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Applicant wisdom

Advice applicants left on their LSD.Law profiles, searchable by topic, school, and stats.

LSAT 172 GPA 4.00 2022–23 cycle

Attending Duke University

…have been engaged in several activities that amount to T3 softs in undergrad. All I had to do was score well on the LSAT. Ultimately, I did, but let me just say; little compares to the sustained anxiety of studying for a test as difficult to “perfect” as the LSAT for roughly 6 months. Godspeed to all those who come…

LSAT 172 GPA 3.89 2021–22 cycle

Attending University of California—Berkeley

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”…

LSAT 170 GPA 4.00 2021–22 cycle

Attending University of Notre Dame

…a full semester of pass/no pass grades thanks to COVID-19. SOFTS: one great internship, a couple meh internships, some retail/food service part-time work, and no full-time work experience. campus involvement throughout undergrad including some leadership. captain of university speech team and a few cool awards for…

LSAT 178 GPA 4.00 2020–21 cycle

Attending Columbia University

…obvi ended up a waitlist). Other details about stats/softs. I took the LSAT 3 times: 169, 173 (Flex), 178 (flex). I listed my softs as T3 because I played D1 baseball (non-HYP Ivy) and made the Academic All-America team one season. My job out of undergrad was very unique (STEM field in what’s considered a “cool,”…

LSAT 174 GPA 3.72 2020–21 cycle

Admitted to Duke University

–KJD but with some interesting softs: extensive work experience while in undergrad at a small startup company I helped build, numerous publications, and involvement/competitive success in a collegiate activity (think debate/Mock Trial). They fit together well into a narrative, but aren’t rare enough to be more than…

LSAT 179 GPA 3.64 2020–21 cycle

Attending Stanford University

…members because I was so borderline, but my essays and softs made up massively for my questionable GPA. Softs: Teach for America, promoted to a HS department chair role my second year. Liberal arts double major from a top 10 private. Three recs: two from professors that gave me As, one from the director of my TFA…

LSAT 167 GPA 3.99 2025–26 cycle

Attending Yale University

…to Yale Law School! BACKGROUND GPA: 3.99 / LSAT: 167 / Softs: T1.5ish Three years of work experience and am the recipient of two prestigious awards/fellowships for leadership & graduate study. As a future attorney, my main interests are law teaching/legal academia and litigation. Heading into the cycle, Yale was my…

LSAT 174 GPA 4.00 2023–24 cycle

Attending Harvard University

LSAT:  167 -> 168 -> 174 I used LSAT Demon + The Loophole (highly recommend both)  GPA:  4.0/4.0 (top 1% – humanities classes only) softs:  average for a KJD who knew they wanted to go to law school early (summer legal internship, legal research assistant, a handful of undergrad awards, a couple leadership roles in…

LSAT 176 GPA 3.91 2023–24 cycle

Attending Harvard University

Ivy+ undergraduate degree, one year Master’s degree (’23-’24 year) from prestigious school in legal-adjacent field. On the strong side of T4 in terms of softs. Reapplicant to 7/14 schools. Took LSAT 4 times, scoring well below PT numbers until the 4th attempt. Applied with public interest as the goal and many of my…

LSAT 171 GPA 4.05 2023–24 cycle

Attending University of Michigan

…essays helped set me apart. And yes, I have some good softs, but my two cents is that it’s more about *how *you write about them and use them to tell your story more than what they actually are.

LSAT 177 GPA 3.98 2023–24 cycle

Attending University of California—Berkeley

…at your essays for too long. My only super “unique” soft was an experience with a health emergency and subsequent disability in my senior yr of college, which I wrote about as a diversity/perspective statement. Otherwise, I was a fairly standard KJD-adjacent applicant (graduated May 2023), with lots of…

LSAT 172 GPA 3.79 2022–23 cycle

Attending Duke University

…many times as it takes to get a 170+, and lean into your softs. I don’t have any family members or friends in law, and had no idea what I was doing when I applied. I was just very candid and transparent in my application, and studied for the LSAT for over a year. Do some community service and show law schools that…

LSAT 176 GPA 3.70 2023–24 cycle

Attending Stanford University

…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…

LSAT 178 GPA 4.00 2022–23 cycle

Attending Yale University

…don’t have prestigious awards/internships or other T1/T2 softs (I didn’t), it just means you have to have a well-rounded application with a compelling personal statement and cohesive narrative for law school. Without giving away too much personal information, I had some fairly unique aspects of my childhood that…

LSAT 173 GPA 3.79 2022–23 cycle

Attending Columbia University

…foreign language double major- What I would guess are T2.5 softs (3 years in top consulting firm; relevant/competitive internships every summer and semester of college; AmeriCorps service; US Senate work; federal agency work; selective fellowship; exceptional amount of in-depth campus leadership experience;…