Hello all. Perhaps this was a question that was touched upon in the recent resume webinar, which I wasn't able to attend (it didn't begin until 1 am here in Iceland) BUT I thought maybe y'all could give me some guidance. I am wondering how/if it's appropriate or normal to include information about past research projects you've done on a resume (or somewhere else in the application process). While the work I did in undergrad was not law related at all, it was published in an undergraduate research journal. And I am currently working on an international law-related thesis-type paper for my grad program. I genuinely want to share with admissions committees what I've been working on because it's really interesting to me, not just because I'm looking for another way of padding my application. This is more true for my grad level writing than undergrad however. So I was just wondering if the best place to do this would be incorporating it into my personal statement? Or am I missing something?

Does anyone know if the people that write our letters of recommendation will be notified by LSAC when the letters are used/sent out? I am getting a few letters written for me and I want to decide which one to use for my application package - but it will be awkward if the recommender is told by LSAC that his/her letter was never used. Hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance.

Wash U in St. Louis accepts GRE!

https://abovethelaw.com/2017/10/move-over-lsat-another-law-school-accepts-the-gre/

Thanks

Hello, everyone. As you craft your personal statement, I'd like to recommend an incredibly helpful book. Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" is a classic, of course. But I think you'd be wise to supplement it with Clark's "Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer":

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Tools-Essential-Strategies-Writer-ebook/dp/B000SEIW9E/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=

It's clear, pragmatic, and filled with tiny pearls of writerly wisdom. In addition to its short but lucid explanations, it offers excerpts from various authors. These serve as exemplars to vividly illustrate each point. And at the end of each chapter, there are specific "workshop" action steps to help apply these tips to your own writing.

Of course, even a great book is no substitute for an excellent editor. So, definitely consider getting help from @"David.Busis" , as well. I gained a tremendous amount from his P.S. curriculum on 7sage and from the edits he gave my personal statement.

Hi!

Is there a list as part of 7sage's resources or discussion board that shows the schools and whether they require school-specific essays for applications(or specific optional essays)? I thought I saw this floating around somewhere a long time ago and I'm having trouble finding it.

Thank you!

I have a quick question about how to handle the title for one of my LOR writers. This person was a professor of mine during undergrad, but she is not working as a professor at this time. She is currently a fellow and a scholar-in--residence at the New York Public Library.

On the LSAC Recommender form, I'm considering these options for the "Title" field:

a: leaving it blank, letting her name and the "Ph.D." suffix suffice

b: writing in her current title

c: writing in what her title was at the time when I was her student

What do you think will serve as the best and clearest option?

Thanks in advance for any input!

REMOVED

Hi All,

I'm putting together my resume for my law school applications and I've come across two issues that I'm not quite sure what to do with.

Back in sophomore year, I won an award for a research project (I was 1 out of 5 winners). There was a ceremony, where we all gave speeches. I ran a Google search for this award and my name. My project came up along with a statement I had written-- all fine with me. However, the video of the ceremony also came up (It's an hour long video and my speech is 3 minutes at the end...but I am also the video "screen shot", so whether or not you watch the video, someone clicking on the page would see an image of me giving my speech). I DO NOT WANT AOs WATCHING MY SPEECH. It is an incredibly immature speech...I joked about how I tend to skip class (which is just not true...I hardly ever skipped class. I said that out of pure nervousness), I was not grammatically correct in more places than one, I come across like an airhead at points...it's just not something I'm proud of. I can't seem to find the video if I just Google my name, but if I Google the name of the award, I can find mine by clicking on the year I received it. If I Google the name of the award and my name, I will find it no problem. If I Google my name and my alma mater, I will find it no problem. My question is-- how concerned should I be that an AO will dig deep enough to find this video? Should I just leave the award off my resume to decrease the chances they will find it? It's a pretty impressive award, so I think it will help my resume, but I'm also convinced that, if for whatever reason, the AO researches me enough, they will find this video. Granted, they would have to make the decision to watch the video or skip through to find my speech--but I am featured as the video image, so that increases the chances of that happening a bit.

