical company, she asked me if I was interested in IP. I gave her my motivation for law school (which I discussed here). IP is definitely a key component of my plan, but that's not the whole story. She seemed genuinely interested.

3) I could really feel that I am a decade older than most of the people who were in that class with me yesterday. I hadn't thought about it much before, but it will be weird to be in class with people who are so much younger.

4) I really liked the school. It has a very collegial atmosphere. With everything so centralized, it definitely feels like a community. It's on the main U of R campus, which is very nice by the way, but it's on the edge. It's not like you're in the hustle and bustle of the heart of campus.

U of R Visit

I used my second to last half-day Friday to pay a visit to Richmond Law. I really just wanted to ask somebody in admissions a few questions, but when I called to set up the appointment they offered to let me sit in on a class. Well, why not? I sat in a Civil Procedure class. They were discussing Pennoyer v. Neff. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Of course I had never heard of the case before sitting in the class (and I can't remember the last time I was in a class where there was nothing written on the board. The chalk board is critical to a chemistry lecture), but I had the gist of things by the time I left. I felt bad for the kid (and they are kids, by the way) who was called on to start the discussion. He had read the case, but he didn't understand it (I'm sure he will now though). I can see why they make such a big deal about faculty in rankings and such. Running that discussion would not be easy. I will read the case later just to get an idea of how long it takes to get through one of these things. I might have a bit of a head start having heard the important points of the case, but I found the text of the case through a link on Wikipedia. The site had a decent synopsis of the case, at least it looked that way from what I was able to gather from the class. I will just start there when I start reading these things for real.

I had a tour too, which was pretty uneventful. It's just one building after all. They were having OCI with some firms so there were plenty of nervous looking people walking around in their Sunday best. There were some interesting points raised in the few minutes I talked to an admissions rep. The most relevant thing she mentioned for readers of this blog was what her response to my question about my GPA. They have to look at it because that is what gets reported to LSAC and the ABA, but for somebody like me, and this is her word, it's basically irrelevant. I will be evaluated based on what I've done since graduation. She basically told me that I would be admitted with my LSAT score. I'm glad I asked about my GPA before I told her my LSAT score.

Given that there was OCI going on today, she also had some interesting views on how employers view U of R. Keeping in mind that she is trying to get me to think seriously about her law school, she told me that employers in Richmond see the Virginia schools on par with one another when evaluating applicants. She also noted that any employer would rather see somebody from the top 10% of a U of R class than from somebody who is an average student at UVa. I agree. It's all about what you do, not where you do it.

My Motivation

I've made 25 or so posts on this blog and I have managed to avoid directly stating why I am taking the time to apply to law school. I finally finished a draft of my personal statement that I am happy with, so I don't mind taking the time to lay out my rationale for adding three more years of schooling to the 8.5 years of post-secondary education that I have already acquired.

Last year I started reading books listed on the Personal MBA recommended reading list. (This is different than the list that I was using. Looking through it as I copied the link, I think I need to go back after I've finished this post and take a closer look at some of those books.) I could see that I needed something other than my research degree to really make a difference in the pharmaceutical industry. While all the senior managers in my building have Ph.D.'s, we answer to a corporate office up in New Jersey. That's where the real decisions are made. All of our activities are geared to meeting a deadline or providing a product that has been selected by a marketer or project planner in that corporate office. This would be fine, if they included us in the planning phases of these projects.

We get projects that are dead before we even do an experiment because there is some technical issue that we can never overcome. Inviting us to a meeting where these things are discussed would save the company millions in wasted resources. They choose to keep us out of the loop and when a project goes bust, who do you think gets the blame? The blame game is very popular in big corporations. Everybody is too caught up in their own agenda to just focus on getting the job done. If a mistake was made, identify what went wrong and move on. Nothing good comes from worrying about who to blame when a project goes south. Sometimes there is nobody to blame. We're trying to do something that has never been done before. There is always a risk when you're trying to make something innovative. If an idea doesn't work, oh well. Figure out what you learned in the process and see what you can do with that. Experiments might not always go the way you want in research, but unexpected results usually open doors to whole new ideas. A lab that is organized to take advantage of those new insights will be successful. That's my vision of a successful pharmaceutical lab anyway. I want to get up to the corporate office so I can speak for the laboratory. Somebody who has never worked in a lab has a hard time understanding what goes on there, but that knowledge is essential in an industry that relies on the lab to produce innovative new products. The mystery of what I have done in the lab will prevent me from reaching an executive position as a research scientist, but I think a law degree would overcome the bias against PhD's that seems to permeate corporate culture.

