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Applicant wisdom

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

LSAT 168 GPA 3.96 2022–23 cycle

Attending Stanford University

…27th! General Notes for Specific Applications: ** Yale: Personal statement + Diversity Statement + 250 essay I wrote my 250 essay on my undergrad honors thesis and how I had to confront challenging ideas that made me reconsider my position on things that I felt really strongly about. Stanford: Personal statement +…

LSAT 173 GPA 3.61 2022–23 cycle

Attending Stanford University

…let anyone (even adcomms) on the Internet or in your real personal life stop you from going if you have done the important, deep, serious, soul-searching and decided to go. Shoot your shot. Please stop listening to the advice of the neurotics on here and Reddit. This process can bring out the worst in people. So…

LSAT 173 GPA 3.88 2023–24 cycle

Attending Stanford University

🥰 hi all! My biggest recommendation for everyone is to try to drown out the noise regarding personal statements, supplemental essays, etc. My personal statement did not speak to any schools in particular or even answer the “Why Law?” question, and I think that while that was potentially a risky choice it also…

LSAT 176 GPA 4.00 2025–26 cycle

Attending Harvard University

…long can get your out-the-door before they even read your personal statement. Professional school requires a professional-looking candidate. Rewrite your personal statement a hundred times over. Talk about your accomplishments and frame yourself as someone who succeeds. Your diversity is a strength. I am a first-gen…

LSAT 173 GPA 4.00 2023–24 cycle

Attending Columbia University

…is that prestige / rankings are a starting point, but your personal circumstances have to be the deciding factor. I think the “smartest” choice would ultimately have been UVA for the sheer amount of money they gave me and the low cost of living in Charlottesville. But for a lot of reasons, I wouldn’t have been able…

LSAT 178 GPA 4.00 2022–23 cycle

Attending Yale University

…Background: I decided to apply KJD for a number of personal reasons, but I want to emphasize the fact that this was *a calculated risk *and that I was prepared to reapply should I have not gotten the results I wanted. Quite frankly, I believe the KJD disadvantage will only grow in the years to come as GPA inflation…

LSAT 175 GPA 3.98 2023–24 cycle

Attending University of Pennsylvania

…qualities make you well-suited for law school. Also, on personal statements: your writing matters much more than the thing you write about. I wrote my statement on a pretty ordinary government internship I had as a freshman, but it made for a good statement because the experience genuinely affected me and I could…

LSAT 172 GPA 4.10 2024–25 cycle

Attending Stanford University

…my application with some perspective and maturity that I personally may not have had during my senior year of college. For the LSAT, I found that consistency was key. I treated my studying like a non-negotiable commitment but also made sure I wasn’t burning myself out and took one day off per week. I took it twice…

LSAT 178 GPA 3.99 2025–26 cycle

Attending Stanford University

…around my niche professional interest. This included my personal statement, which briefly discussed how my upbringing influenced my interest in the subject. In all of my writing, my prose was not effusive or very emotive, but I think I told my unique stories well and revealed my thought process. I erred on of the…

LSAT 180 GPA 4.10 2023–24 cycle

Admitted to Stanford University

…time to retake if necessary. Start working on your personal statement. Get as many eyes as possible on your essays. In undergrad, try to take multiple classes with professors if you think you can do well in those classes. This will make it easier for you to get recommendations that aren’t boilerplate. While in…

LSAT 173 GPA 3.95 2021–22 cycle

Attending Stanford University

…and a georgetown optional. i also modified my personal statement for columbia, nyu, and umn, and think i could have/should have written a why uchicago. your written materials are the part of your app, maybe your only part, that you have control over. use it to show them why they should take YOU for THEIR school, say…

GPA 3.90 2023–24 cycle

Admitted to Stanford University

Contact me for help with your applications! I have experience helping applicants with personal statements, optional statements, interview prep, and more.

GPA 4.01 2023–24 cycle

Attending Stanford University

…application send your recommenders a packet with your personal statement, diversity statement, and resume so they can help add to your application’s narrative apply to a range of schools so you can negotiate shot your shoot!

LSAT 170 GPA 3.74 2020–21 cycle

Attending Yale University

Ivy undergrad Legal job after gradation Strong personal statement / diversity statement (I think this was the most important part !!!) Recs from professors I was very close with

LSAT 176 GPA 3.91 2020–21 cycle

Attending Yale University

…-> chance to display your reasoning and deducation skills Personal statement -> chance for you to bring out the person in all of these things. You want to go beyond the accomplishments and illustrate the person behind them - why did they do it? what core values do they have? What problems (business or social) do…

LSAT 171 GPA 4.00 2024–25 cycle

Attending Stanford University

…the right way. Try to get a wide variety of eyes on your personal statement. I had a few revisions, but each person that helped had a different perspective of how to improve it. My optional essays similarly had a lot of effort put into them and showed different aspects of my background and interests. I found a lot…

LSAT 180 GPA 3.99 2021–22 cycle

Attending Columbia University

…only reason my apps were not submitted earlier. Essays: Personal Statement on my work experience and why I want to be a lawyer Diversity Statement on growing up in a lower socioeconomic class w one parent who didn’t go to college and one parent who went to college in another country. Some supplemental essays on…

LSAT 176 GPA 3.94 2020–21 cycle

Admitted to Stanford University

…T-3 school once told me that one way to write an excellent personal statement is to weave a thread through one’s past, present, and future. This writing technique, when used effectively, can help applicants convey to admissions officers a full and clear picture of their personal story. Admissions officers want to be…