I was the President of a club at my alma mater that apparently no longer exists? I guess when I left my school, no one resumed the role of the President and it sort of just ended. I can't find any record on the school website or anywhere else of the existence of this club, which is a real bummer because we used to have a website where I was featured as the President. I'm nervous to put this on my resume because I don't want an AO to try and verify this and not be able to find it. I mean, if they called my school and asked about it, I can only assume the school will be able to verify that this club existed in the past (we were an official club through the student government), but I'm not sure they will put that much effort in. My question is this--if an AO cannot find this club via Google, am I taking a risk that they will think I am being dishonest? Or am I being wayyyy too paranoid? Everything else on my resume is verifiable by a Google search, except for this.

Thanks in advance!

I wrote my personal statement, and I think I did a good job. However, I do not know if the content is what the admissions committee would like to see. Any advice? It would be great to be able to get feedback from people who actually served on an admissions committee.

I have a partially formed theory that word choice in personal statements and admissions essays in general, is important.

It seems to me that as a law student and then lawyer, it's crucial that you speak with clarity and specificity. So it seems like admissions would at least notice whether your writing achieves these goals.

Ie. The distinction between "Tennis fueled my competitive nature" and "Tennis awakened my competitive nature" is huge. 1 implies that the competitiveness existed and was increased, while 2 suggests that a dormant condition came to prominence.

@"David.Busis"

@"Cant Get Right"

Others?

Do you guys think that your resume speaks for itself or should your personal statement push some of the highlights of your resume?

I know that we're not supposed to just reiterate our resume in our personal statement, but I feel really nervous writing a PS entirely about something I'm passionate about i.e. surfing or linguistics, without making some sort of transition like this all has allowed me to develop xyz character traits which helped me excel academically/in my career.

I thought if I wrote about surfing or linguistics I can more generally talk about communication/language (it's really important in surfing) and transition into how developing communication/language skills has helped me achieve my goals at work or academically.

After writing it all out, I think it doesn't sound fluid and seems disjointed when half or 2/3 of my PS is nicely written waxing poetic about a passion and then the rest of it is more straightforward and trying to brag without bragging....and there isn't much room to really go into a specific anecdote about my job/academics and try to tie it back to whichever passion and also talk about specific work/school accomplishments. It seems like they're such drastically different topics and maybe I can't merge them together with this page limit.

Should I keep trying to more smoothly merge the two ideas together or just try to write about just one topic? or is it okay if it doesn't have the smoothest transition? Do most people's PS's ultimately end with "...and this is why I'm awesome and these are some of the good things I've done..."?

/anxiety/

idk if just coming from a philosophy/linguistics/literature background I'm over analyzing and stressing and trying too hard to make this sound like an A+ philosophy paper

sorry if this sounds frantic and all over the place

Hi all,

I've recently started my applications and was wondering if anyone would mind taking a gander at my resume

Thanks!

Hi, I have just completed a draft of my personal statement and am hoping to have someone who has attended or is attending law school critique it (theirs had to make the cut). I don't want to swap since I am unsure of how one should read and need help myself. Any takers?

Hello everyone!

I would like to know if there are any February 2018 Study Groups already existing, please. And if there are none yet, can interested students like myself form one???

Some people might find this very obvious, but it didn't really set in for me until I actually heard an Admission Dean say it. There is a big difference between admitted and enrolled class sizes. UT Dean of Admissions said that they offered admission to around 1200 applicants last year, and their class size ended up being around 300. So with a median LSAT of 167, that means that ~600 applicants scored BELOW a 167 (or at). Anyway, medians are important, but don't sell yourself short!

Hi all,

I am a little over 5 years out of college and am working on my resume. I have plenty of experience from my full time work to include on my resume, so I am wondering--- should I include information about internships I held in college? While my college experiences were meaningful in the way they lead me to my current career, I don't think they were more meaningful than the experiences I have had since then.

Will admissions officers wonder why I left out any college years experiences? Also hoping to keep my resume to one page.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

I'm kind of lost as to where to start with my personal statement and would appreciate any help!

