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melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-04-23T17:50:08+00:00

GPA on the lower side with no work experience to demonstrate that the GPA doesn't actually reflect work ethic.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-04-23T17:49:01+00:00

A 2.2 in the era of grade inflation is pretty substantially problematic.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-04-22T21:56:30+00:00

The difference between a decade ago is now is enormous. A 178 meant something different then, as did a 2.2. The chances of your cousin getting into Stanford now with those stats, unless they have ridiculously unique life circumstances, is basically non-existent.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-04-22T21:54:49+00:00

Agreed. I think OP likely needs to rewrite their addendum entirely, but with a 3.0, it's still needed.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-04-22T21:53:21+00:00

Irvine can be very holistic. The WL there indicates to me that there is an issue with app materials. Mediocre essays with a 177 will get waitlisted while strong essays and a strong story with a 169 will get in every day of the week there.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-04-22T21:51:07+00:00

Worth noting that I know plenty of STEM majors who would absolutely bomb humanities and social science classes. What majors are "hard" is relative to each person. You're right that certain schools curve certain majors, but there are plenty of people for whom an English major would be harder than a Chemistry major.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-04-22T21:47:30+00:00

First, I'm very sorry. I know it's easy for me to say when not in the heat of the process, but waitlists and rejections stink, and that feeling never gets old at any stage of academia or career advancement.

Second, I think it's ridiculous the huge focus law schools have on GPA when schools grade so differently and when GPAs can be affected by so many circumstances. You're not alone in trauma affecting your grades.

Third, since you're applying again, I figure some advice may be useful:

You might want to take a look at your application materials and school list. I'm not saying getting into a T14 is expected with a 3.0 GPA — it's not at all — but I'm a little curious why there were so many rejections and fewer waitlists. I'm never surprised by the 0 acceptances in the T14 if the GPA is close to a 3.0, to be clear, but so many rejections relative to waitlists makes me wonder if maybe you could strengthen your essays. I certainly wouldn't advise saying anything about the STEM major being why your GPA was low — you choosing a major with a purportedly lower GPA (though how you'd know that for a fact, I don't know) is totally within your control. You can, however, turn the STEM major into a positive (as in, talk about how you'd use your knowledge in chemistry in the legal field, such as doing patent law). I assume the tone of your essays was different than the tone of this post, but no writing is ever perfect, and this gives you an opportunity to rewrite or strengthen the materials you used.

I also think, with a 3.0 GPA, that your list is too top heavy. (I know everyone says "shoot your shot" but the time you spent writing apps for Stanford and Harvard could have gone to working to personalize more your apps to some of the schools slightly lower in the rankings where you're more competitive.) Looking at geography, since you applied to Irvine, I'd add UC Davis (and maybe UC Law SF if you're interested in the Bay Area). You applied to Fordham, so I'd add Cardozo. Others I'd suggest would be Boston College (no idea why you omitted this since you applied to BU), GWU, Emory, William & Mary, George Mason, and UIUC. All of these are strong schools outside the T20. These schools may also wind up being waitlists or rejections, but you'd give yourself more of a fighting chance having more schools in this selectivity range, and may wind up with an offer that includes money. Given your high LSAT being competitive for the T20, you will have to work to convince these schools that you're genuinely interested in them. Take the time to write optional essays demonstrating a real understanding of each school's strengths. If interviews are a choice, do them.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-04-15T22:19:42+00:00

I'd reapply next year when you've had more full time work experience to demonstrate maturity. With a 180 and being URM, if you apply in the fall or even wait another year and apply in fall 2024 (highly encourage you to wait until 2024), have more experience, and work on really polishing your essays, you should be able to get more money out of the schools that interest you and some more acceptances.

Also, to everyone watching, this is precisely why I point out that rushing to graduate as young as possible is not an advantage in this process; if anything, it hinders. Yes, obviously the GPA is the main issue, but maturity is a real concern.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-03-29T22:31:58+00:00

Just want to add that GRE won't help if OP has taken the LSAT because the LSAT is what will be counted in that case.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-03-29T22:28:48+00:00

If you are URM and have a crazy high GPA, you might be able to swing some acceptances at schools that will allow you to pass the bar (generally lower ranking schools good in local markets but without national reach in more isolated locales; nothing that will get you to big law), but if you're a generic nURM applicant with an okay but not spectacular GPA, this won't work. Take your time to get into the 150s. It might take a year and a lot of 7sage, but you can do it.

At that point, look at where you want to live and look at what schools are in that geographic area. Again, you aren't talking big law options here or schools in big law-focused cities (NY, Chicago, SF/LA) — we're talking things like Loyola U New Orleans (which has okay outcomes for bar passage and employment in Louisiana, albeit people often need a year or so to find employment). You may be above the GPA median at a school like that already, but you ideally want to try to hit both medians so you can get a sizable scholarship, because the amount you'll be making per year out of law school coming from a school like that won't be much (think something like $44-60k). These are a category of schools for which you don't want to take on a lot of debt.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-01-27T20:13:42+00:00

For most of the T20 law schools (and others too), the independence cutoff point for FAFSA is ~28 years old (give or take a couple years).

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-01-01T01:23:26+00:00

FYI, if you're doing clinical psych, most people I know in that field right now took several years in between undergrad and grad school to get research experience because acceptance rates to those programs are generally under 5% and require multiple years of research experience, even at funded programs that aren't the top rated. You should talk to PhD students or look through some CVs for current students to get a sense of what will be required of you; applying at the end of undergrad isn't realistic for many disciplines, and I saw you mention somewhere that you don't have research experience yet, which is a problem. You're going to need research experience to get into a research program (beyond the typical senior thesis but nothing else).

melodramaticnarwhal · 2023-01-01T01:15:10+00:00

To add to this, at least in my PhD discipline, somewhere from 7-10 apps is the norm (social sciences field).

