Hi guys,

I have written on these discussion boards a few times. I am applying to Canadian law schools this November.I finished writing my personal statement. I was wondering if someone could have a look at it and give some feedback. Someone who is good at personal statements.

I would actually really appreciate it.

Thanks

I am absolutely freaking out. I just applied to my top four schools, and I selected "No" to all of the Character & Fitness questions for each school. At my college, you received an "Academic Warning" whenever you failed a mid-term since your average in the course was now below passing. I received a couple of these warnings my freshman year, but I did well on the remaining assessments and passed the courses. Hence, I forgot all about these warnings and failed to check the appropriate box on the law school applications/provide the appropriate addenda. Has anyone seen this situation before? Would there be anyway for me to amend this mistake while my applications are still pending?

Thank you all so much!!!!!

Hi, All!

I just checked my law school application status and one of them says "Application Pending Final Review." What does this mean? I think I know what it means... my application is going through a final review... is this a good thing or a bad thing? I submitted my application late October and decisions aren't supposed to come out until February.

Now that I think about it, I feel like I'm just overreacting and overthinking haha. Anyway, please shed some light. It's my second application cycle and all I've ever gotten before were waitlist and denied.

Thank you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

I am admitted to a law school with a scholarship. The tuition deposit is due 4/15/2020. I am considering to retake the LSAT again for a better score for a more scholarship consideration. The earliest I can re-take is the March Exam (3/30/2020) but the score will not be released until after the tuition deposit deadline. If I get a better score after making the tuition deposit, will the school still consider giving more scholarship?

I have written three addendums now for different things - the first is for my low undergraduate GPA, the second is for my unemployment gaps in my resume, and the third is for my 13 point fluctuation in LSAT scores. Each one is around two paragraphs long. I am feeling like my application will be overwhelming now to admissions with my multiple addendums, diversity statement, "Why school X?" essay, and personal statement. Does this seem like too much? Any input would be helpful! Thanks.

I'm on waitlist for NYU and I got a Kira invite-to do an interview. Any and all advice welcome and what kind of questions are they likely to ask, that I should be practicing? (other than why law/why NYU)

I go to a school up in Canada for my undergrad, and as some of you may know, Canada grades a bit differently than the US does. A pass is >50 instead of >60, so therefore percentages tend to be lower (an 80 is an A-).

However, I really want to go to a law school down in the states. I know that the LSAC will use the letter grades if they are on your transcript, but my school only puts a conversion in the 'legend' portion of the transcript, and not with the percentages (I don't know if I am being clear here).

Do I have any shot at getting into any American law school? I have heard rumors that schools add an extra 5-10% on Canadian grade percentages because of the difference, but I don't know if that is true or not.

#Help — How necessary is it to follow a specific anecdote throughout your entire personal statement? I have been writing mine about a disability that I have, and I start it off with an anecdote of me at the doctor’s office for the intro paragraph, but I largely depart from that for the rest of the essay in order to describe how that disability affected me negatively for years, then how I learned to cope with that disability while still feeling as though it would only ever hold me back, and finally how I discovered that the coping mechanism I learned in response to my disability is actually a skill that is underutilized in law and one that I plan to use in my legal career.

I feel like my essay is pretty good (I’m not finished writing it, but in terms of where I see it going), but it seems as though every personal statement I read follows a singular anecdote throughout the essay. Also, 7Sage recommends that you focus on a scene (specific point in time), rather than a summary (span of time), but I don’t see how I can squeeze my idea into a specific anecdote/point in time. Help please:(

Circumstances in my life have changed since I submited my applications and I am starting to think the evening program may work better for me. Is it possible that after submitting applications asking to be considered for the day division, I can ask to also be considered for evening?

I'm primarily interested in

Brooklyn Law

Cardozo

Northeastern

Suffolk

Most of my apps ask me if my education was interrupted, then ask me to elaborate why. I wrote a very brief answer for most of them, but I'm not sure it's enough: "A protracted illness forced me to leave university in March 2012. I returned in August 2016." Columbia wants me to actually attach an addendum detailing exactly what happened. Do I need to detail my medical history or what?

The other thing is I was terminated four years ago from a job I held for two months. Two of my apps ask me to disclose this and they both ask me to elaborate. How detailed should I be? The answer is actually very simple, I was cashiering and my till came up five dollars over one day so I must have accidentally short changed a customer. To my surprise I was fired a few days later. Do I just say that, or do I talk about how I learned from the experience and so forth?

