sooooo '22–'23 app cycle Class of 2026 class year

As my partner said looking at my LSD chart: “You barely got in anywhere!”

Honestly looking at my decisions, it feels like it. What I have taken away from this year is a splitter’s life is a chaotic game of waiting.

Going into this cycle, I knew the T14 was going to be an extreme challenge, and I was hoping for at least a T20. The fact that I got into Northwestern, which was my dream school, is incredible. It made the sea of yellow worth it!

I am going to do an in-depth reddit recap post and add the link here so stay tuned:)

Tips for Splitters:

1.) Write all the essays. It doesn’t matter that they are optional, we all know they aren’t. These are the following essays I wrote:
Why this School: Duke, UVA, UC Berkeley, Notre Dame, USC
UCLA Programmatic Contribution; UPenn Core Values; Notre Dame Different Lawyer

Interviews: WashU (invited in Nov) NU Kira, both rd and waitlist interviews

LOCIs- Sent these before I heard back to UVA and Northwestern

2.) Still apply early- I noticed that splitters with similar stats who got into schools I was waitlisted at, applied earlier. I know this cycle was hellishly slow, but don’t be fooled by that. Anyways if you apply earlier (like Sep/Oct), you probably won’t have to wait till May for your decisions. If you need fee waivers tho, I would apply in Nov. (how to get fee waivers: https://www.spiveyconsulting.com/blog-post/law-school-application-fee-waivers-part-1/)

3.) You cannot compare yourself to other splitters. (Ironic because I slightly did above lol) I think for us, it comes down to our stories and all the law school calculators do not factor that in. So stop.

4.) Apply to safeties but not silly safeties. Fordham and BC really pissed me off. Especially since I paid the fee waiver at Fordham. I think BC and Fordham are not great for splitters if you have a high lsat (anything 170+). Honestly they are not worth your time when other schools like UF, BU, Notre Dame, and GW will most likely take you. But if they are the only way you can break into those city markets, New York specifically, then write a Why School essay for them.

Patterns for Acceptance Signs:
I am one of the folks who obsessively checked the status checkers. Here is everything I learned.

1.) BU- Thriple complete, no paragrah means acceptance. ie.)

2.) Notre Dame- UR (date change) at least 2 times. If accepted you will see the deposits under fees. They usually take 2/3 days for them to send you the official email.

3.) George Washington: Date disappears, and As usually happen on Thursdays

4.) UMichigan: If you don’t have a date change or your address doesn’t go long, you are most like getting r/wl

5.) USC- doesn’t go UR for a long time.