CalvinCoolidge-Official '21–'22 app cycle Class of 2025 class year

Long recap below ordered by: Biographical, LSAT, Softs, PS, Applications.

Summary: Had inconsistent results, but such is the life of a splitter. Apply broadly, study as hard as you can for the LSAT, and emphasize how you’ll fit into a school. I thought I was more likely to get into Cornell than UMich or NW, so 1.) don’t fall in love with schools too early and 2.) apply broadly because the process is unpredictable. Finally, apply broadly. Also, make sure you apply broadly.

PM me on Reddit (u/CertifiedClairvoyant). I’m more than happy to put my now irrelevant admissions knowledge to use. This especially goes to future lurkers who find this page, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you ever wanna know anything about my cycle, I’m more than happy to help or talk about Michigan Law!

Biographical:

Literally the most boring applicant. Straight white male, born and raised in the Midwest, middle class. First person in my family to go to law school, but that isn’t very unique. KJD who graduated in three years from University of Alabama with a double major in Philosophy (with a Jurisprudence concentration) and History. Minored in English. Had a 4.11 uGPA at the time of applying, maintained 4.11 for Spring semester, graduated with a 4.13.

I’m not sure what the effect of me going to a notoriously non-selective university had. I don’t regret taking the full ride, although I can’t help but wonder if some schools discounted my GPA because of where I went. Might help explain some odd results I got.

LSAT:

Diagnostic at 159, studied for about 15 hours a week for 2.5-3 months. PT average got to around 170 with range of scores from 176-164. I refused to spend money and only used Khan Academy and free videos.

Psyched myself out on a June test and pulled a 164, wallowed in my own pity for two months and studied maybe twice before taking again in August. Took a lot of the pressure off myself and scored a 169, which was pretty much in line with what I expected. Mental health is very important during this process, and you won’t reach your potential until that is taken care of first. Should’ve written an addendum but I didn’t.

Also, please invest way more money and time that I did. My one regret in this process is I certainly didn’t reach my LSAT potential. It’s an investment literally worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, please take 6 months to study at a minimum and buy a course or something. Khan was great for me and it worked to some extent, but I’m sure I could’ve done better with more time and better prep.  

Softs/LORs:

Applied with only four semesters of college under my belt. Three were during a pandemic, and the other was my first semester. Nearly all of my classes were over Zoom, so I struggled to make connections with professors. My guess is my academic LORs were pretty generic.

It was also tough to get involved with everything being virtual. Played rec football my first semester on campus, and joined the chess team after the pandemic broke out. Didn’t have a leadership position, but I within a year of learning the game I was the highest rated player at the school. Didn’t really communicate this though because I thought chess would be a boring PS. It was definitely my strongest soft, and maybe some AdComs falsely equated chess ability with intelligence, who knows.

I also interned for a summer with a local lawyer, which gave me what I assume to be a great LOR and a really hands on experience. He ran a solo practice in the rural Midwest, so I got to see a wide breadth of cases and he delegated a ton of work to me. I highly recommend people look for a smaller firm for internships. You’ll shine way more, and get to do more meaningful work than filing papers at some V100. Involved in some absolutely wild cases too, which gave me some good stories and material for essays.

I also included a couple jobs from HS because they were from less than four years ago and fairly unique–basketball referee and warehouse worker. Follow instructions though, I think I probably bent the rules for the UChiacgo app and was rewarded accordingly.

Personal Statement:

I struggled with this. I felt like I had no significant life experiences that would help me stand out, and writing about the pandemic I knew was going to be overdone. So I was basically cornered into writing about pre-college, which I was concerned wouldn’t help ease any worries that I was too immature.

Ultimately, I wrote about how I led the state in sacrifice bunts as a senior on the baseball team, and how that evidences my understanding of my strengths and how to utilize them for the betterment of a team. I finished the narrative part with a short blurb talking about what I liked about baseball as a game, and some of the similarities I saw between it and the law. I honestly didn’t spend a lot of time writing it because I wanted it to be organic, most of my time was spent brainstorming a topic.