A productive research lab delivers tremendous value to a company, especially if given the freedom to pursue new product ideas. We do not have the freedom and I think it really hurts the company's performance. It doesn't have to be an open ended project, but one of two experiments to see if an approach to a new product is feasible could reap big rewards. The corporate office likes to make a point that every one has good ideas, but then they put up this burdensome system to make sure everything filters through them. Just put a few grand in the budget to fund some independent projects. I think they would like what they found.

So why law and not an MBA? That's a subject for a different post.

My Application Progress

I wanted to be helpful to other applicants, so I thought I would give a little update on my application status and how that plays into my application strategy. I have requested my two letters of recommendation. One has been processed by LSAC and is available for me to add to my applications, I'm hoping the other has been written. Both my undergrad and graduate school transcripts have been processed by LSAC. (It took about 2 weeks from request to having them show up in my LSAC account.)

I have an optional essay type of statement 90% complete. I have spent too many hours working on my "why law school" essay. I was having so much trouble that I had to take a step back and reassess my approach. I think I found a new topic that allows me to address the same issues in a better way. I'm hoping to finish both of these up by mid-September. I want to have my highest priority applications (the Virginia schools) in by mid-October. That will give me a month to handle school specific application activities (filling out applications, writing school specific essays). That should allow me to take advantage of the rolling admissions process.

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.

Debt

I'm always surprised to hear about people turning down big money at one law school to attend some place a little more prestigious. One of the most bewildering to me is a girl who said she turned down a full-ride at Cal to attend Penn. You can listen to her talk about it yourself here. She just off hand mentions that she'll just take a little longer to pay off her loans and attend the school that she really liked. I'm all for going someplace that feels right, but turning down free tuition? That's like turning down a free house!

This blase attitude to student debt is alarming to me. People are essentially betting their future on getting a high paying job when they finish law school. I want to go to law school, but I do not want to purchase a second house to do it. (My wife and I paid ~$125K for our first house. That's less than what it costs to attend most law schools.) This post at The Personal MBA blog makes some very nice points about the purpose (and burdens) of debt. His B school examples are valid for law school as well. Are you really all that different from an indentured servant if you have to work 100+ hours a week at a Big Law firm to pay for law school loans?

My take on ratings (and why they seem to matter so much)

As several of the links on this blog profess, I spend a decent amount of time skimming through the forums on TLS. I'm always amazed at how much of the focus is on the ranking of a particular school. I know everybody on that site wants Big Law so they can make Big Money (and work Big Hours) and they think the best way to achieve that goal is to attend a T14 law school (why it's the top 14 and not the top 16 or 19 or any other random number is something that I have yet to figure out). I'm sure there is some justification for this. On campus interviews and all of that are more likely to be focused on the top schools, maybe? I do have an idea about why there is so much emphasis on rankings in law school.

The curriculum at one law school is not likely to be much different from the curriculum at another. They all teach basically the same information to students who are all about the same age who have similar backgrounds, at least in terms of professional experience. All things being equal, how else can you tell the difference between one candidate and another other than looking at where they went to law school and how well they did while they were there? Graduates from a chemistry program have several levels of differentiation, what area did they do research in? lab skills? how many publications? which journals? how involved were they in preparing the manuscripts? grades (like any one really cares about PhD grades, it's all about the research)? Grades and school are the best way to differentiate law school grades. That's also why people are so eager to make law review or do moot court of something like that. You need something like that to make you stand out in the crowd.

No matter where you attend law school, success will be a function of how much effort you put in while you are there. Simply attending Harvard, Yale, or Stanford will not write your ticket to that plush Big Law job. It might make it easier to get there, but somebody who attends a school a little down the rankings of USNWR who worked very hard and was committed to making law school a successful endeavor could out-hustle somebody from a "better" school for the same job. What you get out of anything is ultimately a product of what you put in.

Another Dean's Opinion on a PhD

Portion of TLS interview with Paul Pless, Assistant Dean of Admissions at Illinois.

TLS: How are advanced degrees viewed at Illinois?

Typically at least 20% of our students have advanced degrees. I love to see them in applications. The only thing is that the graduate GPA is fairly meaningless since almost all graduate programs have very high curves. I look more at the quality of the school and the program when using it as a factor.

TLS: What percentage have Ph.D.s? How is a doctoral degree viewed as compared to a masters?

Maybe 5%, and yes, it is given considerably more weight. I think a Ph.D. is always an impressive thing to see in an application. It can make up for a lackluster undergraduate GPA or a poor LSAT.

TLS: Does the nature of work experience acquired after graduation matter significantly?

We like to see people with work experience in fields other than law. We will teach you the law you need to know. Being able to relate what you learn to the experiences you have is a valuable addition to the classroom.

