Hey applicants!

Next week, the 7Sage Podcast is going to have a very special guest: Michigan Law's famous "Dean Z," aka Sarah Zearfoss. For those of you who don't know, Dean Zearfoss is sort of Youtube-famous for her live evaluations of applications.

We're giving you a chance to have Dean Z read your application! Here's how it will work:

• Submit your personal statement on this form: https://docs.superhuman.com/form/7Sage-Podcast-Personal-Statement-Read_dwM9U3ZPMk1

• We'll pick three to send to Dean Z to discuss on next week's podcast episode.

• If we pick you, you'll get a free Essay Workshop with a 7Sage Consultant

The catch: For maximum impartiality, we can only look at statements for people who aren't planning on applying to Michigan law this year.

Let me know if you have any questions! Please submit your essay by 5PM ET on Thursday, October 1st to be considered.

So, I am a sophomore in college majoring in Business Management. I have always wanted to be a lawyer since I was 7 or 8 years old. My GPA right now is a 3.5, and I am so mad at myself. During the first semester of my freshman year, I had teachers whose teaching styles didn't match my learning style, plus it was my first time in college, so my GPA was a 3.2. But I managed to climb it up to a 3.5.

At best, when I graduate, I think I could get a 3.7 or maybe a 3.8. I don't think I can reach a 3.9, so I have decided to bet all my chances on the LSAT. I am aiming for a 180, and I have given myself 13 months—1 year and 1 month—to prepare.

Let's say I get a 175, which is the minimum score I will allow myself to get after those 13 months.

Come on, now tell me—what are my chances? The schools I want to go to are Columbia, NYU, WashU, and Cornell. And then there's Yale, the school I can't even fathom getting into, even in my dreams.

When I went into college, I was in a completely different track that didn’t suit my academic strengths at all, and I also worked part time on top of that. My GPA the first year going into college tanked and it just wasn’t a good fit. I ended up changing my path and major, maintained the part time employment and was able to increase my semesterly GPAs and graduate with a little over a 3.0 overall. While a 3 isn’t bad, I do think it would’ve done me better to switch earlier but it is what it is. I’m not really sure where to begin to explain the initial dip to what would be a 3.8 in my last semester. “Switching my major” literally just sounds like a cop out considering there’s a little more to the story (ie, bad fit and work). So…where do I start while keeping it concise?

I am applying to Vanderbilt and am deciding what to answer on 2 of their character and fitness questions and whether it'll affect my admissions chances.

For this question "Have you ever, either as an adult or minor, been charged with or convicted of any crime, or charged with or found to have committed any offense (whether or not defined as a crime), or received anything other than an honorable discharge from the military? You should answer "yes" even if charges were dismissed or deferred; a conviction was expunged, sealed, or otherwise required by law or ordered by a court to be kept confidential; you received a pardon/commutation; your civil rights have been restored; or you received legal advice that the offense will not appear on your criminal record."

I got a speeding ticket once and pled no lo contendere to get it wiped. Do I answer yes to this question? I imagine it won't affect my chances at admissions too much.

Then on this question "Have you ever been subject to disciplinary action for any academic or behavioral misconduct or violation of an honor or ethical code, or are you currently under investigation or in an appeal process for any academic or behavioral misconduct or violation of an honor or ethical code, at a current or prior academic institution? You should answer "yes" even if those matters have been dismissed or "expunged" or your current or prior academic institution would no longer report about them due to the passage of time."

In elementary school I let a kid copy my homework before class and they got caught. I served one day of lunch detention (aka had to eat by myself) and that was it. Is this something that needs to be disclosed? Is elementary school even really an academic institution? I suspect the answer is yes, but if so how much will this affect my admissions odds?

I'm first gen so I don't really have anyone to seek advice from on this matter. Any advice appreciated!

Hey applicants! On Tuesday, Alex, me, and the podcast team will be sitting down with Robert Schwartz, Dean of Admissions at UCLA Law. I know many of you are applying to UCLA and I would love to bring your questions to Rob on your behalf!

