So I like many others am currently waiting for LSAC to publish last Saturday's results. Is it to much to ask that they post results within 4 days of taking the exam? So I have switched gears to seriously getting out applications. I have started looking at consultants to help fine tune my personal statement and my resume. I am worried that with my gpa already locked in and my LSAT score up in the air, I could be on the line for my dream school. My GPA is dead in between the 25% and 50%. I just need help making sure I sound good on paper in case my LSAT score comes back in the 25% as well. Any advice? I don't have thousands to spend on making myself look bright and shiny, and I have a good resume and what I think is a good personal statement. I just would feel 50% better about all of this if I knew my personal statement wasn't a pile of poo. Anyone have any recommendations? I feel like I am pretty open to all of the options, but also pretty frugal as well, as we all know that law school wont be cheap by any means. TIA!!

I've weaved my disability into my personal statement pretty well, but I just wanted to know if I should write a diversity statement as well. I'm not sure what I could discuss that isn't already included in my PS.

What's going to give me the best chance of standing out and getting extra funding? Thanks!

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!

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'm bad at writing my resume, and I don't think it's a natural skill at all. I don't think I'm unique in this way. Anyway, I did find a great resource called Creddle which is FREE. Don't worry I'm not an affiliate! It helps you organize, and format your resume. Even better it pulls from your LinkedIn so you don't have to compile it from scratch. It helped me create my first decent (fingers crossed) resume ever. It has a cover letter section too. If anyone has any questions about using it feel free to PM me since I've gotten pretty comfortable with it. Hope it helps. :)

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!

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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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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!

If yes, what are your stats?

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…?

This is hard for me to write about or even think about, but I thought turning to other 7sagers is the safest I'll feel. I'm trying real hard to think of what "sets me apart". People say to write your personal statement on something you've experienced that made you who you are or that has given you reason to go to law school. I have had several experiences in my life that do so, but only one that would certainly make heads turn. BUT the thing is, it could give the admissions counsel grounds to throw my application in the trash immediately....

About 2 years ago I was arrested for petty theft. I was in a bad place at the time and it was by far the HARDEST thing that I've had to deal with. I've torn myself down, almost given up on getting anywhere in life, built myself back up, and tried my hardest to prove that what is on my rap sheet truly is NOT who I am at all. I've even gotten an internship at my county's District Attorney's office a year after the incident. So the question is.... should I write about that whole experience and explain why it's taken me on the path I'm on now, or pick something else? Risk it for the biscuit or naw? Thanks guys :)

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 :)

Hey everyone! I had 2 questions about the admissions process that I was hoping to get some advice on:

Coming into college, I was a student in my college's education school. My major was along the lines of child developmental psychology. But during my first year, I also took some philosophy classes and sat in on a sociology class that I just found far more compelling than my child developmental psychology classes. And so, in my second year, I switched to the Arts & Sciences school and switched my major to philosophy and sociology-- these were also the majors I graduated with. I just thought this school switch on my transcript might be a question mark for the admissions committee. Should I write a brief addendum explaining why I switched schools, citing the exact reasons I mentioned above?

During the fall semester of my junior year, I took 4 classes instead of the typical 5 classes/semester. I was studying for the LSAT during that time and just wanted a lighter school workload. However, the 4 classes I took were all upper-level and graduate-level classes related to my majors. Overall, I still got the credits needed to graduate because I had taken some seminars and classes with labs that offered additional credits during freshman and sophomore year. And so, should I write an addendum for this case? Is taking 4 classes instead of the norm 5 classes even considered an abnormally "lighter" class load?

If anyone had advice at all, I would appreciate it so, so much! Taking a long shot here but tagging @"David.Busis" to see if you had any advice! Thanks so much guys!!