This may have been a riskier way of doing it, but I think something about my writing style or topic stood out for my reach schools. FWIW, Dean Z said she liked my essays.

Applications:

My only regret here is not applying more broadly. I thought I applied to too many, but there’s no such thing. This process is very unpredictable, so maximize your chances and apply to as many as you can afford to, because it’ll pay off. If I had cut down my list I may not have gotten any acceptances.

(For future lurkers, this cycle had crazy score inflation, so I was a reverse splitter t-16 and higher)

Some brief notes on each school:

Alabama–My alma mater, so figured it’d be a nice safety school if nothing else. Used their Priority Track option open to students who went to school in the state of Alabama, so I didn’t have to submit anything besides GPA and LSAT. Really liked the school, just didn’t have comparable employment outcomes.

BostonU–Applied thinking it’d be a safety or full ride candidate. They really went for a high LSAT median this year, hence my low scholarship. Sent them my generic PS

USC–I’m telling myself this was YP. I have no ties to the area and didn’t write a Why X or anything. Honestly just liked the idea of California weather

WashU–My first big acceptance, and was pretty sure I was going here for the longest time. I’m from the area (although didn’t mention this until the interview, which is stupid. Write Why Xs people), so that may have helped make me seem like a fit

Vandy–Did the alumni interview, waited for six months and then got WL. Interview was meh, and past data suggested I’d either get $$$ or WL, so with my bad softs I assumed it would be the latter.

Texas–Also waited 6 months just to get a WL. Their medians are deceiving if you aren’t a Texas resident, so just be aware of the different standards and adjust expectations accordingly. 

Georgetown–Wrote an optional essay on a time I changed my opinion. I thought it was decent; not sure if it was beneficial to write an optional that wasn’t a Top 10 List. I don’t know how their interview process is supposed to help with decisions at all. Just act like a human and you won’t impact your chances.

UCLA–Wrote a fairly weak Programmatic Contribution essay. Didn’t have much to say other than that I once wrote a paper arguing against one of their professors, so clearly I was a good fit. Should have done more research first, but that’s the downside of applying broadly I suppose.

Cornell–Acted like they were Yale early in the cycle. Would have gotten in with scholarship normally, auto-deny this cycle. Probably for the best they rejected me anyway, I would’ve hated Ithaca.

Northwestern–I’m still not sure what they liked about me. They’re notorious for valuing WE and age, so maybe they were just looking for young people to balance it out. But why me?? I felt like my KIRA went as solid as a KIRA can go, so maybe it was that, or someone in the admissions office just clicked with my app. Exhibit A for applying broadly.

Michigan–Also not sure why I was chosen, but boy am I glad I was. Wrote an optional essay that, looking back, was supposed to be a diversity statement (lol oops). I wrote about how a coworker and I, who had very different backgrounds, relied on one another’s differing skill sets to help each other out. Dean Z wrote in my admissions letter that she liked my essays, although she might just say that to all the boys

Duke–Really really wanted Duke at the start of this process, but didn’t really know why. I wrote the Why Duke like they suggest, but it was very generic. Saddened, but not surprised.

Berkeley–Surprised they WL’d me and not rejected given how holistic they’re supposed to be. Wrote a longer PS where I basically just tacked on some info about my chess journey after my baseball story. I think they probably really do like to see people put the time in to make the PS longer.

Virginia–Didn’t write a Why X, which would have been weak anyways. Seems like they really want one, so do your research and take a visit if you really want to go. They seem big on fit.

Penn–Wrote a meh Core Values. They have a massive WL so this doesn’t mean much, although it was reassuring to not be instantly rejected.

Chicago–Didn’t write any optionals, but should have. Also included my HS jobs and they specifically say to only include post college stuff, so that probably tipped me from WL to R, if I wasn’t headed there already.

Stanford–Shooters shoot. Wrote Three Books, but wasn’t particularly groundbreaking. Get better than a 169 if you wanna go here and haven’t cured cancer.