I got my first acceptance letter!!! (Baylor)

[midjeep]

Midjeep - Your talk of Baylor/Waco is reminding me off my undergrad. university (which I loved!!!!). 

Small town, inexpensive living, very cheap drinks...The bars used to have 25 cent wells every night and $1 longnecks and the local Mexican food places would have 99 cent Margaritas....my school had about 13,000 students and almost everyone knew eachother and I definately knew everyone in my classes.  The envrionment was so warm and friendly.  If I actually said the name of the town, alot of people would probably think it was "backwoods" (kind of like how people think of Waco) but I loved it and almost everyone I have ever talked to who went to my undergrad. loved it, too! 

At any rate, your thoughts on Waco are making me like Baylor more and more. Part of my decision will be based on where my boyfriend gets his medical residency (there is a program in nearby Temple at Scott & White). Since you seem familiar with Waco area, do you know what (approx.) the cost (to buy) for a piece of land out in the country (1 to 2 acres) with a small house would run? I don't think there is an apartment complex in the world that would allow me to keep my Springer and Great Dane.
 

Next to campus the houses are overpriced (well for Waco at least ) at around $60K for a small two bedroom in crappy condition. I am assuming you want to be close to I35 somewhere between Waco and Temple. A small place on land near that stretch would run you about 35-45K with a home in decent condition. If you dont mind the negative stigma, you could always try and purchasing a mobile home and an empty lot (10-12K) for around 28-32K total. You should check out Woodway (it's a nicer area) if you are looking for something in the 60-70K range but REALLY Nice housing (ie brick, 3 bedrooms, good constuction, nice neigborhood etc.) It is on the South side of Waco (closer to Temple) and most of the professors at Baylor with families live in that area. Gaining access to school is not difficult from these areas because they are all off I35 which will take you directly to the law school. Parking for law students is right in front of the law school and you do not compete with ugrads for parking in that area.

[ElizaB]

Thanks for the info!

[bear-ister]

Cool.  Thanks for the info.  There's no real significant difference between our #'s, so I'll probably get half too, which is still nice.

Thanks :-)

Your numbers are better than mine, so you could get full tuition, which would be great.... looks like someone on lawschoolnumbers.com got a full ride with a 159 & 3.82.

http://www.lawschoolnumbers.com/search_schools.php?action=search

Are you going to go to Baylor if you get in?  I was excited about the half-tuition scholarship, but nobody seems to like Waco.... I've only been to TX once (Dallas), so I may need to visit the campus.

Hi! Those numbers would be me. I have to give Baylor credit. I didn't expect any $$$ with my numbers, but they really did weigh my entire application when they made the decision. I know that many students with much better stats than I have don't get half-scholarships, much less full-rides. A word of warning I received from a current student when I visited the school this week: a lot of students go in with scholarships, and not many still have them by 4Q. As for me, you know my numbers, but I'm also a 33-yr-old mother of three, URM, who worked F/T through undergrad (2 years with AmeriCorps) and happened to have a wicked case of flu the day I took the LSAT. Since I took it at Baylor and it was proctored by one of the admissions officers, they remembered me (as Typhoid Mary, but hey... whatever works!). I never took the exam again because, frankly, in this house the $132 is 2 weeks worth of groceries. I think one of the ways they make Baylor so competetive is by offering the entire incoming class scholarships with the caveat that they have to stay in the top 50% to keep them. Folks, I have absolutely NO intention of losing this scholarship, so let the games begin!

Hey I am a current Baylor Law Student, and I just started my 4th Quarter.  I was sad to read that someone told you that most students lose their scholarship...because that is not true.  I am personally on a scholarship and do not expect to lose it.  What is true is that SOME students lose there scholarship, and generally speaking those are the only students who will be willing to talk about their scholarship.  Baylor does NOT give scholarships to everyone!  I PROMISE YOU!  The majority of students in my class are not on scholarships, and of the ones who are I do not know of any who are losing them this quarter (although there may be one).  Baylor is a hard school, and there is no way around that, but the administration realizes that.  In fact the GPA to keep your scholarship has been lowered to 2.6 because of the concern that students expressed.  Furthermore, Baylor will automatically give you a scholarship for full or half tuition if your GPA is ABOVE a certain point after a year.
The way Baylor stays competitive is by pushing their students harder than they think they can be pushed.  Believe it or not this attracts a certain caliber of student.  The environment in the law school is EXTREMELY friendly, not cut-throat.  The recent announcement that we are the "nations most competitive law school" came as quite a surprise to everyone.  Truly the students are not out to beat each other, rather we just want to make it through together.

