It's Official

Edited Post

Georgetown sent me a nice "Come On Down" letter today. I'll have to crunch some more numbers, but as Gerogetown has a viable LRAP program, this is a tasty tasty offer.

I rolled my earlier post of:

I have just been contacted by one of my longshot schools. Apparently, good news is on the way. I may have to rethink my decision.

To my Public Defender Friend (one of those few Lawyer-Poets): bless you for the good mojo.

into this one.

I had expected some kind of gap between reading the suggestive e-mail promising "good news" (but apologizing for not being able to reveal admissions decisions via e-mail) and the official letter which the e-mail said would arrive later in the day (Friday). When I got home from work, I found a fedex envelope in my front door with the acceptance letter and a packet of information. I thought that was clever and indicated good coordination – I like cleverness and coordination.

Sometimes, it’s the small things that make an impression. In this case, I have about 2 weeks to send in a deposit to Georgetown, and I’m really glad that they made the effort to let me know as soon as possible, and essentially give me an extra weekend to consider things. Had I been kept on tenterhooks all weekend, or told on what is shaping up to be a fairly hectic Monday, I think I’d be far more frazzled and confused.

I have no complaints at how Georgetown handled the process, and I think I’d feel the same if they’d passed on my application. At all times I felt that they were trying to keep me appraised of their progress – they also didn’t sugar coat my chances of getting in once I was waitlisted, nor did they try to string me along. I did get several form e-mails from the school, but when I responded to them, I always received personal correspondence from someone who had obviously read my e-mail and had taken the time to formulate a specific and detailed response.

Apparently they got over 13,000 applications this year – obviously a lot to read! The Law School Numbers chart for Georgetown suggests that they really do read those applications, since there’s significant overlap between the accepted candidates and the rejected candidates, which to me suggests that factors other than the candidates’ LSATs and GPAs play a significant role in the final decision. Also, their wait list band is pretty wide, reinforcing the idea that while there might be some “automatic ins” and “automatic outs” the band of “viable” candidates is really quite wide.

They lead off their JD admissions page with the following text:

Welcome to the JD Admissions web site. As you begin to think about applying to law school, we want to take this opportunity to assure you that our decision making process involves much more than simply "the numbers." Your academic record and LSAT are very important. However, we are also interested in who you are. This is why your letters of recommendation, activities, work experience, and personal statement are of great importance.

which I believe.

I only hope their financial aid department is as on the ball.

If I edit posts in the future (beyond the spelling/grammar errors: these are all on the fly first scrambling drafts) I’ll make some kind of reference to it, as I’ve done here.

Comments

[ambimb]

Congratulations! GULC would be a great choice if you're planning to do public interest law. Let us know if we'll be able to welcome you to D.C.!

[Scoplaw]

Thanks! I will certainly let you know. Fair warning - when the evil exam demon hands you your brain back, I intend to pick it for D.C. tips and tricks.