7Sagers,
This Monday, at 9 pm EST, I’ll do a second round of live lightning consultations.
What’s a lightning consultation? Basically, I’ll try to be as helpful as I can in five minutes. We might brainstorm personal statement topics, strategize about addenda, or discuss LORs.
If you want a free five-minute consultation about your law school application, I’ll need you to post a few things in the comments section:
- Your three-sentence biography.Your biggest worry about your application.Two ideas for your personal statement.Did you attend last time? Did I get to you?
I’ll get through as many people as I can in one hour, working in a mostly random order. Please don’t post to this thread if you can’t show up for the consultation. If you do show up, test your microphone beforehand. Make sure you have a strong connection to the internet, and that you can speak and be heard on GoToMeeting. If your microphone isn’t working, I’ll have to skip you.
To join, just follow this link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/196286165
- Dial +1 (571) 317-3112Use the access code 196-286-165.Use the audio PIN shown after joining the meeting.
We’ll use Citrix GoToMeeting. The meeting ID is 196-286-165.
47 comments
Yes guys please only contribute on here if you're certain you can make it to the webinar! David is kind enough to do this for free so please make it worth his time by attending!
Thank you David! Super informative, cannot wait for the next one... I've been re-tooling my personal statement during the entire meeting, so many good prompts to build off of !
Your three-sentence biography.
My name is Alex and I am a Mechanical Engineer, I work for a patent search firm, and I once decided that I wasn't going to go into patent law. When people ask where I'm from, I just say "the Eastern US" given that my family never lived in the same place for more than five years when I was growing up. I lived in Thailand for two years as a missionary for my church and I've played clarinet with a wind band in concerts throughout northern Europe and Asia.
Your biggest worry about your application. LSAT of course, but also showing that I am a unique and diverse applicant. I'm a white male from a middle class family and feel humble and unworthy when I read the inspiring stories that many fellow 7Sagers have shared about their lives. My dream school is Stanford.
Two ideas for your personal statement.
First idea (five seconds that changed my life): I struggled a lot with the decision to propose to and marry my girlfriend and waded for months through feelings of self doubt and uncertainty about an unknown future and if she was "the one". Consequently, I kept putting the decision off until my girlfriend called (we dated long distance for most of our relationship) and said that she felt like it was time to move on because she didn't know where we were headed. Instantly, I knew that I needed to make a decision that night or lose her for good. After pondering and praying late into the night until I had no words left, the thought came to me "If you want her, go get her" and I felt empowered to decide my own fate. At 1AM, I drove three and a half hours to show up on her doorstep in the morning and ask her to marry me. We happily celebrated our one year anniversary in May.
Second idea: Realizing that I am more passionate about helping others to learn and meet their goals than designing new products during the course of a working a job in a field that I didn't initially want to be in.
Did you attend last time? Did I get to you?
I attended and asked a question about how many paragraphs the personal statement should have (answer: let the story guide). However, I did not have a lightning consultation. I will be there for this session!
1) My name is Kevin, I'm 23 years old and just graduated from college. I'm currently working full time as a paralegal and have been interested in law school since I started college. I have 2 years worth of undergrad internship experience woking in various different law firms; I know this is what I want to do.
2) I'm the definition of vanilla ice cream. From New England, as middle class as you could be. I want to avoid coming across as flat/preachy. I think I need to apply as early as possible to get in with my numbers.
3A) I was 19 years old when the Boston Marathon bombing happened, I was a sophomore in college and working at a small law firm downtown. My firm worked with a few different marathon victims, and one day I went to drop off some documents at a hospital and was met by one of the survivors. I expected to just hand some paperwork to a family member or lawyer, instead I met a survivor. It was a really powerful experience and has played a part in my passion to become an attorney. (Obviously more to this story)
3B) I really like public speaking and after graduating college started dabbling in standup comedy just for fun. I think this could be worked into an interesting topic, especially if I told the story behind my first time doing standup, conquering fears etc. I feel like this could be an unconventional/good "get to know me" PS if done right
4) Nope!
1. I'm a reporter turned firefighter who's expecting his first kid. I'm of mixed racial heritage and have picked up a few languages while living abroad, none of which match my heritage. I like my job mainly because it demands only 10 days/month, meaning I can pursue poorly-paying passions like running political campaigns.
2. Poor undergrad GPA (graduated in 2002)
3. A) Had spent years skating by as a mediocre paramedic when a fellow firefighter died on the floor of my firehouse. I had to make a single decision between a path which would protect my livelihood and ego but reduced the firefighter's chance of survival and a second path which would slightly increase the firefighter's chances but more likely end in a career-crushing failure.
B) Colorado's urban renewal laws have long given developers a cash-filled trough in which to gorge at the cost of fire departments and schools. For 20 years the state's most powerful lawmakers had failed to make changes. Two years ago, I got a call from the union president asking for a hand lobbying legislators on yet another doomed attempt. One week later I'd led the upset of the session by bringing together lawmakers who were sworn enemies.
