Definitely the right decision to take the money, hurt like hell turning down HLS/SLS though. But Philly is great, the people Penn are fantastic—they all keep pushing “collegiality” but it is a real thing here—and the job opportunities are pretty much the same either way.

Advice: don’t neglect your recommendation letters. I know I have good stats, but I had very little work experience and my softs really and truly were not that impressive. I have a gut feeling that my rec letters where a big part of why I did as well as I did. I asked two of my professors—and I didn’t just ask them, I sat down and had a conversation with them about my future goals and how their class influenced my decision to pursue law school. Give them something specific to write about. Any professor can say you were a good student, but you need them to not only talk about specific good qualities of yours, but how those qualities make you well-suited for law school.

Also, on personal statements: your writing matters much more than the thing you write about. I wrote my statement on a pretty ordinary government internship I had as a freshman, but it made for a good statement because the experience genuinely affected me and I could explain it in a compelling way. Resist the temptation to write about the flashiest, most impressive line on your resume, unless it truly does make for the best story. And if you have something really interesting about your background/life experience, feel free to write about it. I just want to make it clear: if you ever feel like you are not an interesting person, that nothing about your background or experience makes for an attention-grabbing personal statement, there is hope. You don’t need an inherently interesting topic to write about. You just need to write about it in an interesting way.

Advice to law schools: make better merch. I want swag. You know I’m an attractive applicant, so if you want me to think positively about your school, give me free stuff. Props to Harvard and Berkeley for both giving out fanny packs, Minnesota for their ad-mittens, and Stanford for straight-up giving me a book written by one of their faculty, it’s on a topic I’m interested in so it might have been personalized, idk. To UPenn, who gave me NOTHING (aside from a quarter million dollars): do better.