Looking for some feedback on my personal statement.

I'm also willing to trade statements if you would like me to review yours. I'm a former journalist, so I have some nice writing experience and good eye for typos.

DM if you're interested.

Yale is a real long shot for me, as I'm sure it is for many of us, but I'm trying to have my application ready to go the instant I receive my December LSAT score. Just in case I pull a 175 or something :) Anyway, Yale asks for addenda describing extracurricular activity during college, including paid employment, and post-college activities. Both specify to include this info separately from a resume. Obviously a lot of that information is already included in my standard resume that I've used for other schools. Should I include my resume as is, leading to redundancies, or cut out such redundant info from my resume? Most of my significant work experience came during or since college, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I'm afraid cutting all this will make my resume look pretty pathetic...?

I'm currently working on my resume and had a few questions that I hope someone could answer:

My resume is currently 2 pages, is this fine? Currently the sections I have are: Education, Work Experience, Volunteer Experience and Languages.

I worked all throughout college, so should I include all of the jobs? My freshman/sophomore year I was working as a sales associate and manager at different stores, and then during my sophomore year I was able to secure an office job which I stayed in until graduating college. Should I include the sales associate and manager position?

I wrote a thesis in college, should I include a brief abstract of it?

Any rules regarding type of font, size of font and margins?

And lastly, I've read that we should include a Personal Interests section. Is this true?

Thanks guys!

Is anyone else worried about the passage of the PROSPER ACT? it these new regulations are put into effect student loans will be capped at 28500 per year. How can anyone pay their law school tuition if PROSPER passes since that number is way below even part time tuition at many law schools?

http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2017/12/a-looming-asteroid-for-law-schools.html

https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/articles/2017-12-13/potential-effects-of-prosper-act-on-student-loans

I applied to Duke via the priority track invite and just found out that I'm now on their priority reserve. Is this any different than their waitlist? Feeling pretty crappy right now....

I wrote a Why Duke essay, too.

Anyone else on Duke PR with PT application?

I discovered that I made an error on my PS essay. Has anyone ever tried sending in a revised essay? How do schools take those kinds of requests?

Did anyone else get this email, inviting them to apply for the scholarship? My numbers arent above the 50 percentile so I was presuming that this was a mass email.

I was wondering is it mandatory to update my transcript on lsac. I sent in my original transcript at the beginning of the semester. Do I need to send in another one after the semester ends and all the grades are in as well? My main concern is timing, because I want to send my apps in as soon as I get my December score. There’s no significant change in my GPA. maybe by like .01 points.

My PS already touches upon most of my diversity factors (immigrant, minority, first-generation college graduate) so I'm a bit lost on what to write for my diversity statement so that I don't sound repetitive. I have two ideas but not sure if they really work well:

My Catholic upbringing/faith and studying at Jesuit university and how this has shaped my values/outlook

Being raised by a single mother and having to work throughout all of high school and college to help support myself and how this taught me to be independent

Thoughts on whether these topics could make good diversity statements? Thank you!

I applied ED to University of Texas, and I received notice today that my application is being held for consideration with the regular decision pool. Not sure what this means for my prospects overall. Is there anything I can do at this stage to increase my chance of admission? LOCI are recommended for those waitlisted; are they appropriate for this situation? If so, should I wait until February or March when they are whittling applicants down?

For background, I am in-state, non-traditional age, LSAT 163, and GPA 3.59 (not great but from a top liberal arts undergrad - now completely regretting the multiple semesters of Mandarin I insisted on taking in spite of the fact it was shredding my GPA!).

Thanks for any insights!

I am working on applying in the first week of January. I have done some work on my resume but I was wondering if the 7sage community knew of the best resources to help? Best of luck to you all!

Don’t know too much about them— how much of an admit guarantee does the priority track invite portend?

Does anyone know any current students or alumni at Duke or Berkeley? As the all-wise David Busis once said, I should "leverage my virtual network" and asking 7Sagers! Thank you all.

So I did a program called running start in high school and took some college level classes, starting in Fall of 2004. I started with just one class that quarter. I graduated HS in spring 06 with 55 college credits completed. I proceeded to take a few more classes including some lower level math classes I needed, but then took some time off Winter 07 to get my pilot's license. I returned to school in Fall 08 working full time and going to school part time and finally graduated in Spring 09. So what this means is I have to list my Comm College years of attendance as 04 - 09. On paper it looks like it took me 5 years to get a 2 year degree! In a way, it did, but it wasn't as if I graduated high school and went to school immediately after. It was a long winding path including a break to get my pilot's license which was a career I thought I might want to get in to at the time. I didn't have the slightest inkling back then of wanting to go to graduate school...now I'm realizing it is making my resume look really bad.