4. No.
Your three-sentence biography.
Born in Egypt, and immigrated to Canada when I was 3 years of age. Worked in sales for 10 years while and after doing undergrad. I did a Sociology major, and am 30 years old.
Your biggest worry about your application.
For it to be generic, and not highlight who I really am. I failed high school miserably (had to redo grade 12), but was able to get a 3.5 GPA in my last two years of college. Getting "A"s was one of the most challenging things I had to do in my life; it was mainly because I had self doubt and a somewhat traumatic experience with school because of my failures and bullying.
Two ideas for your personal statement.
1.) How I overcame past academic failure by getting a 3.5 GPA in my last 2 years of college (Biggest struggle of my life).
2.) Overcoming my fear of public speaking by taking many public speaking courses, and preforming a stand up comedy routine as a final project for one course, in front of an audience.
Did you attend last time? Did I get to you?
No, this is my first time with this.
1. Biography: I grew up in India and moved here before high school. Since the move, my family's been struggling financially so I can have an uninterrupted education. I am currently a Neurobiology major at Cornell (international student). I have a significant amount of experience (for a ugrad) in basic science and social sciences research and hope to bring more of that into legal practice.
2. Biggest worry about application: LORs -didn't really get to know any of my professors that well since I was always taking classes in different departments. I have a couple options but I'm unsure how to get the best LOR that I can
3. Ideas for personal statement:
1. One of the graduation requirements at my college is a swim test. But when I was young, I had almost drowned, which left me with a negative view about swimming and large bodies of water. Just terrified of it. Regardless, I was forced to learn a couple years ago. Passed the swim test -didn't grow to love it or anything but learned that its not as terrifying as I made it to be. I like to plan, to know and to control and learning to swim needed me to let some of that go and just trust that I can float without doing much.
2. Maybe about a research project abroad that had me interviewing people in a foreign language and listening to their personal stories, sometimes for hours. And how they would always start with caution and then eventually open up with these intense emotional stories -often even advising me as though they've known me for longer than that interview. I was thinking I could contrast that sense of deep connection with the sense of separation that sometimes I feel amongst my family/friends as I develop the anecdote about their interviews..maybe.
4. Nope!
My three-sentence biography:
I am 32 years old, married, and have two children. I graduated three years ago with a BS in Business Management and I have been working as a project manager for a telecommunications company. In a combined total of ten years of work experience, seven of which are in Residential Financing.
Your biggest worry about your application.
I am concerned about my LSAT score, I obviously want it to be a good reflection on my application, but I also want my application as a whole to be appealing and somehow set me apart from the other applicants. I also am uncertain if I should include an addendum to my application explaining the dip in my GPA when my father passed away (3.7 to a 3.5).
Two ideas for your personal statement.
1) Following high school, I served a Christian mission for my church, and when I returned my father offered me a position in his office as a residential loan officer. With no prior knowledge, I studied all aspects of residential lending and how to excel in a 100% commission position. I worked alongside my father for seven years and not only did I learn a great deal about the finance industry, but I grew and learned more about myself. When the economy crashed in 2008, I was forced to reconsider my career choice, which led me to earning my degree. My personal statement will be a write up of how this was a defining time in my life and how this shaped me into who I am today.
2) Halfway through my freshman year of college, I received a phone call from my parents with the news that my father was diagnosed with leukemia. I needed to decide if I should drop out of school and return home and focus my time and energy on my dad, but my dad refused that option. He didn’t want to be the reason why I didn’t finish school. For 18 months he fought the cancer and I continued my schooling while visiting home frequently. My personal statement will be a write up of this time and how my father impacted my life as a father, a friend, and a mentor.
Did you attend last time? Did he get to you?
I did not attend last time.
1) I wanted to be the president of the United States as a kid then thought being a lawyer was a great path to get there then wanted to be a lawyer. Started uni and changed career paths completely, I went to school in silicon valley and went towards tech/start ups and spent 4 year studying international business and finance, hated it but was too late to get out.
2) Letters of Recommendation, I don't have two academic and the one I do have is going to be average.
3) One idea: My dad loves sports, I remember as a kid I would sneak out of my room and watch him watch sports at midnight/passed midnight every night when he got home. As I kid I never understood why he worked so much (went to work at 9/10am and coming home at midnight, 6-7 days a week) and as I grew up I started realizing why he worked so much, what kind of financial situation we really were in(not good), but still worked day in and day out and how that taught me no matter what may happen, or what cards you are dealt with, hard work and determination with the right goals in mind will lead to success. I used this work ethic throughout my life. I was going to include examples of when those lessons helped, when I was struggling to continue doing anything with my life and not giving up and realizing that my dad didn't work his a** off for me to fail. (Kind of everywhere with this).