[UMHBmom]

Hey I am a current Baylor Law Student, and I just started my 4th Quarter.  I was sad to read that someone told you that most students lose their scholarship...because that is not true.  I am personally on a scholarship and do not expect to lose it.  What is true is that SOME students lose there scholarship, and generally speaking those are the only students who will be willing to talk about their scholarship.  Baylor does NOT give scholarships to everyone!  I PROMISE YOU!  The majority of students in my class are not on scholarships, and of the ones who are I do not know of any who are losing them this quarter (although there may be one).  Baylor is a hard school, and there is no way around that, but the administration realizes that.  In fact the GPA to keep your scholarship has been lowered to 2.6 because of the concern that students expressed.  Furthermore, Baylor will automatically give you a scholarship for full or half tuition if your GPA is ABOVE a certain point after a year.
The way Baylor stays competitive is by pushing their students harder than they think they can be pushed.  Believe it or not this attracts a certain caliber of student.  The environment in the law school is EXTREMELY friendly, not cut-throat.  The recent announcement that we are the "nations most competitive law school" came as quite a surprise to everyone.  Truly the students are not out to beat each other, rather we just want to make it through together.

That's good to know. To tell you the truth, I did get a lump in my throat at the thought of losing the scholarship, because if I did, well..... let's just say that I'd have no way of continuing on. I guess that's enough motivation to keep my nose in the books. As for the "most competetive" thing, Princeton Review said that that ranking was based on the number of hours students said they studied per day and how many hours they thought their classmates studied per day. The actual blurb in the book states that the environment is friendly and there's no cut-throat, hide-the-books sort of thing going on, which is what I observed.I'm just really excited to get started. I've been out of school for seven months and I can't wait to get back. Guess I'm kind of a geek.

[DOWNY COOLEY]

Haha, none of you fuckers know what you're getting into. Aside from being costly, law school is tons of fun- that's why I'm spending 7pm- midnight in the library on Friday and Saturday night.

[vagrant]

Haha, none of you fuckers know what you're getting into. Aside from being costly, law school is tons of fun- that's why I'm spending 7pm- midnight in the library on Friday and Saturday night.

You seem to act like that isn't normal.  You must have been some sort of liberal arts major (history, classics, poli-sci, etc.)

[DOWNY COOLEY]

That's right fuckers, my T.T.T is better than your T.T.T.! Haha losers. You ain't GOT sh*t on Cooley! I am better than you. And I am definitelly 'Cooler' than you, too.

I am the best because my school has a bar passage rate of 34%. Yours only has 30%. Hence I am the greatest.

Also, my T.T.T. has an average LSAT of 142. Take THAT, Pontifical University of Puerto Rico! You fuckers only WISH you were down with the Coolness.

Finally, my T.T.T. is the best because it's HARD- Yep, half the class fails out because of how hard it is at my T.T.T. You losers are Harvard/Yale/Top whatever are just going to DEGREE FACTORIES LOL LOL. My T.T.T. is so much better, and it doesn't cost as much.

My T.T.T. can beat up your T.T.T.

HTH
DOWNY

[chicago]

Hey I am a current Baylor Law Student, and I just started my 4th Quarter.  I was sad to read that someone told you that most students lose their scholarship...because that is not true.  I am personally on a scholarship and do not expect to lose it.  What is true is that SOME students lose there scholarship, and generally speaking those are the only students who will be willing to talk about their scholarship.  Baylor does NOT give scholarships to everyone!  I PROMISE YOU!  The majority of students in my class are not on scholarships, and of the ones who are I do not know of any who are losing them this quarter (although there may be one).  Baylor is a hard school, and there is no way around that, but the administration realizes that.  In fact the GPA to keep your scholarship has been lowered to 2.6 because of the concern that students expressed.  Furthermore, Baylor will automatically give you a scholarship for full or half tuition if your GPA is ABOVE a certain point after a year.
The way Baylor stays competitive is by pushing their students harder than they think they can be pushed.  Believe it or not this attracts a certain caliber of student.  The environment in the law school is EXTREMELY friendly, not cut-throat.  The recent announcement that we are the "nations most competitive law school" came as quite a surprise to everyone.  Truly the students are not out to beat each other, rather we just want to make it through together.

thanks for the very helpful info!

[vagrant]

The environment in the law school is EXTREMELY friendly, not cut-throat.  The recent announcement that we are the "nations most competitive law school" came as quite a surprise to everyone.  Truly the students are not out to beat each other, rather we just want to make it through together.

That is very odd, since the poll is based on a survey of the student body.

[bear-ister]

Actually, they just asked us how many hours we spend reading and how many hours we think our classmates spend reading.  They didn't ask us how competitive the school is.  That's why we were surprised.