Thoughts on particular schools
UNC “hold” is a soft waitlist, and unless you demonstrate visit-level interest after receiving it, it will turn into a real waitlist- Address went long at Michigan the Thursday/Friday before the week I got the A

• Gray bar at WashU within a week of decision
• GW date did disappear but I do not remember when
• NDLS admissions department is a hot mess
• Vandy didn’t need this many WL waves. They could have just sent them all at once.
• W&L is not the kind of school I would have felt comfortable at. If you are seriously considering them, please do your research into the culture.
• I think my non-biglaw PS was a large factor in my two non-waitlist rejections. (I ended up in biglaw anyway)

Advice
Write a good why x for any school that has not expressed that they do not want one or prefer another type of essay with the same function - If you have strong/interesting softs or a compelling gpa addenda, apply broadly because you never know who will bite (aka I yolo-ed my Michigan in February and that is likely where I’ll end up). I did genuinely bare my soul in that why x too.

• Start with your third or later choice application. I caught errors in the application part I filled out first and made a grammar change in my div statement months later. I also got exponentially better at those why x statements as time went on- no reason to put your first choice with your weakest application. “Early apps” don’t matter like you may think they do- they only get earlier decisions for high stats applicants.
• Because I am a splitter, the essays were really important. I also had a complicated gpa addenda to work around. I decided to hire a consultant to help with choosing schools and essay review. For my particular case, I think it was the best choice for me. I ended up with a compelling diversity statement I otherwise never would have written. I do not believe the vast majority of applicants need a consultant and that an editing service would suffice in most situations. If you are interested in a consultant, I recommend scheduling those intro calls with them to see who you get along with. You want to put yourself into this application, so you need someone you feel comfortable with to help you do that. If you pm me, I am happy to share who I used: u/emduggs