Second idea: In undergrad I was drinking everyday, when I woke up, going to class, during midterms/finals, and dinner. I was still "functioning", I was passing my classes (barely), still hanging out with my friends, going to work, by all accounts normal. I started smoking as well and went from one cig to a pack a day in less than a month and that continued. Super cliche movie moment but I was literally looking in the mirror, had a beer in my hand, and was about to hope in the shower and that was when it just all clicked and made me realize wtf am I doing with my life and quit cold turkey. Went sober for a year, moved to NYC and started drinking again but stopped after a month, this time was easier was still difficult.
^i am considering combining them but that seems to much for how short the PS is meant to be.
4) yes and no but I also didn't submit so yeah
1. Your three-sentence biography:
My name is Anna, I have an undergraduate degree in Biomedical engineering from an international institution, mechanical and electrical engineering master's degree from US universities and I am an ESL student. I worked as a technical advisor (patent agent) after graduating with my 2nd MS degree in a boutique IP law firm for about 2 years and stopped working due to medical issue since 2015. I have 2 children (2 years old and 2 months old) and my husband is an officer, I am now taking care of them while studying for the LSAT.
2. Your biggest worry about your application.
I don't have an undergraduate GPA since I obtained my undergraduate degree from out side of US. LSAC rated my UGPA as Above Average. As English is not my first language, I am mostly worried about my writing especially Personal Statement.
3. Two ideas for your personal statement.
a) Maybe talk about my journey of coming to the US alone to study 5000 miles away from home. The struggle both culturally and academically, the loneliness, and the burden of surviving financially. Academically, I need to adjust myself to the new school, new environment, and new ways of studying and doing researches. As a Teaching assistant, I need to hold lab sessions 3 times a week, which basically is a public speech one hour each time. For a non-native speaker, it was a nightmare in the beginning but in the end I received excellent teaching award from school. I even worked as an adjunct instructor at a private university for a semester. I also have research duties which was interesting and hard but I managed to publish a few papers on peer reviewed journals. I was also doing multiple internships to earn extra money and gain more experiences while taking the maximum credits I could each semester to save the tuition. However the most difficult part is the loneliness, coming from an Asian culture, it is difficult to be alone without families and friends around. I enjoy being tired and fill my schedule full with loads of work because I feel lonely and even cries sometime when I am by myself. I overcome these in the end.
b) Perhaps, I should talk about more recent experience about being a military spouse, support my husband emotionally, adjust myself to the military life and survive severe medical complications myself without anyone around to help. My strong technical background in biomedical, mechanical, and electrical engineering will make me a good fit for IP law and I have experiences working with patents already. But I feel like talking about how much I love patent law is really plain and not interesting. Maybe I should combine the 2 topics together?
4.Did you attend last time? Did I get to you?
No and no.
Thanks!
Seconding @87818. Even though my mic died during my big moment, the webinar was really helpful to just listen to. Got the wheels turning, thanks David!
Did you fix this? The link is working fine for me!
Your three-sentence biography.
I come from a developing country. I am a photographer for almost 10 years, the eldest of 5 sisters and a fisherman's daughter. I am currently running my own graphic design firm.
Your biggest worry about your application.
LSAT and a mature student (34 years old)
Two ideas for your personal statement.
My experience growing up in a fishing community when I sold fish in the market every dawn until college. I think it was a good discipline and made me appreciate where I came from. Just like studying law where it will take a lot of hard work, determination and never giving up on my dreams to succeed.
I'm not entirely sure about this but probably illustrate how raising a toddler and studying law could be similar.. (For example, I have patience, etc)
Did you attend last time? Did I get to you?
I was not able to attend last time.
Anyone else having trouble connecting. It keeps kicking me back to the main page for go-to meeting
Your three-sentence biography.
Aerospace and Ocean engineer from Virginia Tech looking to get into patent law. Son of an immigrant parents. I currently work for the NAVY (civilian) on submarine concepts designs. Its a simillar appoach the the auto indsutry has with concept vehichles, applied to submarines. Plan to do LS part time while continuing to work.
Your biggest worry about your application.
GPA. I was diagnosed dsylexic late in life and as a result have a GPA that I am trying to balance with a good LSAT score (168 in JUNE and retaking in SEPT)
Two ideas for your personal statement.
Trying to manage my father's tax practice while he was hospitalized and considering taking it over/switching careers when the prospect of him not making was a reality. AND/OR going thru school as an undiagnosed dyslexic student and the problems associated with that.
Did you attend last time? Did I get to you?
NO
.
Your three-sentence biography: Having moved around the world three times, studied in the UK, US, and Taiwan, served in the financial industry as an Ops Analyst (in NYC) and teaching math for local high school students (in CA), I have a passion about living life to the fullest and to build meaningful life experiences. I believe strongly about becoming a lawyer in securities law where I want to use my skills to fight against white collar crimes.
