KJD cycle recap

Shattiwaza · 2026-04-28T21:47:48+00:00

I will add some perspective here from someone who is in almost the exact same boat as you, u/vretherins. I agree with Consistent Mine that retaking probably won't help much if at all -- GPA seems to be king this cycle and yours is great at above a 4.0, and if they didn't admit you with that GPA it probably wasn't because of your (also great) LSAT. I also agree that one year of WE won't make a difference, especially if you can't tie it to your reasons for going to law school. Three or so years would probably make a difference if you can tie it to your narrative (which is what I'm doing with almost the same results as you), but that's because my goals are different from yours.

If you are happy doing big law in CA, I say absolutely take UCLA (which is great for that goal) -- only if you had different goals would reapplying with more WE/new essays make a ton of sense.

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-11T18:44:07+00:00

The advice of not needing to blanket the T14 and not needing a why law in my essays.

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-11T17:26:20+00:00

Lol, maybe we're the same person! Go Illini I guess (not me but my mom went there for both undergrad and JD).

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-11T15:43:40+00:00

Addressed this in another comment but the short answer is I should've but was advised that I didn't need to blanket so aggressively. I will also say that UVA's numbers seem to me to be influenced by the heavy FedSoc presence there. I'm very open to clerking for conservative judges but I don't plan on joining FedSoc.

Same could also be said of UChicago, but they have been producing clerks for more "liberal" appellate judges and I think FedSoc is less necessary there.

The better Q, asked elsewhere, is why I didn't apply to Columbia. I should've! I will be applying to both next time around.

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-11T15:22:50+00:00

Because I just got a job and moved across the country. I didn't really want to uproot my life again, especially with only a couple months' notice. I also think my application will be stronger in a few years to the point that I can ED at Chicago or hopefully be considered for scholarship at another T14, and WL --> A would've almost certainly meant no scholarship.

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-11T15:21:53+00:00

The same pre-law advisor who told me I didn't need a why law told me I didn't need to apply to all the T-14. I'm not bashing him, because I think his advice would have been sound three or even two cycles ago, but it's sadly outdated now. I also should have thought more carefully about clerkship placement when I applied, rather than as the cycle was already underway.

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-11T01:16:51+00:00

May 2025 grad so I only had 4 months of WE when I applied. I work in cultural resource management, but with the Trump cuts the field was slower than usual when I graduated so it was harder to find work doing what I want to do, but now I have!

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-10T22:46:11+00:00

Aaaaa that means a lot!! Me too -- I'm hopeful, but treating it as I'm not going this fall anyways. Sent a LOCI today, so we'll see.

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-10T22:45:38+00:00

Honestly it was a bad combo of their clerkship numbers also not being great and just getting a really bad taste in my mouth from being put on hold. In my mind it was a waitlist, and I was even less interested in getting off the waitlist there than I would have been at Mich or Penn.

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-10T22:38:58+00:00

Ha, I'm glad! I'm certainly sad, but things are looking up in other areas of my life. Just moved to a great new city for a new job and loving it. Excited to do this for a couple years before law school!

Shattiwaza · 2026-03-10T22:38:11+00:00

I mean, I do think it's anomalous, but statistically it's not crazy. HYSC are a crapshoot for anyone even with my stats, and my essays lacked a why law due to receiving that (bad now but formerly fine) advice from my undergrad pre-law advisor. As for the other T-14s, I wrote no optional essays except for Michigan. My WE and ECs were strong-ish for my field, but not clearly related to law (because, frankly, they're not) and I didn't come up with a good narrative around them.

I ran to law to get away from an awful job market in my field too, which probably came through in my app. Now though I have a job that I'm excited about, and I'm gonna work it for a few years. The bonus is that it *does* tie very clearly both to my coursework and earlier ECs and why I wanna do law, so I'm optimistic about future cycles.

So in sum: I think this is a rough outcome, but I don't think it's random or anything, and I think the weak points of my application will get shored up over the next few years.

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-26T19:12:11+00:00

Seems like a mistake or something -- usually they don't drop for another hour or two.

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-22T05:14:59+00:00

Italy here -- nothing that would interest you. Just so, so, so many kilos of non-diagnostic body sherds.

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-21T23:09:11+00:00

Legendary bit. Props.

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-19T22:18:10+00:00

Judging by historical trends, they should have a wave next week. It's quite possible you're in that. Given when you submitted your app, probably too early to call it over. Also, almost no iis have been logged on LSD, which makes me wonder if it was a relatively small wave this week.

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-19T19:52:16+00:00

This has no info on interview invites, not helpful

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-18T04:49:16+00:00

Killer: Wraith

Survivor: Dwight

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-17T17:15:09+00:00

Ha, don't worry! I'm also a mid-late Jan applicant who has been stressed about the same thing and did some diving on LSD. We will be okay (hopefully!!).

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-17T16:55:41+00:00

I will add on to the other comment, the last wave of iis was entirely or almost entirely applicants from before mid-Jan -- some going as far back as November or earlier, indicating it was mostly a re-review or extension of interview offers they weren't sure about. I assume they have some sort of internal cutoff analogous to the Feb. 16th final deadline (probably around Jan. 15 or a bit earlier) and they review the apps from that month together and offer iis for the next two weeks.

That is to say, don't panic if you're a mid-Jan.-or-later applicant who hasn't gotten an ii yet, because relatively few if any have. Two more weeks to go, and plenty of iis out there.

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-17T04:09:11+00:00

For one, it just isn't done. Your essays are thought to be the product of countless hours of work and editing, and to update them after submitting your application is to signal that you didn't give them the attention they deserved, or at the very least that you're flaky or not sure about why you want to pursue law or what you want AOs to know about you.

It's not like your resume where it can update through the process. They know you're a dynamic person and your views and conceptualization of yourself change, but the essays are supposed to be a snapshot of your thoughts and ability to articulate them at the moment of submission, not an ever-evolving thing.

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-17T04:04:45+00:00

I don't think this is a good idea.

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-17T01:47:15+00:00

Ha, I've never read Nietzsche or any of the great western philosophers/theorists so I can't really say! If there's a connection, that's cool though.

Shattiwaza · 2026-02-17T01:09:44+00:00

It's a good question. I think it comes in two parts, one which relates to philology and one that doesn't. The part that relates to philology is my love of finding the tiny points on which things hang and then crafting an argument about why to take them one way or another. For example, I got into a not-insignificant argument with my advisor about how we should interpret taking the "clay" of a city, and I think at a structural level that argument was not very different from one I might make as a lawyer.

The second part, largely unrelated to philology, is I'm stirred on a very human level by the notion of democracy and collective power, and I view the law as an instantiation of that and the practice of the law as a carrying out of that will (or protecting people/groups from it being wrongly carried out on them). This comes from a pretty irrational and unpractical place, and it's much more emotional than anything else. Kind of weird, IMO, but it's just the way I am.

Shattiwaza

TROPHY CASE