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Applicant wisdom
Advice applicants left on their LSD.Law profiles, searchable by topic, school, and stats.
388 entries
Admitted to Vanderbilt UniversityHello hello! I only wrote Why X for the University of Michigan, so I would encourage writing those for any available schools. I am currently riding out the UChicago, Columbia, and NYU waitlists, but I am aware that those are unlikely to have movement.
please don’t be afraid to take a gap year (or a few) between undergrad and law school!!!! being able to articulate why law and why you’re going to be a great lawyer is more important to adcomms than what club you were president of or your favorite class
Start writing early. I did a Why X essay for almost every school. Did not do a diversity essay, but completed other optional prompts. I had very strong, program specific reasons for UVA and UChicago that I didn’t really have at the other schools
Just keep surfin
Don’t turn in your top schools apps first… Applying in September vs October doesn’t make any difference, and if you notice a typo or error in your apps, you don’t want to discover it on your top choices and fix it for your second choices
Apply earlier, and not during a pandemic. Spend less time on here (same goes for Reddit). Wrote optional essays for Stanford (3 books, 3 songs), Georgetown (Top 10 list) and a “Why X?” for UVA, Michigan, Duke, Cornell, and ASU.
This is probably super doxxy, but I used this site often during the application process and know that it can be helpful in some ways (although not as many as Reddit would lead you to believe…). Applied to most in late November
Didn’t write any optional essays Applied RD to all schools in December No major C&F issues Softs are academic awards and honor societies, including PBK. Interviewed at GULC, Cornell, and WashU Scholarships from Vandy and Emory
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take - Wayne Gretzky” - Michael Scott
Wrote a Why X Statement for: UChicago UPenn UVA Berkeley Michigan Duke Cornell Also did Stanford optional essays Sent a LOCI to UVA In early February, which turned over quickly into an interview and acceptance.
My advice to future applicants is to slow down and take a breather. Law school is exciting but there is a lot more to life than checking your statuses 75 times a day. Life is beautiful, and don’t let it pass you by!
LSAT 170 GPA 3.74 2023–24 cycle
Attending University of California—Los Angeles
It’s good to be little, it’s good to be small. STEM major who has always had a passion for law and policy and performed better in those classes. Why: Umich, Duke, UVA, NW, GTown (optional essay + ED), NDLS, Vandy
I studied using exclusively LSAT Demon and JurisPrep (one more for the software, the other for an LSAT class). These and getting as much feedback as possible on how you present yourself to schools is what matters!
LSAT 171 GPA 3.91 2020–21 cycle
Attending Washington University in St. Louis
Combination of T2/T3 softs with relevant work experience in a niche interest. Applied as soon as applications opened for each school and received decisions during first wave except for NYU, Yale, and Stanford.
However tempting it seems, DO NOT ED. It isn’t worth it. If you can get into a school by ED you can probably get into a slightly lower ranked school (without a huge change in outcomes) with some money.
Start the personal statement earlier than you think you need to. It was the thing delaying me from applying earlier, because I wasn’t sure what to write about, or I wasn’t happy with what I had written.
-wrote programmatic contribution for ucla -did upenn’s values essay -vandy interview on 11/11 (requested in app a week prior to interview date) -published undergraduate thesis in liberal arts field
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