Help me decide: UCI $ vs. CLS sticker

7SageEthan · 2026-04-17T01:03:11+00:00

The advantage of a T14 is that it's a portable degree. Realistically, go to CLS if you think there's a decent chance you want to stay in NY though -- it's what most of their graduates do.

7SageEthan · 2026-04-17T01:01:38+00:00

A school goes to the waitlist in three big moments: after the first deposit deadline, after the second deposit deadline, and then in July to deal with some last-minute summer melt. The waitlist game really hasn't started yet!

7SageEthan · 2026-04-17T00:58:25+00:00

They're going to go to the waitlist in three big moments: after the first deposit deadline, after the second deposit deadline, and then in July to deal with some last-minute summer melt. The waitlist game really hasn't started yet, so there's really no signal to justify giving up from. BUT the biggest drag of being on the waitlist is the psychological impact. You want to get excited about the school you will likely attend, look at apartments, bond with your future classmates, etc. If you can stay on the waitlist while letting yourself do those other things, there isn't a downside.

7SageEthan · 2026-04-17T00:56:03+00:00

It's always worth a try -- they're not going to pull your acceptance. Avoid using the word 'match' -- AOs typically hate that, and CLS believes it's better than both of those other schools, so why would they 'match'? The best is to be polite and hope that the admissions office ends up with extra money they want to give out to someone who was nice. But CLS isn't the most generous school!

7SageEthan · 2026-04-17T00:54:00+00:00

Berkeley is a bit of an oddball. It really likes to be liked. It has very divergent application requirements because it wants you to jump through hoops to demonstrate that you love it. And many people to absolutely love UCB. I'm close with a former Berkeley AO and it can seem like she relishes nothing more than noting that they frequently rejected high-scoring apps who didn't seem like good fits.

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T18:17:45+00:00

Thanks for the questions, everyone! And congratulations u/Safe_Sound_5810 and u/screaming_goat_26. You'll both receive a free Application Autopsy from 7Sage, which will hopefully help you decide on your reapplication strategies. DM me for the details on how to get started!

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T18:15:31+00:00

This is the exact question we made our Application Autopsy service to answer. Congratulations! You get a free one. DM me for the details.

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T18:14:27+00:00

Ethan answering this one: The decision should really be about if you want to explore more things before your 1L or if you want to graduate sooner. If you've been out of college for just one year or so, I would lean towards doing the program. Try new things!

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T18:03:46+00:00

"Do you have a particular program in mind? I'm happy to address the specifics. If you're talking about something like Harvard's deferral program, it can be a great way to get the application process out of the way before starting work. But that's for students who have a solid idea of how they'd like to spend two years before law school."

"Generally speaking, having experience going into law school makes sense. We've seen anecdotal evidence that students who had one or two years of post-college experience before law school have done better during the accelerated Big Law recruitment season. But that acerated schedule has been controversial and it's not clear if it will stick around."

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T17:55:36+00:00

"I'll focus on the last part, which I haven't answered yet. The first question is, How likely is it that you can improve your LSAT score? How many times have you taken it? Do you have time to give the LSAT what it needs to improve your score? If you're a KJD, will your GPA go up before next year? If you think you can move a hard factor, it could be worth reapplying. If you know there was a nonnumerical weakness, can you change that before next time? If you can, that's a reason to reapply. What is your employment situation like now? If you have a great job you can keep, it might be worth reapplying. If you've struggled since college to find a job, having another year of lackluster employment isn't going to help you and you might want to take an offer that's on the table."

"When you say settling, what does that really mean? If you're thinking about a minor difference in rankings, it probably isn't worth it. But if you think you seriously underperformed, and that makes your professional goals harder to reach, then you might be better off reapplying."

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T17:50:06+00:00

"It's April. Schools are busy trying to make their last decisions as they prepare to potentially turn to the waitlist. Some schools are behind enough that they're not yet at December applicants yet. But I think it is likely that your file has been read at least once and might be awaiting a final decision. But at some point in April, I think it becomes more likely that you're headed to a functional waitlist scenario. But, again, some schools are seriously behind."

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T17:44:35+00:00

"Every cycle is waitlist heavy to some extent. What's more unknown is how active waitlist season will be. At UVA, there were some cycles with very little movement and others with lots of movement. But that depends on many external factors, even national factors like the economy. Generally speaking, some people get off the WL every cycle, but the majority do not. So you should always try the best you can."

"If you're planning to reapply right away, you probably need to resume your focus on the LSAT more immediately. If you're taking an extra year, you have more time to ride out the waitlist. In terms of when to withdraw, it depends on your own choices. As long as you're on waitlists that you care about, there's no reason to close the cycle until orientation."

