Waitlisted at Vanderbilt, any advice?

[chooster99]

I got waitlisted at Vandy today.  3.53 GPA, 161 LSAT.  I know I'm pretty lucky.  I'm Chinese American, born and raised in SoCal, went to UC Irvine for undergrad, one year work experience as a paralegal, openly gay applicant.  I'm pretty sure I got in because of diversity.  Any advice as to how I can squirm my way in?   

[thechoson]

Do you really want to live in Nashville?  I was under the impression Vandy is great, but not in that national school range

[ttiwed]

its interesting that you bring up the diversity issue. can traditionally non-under represented minorities be considered URMs in certain regions. for example, asians aren't typically under-represented, but there aren't that many asians in the south. so would southern schools consider asians URMs?

[chooster99]

I would make the sacrifice to go to a top 20 school.  I like change and I don't mind leaving SoCal for a couple of years. Do you think Loyola would be a better choice just because it's in L.A.? I honestly think I would be disappointed with myself if I ended up going to Loyola, even though I know it has a great reputation in the L.A. area.

[thechoson]

I'd go to Vandy over Loyola.

[marcman]

So would I, but if you want to work in LA, you would be suprised as to just how respected Loyola is there, i wouldn't go without giving some serious looks at both.

[thechoson]

You know, living here in LA, and really looking at it seriously, yea Loyola does have a great rep not just here but in Southern California.  For example, a comparable school is USD, but Loyola seems to have more clout in San Diego than USD would have in LA (if that makes sense?) 
Just to cover all bases, I just applied to Loyola today.  (their priority deadline was Feb 2, but they are on rolling so I figured why not?)  I'm hoping to at least get into their night program, just to add to potential options for myself.

[thechoson]

Hmm.. you know, that makes me wonder, maybe somebody can answer this.  What should somebody do when faced with an option like that- Loyola or Vanderbilt, and this person wants to practice in California?  Vandy is an excellent school, top 20, but not in that top 14 national law school range.  It seems most of Vandy's grads do end up in the Southeast after graduating.  Then again, the general rule of thumb is to go to the best school possible, but I don't know, what should somebody do in this situation if they want to practice in California?

[hyox]

There is a huge difference between Loyola and Vanderbilt. The first thing is that, yes, Vanderbilt is a national school. They get something like 500+ recruiters for a class of less than 200 students. Also, less than half remain in the southeast. Another thing is Vanderbilt and Duke are considered the only "top" schools in the region, versus Loyola which would never be considered one of the top schools in its respective region.

[chooster99]

I called Vandy today to ask about the waitlist.  Apprently, there are more than 600 people on it.  He said that last year they admitted about 25 people off of the list.  He basically told me that he was pretty sure they wouldn't be admitting anybody off of the waitlist this year because they had already received 80 takers of offers of admission and it is only mid-April.  I guess I need to put my hope in another school.