Vandy visit questions

[162/3.8]

Since I'm not getting much love over in the waitlist section, I will copy my question here: I received my "you are on our waitlist" letter from Vanderbilt a few days ago, and in it they invite me to submit any new or updated information.  Since submitting my application to them, my husband and I have started a home-based business.  It's been pretty successful so far, but I'm having a hard time deciding if I should let them know about this or not.  The business, in short, involves selling some very technical modules that I really don't fully understand, and basically I am solely the shipping/bookkeeping department.  I'm also in charge of doing the taxes for the business, which I must say has been interesting.  I am finding it difficult to twist this to relate to law school, and I'm wondering if I should write them a letter telling them about it since I can't really relate it to going to law school.  I am pretty sure I do not want to go into tax law.  On the other hand, I could just send them my yes I'm still interested letter by itself.  I'm also trying to plan a visit, and from what I've heard so far that is the best way to get an edge in the waitlist game.  Any thoughts?

[bloomlaw]

I'm a OL, so I don't know much, but I think you should visit before writing the letter. It makes it more personal, and shows them you are actually interested (where writing a letter about how you are still interested is pretty generic and I'm sure they know that you are probably sending a form waitlist letter to a couple schools)

Regarding the business, I say why not mention it? Talk about it's successes, and how you play an integral role, including the risk taking, the organization, and the drive to make a business succeed. Even if you are worried about your relatively behind the scenes position in the business, they aren't going to quiz you about anything. go for it.

[162/3.8]

So should I mail my continued interest form in before I go visit, and then mail in my LOCI about the business after my visit?  I don't want to wait too long beofre mailing that form back to them.  I'm trying to plan a visit there on the 19th of this month. 

[UFBoldAsLove]

Visit, interview, send the form in with a brief "Thank-You" letter to your interviewer (probably G. Todd Morton).

Then, in about a month, send in a LOCI.

This is just my opinion... but you want to space things out, since they probably won't look at the WLs again until late March. If you send the LOCI now, they won't have heard from  you in months by the time they review your application again.

[162/3.8]

You're probably right about spacing things out, keeping my name in view.  I'll give that a try. Thanks!

[Kevin.]

Visit, interview, send the form in with a brief "Thank-You" letter to your interviewer (probably G. Todd Morton).

Then, in about a month, send in a LOCI.

This is just my opinion... but you want to space things out, since they probably won't look at the WLs again until late March. If you send the LOCI now, they won't have heard from  you in months by the time they review your application again.

I'll echo that, but add that my experience at Vandy has been that whatever makes you an interesting candidate needs to be brought to the attention of the admissions office somehow.  Vandy seems to like to make each incoming class as diverse and interesting as possible, and adding that detail to your file will, I think, get you points in those categories.

But as has been said earlier, it's probably better to come visit and interview before sending the LOCI mentioning those things.

[162/3.8]

I went ahead and scheduled my interview/tour for this Monday. Since I'm visiting a class at 10:45 and then meeting with Sofia Hassander for my tour at noon ...what should I wear?  Should I wear a suit for the entire day, or something slightly more casual? Would anyone who has gone through this tour be so kind as to let me know a little bit of what to expect.   It would be greatly appreciated!

[JeNeSaisLaw]

Visit, interview, send the form in with a brief "Thank-You" letter to your interviewer (probably G. Todd Morton).

Then, in about a month, send in a LOCI.

This is just my opinion... but you want to space things out, since they probably won't look at the WLs again until late March. If you send the LOCI now, they won't have heard from  you in months by the time they review your application again.

I'll echo that, but add that my experience at Vandy has been that whatever makes you an interesting candidate needs to be brought to the attention of the admissions office somehow.  Vandy seems to like to make each incoming class as diverse and interesting as possible, and adding that detail to your file will, I think, get you points in those categories.

But as has been said earlier, it's probably better to come visit and interview before sending the LOCI mentioning those things.

But you're totally and utterly uninteresting, Kevin

I went ahead and scheduled my interview/tour for this Monday. Since I'm visiting a class at 10:45 and then meeting with Sofia Hassander for my tour at noon ...what should I wear?  Should I wear a suit for the entire day, or something slightly more casual? Would anyone who has gone through this tour be so kind as to let me know a little bit of what to expect.   It would be greatly appreciated!

Here is what I wrote to somebody last week. This is written for a guy from a guy...UF can chime in for women.

I would say it depends on your personal style. If it were me, I would wear khakis and a polo (if it were warm), or a long sleeve casual button up if it were cold. I generally wear sweatshirts with jeans to school, and fit in. Understandably you'll want to dress better than that, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker I'm sure.

Alternatively, if a sweater vest or something (clearly my vocabulary is incredibly lacking) is more your style, I think that's cool too. Honestly, the most important thing will be that you are comfortable with how you appear. Start there, and then cross it against what I said.

And as a heads up, not that it really matters, but you'll be in Constitutional Law I with Blumstein. It's not my section, so I can't speak to the class' quality, but I'll see if I can find somebody to give their thoughts here in a second.

[observationalist]

Blumstein's class is cool. Very energetic prof, and generally makes friendly convo with whoever is on the hotseat. Perhaps even ask him (or other students?) some questions about Vandy Law; at the least, it would give you some more subject matter to write about in future LOCI's.

Dress nicely, but a suit may be overkill. Section A isn't as sartorially preppy as B is, either. HTH, and good luck.

Question: Which Section has more people ditching Barrister's Ball in favor of driving down to Mardi Gras?  Last year it was Section B FTW.  This year it is LLMs FTW... got at least three of them coming so far and it was just recommended to me that I see if school would be willing to fund part of the trip as one of their outreach programs.

[bloomlaw]

Blumstein's class is cool. Very energetic prof, and generally makes friendly convo with whoever is on the hotseat. Perhaps even ask him (or other students?) some questions about Vandy Law; at the least, it would give you some more subject matter to write about in future LOCI's.

Dress nicely, but a suit may be overkill. Section A isn't as sartorially preppy as B is, either. HTH, and good luck.

Question: Which Section has more people ditching Barrister's Ball in favor of driving down to Mardi Gras?  Last year it was Section B FTW.  This year it is LLMs FTW... got at least three of them coming so far and it was just recommended to me that I see if school would be willing to fund part of the trip as one of their outreach programs.

The answer to this is directly connected to just how much I try to get off that Vandy Waitlist.