So I guess my question is, does anyone have any thoughts on how I can make it look less terrible on my resume? They're going to get a transcript so leaving it off completely seems like I'm trying to be deceptive. Will the adcom think this is super unusual? Any guidance is appreciated.

How should I include part-time and volunteer work that took place in between the time I was employed full-time. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Hi All,

Now that finals are over for me and the LSAT is out of the way for good, I am finalizing my material for my applications.

I am stuck on the addenda and diversity statement. My first three semesters were a little weak as I had things going on in my life and was adjusting to the college transition/life, but now I am at four straight semesters/two straight years of 4.0s. I am getting As on everything without extra credit for the most part. Assuming I also greatly improve on my LSAT, how would I write this all into an addenda? Does anyone have an example they could share?

For the diversity statement, how do I go about doing that?

Hey all!

I've been taking a break after my fellowship for family reasons and to work on my applications. Do I have to include anything in my resume? I'll be working again in January so I was planning to send a updated resume when I start a new position.

Do I have to do anything else...I was told by some people that since it's normal for people to take time off after a fellowship, I don't have to do anything. I can just update the schools when I start something.

I'm currently both involved in a court case and attempting to apply to law school. My parents have told me to ask my attorney to write me a letter of recommendation, but I've said that I think this would be really weird. After all, I'm paying her, so why would the law school trust her objectivity?

BUT, when my attorney heard I'd taken the LSAT, she got REALLY excited and happy. She told me that the comments and feedback I've given on a certain document were "third-year associate level," and is thrilled that I'm planning to try for law school. So it would be really awesome if it wouldn't be weird to ask her for a recommendation, since she's both a well-respected attorney at one of the top law firms in our city, but genuinely gung-ho about my potential.

I'm 95% sure that everyone will tell me this is a terrible faux pas, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Hi- This may sound like a silly question, but I just wanted to double check and make sure----- how do we indicate on our application that we want the law school to WAIT for my December score?

I want to go ahead and apply as soon as possible to law schools because I know it's best to go ahead and submit applications as early as possible (now that it's December) but I want them to use my December 2017 score. Since it hasn't been released yet, how do I make it clear on the applications on LSAC that I want them to WAIT and consider my December 2017 score?

Thanks so much!

Realistically, how important are personal statements in determining whether you get in or not? I've been stressing out over mine and I'm starting to think that I don't need to worry too much about them.

Answers from people who have already applied/got into T14 schools were be especially appreciated. I'd like to know about your experience

Hello,

I will be petitioning Columbia to use my February LSAT.

This is what their admissions page says:

"For the 2017-2018 admissions cycle, we will consider scores from the February 2018 LSAT from candidates who petition in writing and receive confirmation of petition approval by January 1, 2018. Petitions for 2018 February LSAT score consideration should be emailed to admissions@law.columbia.edu. As we have in past cycles, the Admissions Committee strongly encourages applicants to take the LSAT no later than the December test administration and to complete their applications earlier rather than later in the cycle."

Has anyone ever petitioned to have their Feb LSAT used? Is there anything specific I should include in the petition (i.e. explaining the circumstances as to why I am testing so late?)

Thanks in advance!

Hi all,

I'm curious if anyone has received an application fee waiver from a top 30 or so school WITHOUT an LSAT score on file. I'm currently in undergrad and have a high LSAC GPA (3.97) but canceled my September score. Is getting a fee waiver unheard of without a score on file? I guess that'd make sense…?

If yes, what are your stats?

I went to a college with a Pass/Fail system (ie no GPA) so I assumed that my "GPA" is just gonna be something like "NA" or simply left blank.

But a 0.00???

Does that mean if a school accepts me, I'd be bringing their entering class average GPA down with my "0.00 GPA"? This is ridiculous! Not a single school would be willing to accept me in this case.

Guess I'll have to call or email LSAC asap.

Northwestern offers an interview to all applicants, and they "strongly recommend" scheduling one. I'm considering opting out, wonder of anybody has input/knowledge whether this is monumentally stupid, or no big deal.

I'm above their 75th for lsat, and just below median for gpa. It's not in my top 3 dream schools, but probably 5th or 6th. I suck at phone/Skype interviews, so if definitely have to travel there (3 hours each way from w michigan)

Originally i was planning to interview on a Monday and then take that day and maybe a Tuesday to tour Northwestern and UChicago. But im hesitant to burn my precious vacation days...

Any thoughts welcome :)