…Wrote books essay; one of “up to 500” invited to do video statement for Knight Hennessy but not selected as finalist (such a tease) Harvard interview: The most one-sided of all my interviews. I immediately felt good about it (told some friends I probably had a 9/10 performance), but then I fell into a downward…
Applicant wisdom
Advice applicants left on their LSD.Law profiles, searchable by topic, school, and stats.
31 entries matching "personal statement"
Admitted to University of Chicago…here is that it doesn’t really matter how much you personally want law school. Instead, what matters is whether you can demonstrate that the admissions committee ought to want law school for you too. If I put myself in the reader’s shoes and I only think to myself, “wow, this guy really wants to go to law school,” I…
Your personal statement is your gold. Also, I highly recommend doing social work or something adjacent to it prior to law school. You learn a ton about how the law interacts with vulnerable people at systemic and individual levels, and it makes for a great narrative. I think that’s what gave me the edge in…
…leadership experience (probably makes for a compelling personal statement!), and then separate from the military with 36 months of free tuition + housing and book stipends. You’d be guaranteed to graduate law school debt-free. And you’d likely learn some interesting lessons and meet some amazing people along the…
…a formal “Why X,” you should be subtly tailoring your personal statement and other supplements to reflect the school’s culture, values, and resources. The goal is to give the reader an “aha” moment where it becomes obvious that you fit naturally into their community. Penn’s materials emphasize interdisciplinarity…
Personal statement was modeled off of the UChicago hobby examples on their website. I think it hurt my applications that didn’t expand on my professional goals in app questions/supplemental essays (CLS, HYS, GULC, Penn, UVA) vs. ones where I did (Berkeley, Cornell, NU, NYU, UC) & would’ve benefitted from a clearer…
…my Berkeley and Northwestern apps because I wrote on my personal statements that I would attend if admitted—I don’t recommend doing this.
Didn’t write any optional essays in addition to my personal statement, unless you count the mandatory Yale 250-word supplement (in retrospect, this definitely hurt me at UVA, Penn, and Columbia, where I was above 75th for both stats and didn’t do a good job demonstrating interest) T4 softs, did some research at my…
Wrote why X paragraphs in my personal statement. Dual enrollment lowered my LSAC GPA by 0.26. Softs are 1) extremely competitive extracurricular team, 2) very low-income upbringing affected by things relate to a very clear rationale for why law, and 3) prestigious undergrad fellowship. White and Hispanic, so kinda…
…would recommend choosing your schools, then tackling your personal statement, then working on other required and optional essays.- Do the optional essays if you can. I know lots of people talk about yield protection and getting waitlisted at “worse” schools than they think they deserve (although I think this mindset…
Wrote Why Michigan, Duke, WashU, Cornell, GULC. Wrote Penn Core Values, GULC Unpopular Opinion, Stanford Library Books. Updated personal statement for Columbia. work on your materials early and apply early!
…this cycle, it was waiting so long to get started on my statements. I didn’t realize how much work it was going to be… I kept hearing that it’s okay to apply in Dec/Jan (and it is), but for me- personally, I regret this decision. I managed to apply to most schools by Dec/Jan but my decisions came later than others.…
…of subission) University of Michigan (8/26) Optional on personal qualities- Why X Academic Addendum ACCEPTED 11/6 University of Virginia (9/1) Why X- Academic Addendum Interview invitation (9/5) Interview completed (9/9) ACCEPTED 9/10 Northwestern University (9/3) Optional on public service- Optional on academic…
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