Mysonx3's Law School Thread

[mysonx3]

Sorry everyone for the LONG delay between updates. Life has been hectic.

Here is the recap of my application cycle:

Admissions Results:

Acceptances: Northwestern, Cornell

Waitlists: University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Penn, University of Virginia, Duke, Georgetown

Rejections: Yale, Stanford, Harvard, UC-Berkeley

Left on Read: Columbia, NYU

Very, very happy with my two acceptances, even if a little bummed out at some of the other decisions. Also a little frustrated with NYU and Columbia for not making a decision when I submitted my application so long ago (almost eight months, in the case of Columbia).

Financial Aid:
Law school is extremely expensive, so this is a huge factor for me. Cornell made the first offer, totaling $135,000 ($45k per year). That works out to roughly 2/3 of tuition.

A few weeks later, Northwestern sent their offer: $180,000 ($60k per year, or approximately 90% of tuition).

For law school, it is common to negotiate scholarships with schools. During this process, Cornell decided to match Northwestern's offer, leaving me with equal offers from each school.

Finally, Northwestern declined my request to increase their offer to top Cornell's.

Considerations:

• With equivalent scholarship offers, the lower cost of living worked out to make Cornell about $10-15k cheaper.
  
• I intend to go into a public interest career (as opposed to a well-paying job at a firm or the like). Both schools have programs to help graduates who choose such careers pay back their loans. However, Cornell's program is quite a bit better and more flexible.
  
• Northwestern has a strong program for appellate advocacy, a Supreme Court litigation clinic, and a program allowing you to work on independent research for the bulk of your third year - all of which are extremely appealing
  
• Cornell has a fantastic Death Penalty clinic (which is the type of work I want to do)
  
• Northwestern is in a big city (Chicago), while Cornell is in a small college town (Ithaca, NY)
  

The Decision:

I will be attending Cornell Law School in the fall!

Thank you so much to everyone hear who helped me through my circuitous undergrad journey. Without you, this wouldn't be possible!

Go Big Red!

Impressive! Going to an Ivy League law school. 
You didn't want to wait on the one's who didn't get back you? Or what is the chance of getting off the waitlist of any of them.

Unfortunately I didn't have the option to wait on the ones that haven't gotten back to me - my deposit deadline at Cornell was April 15th (part of the reason I'm so frustrated not to have heard back). That first deposit isn't binding, so I have the option to change my mind if one of the waitlists or schools I haven't heard from turns into an acceptance. However, even if it does, it's unlikely it will come with enough financial aid to warrant choosing that school over Cornell.