Wrote optional essays for Michigan, Penn, and Stanford (ironically, the schools I didn’t get into lol). I did not write any LOCIs and was rejected from all my waitlists. PS was on my personal growth through taking on a hobby-related challenge. I brought in my legal work experience at the end, but probably could have…
Applicant wisdom
Advice applicants left on their LSD.Law profiles, searchable by topic, school, and stats.
545 entries
Admitted to New York Universityif i could do it again, i would apply to fewer schools. i also wouldn’t retake the lsat - i took it a second time and scored lower. retaking is generally a good idea, but i didn’t set myself up for success to score higher by retaking it during the same semester i was taking 19 credits and writing my app materials.…
Harvard: wrote small why Harvard paragraph in PS, substantial written work in application (honors thesis), LOCI Chicago: wrote small why Chicago paragraph in PS, felt like interview went well NYU: wrote RTK scholarship essay, submitted GRE (336) UVA: wrote small why UVA paragraph in PS, felt like interview didn’t go…
Stream of consciousness advice in no particular order: Don’t coast on any component of your application! Keep addenda short and sweet, when possible. Even T4 softs can tell a story about you - don’t collect “softs” as gold stars, do what makes you fulfilled and use that as the starting point of your “narrative”…
“In the dark times, should the stars also go out?” Advice *More is better. **If a school allows you to submit optional essays (why X), spend some time crafting a compelling supplemental essay. Yes, there are people who get admitted without submitting optional essays. But the more information you can provide to the…
(◕◕) Essays written: UVA: Why UVA? Michigan: Why Michigan? Berkeley: Why Berkeley? Duke: Optional Essay #1 (Why Duke and why law?) Georgetown: Top Ten List Stanford: Three songs 🎶 (◕◕) General advice: I did much better than I was expecting, and I attribute much of my success to fact that I was able to provide…
LSAT: Give yourself more time than you think you need to study. If you can swing it, a tutor or course is a great investment into your future because just a few LSAT points can mean a huge difference in where you are accepted and/or scholarship amounts. (I used 7Sage and PowerScore.) If you think you left points on…
A few words of wisdom… Do not take advice from anyone on Reddit. No one on there knows what got them into a school or what got them rejected. The only people that know that are AdComms. Listen to “Navigating Law School Admissions with Miriam and Kristi.” Dean Ingber and Dean Jobson actually read applications and…
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 LSAT FLEX 3x (170 -> 166 ->177), no addendum. Wrote 3 Books Essay for Stanford, Core Values Essay for Penn, Why Xs for Michigan and Berkeley, Programmatic contributions for UCLA, applied for Furman Academic for NYU. For most schools (all but Harvard and UCLA because of space restrictions) tailored the final…
non-FLEX LSAT applicant. early on in the cycle I got really resentful about FLEXies and their inflated scores (still am a little bit), but its not the applicants fault things turned out this way. even the exam I took (July 2019) was atypical in that I could have cancelled my score to retake. Beyond that, how many of…
LSAT notes: Take untimed sections until you nail your accuracy. Take as many practice tests and practice sections as you can and do dedicated blind review. Incorporate grounding and breathing exercises for test anxiety. I took the test once pre-Flex. School notes: YLS: Y250 made an argument about professional/legal…
Softs: Engineer, ~3 years of unique work experience, graduate degree, significant time spent volunteering Personal statement: described the series of events that led me to pursuing law school School specific optional essays I wrote: Stanford: “Would you rather travel to the Moon or travel the Earth?” Harvard: None…
Based on my experience, soft factors and essays are VERY important in law school admissions, especially at T-14 schools (I believe that the more you go up in the rankings, the more softs and essays matter). Strong numbers matter a lot too, but they’re usually not enough on their own to give applicants a strong shot…
Top 4 undergrad, top masters program. A lot of work experience in the field I want to practice in. Wrote Why X for every school I applied to. Wrote all optional essays. Also included a LSAT addendum with my SAT scores to show a history of outperforming standardized test scores. NYU - got HTE, sent in a LOCI, was…
For future lurkers, I withdrew from Harvard, UPenn, and UVA before getting an admission result. As listed I received scholarship awards from Columbia, Michigan, and BU—I withdrew from everywhere else I was admitted before hearing about financial aid. The Hamilton at Columbia and Dean’s Scholarship at BU came with…
This is extremely doxable and long for the benefit of anyone interested. Academic: PhD (expected) + MA in social sciences discipline with emphasis in law & society from T20 university in my field (3.99 GPA), undergrad at Ivy with humanities major (top 30% of graduating class), 1 year medical leave in undergrad…
Link to Reddit cycle recap with written application materials included:*** ***https://bit.ly/3HvUUqH **Numbers: 3.89/172 ** (Took the LSAT four times: April 2021: Cancel, October 2021: 162, November 2021: 164, June 2022: 172). I studied for the LSAT for over two years. Making the decision to delay a cycle and keep…
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