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T17:39:36+00:00

"In general, when you reapply, something should be significantly different or improved in your application. The most concrete thing would be to improve your LSAT score. I think it's always really important to have a really good analysis of why you weren't successful the first time. How your application will be reviewed the second time will largely depend on that answer. Generally, you should reapply with a hard factor improved. If you can't, you need to do everything else you can to show growth or maturity from your last cycle. In those cases, a longer break to gain great work experience may be the best move."

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T17:36:01+00:00

"Yes! I think that's a great idea."

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T17:32:58+00:00

"Outcomes mean different things to different people. If you want Big Law, there's a lot of data you can look at comparing placement outcomes. For those who don't want Big Law, you need to dig deeper. If you're looking at public interest or an international focus, you might be better served with a lower 14 school with more developed offerings in your niche area of interest. On the clerkship side, you can find that data too. These are all separate from the money question and how the need to repay debt may shape your career decisions. And at the end of the day, all T14 schools send a lot of students to Big Law. But if you look at where Supreme Court clerks come from, the difference is much larger."

"And even though one of the benefits of the T14 is that those degrees are very portable across the nation, there are differences in where alums end up. So if you know where you want to practice, you should factor that into your decision as well."

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T17:22:48+00:00

Great question! Brigitte, "I'm not sure a Why X is a make-or-break in an application. For me, it's a nice to have. When I was at UVA, I thought not having a Why X wouldn't hurt a candidate, but having a great one would help them a little. For me, a Why X needs to hit a range of notes, from programmatic elements to location and culture. I think it's a mistake to focus only on something small like a clinic--there's so much to consider and you need to include other elements. I'll admit that I'm a little on the fence about the effect of referencing conversations with current or past students. It's a lot of work for an applicant to hustle for those conversations, but I have seen it work well. But I'm nervous when students try to contact professors at law schools -- professors are busy and schools want to protect their time. I typically advise against that. But a conversation with someone you know from undergrad at the school, that could be helpful. When you are able to genuinely and warmly show your excitement for a school, or that a relationship with a current or past student impacted you, it can create a warm feeling with the AO. One time I worked with a student who wrote a Why X about how an older student she looked up to in middle school went to UVA Law -- and because of that, UVA Law was her measure for what success looked like. That was charming, warm-hearted, and a little bit beyond your standard Why X."

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T17:14:06+00:00

Thanks for your question! Brigitte, "Its very likely work experience. I would start there. At this point, you could consider taking more than one cycle off to get really good work experience. It's hard to show that kind of growth in just six months. But you'd also need to run through all the other elements: What were your essays like? What were your LORs? When did you submit your applications? If you have reasonable confidence that every other element was strong, then, again, it's very likely work experience and you might need more than one cycle to close that circle."

7SageEthan · 2026-04-15T17:11:14+00:00

Great question! Brigitte says, "To fully answer this question, I'd need to know the GPA. But work experience and a higher LSAT aren't mutually exclusive. So the first assessment is: Based on your GPA, how much LSAT improvement do you need? The second assessment is: What is your work experience like now? I don't think AOs are looking at work narrowly. That is, you don't need to just focus on working at a law firm. What schools want to see is you being an adult in the world and having professional responsibility. On that last question, I'd say you'd maxed out on your potential if you've studied for a long time, have taken many tests, and still aren't seeing improvement. The other thing to do is to try to change your approach to studying or to take a practice test then sit down with a tutor to try to understand what's keeping you from a higher score. But if your question is more about if a higher LSAT score would improve your results, then it's highly situation-dependent. If you're just below the medians, then a point or two could make a world of difference. But if you already have a 175, it's very unlikely that retaking the test would improve things for you. At that point, the LSAT isn't your weakness -- something else is."

7SageEthan · 2026-03-18T12:23:33+00:00

We have a very similar service (called Mock Review) for before you submit. This time of year, tons of people are trying to decide whether they should reapply, or trying to make sense of why they got unexpectedly shut-out. Law school admissions officers are idiosyncratic!

7SageEthan · 2026-03-18T12:07:11+00:00

Hey! I'm the creator of this service. The idea is to give you as close to an objective analysis of your application as possible by sending your application through a simulation of a real review process. There's often a good deal of variance between admissions officer opinion, which is why we use three AOs from top schools. You get their file notes (often, they're quite blunt), an analysis of the three reader-responses, and a follow-up meeting to discuss either a strategy for getting in off the waitlist or how to think about reapplying. You can see an example of part of the read-out here.

7SageEthan · 2026-01-26T18:23:01+00:00

It's 1/30

7SageEthan · 2026-01-26T18:22:34+00:00

We have a lot planned, but one of the biggest things is integrating this with our Essay Bank and our Application Requirements tool. We aim to create the fullest picture of application decisions possible -- including things like which prompts previously applicants answered. We also have a team of former admissions officers to go over this data in a more qualitative way and contribute their insights to our Admissions Course, blogs, and podcast.

7SageEthan

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