I hope these comments do not express hubris—this is my best attempt at an objective assessment based upon what I consider to be a very strong application. I have multiple ~T2 softs and sharpened my essays for nearly a year.

Strategy Lesson - write all optionals
I wrote all the “optional” essays. This seems to be common sense to me but apparently some people don’t understand this. If you can neatly slip a variant of Why X into essays that aren’t expressly on that topic, that’s probably worthwhile.

Copyediting Lesson - intentional language
I felt my writing improved dramatically when I used intentional word choice. If you are speaking about something being a “foundation,” then mirror it with other verbs in adjacent sentences like “build” or “strengthen.” If you are speaking about a set of experiences forming a “tapestry,” then mirror it with verbs like “weave” and “sew.” This is a writing profession and adcoms want to see that you are a strong writer.

Style Lesson - narrative story
Don’t describe your history. Tell a story. Express your thoughts and emotions and how it drove your actions. Eventually get to why it drives you to law.

Storytelling Lesson - start in the middle
Your hook will be a lot stronger if you start in the middle of the story with emotion, build suspense, and then in the second paragraph back out and tell your story from the start. That way the reader will be interested throughout to understand how and why your hook fits in.

Interview Lesson - be risk averse and avoid politics at all costs
Yale rejected me after a bizarre interview where Dean Ingber explicitly strayed from the purported interview script and inquired expressly into religion/politics (I was polite and was trying to lean OUT of the situation but was not going to change my stances for the sake of interview appearance as she kept pressing). I do not know why she decided to do this, although it was tangentially related to Israel/Palestine issues and she may have been wanting to avoid contentious people on this issue (that wouldn’t have been a problem with me, and wouldn’t have brought the topic up myself but for her digging, but oh well).

Application Lesson - Michigan yield protects
There’s a lot of YP Discussion. I think, however, it’s pretty evident that UMich yield protects. I have deep midwest roots and made a good enough Why X to pair with my stats. If I were to do it over, I’d reduce the strength of my resume and let my stats carry me to the A. As an aside, I applied to JD/LLM schools at some of the other mid-tier T14s that I thought would yield protect me because I thought the mystique of a “special” program would increase their confidence in yield. This appears to have worked.