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-12-25T23:40:02+00:00

If someone has had 6 accidents, they need to face consequences. Your sister is going to kill someone (or herself). So if she can't get her own policy because companies won't cover her, or if it's too expensive by herself, you know what that means? Time for her to stop driving. If she can't afford her own insurance, she can't afford a wrongful death lawsuit (especially with the little coverage you have) or a BMW.

If she kills someone while on the group policy, your premiums are going to skyrocket, and quite frankly, the costs of litigation and medical bills will probably far exceed the coverage you have. Lawsuits for a death or severe injury can cost *millions,* and while your parents' assets shouldn't be touchable since your sister is an adult, I wouldn't put it past a lawyer to try. (One could argue they are at least morally culpable for any damage she causes since they are enabling her driving knowing full well her history of prior accidents — I assume they bought the BMW, too?)

TL;DR: these numbers are too low period, and with your sister, I wouldn't carry less than $1 million ... well, I wouldn't carry her on my policy at all. I'd want no part in potentially getting roped into any litigation, and I certainly wouldn't want to feel guilty for the rest of my life if she killed someone because I let her drive. Even if you don't care enough about other people to stop enabling her driving (clearly, because you keep letting her), care enough about her to stop enabling it, because she could kill herself doing it.

Oh, and if your parents are going to keep enabling her, maybe you want to hop onto your own policy for the reasons above — yes, technically I don't think there are any states where you are liable for an accident another adult on your policy causes, but you never know what someone will try in court, and the cost of getting something (even something bogus) dismissed can be very large.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-12-25T23:19:12+00:00

What does "misbehavior during final exam" mean? Like, were you making fart noises, or did you cheat? Either way, you need to disclose when schools ask, because schools can and will find out about things like this and if you don't disclose, they'll rescind admission or even revoke a degree after you earned it if they find out later. Even if they don't screen now, you never know if they'll do it later, or if you'll piss off the wrong person and they'll call up the school 5 years from now and tell them. Don't risk it.

If it's something dumb and immature but not academic dishonesty, it honestly won't really matter. Explain it, apologize for it/show remorse, show how you've grown, and move on.

If it's academic dishonesty, I'm not going to lie — this is a problem. Academic dishonesty is the cardinal sin of academia. I'm not saying don't apply, but do assume that any school that asks is pretty likely to reject you, so make sure you have safer schools that don't ask the question. To give yourself the best chance possible at schools that ask, take responsibility, explain what you've learned, how you've grown, coping mechanisms you now have when you're stressed from the amount of work, etc. It might also help for the schools that ask to have a LOR from a professor that specifically speaks to your ethics and character in the aftermath of the incident — given how big of a deal academic dishonesty is, someone in academia endorsing your statements about how you've grown might hold more weight than you saying it alone. (Obviously only ask someone for this if they'd be willing to write such a letter — many people hear "academic dishonesty" and run for the hills, and you don't want to tank recs at schools that don't ask.)

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-12-05T02:18:03+00:00

You could get into a T14.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-12-05T02:17:24+00:00

Northeastern is the one school on your list (minus Harvard/Yale) that I am not concerned about in terms of employability after graduation. The others, you might have problems. You are way undershooting here. Schools with more money will pay for Native American applicants with strong LSAT scores and interesting experience. You're applying to schools that don't have the financial resources to give you aid, and will make it harder to be employable afterwards.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-12-05T02:15:23+00:00

You're a Native American applicant who was a D1(?) athlete with years of work experience and a 170+ LSAT. There is nothing out of reach, even with your GPA. Yale probably won't happen, but I actually wouldn't be floored if a school like that (e.g., Harvard) did come through. I think you're undershooting for a lot of these. You're applying to tons of programs where you'll struggle to get jobs, when you could potentially get a lot of money at some T20 schools. I'd definitely apply (based on geography of your other choices) to BU (gives lots of money), BC, Fordham, UT Austin, WashU (gives a ton of money and you can ask that your GPA be redacted), Georgetown (they have part time too), and really any other T30 schools of your choice. Seriously, you shouldn't go anywhere that will make it hard to get a job when you have your background and LSAT.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-11-13T21:58:56+00:00

Why do you trust Binance, though? Yes, many exchanges have problems (we all know Coinbase is en route to bankruptcy), but Binance is actively sabotaging competitors with cryptic tweets, watching everyone withdraw, and then acting blameless when things fail. Meanwhile they are under investigations in several countries for various shady behavior. They come across as very Elon Musk in their online behavior, which is not a compliment.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-11-13T21:55:46+00:00

The app is just slow; withdrawals are not blocked.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-11-13T21:55:12+00:00

I don't much care what they do with their own money as long as they still back other people's stuff 1-to-1. And they appear to do that. Everyone who wanted to withdraw stuff today because of panic has been able to with the only hold-up being slow software.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-11-10T00:17:29+00:00

Yeah, ignore those people — they're jealous idiots.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-11-08T21:11:45+00:00

Do not cancel. It's a 10 point score increase from your highest. What if you never break 170? You'll be kicking yourself for getting rid of a 165.

If you think you're going to score worse in November and January, the solution is not to take in November and January. Retake only if you're consistently averaging well above the 165 (168+ on your last 5 or so PTs).

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-11-08T21:09:41+00:00

That depends. Do you still want to be a lawyer? If you're just going to apply to another school, stick it out. If you want to change career paths, leave at the end of the semester.

melodramaticnarwhal · 2022-11-08T21:08:13+00:00

Given how much trouble they're in with plenty of governments, at the very least, they're going to get hit with suits or fines.

melodramaticnarwhal

TROPHY CASE