FortunateAbidingCrab '24–'25 app cycle Class of 2028 class year

Trying to be as detailed as I possibly can for posterity.

Stats Background:
LSAT 172 (September) –> 179 October.
-Didn’t write an LSAT addendum even though I increased 7 points in a month. Underperformed slightly on my first test likely due to lack of sleep the night before (I live in a loud area of campus and the test was the weekend before classes started, so my building was party central). Didn’t want to sound like I was making excuses, so I just let the scores speak for themselves.
GPA: 3.94 –> 3.95 as of December 29. Upward GPA Trend (4.0 for the last three semesters). My worst semester was 1st sem sophmore year (dealt with major family death) but I didn’t write an addendum because it was only marginally worse (think like 3.8high).

UVA first A on December 16 and I was ecstatic! Thought I wrote a strong Why UVA essay which I think helped carry my application and contributed to me hearing back so quickly (I had visited campus and sat in on a class, talked to UVA reps at an LSAC forum, and had a prior personal connection to the school). Went UR twice in a day (UR2/UR3 on 11/22) and then UR4 on 12/4 (the day before I got the II). Interviewer was the sweetest person in the world and was just incredibly kind to me. Got the acceptence call around 7:00 am MST, and had a voicemail left (I was sleeping). Called back when I woke up :)

ASU was my second A, I found out via email right as I was leaving Christmas Eve Mass. Offered me the option to switch to full ride binding by late February. Otherwise, offered me $69,000, which covered much of my resident tuition. Didn’t write the Why ASU or interview.

Yale II on January 7. Was so shocked I audibly gasped. Only sent in my application about a week prior and refused to get my hopes up about Yale. Have been worried about Harvard rejections coming out on the 8th so this at least is a good omen. Still refuse to let myself think I can get into Yale.

NYU A on January 8. Couldn’t sleep at all the night before because I’ve been nervous about the Harvard rejection wave. Randomly checked my portals and saw that NYU was DLS. Was able to log into the admitted students page, so I knew I had been accepted. Got the call a little later.

January 8, dodged the first Harvard R wave! Proceded to miss the next three waves of interview invites.

January 10: Received my first rejection from Michigan. Initially, I didn’t feel sad at all: I was fairly certain I would choose other schools I had been accepted to over Michigan (barring any drastic financial implications) and I felt reassured of the strengths of my application as I had already been admitted to 2 T14s with the same/similar materials. I likely would have felt different if this was one of the first decisions I had received. Looking back over the next week, I definitely had moments where I wondered what I had done wrong. I didn’t write a Why Mich essay, but at the end of the day, I won’t know for sure and I probably just didn’t make them feel like I was a strong fit.

January 10: Georgetown Acceptance like an hour after the Michigan R. Dean Andy had noted my interview group was exceptional and told us that it was a good sign our interview went over an hour. He also gave us his personal email. Thought everyone in my group was quite nice. He had told us to expect a decision late January-early February, so it def came as a surprise. There had been people who interviewed over a month before me still waiting on decisions, so I believe I had an abnormally fast turnaround time (for all you future lurkers)

Missed Three Columbia A waves in January: 1/15, 1/17, 1/22

January 24: UChicago A! These last two weeks of no decisions and no interview invites has been so brutal. Got the acceptance email at 10:23 EST. I had been a little antsy seeing that people in my interview cohort had been admitted to Yale, but this acceptance helped reassure me that I am not a bad interviewee.

January 29: Dodged the second Harvard R wave. Very happy, but also anticipating a waitlist.

February 6: Columbia Hold. This definitely hurt––at the risk of sounding overconfident, I thought I had a solid shot at a Columbia acceptance. I understand that a hold is not a decision, but it’s tempting to just take it as a bad sign and withdraw and focus on the great schools that have admitted me. After a long few weeks of no decisions, its disappointing to have the silence broken by bad news. I had missed Columbia A and WL/R/Hold waves for a few weeks, and optimistically hoped no news wasn’t bad news. This feels like a bit of a wake up call for some of the other schools that I also feel slightly “ghosted” by (Like Harvard, Penn, and kinda Yale??? I’m not expecting to hear from Yale until March). Hoping maybe I can look at this in hindsight one day and laugh about how wrong I was––but at least for now, I want to record my psychological responses and not just my results. Taking the hold as a sign thery’re not terribly interested in me, going to withdraw to help give others a better chance.

