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

Deciding where to apply is tricky, but remember there are trade-offs in everything. I’ll explain my methodology below.

My goal was going to a school which provided me with the greatest benefit, at the lowest cost. My LSAT wasn’t as great as I hoped it would be, but, it was high enough I thought, to carry out my plan which was:

Apply to one or two reach schools to give myself the option of chasing “prestige” if I decided I wanted to, but, primarily focus on those schools which met three criteria:

Respected Schools, that is not to say prestigious, but schools which have solid employment data, and decent rankings, we’re talking around top 30, with some wiggle room beyond, for me here, for you it might be top 50, but I would still think the methodology holds, so long as they’re respected. Two examples would be two of the main schools I applied to, W&L, and WF.
Schools that I thought I had a good shot of getting into. I knew it wasn’t gaurenteed, but, that I would be a highly competitive candidate at.
And because of (2.) schools which if I was accepted, I would have a good chance at receiving a substantial scholarship from.

This has worked out for me so far, and I have two fantastic offers to go to school, one of which a full ride, and the other is roughly 90% tuition which I intend to negotiate up.

This methodology won’t work for everyone, and it won’t suit everyone’s individual tastes, but, if your interests align with my own, then I would recommend you consider it. At this point, even if my “reach schools” (t-14) got back to me, with little or no aid, it would not be a difficult decision to turn them down, as the added benefit a t-14 would bring me, is not I think worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars I would need to give up, and pay in order to accept.