Quinn Yeargain 19L

January 10, 2024

When I applied to law school, I applied to at least twenty law schools—too many, by any definition—and Emory was one of them. To maximize my options, I had completed the small additional step to be considered for the Woodruff Fellowship and when I had received the offer to interview for a slot at Woodruff Weekend, it was something that I had viewed as equivalent to the other scholarships I was under consideration for at other schools. At the time, I had not seriously considered Emory as an option for law school, and ultimately decided that it was not on my radar and that I was not going to be participating in the interview process.

I emailed then-Admissions Dean Ethan Rosenzweig to tell him that I was not going to be flying down to Atlanta. He called me almost immediately and implored me to come, and also asked that I take a phone call from then-Vice Dean Bobby Ahdieh. Dean Ahdieh—as was his nature—emphatically urged me to keep my plans, and spoke honestly and earnestly about why Emory was a good choice for me. I finally conceded and asked to have my flight rebooked for the next morning, which meant that I would be missing many of the weekend’s activities. I assumed that this would adversely affect my chances of being named a Fellow, and that I would not get a fellowship.

Before leaving, I texted my girlfriend a list of the reasons I did not want to go to Emory, and asked her to remind me of those reasons if I wavered.

But visiting Emory and participating in the Woodruff Weekend events, which intersected with Admitted Students Day, totally changed my perspective. Though I had been to Atlanta many times before—my grandparents lived in Alpharetta—I had not spent much time in North Druid Hills. I struck by how livable, pleasant, and green the area was. When I interacted with students (and prospective students), I was struck by how kind and empathetic everyone seemed, and how supportive they described the community as being. And when talking with faculty, staff, and administrators, I was struck by how much they wanted me to come to Emory and how invested they were in my career.

In the end, I was struck by how much I wanted to come to Emory—and how much I wanted the Woodruff Fellowship. I entered my interview nervous, and owned the fact that I had initially refused to come, but explained how much the weekend had meant to me. (And I refuted every reason I had listed that I did not want to go to Emory.)

I was ultimately named as a Woodruff Fellow. And over the next three years, I had a unique set of experiences that I certainly would not have had elsewhere. But it was the Woodruff Weekend process that taught me some of my favorite life lessons: the importance of remaining open to different experiences and accepting that plans can change.