GuardedMuteMacaw '23–'24 app cycle Class of 2027 class year

General
My largest takeaway is: Create a genuine and polished package of application materials. Quality > quantity, both in terms of essay length and the number of optional essays you submit.- If you have no geographic constraints and have the funds available, apply broadly. This is a very unpredictable process. In hindsight, I probably applied to a few too many schools, but having options did make the process less stressful.

• Don’t rush your applications just so you can submit in September. I submitted early because I started early, but most schools sent me decisions around the same time they sent them to October and November applicants.

Personal Statements
Write a genuine personal statement about a moment or topic that is important to your story and your goals. When I first started brainstorming my PS, I was trying to write an essay about my interest in law: this resulted in boring and surface-level results. I was too worried about writing something that admissions officers would want to read. My best work came as soon as I decided to write about something important to me- and tell a story about a formative moment in my life. This allowed me to draft a more interesting essay that actually tells the reader who I am and why I want to pursue law.

Optional Essays
Make sure your optional essays are high-quality. If you really have to stretch yourself while writing one, and you can’t craft something that truly sounds genuine, it may- be better to not submit it. Looking back, I would only have submitted optional essays that I knew were strong. I definitely submitted a few apps with optional essays that added nothing to my application just because I thought I had to, and I think it brought down the overall quality of my file.

Résumé
Find a good template for formatting.- Make it one page (I recognize many people disagree with this, but it ensures that everything in the document is important. Also remember that admissions officers are reading thousands of documents… if I was in their position, I would be annoyed if the material I was reading should have obviously been trimmed).