I know that some schools automatically wave your app fee if you have a LSAC fee waiver. Will I see this reflected on my LSAC portal once my app is finished? Would I have to reach out directly to each school? Also, which T14 schools do not automatically waive the fee? Thanks in advance!

Received a 164 in July, my average for PT is a 165. Is it worth waiting for October to take again, or should I try applying in September for a reach, like Georgetown? I have heard conflicting advice so I am interested to see what all of you smart people have to say. I know it’s towards the 25th percentile of 163, but I’m hoping that my GPA from a top 30 undergrad university will help me get over that.

Hi all! I'm planning to apply to law school this cycle and am confused about ordering my CAS transcripts on LSAC's website.

When I submitted a transcript request to the community college where I dual enrolled, it says the LSAC mailing address for transcripts (Box 2000-M, Newtown, PA) is invalid. Has anyone else submitted this address? If yes, have your transcripts been delivered?

Also - do I need to wait until my fall classes are reflected on my current university's transcript before requesting it? I know I don't need to wait until my fall grades are posted, but I'm not sure if it's okay for me to submit now without my current enrollment reflected.

Thanks!

Hi all. I applied to a school during the first week of September and received a wait list notice today. I'm wondering if I should send a letter of continued interest ASAP, or wait until later on given it is so early in the cycle. Or, if I should do both, one now and another later on if I have not heard anything? Thanks!

I had a few questions dealing with addendas that I was hoping to get input on. A few weeks ago I did tune in for the webinar on addendas and learned alot about content for each topic, so my questions deal nothing with content or length.

My main question is this: how many addendas should you provide? I want to add a diversity statement for sure, but for example, if I felt that I needed to address a shortcoming in my application or LSAT score that will be beneficial to my application and not be redundant, can I have two?

Also, how do I format them?

Should I use a simple title in bold letters? Should I use fancier format options or keep it simple? Font? Size? Anything related to addendas are foreign to me, sorry if these questions seem pointless. Also! For personal statement essays do I add a title or just jump into the essay right off the bat?

On UVA's application there is a section titled Activities & Interests as I am sure many people know. I know what I want to put for my answers to each question in the section, but I'm confused as to how I should format my answer for the first box. I originally just made a bulleted list type format for all of my significant extra-curriculars, but when I reviewed my application it all just comes out as a cluttered blob of a paragraph. Does anyone have any idea how to properly format the answer in this section? Or should I just assume that UVA admissions knows that my list is going to come out as a cluttered blob?

Here's an example of my formatting vs how it comes out in the preview:

XX Student Affairs Senate, XX, XX

Elected Student Senator, Academic Affairs Committee, 5 hours/week 8/2015–12/2015

• Helped conduct student review of changes in university admission standards.

XX Model UN Team, XX, XX

Team Member, 3 hours/week 8/2015–12/2015

• Represented XX at the American Model United Nations Conference in Chicago, IL.

vs

XX Student Affairs Senate, Lincoln, XX Elected Student Senator, Academic Affairs Committee, 5 hours/week

8/2015-12/2015 Worked on student legislation, allocation of budgets, and coordination of campus events. Helped conduct student review of changes in university admission standards. XX Model UN Team, XX, XX Team Member, 3 hours/week 8/2015-12/2015 Represented XX at the American Model United Nations Conference in Chicago, IL.

Hey 7Sagers! I'm doing some research on schools at the moment and would love to connect with any current Cornell Law students or alums who could give me some thoughts on their experiences there, both academically and personally.

For some context, I don't know exactly what field of law I'd like to practice, but I'm interested in immigration law and international law, potentially labor law. I'm definitely intrigued by the alternative dispute resolution program Cornell has as well.

If anyone on here is a Cornell student or has a friend there who would be willing to connect via email, that would amazing! Thanks in advance.

Hey ya'll

Im planing to take Feb LSAT, the first time I took LSAT I got 127 in June 2020, and now my highest PT LSAT score is150. It been a while that even though I study a lot with BR Im not improving, My GPA 3.80 ( from UCI) is more than the 75 percentile for the school that I love to attend (chapman law) but my LSAT is bellow 25(154) percentile. I was wondering what do you think my chances are to get Into chapman at all or get in with scholarship?