Post your question here!

https://www.reddit.com/r/7SageLSAT/comments/1wryt6y/ask_the_dean_of_admissions_at_ucla_law_anything/

We'll pick questions for Rob on Tuesday. And if you ask what we think is the best question, you'll also get a free Essay Workshop with a rock-star 7Sage Consultant.

My bachelor's degree will be a 3-year one, and I am currently in my third year's first semester. My courses for this semester will be on my transcript in January 26. All else held equal (grades, work experience, LSAT score, etc.) except for the application timing and transcript, would applying in January 26 be better than applying now (given that my transcript is relatively bare right now)?

I know that even if I apply now, I can update LSAC about my transcript later on. However, I'm concerned that an AO would reject my application based on my shorter transcript before the new grades come in.

When I was a junior and senior in high school, I was a councilmember on my city's Arts & Humanties council. I know the usual advice is to take anything from before college off of your resume, but I don't have much other relevant experience to include and thought that since this was an official government positions as opposed to some high school club, it might be worth including. Is it worth keeping on my resume for law school applications or should I take it off? How would law school admissions view it?

Should I send and continue to send LOCI's with updates to the schools I applied to even before I get a response and the review process is complete?

Whenever I sit down to work on my apps I feel so defeated. I feel like every single part of my application can and should be more competitive. Not even just my LSAT or GPA, things I can actually change and improve on, but even stuff like my Personal Statement. It's so frustrating trying to piece together an application that I know won't fully show who I am no matter how much I try (that's just the nature of being reduced to numbers and essays :( I kinda wish interviews were still a thing).

Anyone else feel the same way? I just wanna know I'm not alone tbh. I want to become an attorney more than anything, I've always known that this is what I wanted to do. My heart has been dedicated to social justice since I was a pre-teen essentially. I can't imagine myself doing anything else. But the barrier to get there, i.e. law school apps, is so kicking my ass. Ughghsghkgfdjh :(

Hello all! Just wanted to ask a quick question on how to write a perspective/diversity statement when my personal statement already integrates my cultural background? I'm having trouble finding something that will serve as an equally impactful statement about what I will bring to the school, but also won't be repeating anything that I already said in my personal.

Thanks!

Hello! I recently got feedback on my application from 7sage's mock admissions committee. I had 5 readers of my application and one of them said an explanation would be helpful to explain 2 Cs I have on my transcript. For context, the 2 Cs are really for one class, it was just such a high workload class that the credit allocation was split across 2 classes (so it shows up as a 4 credit class and a 2 credit class, but it was just one 6 credit class in actuality).

There weren't extenuating circumstances, it was just a difficult class, so I'm not sure if it's worth writing an addenda for, especially if it draws attention to the grades in a negative way.

Does anyone have advice for whether I should write an addenda or not?

Hello again, applicants!

We're recording a podcast episode with David Kirschner from the fantastic USC Gould School of Law. If you have any questions you'd us to pepper him with, post them on this reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/7SageLSAT/comments/1wq2xe2/ask_david_kirschner_associate_dean_of_admissions/

Once again, we'll be picking our favorite question -- that person will get a free 7Sage Essay Workshop with one of our excellent admissions consultants.

In the meantime, check out our latest episode of the 7Sage podcast for LSAT and admissions tips!

Hi,

I have a topic that I think could be interesting for a 'perspective statement' or a prompt that asks how you will contribute to X law school. I went to a very untraditional elementary/middle school (progressive education, raising animals, no tests/grades/etc.). I believe it is in large part responsible for my outlook on education as a whole. Is this something that can make a good perspective statement, or are those statements mainly for those who have diverse backgrounds in the traditional sense of the word?

I would love to write about this, but am wary of trying to insert myself into a prompt/conversation that is not meant for someone like myself. Thanks :)

I lowkey have like zero stories to write about for my personal statement; I'm literally like that graphic of Tony Snell with 0 points, 0 rebounds, and 0 assists after like 28 minutes. Anyone got any advice for what I could do?

Hi, searching for some guidance on how to ask for letters of rec and how my people im asking should submit them to LSAC. maybe Im missing something but im just trying to figure out now. LMK

Hi all! I’m planning on applying during the Fall 2027 cycle and while I’m studying for the LSAT currently, I’m wondering about CAS/LSAC app timing.