I had my son in 2015 and since the my world has revolved around him. When I had him I really got into holistic/non-toxic living and nutrition even so much that i'm pursuing some nutrition classes at the local community college. I'm also really passionate about advocating for lead safety not just in dwellings but in children's toys etc. which has sparked an interest in environmental law overall.

When I'm not studying for the LSAT i'm home with him and so it makes sense to me that my PS should be about me as a mother since that's the biggest portion of my identity. Before I had him I wasn't nearly as conscientious about the world or as motivated to become a lawyer - he really change me.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can put this together? I don't want it to be boring since being a Mom isn't something "interesting" or "new" and I do want my PS to stand out in some way. Can this work as a PS?

Hey @"David.Busis" and @"micah.bateman" , what's the word on contractions in personal statements? I've noticed that many of the sample PS's in the essay bank contain them, but I can't decide if they're right for my essay?

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

So i'm in an odd position for my PS. For the a long time I was thoroughly committed to writing about some family issues that shaped me in to the person i've become, but i've attempted writing about 18 drafts at this point. None of them felt genuine and all encompassing. Every single one had an issue. Too dramatic, too cold, what's the point? Sort of problems if you seem what I mean.

Well today, I had an interesting moment where I decided to write on a topic that's totally off the wall. I wrote an entire draft (in under an hour, while I sat in class) on finding a three week old kitten.

If any of you guys remember, I had "study cat" as my LSAT study buddy. I found him when he was three weeks old and raising him as one of the hardest things i've ever done. I've never thought more about quitting something in my life, and today I have one of the sweetest, well - mannered and healthy kittens numerous vets have ever met. So well i've been approached to help foster other orphaned kittens.

This topic encompassed everything I wanted to show case about my character and how I see the world. But it's literally kittens. Like i'm considering writing a piece about kittens to send to the world's biggest shark tank - A law school admissions board.

Am I insane?

Help!

–

Hi all,

I have a mechanical question about using different letters of rec for different schools. How does it work?

I am planning to send 3 letters total to each school. I have 2 letters (1 work, 1 academic) that I am planning to send to every school. Then a 3rd letter (work) to send to most other schools, except the schools that require a 2nd academic reference, in which case I'm sending my 4th letter (academic), and not the 3rd letter.

Then, there are a few additional letters that specific schools require for different scholarships.

How does the uploading, labeling, and sending of these different letters work on the LSAC website? I have been looking at the LOR section on LSAC to see, but I'm afraid to test anything out and then mess it up.

Any advice/knowledge appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi all,

I'm sure this is true for many people, but I am using what clinics are offered at different schools as one of the main ways to differentiate between them. Here's my question, just because a school offers a clinic you are interested in, does that mean you will be able to partake in it? How competitive is it to get a clinic spot? Does this differ by school, and if so, is that information available online?

Here's my subsequent question... Would it be better to go to a lesser ranked school in which my numbers are above the medians to increase my chances of getting into a clinic (assuming I do well), or would my chances be the same if I went to a 'reach' school, and then potentially didn't do as well? What do you all think?

The September 2017 LSAT was my third time and I'm wondering if I should write a score addendum. The first time I took the LSAT (June 2016) was the first full-length test I took. If that wasn't stupid enough, the second time I took the LSAT (September 2016) was the second full-length test I took; I scored a 167 and a 164, respectively. I finally decided to get serious and took 37 full-length practice tests in preparation for September 2017. I'm expecting a score in the low to mid 170s from this past September.

I am attending the JD Law School Forum in Houston next month and wanted some advice on what questions were appropriate/inappropriate to ask.

I'm most interested in: HYS, Columbia, Chicago, Cornell, and NYU. My main concern is my GPA. I'm aiming for a 170+ but with a 3.58 GPA I'm technically in 'splitter' status for those schools.

Is it too forward to ask the admissions folks at these schools if I should even bother applying with those stats?

Also, any suggestions on other specific questions to ask? If anyone else has attended the forum in the past, I'd love to hear your experience.