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I was waitlisted out of the T14 with competitive stats last year (3.4x/175, sent apps between Sept and Nov) but got $$$$ at the T20s/T30s I applied to. Was there potentially a red flag on my application (bad LORs, etc) that kept me from getting into T14s? Or are the lower tier schools throwing money at me is evidence that there wasn't a red flag?

Potentially? Sure. Hard for us to say without more details. You could talk to your LOR writers if that's something you're worried about - maybe couch it in terms of "hey here's how I did".

The main red flag was probably your GPA - any given T14 school is perfectly capable of waitlisting a 3.45/175, so it's unusual, but perfectly plausible, to get unlucky and miss all of them. (Once you get down to the T20 it's a lot harder for adcoms to turn their noses up at a 175.)

Competition is getting pretty tough these days. I could see someone with those stats, no "Why X" essays, and nothing else extraordinary, and a moderate amount of bad luck being locked out of the T14. It isn't necessarily indicative of a red flag--especially with the scholarships from non T14s.

Is there anything that you think might be a red flag? Most red flags are subjective so you may have some people feel a certain way and some people not feel that way. It's not like a specific c&f issue will be concerning to a t-14 but not a t-50 so being denied from all of the t-14 seems unlikely to be a c&f issue so much as a numbers thing. Are you still struggling this cycle?

LSATWiz.com wrote:Is there anything that you think might be a red flag? Most red flags are subjective so you may have some people feel a certain way and some people not feel that way. It's not like a specific c&f issue will be concerning to a t-14 but not a t-50 so being denied from all of the t-14 seems unlikely to be a c&f issue so much as a numbers thing. Are you still struggling this cycle?

I have no idea - that's why I'm wondering. Both of my professors were pretty willing to write LORs for me and we chatted about law/law school stuff well after I sent in my apps so I assumed my recommendations were OK.

No news from the T-14 this cycle yet but it's still early. I did get $$$$+ from WUSTL again this year though so it's nice to have that in my pocket.

BrainsyK wrote:Competition is getting pretty tough these days. I could see someone with those stats, no "Why X" essays, and nothing else extraordinary, and a moderate amount of bad luck being locked out of the T14. It isn't necessarily indicative of a red flag--especially with the scholarships from non T14s.

Unfortunately, this describes me pretty well. Hope I get a little more luck this time around.