PirateBones '23–'24 app cycle Class of 2027 class year

Cycle Recap:

• Strange cycle with all kinds of ups and downs.
  Incredibly excited for Duke,- thankful for my scholarship, and looking forward to what’s next. The location, size, cost, proximity to DC market, reasonable integration into the university, culture, name recognition, and tight PI community were all critical factors.
• This is all a big game, don’t take anything too personally or seriously - luck is a big part of this, don’t let anyone tell you differently.
• Be proud of your outcomes and keep an open mind! Try to have a bit of fun with it when possible.
• I highly suggest working a bit after undergrad. I notice many KJDs are far more stressed/uncertain in this process than those who worked for 2+ years. Maybe I’ll feel differently later, dont know!
• I also suggest eliminating schools as early as possible and being certain about at least 3 or 4 reasons you’re going to law school. Clarity of purpose is rare and valuable. This helped me take Columbia, Cornell, and Vanderbilt off my list before the cycle even started.
• Good luck everyone!!

Greater Detail:
Duke - - If you’re even a little bit interested in Duke, apply as early as possible. I cannot emphasize this enough. No T14 takes date of application as seriously as Duke. I feel that if I had applied earlier, I would have had a much happier/easier cycle and would likely have had a larger scholarship. While it’s never too late to shoot your shot, get that app in ASAP and preferably well before Thanksgiving.
All admissions- , and especially HYS, are a total crap shoot. Some folks far less qualified than you will get better offers than you. Some folks far more qualified than you will have less success than you. Do your best and try not to compare too much. Remember why you are doing this in the first place and that the career outcomes at most of the top schools are virtually the same. Remember also that different admissions teams are looking for different things at different times - they are just people and they don’t really know you.
Chicago - - My top choices going in were Chicago, Yale, and Berkeley. I was waitlisted at all 3. My Yale interview was not ideal (asked some tough questions that I felt were really missing the point and focusing on ancient history) but that’s life! On the other hand, my Chicago interview was awesome and I was still WL both placed. I wrote a LOCI for Chicago really hammering the guiding principals, size, city, campus, and how it was my top choice and I eventually got in. It was still too expensive, though, sadly.
Michigan - I had way more success with UMich than I expected. I was a bit more personable in this application and basically just hammered on my commitment to community, empathy, and not taking myself too seriously. I think UMich actually - really cares about community and I suspect that’s why I had such a great offer. Awesome campus, too!
If I were to do this all over again- , I would make a few changes, but not many. First, I would be a bit more specific about what kind of government/PI I want to do and what academic topics I would focus on. I think I spent too much time explaining my convictions and not enough time explaining my academic passions. Unfortunately, law schools often care far less about the morality of your objectives than how they can use you to meet their needs and fit their goals. I suspect this is part of the reason for the Penn and Berkeley WL as well as the low scholarships at UVA and NU. I don’t know why my scholarship negotiations went so poorly, so it’s hard to say what the misstep was. The one appeal that was successful (Chicago) only came after an in-person meeting with their financial aid team where we didn’t even talk about my appeal. Try to make a human connection, I suppose?

Again, good luck all!

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