The Sample Set

Here are the schools to which I plan to apply. I've also listed the prediction from lawschoolpredictor.com. Seeing that this blog is an effort to provide insight into how a PhD is evaluated in the law school admissions process, I wanted to select schools where I had very little chance to a good chance to be admitted. I might think about adding another weak consider. I would like to apply to every school ranked 10-20 by USNWR, but I don't have $1500 for application fees.

Ranking	School	Prediction
6	Cal-B	Deny
10	UVA	Deny
10	Duke	Deny
13	Cornell	Deny
20	Minnesota	Weak Consider
28	W&M	Weak Consider
41	GMU	Consider
52	Cinncinnatti	Strong Consider
59	Tennessee	Admit
61	Lewis and Clark	Strong Consider
77	Richmond	Admit

I picked these schools for a number of reasons. I've been really fortunate with application fee waivers. I'm interested in environmental law so I was happy to have a waiver to Lewis and Clark, a top environmental law program. Minnesota is an up and coming program, I really like the area around Cincinnati, and I like Tennessee's emphasis on practical experience. I live in Virginia so UVA, W&M (which is my undergrad alma mater), GMU, and Richmond (the most local school for me; it's where I took the LSAT) were easy selections.

What really matters about my selections is where the numbers say I will get in and where I am actually admitted. I feel like I have a reasonable chance at the four deny schools. I'm in state for UVA, that's a plus, and they seem to really emphasize the entire application, at least that's my impression from the interviews I've read with Dean Jason Trujillo at TLS and LSAT Blog and the statement on the UVa website about how applications are reviewed. I will apply early and I'm going to try to visit if I can get a Friday afternoon free.

I'm a real long shot at Cal. The interview I've mentioned in some previous posts gives me hope that with a really good personal statement I could crack the door enough to at least make them think about me long enough to look at my recommendations and consider how somebody with my experiences would contribute to their program.

My index score is very close to being in the weak consider category for both Duke and Cornell. (There is a column on lawschoolpredictor.com that shows how far your index score is from the 25% numbers for each school. My numbers are 3.05 and 168 if you would like to see how I stack up at each school.) If you round my GPA up to 3.1, I actually become a weak consider at Cornell. They're another school that emphasizes how they evaluate the entire application. In a statement that really caught my interest, Dean Richard Geiger told TLS that they focus more on success at work or other major accomplishments for people who have been out of undergrad for 10 years (is he talking about me or what!). Duke is a school that titles applied to with a 167 but was put on the waitlist. I have a strong opinion about the waitlist (which I will express in a future post). Duke is an interesting test case for the impact of the PhD and other softs. Oh, and they have a good IP program.

W&M and Minnesota offer an opportunity to see if the PhD can get me into the accept category from a numbers position that is not strong for admission.