Choosing between UT/UCLA/Berkeley Forum

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whydoieven

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Choosing between UT/UCLA/Berkeley

Post by whydoieven » Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:52 pm

Hi, I don't have a ton of acceptances despite applying very widely and am looking for advice. I am hoping to work in big law focusing on enviro/energy and aim to move into government at some point. I don't have any strong geographic preferences aside from having lived previously in Dallas having that as my preferred market if I were to be in Texas.

Here are my current offers:
UT instate, 5k/yr scholarship
UCLA OOS, 30k/yr scholarship
Berkeley OOS, submitted reconsideration request

I have also been waitlisted at Penn, Michigan, Columbia, and Northwestern.

Barring waiting for next cycle and reapplying, what would you recommend for someone with my goals and circumstances?

QContinuum

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Re: Choosing between UT/UCLA/Berkeley

Post by QContinuum » Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:22 pm

When did you apply? You are performing significantly worse than one would expect based on your LSAC GPA & LSAT. With a 3.5/178, you should be sitting on multiple T13 acceptances with $ or T20 with $$. Berkeley and UT at sticker/near sticker are ridiculous for your numbers (though UCLA at $90k lines up well with historical predictions).
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I don't really think any of your offers are terrific in light of your goals. UT is a good school for Texas, but not at near sticker - its BigLaw placement of 44% means the average UT grad won't land BigLaw anywhere. On the flip side, UCLA with $90k is a good offer, but I'd be hesitant to recommend it if your goal is to work in Texas. Finally, Berkeley is a terrific school, but I'm hesitant to recommend it because you ought to have much better T13/T20 offers to choose from (Columbia/NYU at close to sticker, Duke with $90k, UT with $80k, Vandy with $100k, WUSTL at close to a full ride).

whydoieven

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Re: Choosing between UT/UCLA/Berkeley

Post by whydoieven » Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:29 pm

I applied between late September and late October. I am pretty disappointed and the results of my cycle have really thrown my life plans for a loop.

I know I am underperforming - I am just really unsure what else I could have done to improve my chances. My UG transcripts are kind of a mess, I think, and my PS was pretty bad and off-topic, IMO.

QContinuum

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Re: Choosing between UT/UCLA/Berkeley

Post by QContinuum » Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:42 pm

whydoieven wrote:I applied between late September and late October. I am pretty disappointed and the results of my cycle have really thrown my life plans for a loop.

I know I am underperforming - I am just really unsure what else I could have done to improve my chances. My UG transcripts are kind of a mess, I think, and my PS was pretty bad and off-topic, IMO.
It wasn't my intent to rub anything in, so I apologize if my previous post came across that way. I was just trying to figure out if there was an "easy fix" that would justify reapplying next cycle. (Obviously, with a 178, there's zero need for you to retake the LSAT. And now that you've confirmed that you applied early this cycle, that rules timing out too.) If there's anything that can be easily fixed, then it may well be worth reapplying next cycle. But if we can't identify any clear cause, then obviously it wouldn't make sense to delay a year and spend additional money reapplying.

I also want to be clear that you should still be very proud of yourself! There are loads of 0Ls who'd kill for a T13 admission, or a $90k scholly to UCLA. The goal here is to figure out if there's an easy way you could get an even better outcome. But make no mistake, you've still done very well this cycle relative to the vast, vast majority of 0Ls.

What do you mean by your UG transcripts being a "mess"? A 3.5 GPA is solid and folks routinely get into the T13 with sub-3.5 GPAs. Do you have an unusual number (I'd say more than 6) of Ws, or did you ever drop out? If yes to either, do you have any reasonable explanation/mitigating factors? If yes, did you write a GPA addendum?

Do you have any reason to suspect any of your letter writers might have sabotaged you by turning in a bad LOR?

AdieuCali

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Re: Choosing between UT/UCLA/Berkeley

Post by AdieuCali » Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:46 pm

The combination of your outcomes, application, and stats doesn't make much sense. This might be a situation that warrants paying for professional admissions consulting a la Spivey. You have incredible stats and are leaving a lot of money and opportunity on the table by matriculating this year.

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nixy

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Re: Choosing between UT/UCLA/Berkeley

Post by nixy » Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:48 pm

I don't mean to pile on, OP, but one of your earlier posts referenced an addendum - so is there some kind of C&F or other issue that you might need to address?

(I would probably pick UT out of your current options given your goals, but I agree it's not ideal.)

whydoieven

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Re: Choosing between UT/UCLA/Berkeley

Post by whydoieven » Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:55 pm

No apology needed - I'm just kinda down about it. I really was set on getting out of my current city/job and moving on.

My transcript has an ugly start, a couple of Ds and Ws at a CC, and a couple of Ws at the UG I transferred to near the end. I had some medical issues in college which I cited as a reason for the problems at the final institution, in the form of an addendum. My GPA at my graduating institution was just below 3.8, for perspective.

A weak PS is the biggest factor I can think of, maybe if I came out swinging next year with a hyper-focused PS related to my supposed area of interest (which I have corporate work experience in) I would perform better.

I know for a fact one of my recommenders wrote a strong letter, the other one was probably jotted out in 30 seconds, knowing that prof. I don't have many connections with my UG institution that I could use to generate additional LORs.

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