I’ve gotten results back from all 5 law schools I applied to (Yale, UConn, Quinnipiac, Roger Williams, and Western New England) and made a final decision about where I’ll be going in fall 2023. Let me walk you through how I did it.
First, one of the decisions was made for me. Yale rejected me - not at all surprising considering they’re generally considered the best and most competitive law school in the country and have their pick of 170+ LSAT scorers, so my otherwise impressive LSAT score and work experience didn’t make up for a 10+ year old but not-that-great GPA. Just as well, no school that gives Brett Kavanaugh two degrees is worth attending.
Quinnipiac was also relatively easy to cross off the list after receiving scholarship info. They were kind enough to offer me $30,000 a year, which is nothing to sneeze at and I’m very grateful for, but tuition still would have been over $20,000 a year before cost of living expenses. With two schools offering me full rides and in-state tuition at UConn (a higher-ranked school with better employment outcomes) being cheaper after factoring in scholarship money, I couldn’t justify it. They also had the strictest conditions on keeping my scholarship - I would have had to be at or above the median GPA for law students to maintain it. I do think I can do that, but it’s a gamble I didn’t feel entirely comfortable with. (Insert “all the children are above average” Prairie Home Companion joke here - every law student thinks they’ll be above the median before they start, and half are eventually wrong.)
Western New England came off the list for a couple of reasons. The most important was doing my research into their bar passage and employment outcomes. They were quite a bit lower than either UConn’s or Roger Williams’, and I felt like it wasn’t a responsible decision for my future career. Yes, it shouldn’t be the only factor, but I am getting a professional degree here - it seems only right to go where I have the best chance of launching a successful career in law. I don’t want to do this for three years and then not be able to land a job or not be able to pay my bills. A secondary factor was discovering that I would absolutely not be able to do the Meriden-to-Springfield commute every day - I would have to move, which would add expense and hassle, and I wasn’t thrilled about potentially moving to Springfield, MA.
So now we’re down to two - UConn Law, which offered me a half-tuition scholarship, and Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, which offered a full-tuition scholarship.
Roger Williams has a lot going for it. Full tuition is a pretty major perk! I would have to move, but I lived in Rhode Island before (way back in 2012) and really enjoyed it, and my sister and her partner live in Warwick and I would love to be even closer to them. Roger Williams is the only law school in Rhode Island, and as such, punches above its weight in terms of employment outcomes - it’s not well-ranked nationally, but graduates who want to stay in Rhode Island tend to find jobs. I took a tour of their campus and noticed that they seemed to really emphasize practical legal skills in their coursework and extracurricular activities, which I liked. They have a partnership with the University of Rhode Island to offer a joint law/master of labor relations and human resources degree, which I thought could be potentially quite valuable and spoke well about being able to specialize in labor law.
And yet, I couldn’t help but love UConn even more. The coursework and clinic/internship placements have greater variety and opportunities for specialization, including multiple courses in labor and employment law. I’d have the opportunity to take an elective course in the spring of my first year as long as it fulfills the statutory/regulatory law requirement, which is very rare at law schools. There are more extracurricular opportunities to get involved and meet people. UConn Law graduates have higher median starting salaries and a broader potential employment network - they seem to be the school of choice for Connecticut’s legal market, which is not huge but larger than Rhode Island’s, and do better at placing students into the absolutely massive New York and Boston legal markets. (Right now I’d prefer to stay in CT or RI, closer to family and with more affordable housing, but it’s good to know the option is there to move back to a bigger city.) When I took a tour of campus, they asked about my interests and showed me how UConn would help me achieve my specific goals, and I got to talk to library staff and even one of the in-house clinic directors in addition to admissions staff. And it’s a small thing, but the campus is both beyond beautiful (Gothic architecture for days) and a mere 25-minute drive from my house.
And I’ll tell you a little story that really made me love UConn Law. Shortly after I was accepted, I went to check out their Twitter account and noticed they’d recently announced the Board of Editors for Connecticut Law Review’s 2023-24 editions. If you’re not familiar, law schools have journals of legal writing edited and produced by students. Typically (including at UConn), the “(name of school) Law Review” is the most prestigious and competitive journal at the school and will only accept students who either have very high first-year grades or submit exceptional writing samples (or both!). There are other journals one can participate in, usually on specialized legal subjects, as a backup option. Once you’re on Law Review, if you do well during your second year of school, you can be chosen as a member of the board of editors, which is an extremely high honor.
I looked up the incoming editor-in-chief and managing editor for Connecticut Law Review on LinkedIn, just out of curiosity, and I couldn’t believe it - one is a part-time student juggling law school with a state government job she’s held for years, and the other worked as a nurse for nine years before returning to attend law school full-time. These women are a lot like me: women with successful careers who made the difficult decision to return to school and switch careers well after many of our peers went, and they aren’t just getting by in law school, they are thriving. It felt like a sign: this is where people like you go to reach their highest and best purpose.
But a question remained: did I love UConn Law so much more than Roger Williams that it was worth the extra expense? Half off in-state tuition is a pretty good deal, but that’s still an extra $15,000 a year I’d have to either save up, scramble for extra scholarships, or (most likely) take out in loans.
I decided to try something that terrified me, despite knowing from online research it’s actually pretty normal: negotiating my scholarship offer. I emailed the UConn Law admissions office, explaining that UConn is my first choice but that I was also considering a full-tuition scholarship from Roger Williams. I named an amount that I felt would be enough to make the decision very simple and promised that if UConn was able to increase my scholarship by that amount, I would immediately commit to attending and put down my deposit. And tried not to have a panic attack as I sent the email.
The dean of admissions emailed me back and explained that they still had scholarship money to give out via the UConn Foundation (essentially, donors who have given money to provide extra scholarships, usually named after them or their loved ones and sometimes with special requirements). She told me how the process would work, showed me how I could let the committee know which ones I’m eligible for, and told me that the admissions office would wait to re-evaluate my scholarship until after Foundation scholarships went out but that they were willing to take another look at my offer if I didn’t receive any of those.
Today, I got an email informing me that I did indeed receive a Foundation scholarship. It wasn’t quite as much as I’d asked for in negotiations, but it was close. After thinking it over, I decided it was enough.
Nearly 11 years after receiving my undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut, today I placed my deposit and confirmed I will join the University of Connecticut Law School class of 2026.
UConn, I’m coming home.