UniqueSuccotash '21–'22

My handle is the same on Reddit if you have any questions (or if you want to view my cycle recap which includes more about me), and do feel free to DM there (as I don’t check this often). Best of luck to you in your application cycle!

I’m so grateful to have received the AnBryce scholarship, and I have a lot of people on this website and Reddit to thank for their help in getting me there.

Advice**: You do not need to pay for law school admissions adviceTo find more information about the law school admissions process, I used Dean Z’s A to Z vlogs (free!), Navigating Law School Admissions episodes from YLS and HLS were beyond helpful (and free!!), and blog posts and podcasts from Spivey (ALSO FREE!!!- ). Please shoot your shot everywhere if you can find the money to afford it- “Everywhere” should be schools that qualify in either one of these categories:
“All places where I would be excited to attend.- “
“Any school that is in comparative rank to a school I’m excited to attend that, if I were admitted there, would make my target school more likely to increase my scholarship offer in negotiations.”I regret applying to the schools that gave me CAS waivers where I knew I wouldn’t attend- (for me, this was ASU, Texas A&M, and Nebraska). It was a waste of time and may have went to another student who could have used it more. Apply for a fee waiver through LSAC if you think it remotely could be helpful** - The worst they can say is no.
Ask schools for a fee waiver after reviewing their website on their preferred request approach**Take a gap year (or four gap years)- With my four years out of school I am more secure financially, more of an actual adult (I am old enough to make my own cold brew concentrate, as an example), had a chance to really enjoy my 20s without the pressure of being a lawyer, found the love of my life… SO MANY REASONS! I struggle to come up with circumstances where a person shouldn’t take a gap year- , but there are of course exceptions. Really, really consider if you want to jump right in. Write your personal statement about whatever the heck you want!** - Let admissions committees see a side of you they otherwise wouldn’t; they already know you want to go to their law school, after all.
I think this especially works if you build “why law” themes somewhere in your file. I had some undergraduate experiences that made law school feel like a natural step, even though my work experience was wholly- unrelated to the law and the area that I want to practice in. It freed me up to write more of a personal story and tie together my work and volunteer experiences in my personal statement.
Take the approach to only write a “Why X” essay if there is an explicit space to do so (At the time I applied, the logic was: Cornell, Cal, Duke, Mich, maybe UVA which is the exception to the rule- ) and otherwise do not.

• There are probably exceptions for when you have something particularly exceptional to say about a given school (perhaps it’s your alma mater, or you have a special connection to a university or professor). It’s unclear to me what those exceptions are, and it feels high risk from my perspective.
• If you’re below both medians, shoot your shot maybe?
  Put in as much time as you can on the LSAT**Retake until you’re at a score you’re happy with, or at/above medians of the schools you’re excited about.** - It is the best use of your time for getting into law school, and worth more than any amount of time you spend working on your personal statement (but do that well, too).
  Pay for score preview.- Hopefully you don’t use it, but if your nerves get to you and you dramatically underperform on your first try (erm, definitely not speaking from experience), then you can cancel without having to worry about the addendum when you get the score you want the next time.
  I think this may have changed since I was in law admissions. I still think if you can do it you should.**Write the optionals**- . I know, I know. It’s a lot. But write them - it’s an easy way to show you’re interested.
• One of the places where I feel I “underperformed” my stats was my waitlist at Penn, and it was the only school where I was given space to write an optional (Core Values) and I chose not to do so.
  Special plug for NYU app:- please look through their optional scholarship essays! They don’t give out as much aid generally but give stacks if you receive one of their scholarships. So many first-gen students didn’t even apply for AnBryce.
  Use Reddit for questions if you have them, but proceed with some degree of caution- about the advice you receive.
• The subreddit skews toward high performing high SES applicants.
  The advice sometimes seems like prestige is the only way to go. That is patently untrue, especially- when comparing literally any school in the T14 unless you have some very niche goal like academia (and you honestly probably shouldn’t).
  There plenty of great law schools beyond the “T14”- that are more regional in nature but/and have great outcomes in the area of the country they reside (assuming you want to practice there). The Pacific Northwest is a great example where University of Washington and CU are great institutions that, I imagine, probably pull way above their weight in that area. Wayne State in Michigan is another great one if you want to reside in Detroit.
  Give your resume reasonable margins- Please don’t be like me with a .5” margin all around and 11 point font. Looking at it with some distance from when I submitted, I think it was a patently ridiculous thing to do.
  Try and submit your applications before Thanksgiving- You don’t need to submit it earlier than Thanksgiving, though.
• At least for me, there is no rhyme or reason for any of my acceptances when you look at the date I submitted them.
  Negotiate for aid after you get your results.Don’t accept at a school unless you think you’ve squeezed out all of the aid you can from them or at least asked once. I am being fully serious - do not commit until you’ve asked at least once via form, e-mail, or over the phone and have gotten a response. If you’re worried about the delay affecting deposit deadlines, give the office a call, with a short “why x” and asking if they can reconsider your aid. One more time for the people in the back: do NOT commit until you’ve asked at least once via form, e-mail, or over the phone AND have gotten a response.- Did you read that? Don’t commit! Until! You have asked! At least once!
  Perceptions of culture in a given school is probably overblown** - and you won’t easily find ways to come to a conclusion about culture from school materials or questions from students. If you must factor it in (and I get why people want to do that), I think, at least for the T14, looking at the proportion of students going into PI can be informative on how “competitive” or “intense” a given school is, since those are less grade intensive positions and that can lessen the load on the curve. You don’t need to go to your first choice school to be happy attending law school. If I’m being honest, Harvard was always the dream for me, and when it didn’t work out I was devastated despite having some awesome options in front of me (I got the R in Feb when I already had 8 T15 acceptances, an interview for BLOS for $$$$ at Berk, and $$$ from Michigan). Now, I look back and I am so grateful I had the choices I did, because it made me make the most financially sound decision and I am happy where I landed**- . If Harvard would have accepted me, I would have been in a lot more debt, and probably suffered being there. I do feel like I have more of a community than I would have had at Harvard.