February 11: Harvard Waitlist. Surprisingly hurt much less than I had thought. I think surviving 3 R waves contributed to me feeling relieved that being waitlisted meant I wouldn’t have to endure another R wave. It can be a lot mentally to prepare for rejection. Obviously it was a bit disappointing and sad, but I still (maybe naievely) am holding onto hope of getting off the waitlist. I think getting an interview at Yale made me feel like I had a shot of getting an interview at Harvard––it’s a good lesson to not read too much into one school’s decision. My Harvard waitlist marked one of the last major decisions of my cycle. Of my remaining schools (Yale, BU, Penn, and Boston College) Yale is the only one that I strongly feel I would attend over other options.

February 19: BU Waitlist. Was a bit surprised by this since I was above both 75ths. They got the same materials as other schools, so it’s not like the quality of my application was drastically different. I withdrew from the waitlist immediately to give others a chance . I really seem to be unlucky with the Boston schools so far. There’s always a silver lining in getting waitlisted at a school you weren’t confident you’d attend. It still has been a long time since I got any good news and that can for sure cause confidence in my application to waver.

March 6: Boston College A. Opened this decision right before rushing out to the train station. I was a little surprised, given that I seem to have bad luck with the Boston schools this cycle. I got my scholarhip offer March 19.

March 6: UVA Karsh-Dillard!!! Opened up my scholarship decision on the train because I couldn’t stand waiting any longer to see my decision when the notification came out. In hindsight, I regret not filming my reaction to opening it, but I was in such a rush to get to the airport. I was confused at first because the scholarship was broken down by semester and included loans, so I didn’t initially know how to interpret the sum of money in my portal, but once I saw “Karsh-Dillard” in the description, I immediately burst into tears. I was always secretly hoping for this outcome, but given how competitive this cycle has been, I was just so surprised and felt so lucky. I immediately conference called my mom and grandma to share the news! I really don’t know what I did to deserve this.

March 7: Penn Waitlist: I was like the last person from my UR1/2 date who hadn’t heard so by the time I got my waitlist I was so ready to be done waiting. Opened my decision during dinner in Iceland and was like “oh well.”

March 14: NYU merit scholarship. I didn’t apply for any named scholarships, and I was very excited, but I don’t believe their offer can sway me from UVA on a full ride.

March 14: UChicago no merit scholarship decision. I will say I was a bit surprised given my success with UVA, and seeing some people with stats and backgrounds similar to mine come away with money, but that shows how fickle this process can be. This makes my decision a lot easier, because UChicago was the only outstanding acceptance I was seriously considering alongside UVA. At the moment I don’t plan to try renegotiating––it’s not that I’m ungrateful to UChicago for accepting me, but I feel more enticed to attend a school that really wanted me to attend. This persuaded me against making the journey for admitted students day.

March 19: BC Merit scholarship decision. Was very grateful, but do not think it can compete with UVA :)

March 28: Yale Waitlist. I will take this as a huge win, because I came into this process thinking I had no shot at Yale! The waiting period was a little brutal, but I do like that they take their time.

May 5: Harvard Interview Invite off the Waitlist!!! I submitted my LOCI very early and then shared a major update with them on May 2nd.

May 8: Yale A!!!! This was truly one of the most emotionally turbulent days of my life. I was riding a high after finshing my HLS interview, and went to work on some final assignments in the library. When I returned to my dorm, I checked my voicemail to see a missed call from YLS. I immediately returned the call, and it was, indeed, a feeler call!!!! I got the accetance call from Dean Ingber later that evening, and she was just as sweet as she comes off in the YLS webinars and podcasts. I truly never thought it was a possibility that I could come off the YLS waitlist, and I am just filled with so much gratitude––I don’t even know what to say. YLS has always been my dream outcome, and I feel like my goals and values deeply align with their mission. I made sure to immediately withdraw from HLS’s waitlist, so that they could quickly move onto other candidates. While it was bittersweet to withdraw from UVA, I truly feel that YLS is the right decision for me.