Playing a game of email tag.

Soooooo, I got a kind of weird response from Whittier already in my attempt to negotiate the stipulations set on my financial aid award there. Here:

Twenty-Something Law:

It sounds like scholarship money is your number one concern. While on the face of our offer the scholarship seems hard to keep, how you perform in law school is completely within your control. You received the highest scholarship offer that we are giving to anyone, even those in the 99th percentile for LSAT and GPA. We offered that scholarship amount to you because, based on your scores, you are likely to be in the top of your class. The offer you received from SMU is a great one. I would accept their offer as the actual terms of my scholarship program are not something that we are able to negotiate with.

I know this is an incredibly difficult decision to make and I wish you the very best in whatever you decide to do.

-Associate Dean XXX

Huh? You're telling me to accept another school's offer? That just seems strange to me. But nice, because he's actually taking into account what's important to me.

And, as far as the whole, "we think you could be at the top of your class" goes...100% of the people going into law school expect to be in the top 10% of their class. No one goes in expecting to be mediocre. It's one of those things where EVERYONE is smart and competitive. I just think it's impractical to predict something like placement based on GPA and test scores.

Hmmmmm, we shall see!