I especially like that comment about the PhD making up for a lackluster GPA or 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.

Grade Breakdown

My undergraduate GPA is a lowly 3.05. I was just taking a look at my transcript to see if writing an addendum might be a good idea. I had a very pathetic sophomore year. I torn my ACL during football practice that year. I lived in an off campus apartment. I couldn't study in my apartment, it was hard for me to get to campus (I hurt my left knee and my car was a stick shift), and I just generally wasn't into my studies that year (I met my wife that year so my personal life was great). I'm torn about whether or not I should write a short note explaining that circumstance. (Both semesters were in the 2.5 range.) My GPA for the other three years comes out to a 3.2 or so. Still not great but better than a 3.05. On a positive note, I managed to get a 3.7 in my final semester. I think a short note would explain the dip in my grades, but how much will it really matter?

I've been out of college for 11 years and how relevant are undergraduate grades in chemistry for a person who now has a PhD in that subject? (I would get an A in every one of those classes now.) I don't want to draw attention to my grades when some schools might not put too much credence in those grades in the first place. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do.

I also thought about calculating my GPA in classes that required significant writing assignments. My best grades are in those classes, but when I honestly calculated a GPA with the classes that I remember writing long papers, the GPA wasn't all that great either. So much for that tactic. Maybe a short sentence noting that I did well in writing intensive classes will suffice. Although writing this post has shown me that all of these arguments are pretty weak. Maybe a comment that I injured my knee and that will be that.

Controlling a big variable

I knew going into this that I needed to find a single resource that will give me some insight into the law school application process. I would hate to do something stupid that would kill my application regardless of my numbers. This is a single replicate experiment so there will be no second trial. I read plenty of forums and follow a few blogs. Ann Levine's book seemed like the best choice for my go to guide for how to navigate this process. Her book is short but the information is dense. She has a nice breakdown of the relative importance of LSAT score and undergraduate GPA. The book is more guidelines than specific steps. I like that. I recommend taking a look at it if you are so inclined. You can buy it her site or Amazon.

Heavier than my GPA?

I will be using two big soft factors to sell myself to law schools. The first is clear from this blog. I am relying heavily on my PhD in chemistry (physical chemistry if you want to specific. Ultrafast laser spectroscopy is you want to get really specific) to cancel out my undergraduate GPA. I did my graduate work at VCU, which isn't the most famous university, but I have five papers in very well regarded journals. I even managed to get a paper into the Journal of the American Chemical Society. JACS publishes very high impact papers. (I asked my adviser to tout the impact factor of the journals in his letter of recommendation, it didn't feel right to do it myself.) I also have a publication from my undergraduate research. I have done some research in connection to my projects at work (work experience discussed below). I'm giving a poster at a big pharmaceutical conference in November, and I'm working on a paper with one of the senior scientists in my building. I am hoping that it is developed enough for me to at least include it as an in progress entry in my resume.

My other big factor is my career. I worked in industry before I went to grad school. I went back to the same company when I finished my PhD. I've done well in my job. I have a meeting with my manager tomorrow. I have to update her on some projects that I've been working on, but after I've filled her in on all the progress I've made, I am going to talk to her about writing a letter for me. I really have no idea how she will react. We're in a bit of a transitional phase right now so I'm hoping she will have that in mind when I talk to her about this law school plan. I am going to approach it in a very careful manner and provide plenty of rationale. We'll see how it goes.

I have a few other interesting facts about myself. I'm married (10 years next month) and I have two kids. My job and family keep me pretty busy so I don't have any other activities. I have a good reason why I am pursuing this crazy plan too.

Personal Statement Help

The hardest thing about the personal statement for me is all the doubts that enter my mind about the topic, the tone that is used in the essay, and saying something that will actually help my application. There is some great advice about writing the personal statement at the about.com law school guide. The best part is an offer for free help with the statement. I have sent a draft PS to Michelle. She replied a couple of days later with some very helpful words. It was reassuring to have somebody with some experience give me positive feedback on what I had written. Her feedback is actually why I started working on second statement as soon as I got her feedback on my first one.

Personal Statement Topic Trouble

I have one good personal statement prepared. I took a look at it a few days ago and was satisfied with what I had written. I've been trying to a second one that deals more with my motivation for applying to law school. For whatever reason, every time I've tried to write about this I get off on totally unrelated tangents that add nothing to my statement. I think I've been focusing too much on the external factors on why I've been thinking about becoming a lawyer with a science background rather than a pure research scientist. Maybe that will be a good place to start. My identity as a scientist and how that identity formed. Maybe I can note a couple of things that made me start to take a second look at my career and what I want to achieve. I switched to this venue to break my brain lock over in word. Maybe it actually helped.