Your biggest concern about your application: There is much room for improvement in LSAT.
Two ideas for your personal statement: Perhaps cultural and life experiences.
Did you attend last time? Did I get to you? I listened in over the phone. Didn't get to talk to you but look forward to it this time!
Thanks,
Joy Ling
Please see post below
My name is Carlos Garcia. I am originally from Mexico and have been living in the US for the past 6 years. I just graduated from Northeastern University (political science) and I would like to attend a top 25 law school. I decided to take a gap year, I am currently working as a paralegal and I will be traveling for six months before law school.
My biggest worry is my GPA. I started in the wrong major and decided to keep it as a minor, it killed my GPA to a sad 3.2. This will be my second time taking the LSAT, hopefully I can get my 162 to something way closer to 170 and make up for my grades.
I was thinking to do my personal statement on how almost everyone in my family practices law in Mexico and that's what I assumed I would do but the terrible situation in my state town forced me out of the country and how I am kind of glad because I had the chance to attend an amazing boarding school, a great college and now I am getting ready to study law in the US. It also helped because I am gay and my family is too conservative to accept it so being "forced out" ended up giving me a way out.
First time attending, and I really appreciate this opportunity.
Only a few hours left to get yours in!
1) Hi my name is Brittany. I am one of 5 children, I am the first in my family to graduate college. I like to read. I'm not a very interesting person so that's all I could come up with.
2) My biggest worries would be the LSAT score, not having enough recommendations from teachers, and my personal essay.
3) I only have one idea for personal statement and that would be just to talk about how ive always wanted to be a lawyer, since I was young.
4) Never attended before.
You'll have to mute yourself with the mute button on your cell phone.
I don't think there's an audio pin for this session. I just double checked the settings and don't see one. If there is one, it will tell you what it is when you call in and enter the access code.
Question about how to join the meeting with cell phone, if I follow the below instructions, what will the audio PIN be? And will my microphone be on automatically? Sorry I am on a trip right now and cannot join the meeting through Internet.
Dial +1 (571) 317-3112
Use the access code 196-286-165.
Use the audio PIN shown after joining the meeting.
David - thanks for offering this!
Three-sentence biography
Hi, this is Nancy. I'm a 27-year-old female from China and moved to the US 8 years ago for college. I've been working as a management consultant in the finance industry since graduating from a liberal arts college. I have been tinkering with pursuing either a JD or an MBA, and ultimately felt that JD is better aligned with my personality traits and long-term interests of going into public policy.
Biggest worry about your application
College GPA (below 25 percentile for target schools)
Two ideas for personal statement
1) Track record / long-time interest in the intersection of policy, business, and law.
As a student: I researched the impact of economic policies on small businesses; interned at a policy institute in the Caribbean; provided pro bono consulting for social entrepreneurs.
As a consultant: have experience in digesting new regulations, assessing their business impact, and implementing solutions for compliance.
2) What having a bad boss / work experience taught me about professionalism, resilience, and management style.
Did you attend last time? Did I get to you?
I did attend, but was not selected.
Robert
1. I graduated from an average public state university in California 7 years ago. I worked my way up from being a paid door knocker for a political candidate to campaign manager. For the last four years I have worked in the political department of a large labor union of healthcare workers in California.
2) Standing out in a sea full of amazing applicants.
3) Personal Statement A - Talking about a recent union contact campaign that I was involved in. I'm thinking of first starting off by talking about how I felt responsible for a union leader being fired. She was a proponent of a ballot initiative that I filed and ran which would limit hospital executives at her hospital from earning over $250k. She was fired out of retaliation.
This made me question myself and if I was truly helping people or doing harm. In the end, I ran a political campaign for this initiative that resulted in the CEO being fired, we were able to settle on a great contract, we dropped the initiative, and I recruited several hospital candidates who are running this fall and are committed to working with us to reform the hospital's leadership.
Personal Statement B - Talking about how college was at first tough for me. My parents lost their home due to my dad's alcoholism and I was nearly kicked out of college for poor grades.
I was inspired by a professor during sophomore year and saw school as my way to figure out how this world works and how to fix it. My grades improved dramatically and I learned that I can't control my dad's actions, but I can control my own.
I couch surfed and lived off ramen soup after college (it sucked and I was poor). I worked really hard and progressed as a paid door knocker to campaign manager and got several folks elected and re-elected to state and federal offices'. I now work a labor union in California and have done amazing things. I recently led on a statewide ballot initiative that qualified for the November 2016 ballot and would raise the state minimum wage to $15. The day we qualified the governor called our union and we brokered a legislative deal. The governor signed this bill into law and it will raise the minimum wage to $15 by 22 and it will be matched to inflation thereafter.