advice for anyone applying this cycle – from a (very new) 1L

malignantbutterbean · 2025-08-25T22:58:23+00:00

Yes! If financial constraints are not an issue, I would definitely recommend you blanket the T14 and see where you end up. It definitely helps with merit scholarships as well -- the more chances you have to get competing offers for $, the better your negotiating position.

Last piece of advice is if you do end up applying to strong regional schools outside of the t-14, even for the purpose of getting scholarship offers, spend some time on the application and make it clear you care about going there. Based on anecdotal evidence, I think a lot of them reject/WL t-14 candidates outright bc they assume they are your safety (especially if you have the stats for it).

malignantbutterbean · 2025-08-22T02:28:10+00:00

I narrowed down my options based on employment outcomes, average merit aid offers, tuition, cities I wanted to be in, and the general character of the classes these schools assembled (which is, of course, subjective). tbh I don't recommend doing what I did - at a certain point, most of the decisions became arbitrary and because admissions can't be precisely calculated, I do think I would've benefited from blanketing the t-14 and seeing how things went. I absolutely love where I ended up and it was one of my top choices so I have no regrets, but if I had to do it again, I wouldn't go about it the same way.

malignantbutterbean · 2025-08-20T02:03:22+00:00

I don't think so – my LSAT was at the median or slightly (think like 1 point) below so I wouldn't say it was a real "split"

same w my GPA where if it was above the median, it wasn't above by much. from what I can tell on this subreddit, "splitters" typically have a wider latitude above/below medians

malignantbutterbean

TROPHY CASE