EagerJuridicalCheetah534 '25–'26 app cycle Class of 2029 class year

Apply to your top choices last (ya know, within reason). Michigan was pretty much my top choice going into this and so (logically, I thought) was the first school I applied to. My materials got a lot stronger, though, as I kept on tweaking my personal statement and got better at writing supplemental essays. I was lucky enough to get off the waitlist at Michigan soon after the deposit deadline, but I can’t help but think I could’ve saved myself a lot of anxiety and stress by just waiting a few more weeks and applying when my application was stronger.

Graduated summa from a T20 undergrad (humanities major), and while I’m very happy with my results, I do feel like I underperformed my stats to an extent. I would chalk this up to two things:

1. my work history. I’d had several years of legal experience right after undergrad, but in the years prior to applying, I had just been tutoring and trying to do the whole artist thing. Had a few modest accomplishments in this realm that may have helped, but overall I think I probably looked a little wayward. My LSAT score was also on the verge of expiring (was nearing the 5 year mark), so that probably also raised some questions about my level of commitment.

2. my personal statement. I still don’t think it was terrible terrible, but I think I tried to take advice from too many people, to the point where it just felt a little all over the place. I tried to do too much in it, and it probably ended up sounding more like “why I care about this one set of issues” rather than “why I want to pursue these issues via the legal profession.”

Also, I accidentally missed my first Georgetown interview (they sent an email the day before saying they had to move it up an hour earlier, and I completely missed it). Figured I was done for there, but they let me reschedule and I ended up getting in with a strong scholarship. That’s definitely where I would’ve ended up (happily) if the Michigan waitlist didn’t come through. So just a reminder that these admissions offices can be forgiving! Don’t panic over any one mistake!

I really did a decent job of staying off reddit and LSD while I was applying, but after I sent in my last application and was just waiting for results, I spent so much unnecessary time obsessively checking for updates online. Even after seeing all the advice about staying off Reddit and LSD. I really wish I could have some of that time back.