PlacidFurtiveLeopard '22–'23 app cycle Class of 2026 class year

Some notes about my GPA:
Attended a large public university as an in-state resident- Wrote a GPA addendum addressing my downward trend and briefly noted that I received As in all but one of my non-STEM courses, including upper-div courses that I took out of personal interest

• Not sure how much the addendum helped, since I didn’t receive any acceptances before Berkeley accepted me through ED, but I thought it was worth writing to contextualize my transcript
• Also took non-STEM community college courses for post-college enrichment, although they didn’t affected my LSAC GPA

Some notes about my work experience:
Very strong nonprofit policy experience through hard-to-get full-time positions- Genuinely passionate about the work I’ve done

Thoughts on the diversity statement:

It seems like there’s a lot of hesitation around writing diversity statements, but I think that if you have something that both 1) distinguishes you from the typical (white, probably upper-middle/upper class) law school student and 2) connects with your legal career goals, it’s worth writing about. That’s what I ended up doing. Granted, I’m not an admissions committee member, but I’ve interviewed many candidates for very competitive jobs at my workplaces, and the people we end up hiring have always been those with a compelling narrative about why they want that job. I encourage applicants to craft application packages that are cohesive stories in and of themselves.