I wanted to highlight that I am a COMMUNITY COLLEGE GRADUATE who went to a tiny, unheard of, completely unprestigious state school. When I started my cycle I found it nearly impossible to find examples of people in my situations (fantastic stats, non-prestigious background compared to other applicants) and it made…
Applicant wisdom
Advice applicants left on their LSD.Law profiles, searchable by topic, school, and stats.
439 entries
Admitted to University of California—BerkeleyAnxiety. 07/10/2024 Why am I on this again? I think we all should have a little escapist mentality once apps are submitted 12/15/2024 Wishing for a fabulous result for the new year. i want to wake up one morning to a phone call from my dream school. 12/31/2024 The overwhelming amount of waitlists… 2/6/2025 It has…
I got into multiple T14 schools with a GPA below all their 25th percentiles. Somehow. I’ve seen a lot of applicants with nearly identical numbers get different outcomes. People always say essays matter—and they do—but that leads to the next question: what actually makes a good one? Here’s what helped me. Go do…
ALRIGHT, CYCLE COMPLETE! I cannot wait to start my legal education at YLS! This cycle went way better than I could have ever imagined (now wishing I didn’t waste so much money on application fees lol). I don’t know if my application advice will be helpful, because who knows what about my application worked well, but…
Your written statements are critical. Outside of gaining you positive admissions results, they are an opportunity to define your dreams! Don’t take this chance lightly. Get some life and work experience after college. You won’t regret it. Take as much time as you need with the LSAT and preparing your application…
Don’t give up on the LSAT. It can open some serious doors if you want it bad enough.
I live in NYC, want to stay, and have public interest goals so NYU it is. staying on the Harvard waitlist just in case but it’s hard to imagine uprooting my life and taking on crazy debt for it at this point 4 years of non law-related experience my advice for future generations…write optional essays, have a…
I was convinced going into the cycle that my KJD status would completely bar me from the t 3-5 schools, but I’m happy to have been wrong. Work experience is the right call for many people, but if you have high stats and have had exposure to legal work, I think you can have some confidence going in. A few random…
Control the controllables.
Make sure you have specific* *- and meaningful reasons for wanting to go to law school and that your materials support this Apply before mid-Nov if possible; I think I got lucky but please don’t do what I did (esp for Duke) Hedge your expectations as an international student (esp for UChi, UVA, and Mich) Sending…
Very proud of all my statements. Wrote all optionals. Several T3 and T4 softs. FGLI. 1 year of relevant WE (I think not having more hurt me for YLS). Did everything I could to make my GPA the weakest part of my application. Applied late oct-early nov. Would recommend waiting until jan/feb to apply for YLS if you…
LSAT 167 GPA 4.00 2024–25 cycle
Attending University of California—Berkeley
I came into this cycle thinking I would not get into any great schools and was proven very very wrong. Just know that law schools really do care about your story and your why. It’s not just a stats game.
It took 3+ months to hear from most schools. Also, in general acceptances came later than rejections/waitlist decisions. Try to keep the faith during the wait. I wrote optional essays and Why X essays for all schools that mentioned them in their application. I did not write any pre-decision LOCIs.
It’s all God. Thank you Jesus for holding me tight, thank you Holy Spirit for giving me peace. Tell your story and trust in the Lord to do His will; whatever the destination, you will find peace in it.
Take sooooo many deep breaths. Everything happens for a reason. You are going to do great and end up right where you need to be!!!
Apply to your top choices last (ya know, within reason). Michigan was pretty much my top choice going into this and so (logically, I thought) was the first school I applied to. My materials got a lot stronger, though, as I kept on tweaking my personal statement and got better at writing supplemental essays. I was…
I am a reapplicant this cycle and it has slowly turned into the cycle of my dreams. For people that are uncertain about how their current cycles are turning out, do not be afraid to apply again and make your app stronger. I remember crying at least five times last cycle because I felt like I was not meeting my…
After a certain point, admissions results are totally random. Don’t tie it to your self-worth or identity! Given how late my results came back to me and how it affected my ability to pit aid offers against each other and generally plan for the fall, I’d encourage you to submit earlier so you can get results back in…
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