I had a question for people who are applying as a STEM Major who are in a similar position as me. I finished college with a 3.77 GPA and a chemistry degree. However, I am not great at standardized tests, and before taking the actual test, am guessing I will score roughly 155 on the test based on PT's. I believe this is considered a "reverse splitter" applicant. I wanted to know if you are similar to myself, if you were accepted anywhere and what scholarship offers you have been getting? Also if there are any schools that look more favorably upon reverse splitters. Thanks so much for the help, I really appreciate it!!!

I've been out of school for 3 years. Going to law school only became a goal of mine my last semester of college. I ended up getting 5 academic recommendations the summer after graduating just so I'd have them on file when I was 100% secure in the decision to go to law school and likely rack up debt. Since I've heard academic letters are preferred to non-academic, I never really thought about getting one from work because I already have more than I can submit to any single school. Should I be getting one from an employer?

For some context on the letters I have, two are by STEM professors (I double majored in STEM & non-STEM), one is from a non-STEM professor, and two are from non-STEM professors who were also my thesis advisors and law professors at my undergrad's law school.

Since graduating I've worked at two law firms and am about to switch to a third firm. The areas of law I've worked in are pretty relevant because they all combine my interest in law, technology, and science in different ways: my first job was as a legal assistant/paralegal at a boutique firm representing start ups and individuals in IP (mostly trade secret) litigation, my second job has been at a boutique criminal defense firm representing clients facing computer crime charges, and my third job will be as a patent litigation paralegal in big law.

Even if I get rec letters from employers which letters should I submit given that most schools accept 2-4?

I feel like my STEM LORs help me stand out, especially because one is from a professor whose lab I worked in and co-authored a peer-reviewed scientific article with. My thesis advisors have a really great picture of why I want to go to law school because my honors thesis empirically studied an area of patent law I'm pretty passionate about (and about to work in w/my third job).

Hey all! I have a friend who is in the process of transferring law schools and could use some advice from the 7sage community. Anything would help, here it is:

Hello, I was accepted at UCLA and Northwestern as a transfer; i.e., I will be paying sticker at both, but if I go to UCLA I will not have to take out any loans (savings). I will have to take out loans for the last year at Northwestern (80k).

If, ideally, I want to work in SoCal BigLaw, what would be the smarter course of action: attending UCLA or Northwestern?

After performing a basic cost-benefit analysis, I am leaning towards UCLA, on the theory that the benefit of attending Northwestern (ending up at median and still getting BigLaw) has largely disappeared, while the benefit of attending UCLA (attending school and networking in my target market) is still in play. Further, the cost of attending UCLA (the risk of ending up at median and doing poorly at OCI for that reason) has already dissipated, while the cost of attending Northwestern (taking out loans for the last year) is still in play.

Given my SoCal focus and above-median grades (top 25% at BC/BU), I don't see much of a benefit to attending Northwestern, other than the added prestige of being in the T14 as opposed to the T20. Are there factors I'm missing here?

Said another way, will I see any meaningful boost in SoCal employment prospects by going to Northwestern, or will my top 1/4 GPA at BC/BU be sufficient at UCLA for my OCI process to be similar as between both schools (if I am targeting SoCal biglaw). I am thinking that at this point my OCI process will be the same at both schools and that it will really come down to my interviewing skills. If so, I don't see a point to take out loans to attend Northwestern.

Thanks for your responses! I’ve attached a poll below as well.

Schools that have honor programs that you can apply for do these hurt your application at all? For instance, scholarship consideration if you don't get in? Also, can you still get full tuition if you don't apply for these programs (given that your GPA and grades are right)?

AHHH. Im trying to decide between two versions of my personal statement that I've had written. They're both similar but go in slightly different directions. Two schools I'm applying to have their apps due tomorrow. I spoke to someone previously involved in law school admissions at an ivy league and they really liked the first version. But also had some negative feedback from others on the first. I haven't had the chance to show my second version to anyone involved in admissions though and I'm worried if I take the leap and go with the second statement I'll be hurting myself. Im really procrastinating aren't I. Yep. Don't need serious feedback, just wanna know which to submit :)

If you know anyone that could help with a last minute decision like this, let me know!! Thank you!

Would anyone be interested in swapping personal statements? I finished my first draft and am too close to my essay at this point to move forward on it.

Since the unlimited editing has been out of stock for a while are you able to purchase the one time editing and repurchase it for each draft of your essay?