Another day, more news

So, my peeps. Here is where we stand.

1. Still considering G-town. Waiting for financial aid info.
2. Still considering WUSTL. Have email scholly offer, waiting for letter.
3. Waitlisted at UMich - Staying on it.
4. Waitlisted at Columbia - Staying on it.
5. Withdrew from my Notre Dame waitlist. (would only go with money.)
6. Withdrew from my William and Mary waitlist. (ditto)
7. Withdrew from the Pennsylvania waitlist. (would rather go to Mich, so why stay on both?)
8. Withdrew from consideration at Minnesota - Was deferred. If I was deferred, they probably weren't going to throw any coins my way, so no dice.
9. Rejected at Berkeley
10. Rejected at UW

Well, that's all for now! It's a lot to handle I know!
(and if I ever forget anything, you can check me out here:
http://www.lawschoolnumbers.com/display.php?user=lillybeth1616 )

When last we spoke...

So, news this week!
1. Waitlisted at William and Mary. Will most likely withdraw.
2. Rejected at Berkeley. Expected.
3. Money from WUSTL! This one is exciting, but throws a wrench in the Georgetown gears I had grinding. Take it, leave it? I don't know.
4. Rejected at UW. That hurt. It really did.

The latest

So I was put on the waitlist at Penn. I consider this an accomplishment, since I was expecting to get outright rejected. I'll probably stay on it, but if they don't take me off it by mid-June, I'll probably withdraw. I just am too much of a planner to change schools in August.

Also, I was put on "Provisional List" at Notre Dame. The only way I'd choose them over Georgetown is with money, so I'll probably withdraw.

Another School!

So I got an email from Washington University on Friday, I was accepted! Whoo hoo! So far I have two good schools to choose from. It helps that I did not apply to one school I would be unhappy attending. (Hear that schools? Please let me in!)

Dear Minnesota: Why?

So, I was put on "hold" at Minnesota over the weekend. That's basically saying "you're good enough to not reject you, but we're going to see if something better comes along." It's pretty mean, if you ask me.

As a side note, on a law forum I visit, someone was saying that the LSAC should limit applications to ten per applicant. Something about it being wrong for auto admits at NYU to apply to Georgetown just as leverage for more money at NYU. He was upset if forces people in G'town's target range onto the waitlist at first. Well, why not? If they're good enough to be an auto admit at NYU, they probably deserve more money. Then I looked at his stats. 170, 3.1. I'm guessing he was WL'd at Georgetown. Which, as an admit who sent out 18 applications, makes me a little happy inside. Should it? Probably not. But I don't think that he had a problem with the system before he was WL'd.

Whoooo Hoooo!

I got my first acceptance tonight! So if nothing else, I can go to Georgetown. Which is not that bad of a thing. They're a great school, and ranked number 14. So, not bad at all! The only downside is that the school is pretty big. But at the same time, so what? I have a school to go to!



Also, as a PS, this is the updated list of my applications still out:
UW
Cornell
UCLA
Stanford
USC
UCBerkeley
Washington University
Columbia University
Vanderbilt
UPenn
UMinn
Duke University
Notre Dame
William and Mary
UVirginia
UMich
Boston U

How exciting is this?

How many more to go?

Ok, peeps. New list. Of schools. That have my apps.

Columbia
Cornell
Georgetown
Stanford
USC
UCLA
UC Berkeley
U Pennsylvania
U Washington
Vanderbilt
Washington University

Schools, schools

I have now applied to:

University of Washington
Georgetown University
Cornell University
University of California - Los Angeles
Stanford University
University of Southern California

and I'm working on University of California - Berkeley.

So, there you go. There's more on the horizon, but these are the right now ones.

Schools, Schools, Everywhere

I applied to Georgetown too. Now that I have all of the pieces (save for letters), I think getting them out will be fairly painless. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, I hope to have all my apps out within two weeks. I think my family would like to have their kitchen table back. And their family room. And their fireplace. You know, let's just say they'd like to have more than a square foot of any flat surface downstairs showing. And I'd like to get cracking on my laundry again. I haven't done any in so long, I'm running out of clothes!

Friday!

Can I just state for the record that I have the coolest, awesomest best friend in the whole planet? I love her. She's amazing.

Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.

Ok, so here's where I stand. My counselor and I took awhile bouncing the essay back and forth. So what that means is my UW application didn't get sent in until January 12. Woot. Which may have been a problem considering that I don't have two letters yet. Good thing that UW said that letters were optional. Now, would I have liked to have completed all the optional pieces, yes. But it came down to I had to turn it in, so there you go.

And about those letters. So I sent two requests to two professors at the end of November. The one professor never wrote me back because he's on sabbatical. Ok, that one I can let go. Not his fault.

The other one, is frustrating. The second professor got my request and just ignored it. I didn't know that, so I emailed him to see if he received it. I got back the most horrible response! Some select quotes

"A bit of advice: I know no professor at UW who prepares letters for student who haven't even asked for a letter...personally. Few professors write on behalf of students with whom
they have no meaningful relationship (what would they write about that student?) and none would simply write a letter having received a package with letter requests. It simply doesn't work that way."

Apparently there's rules about this. Too bad no one told me. And instead of him telling me this, he just ignored my letter. He 1. assumed I didn't come in personally out of choice (how does he know I didn't move to Florida?) and 2. assumed that I had the opportunity to have meaningful relationships with my professors, which I didn't.

"Without those things, all we can say about the student is "she earned a 3.5 in my class." That's not going to get you into a decent law school."

That's a big assumption. I'm pretty sure I can get into a "decent" law school with pretty crappy recommendations. He knows nothing about me! I may not have the most confidence in myself, but my LSAT score is more than "decent"!

Another choice quote:

"It's unfortunate that you didn't build deeper relationships with the faculty during your undergrad days. I'm always telling freshmen that they will need us someday soon so they need to get to know us and let us get to know them. All letters ask "how long and how well do you know this student?" Sadly, you never got the memo about this."

What memo?!?!?!?!? Had there been a memo, I could understand his hostility to me, but NO ONE TOLD ME!!!!! I did not get this memo!! I was busy working my way through school and trying to save money by not living on campus. It's not like I was out at keggers instead of getting to know my professors. I was working. RRRRRRrrrrrr!

I also enjoyed this line:

"Law school admissions are highly competitive and letters count a great deal."

Everyone I've spoken with has said they still count, but they matter less and less each year. They used to require three, now many require two, one, or none at all! I think much of his hostility to me comes from misplaced ego. He is totally convinced that his letter will make or break my application. I'm convinced that, based on the copious amounts of reading and research I've done on law school admissions as compared to the probably zero research he's done, my LSAT is more likely to make or break my application. And my LSAT rocks.

It has worked out all right. My boss agreed to write me a letter, and it's amazing. He let me read it. I don't know that my mom could write me a better letter, and she's my mom. I also got in contact with another professor whose class I enjoyed and she agreed to write one for me. So, bases covered without you, crotchety and inappropriately accusatory professor. I think the most disappointing part about all of this is he was one of my best professors. I picked him because I really enjoyed his class. And now this. How frustrating. I'll tell you what, I'm going to stop recommending his class. And stop regretting I didn't get to take the second class of his that I wanted to. Not taking it just means less memories that have been tainted by this email.

Lizamichatello Out.