The BriefA Blog about the LSAT, Law School and Beyond
There is no formula for a winning law school personal statement. The following examples—among the best that we have ever worked on—are as various as a typical JD class, yet each was compelling enough to win over the admissions committee of a T14 school. Some essays are about a challenge, some about the evolution of the author’s intellectual or professional journey, and some about the author’s identity. One focuses on the author’s legal experience while the others only pivot towards law school at the end. The only common thread is sincerity. The authors of these essays did not write towards an imagined idea of what an admissions officer is looking for: they reckoned honestly with formative experiences.
Personal Statement about a Career Journey
The writer of this personal statement matriculated at Georgetown.
I don’t remember anything being out of the ordinary before I fainted—just the familiar, heady feeling and then nothing. When I came to, they were wheeling me away to the ER. That was the last time I went to the hospital for my neurology observership. Not long after, I crossed “doctor” off my list of post-graduate career options. It would be best, I figured, if I did something for which the day-to-day responsibilities didn’t make me pass out.
On today's episode, J.Y. Ping invites six 7Sagers who all scored a 170 or higher to tell you what they did in the week before the LSAT.
On today's episode, J.Y. Ping and David Busis talk about how to present the best version of yourself and maximize your chances of getting into law school.
On today's episode, you will hear a law school admissions Q&A with our admissions consultant, David Busis.
Continue reading
Although this essay contradicts a lot of our advice—it focuses on the author’s childhood, brings up her mental health, and doesn’t really tell a story—it’s one of the best we’ve ever seen. To me, it’s an example of the 80-20 meta-rule: rules about writing are true about 80% of the time.
What follows is one of the best and most honest personal statements we’ve ever seen. It’s worth reading as both a model of the genre and an essay that stands on its own. The writer was accepted to many top law schools and matriculated at Columbia.
Continue reading
On today's episode, J.Y. speaks with Allison Sanford who is a 3L at Harvard Law School. Allison talks about her summer experiences at public interest law firms, the financial realities of law school, and the academic burdens of 1L.
Continue reading
On today's episode, J.Y. speaks with Glen, LSATcantwin, who scored a 171 on the LSAT and is now a 1L.
A law school applicant recently asked for our advice about booking a hotel in Seoul. He was traveling there from Tokyo because the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) couldn’t guarantee him a seat at an LSAT testing center in Japan.
If only he had been taking the graduate record exam! The GRE is administered almost every day, often twice a day, at multiple test centers in Tokyo. Its accessibility is one of the reasons that so many law schools are accepting it in lieu of the LSAT. As of this post’s publication date, you can apply for the JD programs of Harvard, Columbia, Penn, NYU, Northwestern, Cornell, and Georgetown among other schools without ever studying for the LSAT.
But should you? Is it a good idea to apply to law school with only the GRE? If you ask admissions officers at Harvard, Northwestern, or many other GRE-friendly schools (and we have), they’ll tell you that all standardized tests are given equal weight and that there is no penalty for applying without an LSAT score. Nevertheless, there are some reasons to hesitate before you go all in on the GRE.
On today's episode, J.Y. speaks with Riley, AllezAllez21. In eight short months, Riley improved his diagnostic LSAT score of 160 to a 177. They speak about Riley's background in debate and endurance sports and the advantages they brought to his LSAT prep. They also speak about the importance of mantras and doing untimed sections in the beginning stages of prepping to provide a solid theoretical foundation.
Continue reading