Other data points not on LSD:
Finalist for AnBryce at NYU for $$$$! Notified on 2/25, interviewed on 3/24. Received on 3/27, and Accepted on 3/29!From my cycle recap on Reddit: When I received the AnBryce, it was truly a no-brainer. Beyond the scholarship itself, I wanted to be apart of a community of other first-generation college students. I felt with both BLOS and AnBryce, the staff seemed beyond dedicated, and both the students and the folks who interviewed me were extremely warm and supportive and seemed to really understand the first generation experience. That in and of itself is worth way more than the scholarship ever could pay for (but covering tuition for all 3 years is, uh, very nice too).Finalist for BLOS at Berkeley for $$$$! Notified on 2/14, interviewed on 3/14, denied - after interview on 3/21.
The cycle can be so feast or famine. Sometimes, you’re going to get a super sad result and have to turn around so- quick to do another interview. I heard I didn’t get BLOS 3 days before the AnBryce interview. I had thought I had an amazing interview, too, and as ridiculous as it sounds, I truly began to question my entire application.

• I talked to a lot of friends during those three days in between AnBryce interview and BLOS decision - many amazing friends from LSD, actually! - and I prepped like wild. Just know that the results don’t say anything about you, and it says more about the ridiculously competitive nature of law school admissions. I’m grateful that I put in the time to get in the right head space after this denial, and that I turned it around for AB.
  I did not negotiate for aid at all,- and probably should have at least considered reaching out to Michigan after getting my offer at NYU. NYU was my #2 choice (after Harvard) with Michigan a very close #3, so I don’t think I made a big mistake, but I do sort of wish I at least asked Michigan if they could match full tuition.
• Update after 1L: I would have went to Michigan had they offered full tuition without a named scholarship, but I probably wouldn’t have gotten the number of opportunities that I have here at NYU with AnBryce (but I also probably will have taken out more loans through cost of living at NYU than I would have at Michigan).
• Tough to say if it was “worth it” but it’s also impossible to say AB is just money.
• UR3 for UVA 11/30 after my interview. I suspect I might have been put on hold or something after UR2 since there was such a delay before getting an interview.
• UR3 for UChicago 1/18.
• UR3 for Duke 2/4. Memory is short for law school admissions, and people rarely review what others said on here, but don’t stress if you do or don’t go UR3 quickly; the mix of when people did/did not was extremely random this cycle and probably will continue to be until Duke normalizes their admissions processes after doing away with their priority application (which was this weird/cool thing where you got kind of a quick non-ED almost auto-A if you had certain stats)
• Hold at CLS 2/16. WL at CLS 4/26. They really held on for as long as they could before giving me that WL LOL.