UTexas Interview

[sladkaya]

Has anyone done it? Anyone planning to do it?

Reading their Assitant Dean's comments and the write-up on their website, it almost sounds like it can hurt as much as help.  I mean, they say that they won't ask questions and see the inteview as your time to present your case for admission, plus at the end of the interview you provide a 15-min. writing sample on one of their pre-selected topics.

Not that it sounds too hard, just a lot more intense than what other schools are doing...

[jeb240]

U Texas is really starting to piss me off.  I can't afford the application fee and was planning on applying for a fee waiver.  MOST schools allow the LSDAS fee waiver to suffice, but Stanford, Yale and UT (at least) have their own forms.

No big.  The Stanford and Yale forms are very simple -- like a Microsoft Works FAFSA.  I can handle that.

The Texas fee waiver requires a long, detailed explanation of why I cannot pay, requires me to make a budget for myself (though it doesn't indicate if it's more like an audit and it's to cover the past year or just the year to come) detailing incoming and expenditures, as well as the fact that 1) I must present a competitive academic record (but they should realize that the very nature of not being able to afford $70 MIGHT be due to various social forces at work that affect finances as well as grades) and 2) they have a clear interest in admitting me.

Now, I do not take personal offense to this.  If need be, I could pull the $70 out of my arse and hand it over, though it might mean eating only filling-less sandwiches for a week or three.  I'm offended on behalf of those who REALLY cannot pay a single dime and having to go through this huge song and dance, as if life isn't hard enough already for such people?

What are they doing down there?  I really don't get it.  The only thing I appreciate them for, at this point, is all of the CRAP they wanted me to include on my resume (when I thought I was applying) because then it made my resume meet with every other schools lighter resume requirements.

[jeb240]

It's not so much that they ask for anything absurd -- they just tell you to included EVERYTHING, it seems:

Please provide a resume detailing any significant vocational, nonvocational, extracurricular or community activities, graduate work or degrees, honors, awards, any service in the Armed Forces, job descriptions and major areas of responsibility along with location (city and state) and dates of employment (month/day/year), publications, or other information that you believe the Admissions Committee should consider in evaluating your application.  Also, please include details as to any foreign language proficiences you possess including the level of ability with regard to speaking, comprehension, reading and writing.

[Lucky77]

Jeb,

Chicago, UCLA, Penn, and Virginia also have forms which need to be filled out. (at least I had to), for a fee waiver

[jeb240]

Well, I haven't seen their forms because I got an LSAC fee waiver as well and most law schools defer to the LSAC disposition.  So for a lot of them all I had to do was send a copy of the LSAC waiver letter, and others of them have it set up on the LSDAS site to waive the fee when I submit my app electronically.

But, it's not the form that was my issue... like I said, Yale and Stanford had special forms, too.  It was all that the form required and how UTexas metes out waivers that I find so offensive.

[hoedemanj]

My ex gf went to Texas for undergrad and she always called it the University of Red Tape.  Sorry about the fee; maybe you could start a collection?

As regards the interview, it would seem like a great way to present your case if you have an important area that is weaker than it should be.  I'm sure it would help someone like me, with a gpa that is somewhat wanting, but other qualifications in order.  Is it mandatory?  (I haven't looked at the Texas app yet)  It seems that if you're well within the necessary standards of qualification, you would likely be better off skipping it.

[jeb240]

As regards the interview, it would seem like a great way to present your case if you have an important area that is weaker than it should be.  I'm sure it would help someone like me, with a gpa that is somewhat wanting, but other qualifications in order.  Is it mandatory?  (I haven't looked at the Texas app yet)  It seems that if you're well within the necessary standards of qualification, you would likely be better off skipping it.

That's a good point.  If I were interested in Texas, I might consider doing the interview for that reason.  Currently not having taken the LSAT, I can say that the only truly weak part of my application is my GPA.  And I am actually really glad that I had the chance to at least somewhat impress a Northwestern guy in my interview, to show that I'm more than just a low GPA.