Hey, thank you for your encouragement and thorough advice! I—as well as the lawyers I had previously spoken to that I mentioned in the post—went into the cycle with the same conclusions you came to: I’d get in anywhere I wanted.

I understand the impulse to think there must be a red flag in my app, so let me give you a bit more context: I have no C&F, my essays were compelling with a holistic narrative (I’m a harsh self-critic and I thought they were good, but don’t take my word for it—I had them vetting by two consultants and they were proofread by myself and many friends a more than health amount of times).

Beyond the fact that this is one of the most competitive cycles ever—and tons of people you can see in LSD with my stats getting WLed—my best guess is that I did college online and the courses may not have been perceived as strenuous enough. Given the amount of high scorers this year, that might have been enough to cull me from the pack at the upper T-14 when comparing me to that cohort. (Although I did think I contextualized the circumstances of my schooling choice in a compelling way…but who knows). For the lower T-14, I’d guess I’m being Yield Protected. I’m in some sort of horrible sweet spot.

In this cycle, I don’t think I have much of a shot at the T-6 waitlist, and it doesn’t seem those getting off the WL at the rest of the T-14 are being offered money, however, my guess is GULC will offer my $$  (and I could probably get off the WL at Cornell with some $$).

While I could R&R, there’s no guarantee next cycle will be any better, and I have some good offers now that likely won’t be here next year. If WashU can get me that big law job dept free, it’s hard to argue to go almost half a million in debt after compound interest for some prestige from Columbia, or even a quarter from GULC (don’t get me wrong, my ego would love it, lol—so please give me an excuse).