Specifically, is there such a thing as “too early” to start putting your application together? I’ve been out of grad school since 2020 so I’m not waiting on grades or anything like that, and I keep in contact with a handful of professors both from UG and grad. Here’s my thinking and I’d like advice or thoughts:

For each of my profs (one from UG, one from grad): send an email asking for a LOR and attach updated resume along with my planned personal statement.

I haven’t purchased CAS yet from LSAC, but is there any reason not to? Or, is there any reason not to start putting it together slowly over the next year, so I don’t have to rush and stress next fall more than I already will?

To note, I am a working professional so my “free” time is limited, hence the desire to start early and chip away at things I can do now.

I’m not considering asking for LORs right this minute, but probably by April or May, if I can. I don’t know if the LOR portal or whatever LSAC provides is open year round or only once Sept 1st hits per cycle.

Any and all information would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone!

We just updated our admissions predictor to account for softs and timing—both optional—so you can get more personalized predictions.

Try it here: https://7sage.com/admissions/predictor

I'm not feeling super confident in my September score, and I'm not positive that I will have done much to improve by October. Do we think that taking the November LSAT and applying as soon as I get my scores on December 2nd will absolutely ruin my chances at t14s? My dream school is UMich, but my current 167 is below their 25th percentile...

Hi everyone! I’m hoping to go into international law and did an extensive research project on Israel/Palestine. Obviously, this is a controversial topic, and my topic was more focused towards the Palestinian issue, but my research allowed me to work both with faculty from both backgrounds, as well as interview people in the region from both backgrounds. I feel that it gave me a perspective in working in a conflict zone, on a topic that impacts both peoples, showed how both peoples worked together, and allowed me to show how international conflicts are not always binary - and we should focus on the issues that impact people rather than assign people certain perspective based on their background or treat it as a one side vs the other. The project also earned a few awards at my undergrad institution.

Should I write about this or is it too risky (would admissions officers make assumptions)? Does it address the point of a diversity statement? The only other topic I can think of is a more generic underrepresented minority topic. Any thoughts would be very much appreciated!

I wrote my personal statement, but I have gotten feedback from my teachers that it is too descriptive about my heritage/the story and not so much why I want to go to law school. It is roughly 50% story and then only 50% why law. My teachers recommend I cut back on the story/narrative part. Is that correct? I was reading some PS examples and they sounded pretty narrative.

I know a few people have asked versions of these question, but I was looking for some more insight into optional essays.

I know “it depends” on the school, but I’m having trouble distinguishing when optional essays would be useful for my application vs when it’s not worth it to include one vs. when it would be a bad look not to submit it. Would someone who submits a (good) optional statement be at an advantage compared to my application if I didn’t submit one?

And how do we format these essays if the schools don’t specify?

Some specific examples:

• BU has a diversity statement that would be a mediocre essay from me at best. If I don’t submit a response, would they interpret that as “I’m not diverse”?

• GW has an open-ended optional statement. I have some other essays I could recycle, but is that even necessary? They’re not bad, but it’s nothing overly convincing.

Thanks everyone!

I'm currently planning to take the Nov LSAT and was wondering if i still have another opportunity to applying for law school should the Nov score not turn out great. I'm currently averaging a mid to high 150s on my PTs and have a CAS GPA of 3.51 (as well has 6+ years of paralegal experience). While I'm trying to get to the mid 160s by the Nov test, I wanted to know if it's still viable to take the Jan 2027 LSAT if I score very high on it. All the schools I'm considering accept the Jan test (score release 02/03). Thanks!

Hi! Like the title says, I've been struggling to navigate deciding on separate personal statement, diversity statement, and why law essay topics without them feeling too repetitive. Most of the schools I'm applying to require a PS and have "optional" diversity/perspective statements and why law statements, and some, like Harvard, forgo the traditional PS to require both perspective and why law statements.

I had planned to write my PS about where I'm from (very specific area and culture that's traditionally very underrepresented in higher education) and how that's shaped who I am, brought me to my current career, and led me to want to pursue law--and I have some PS drafts that feel successful! My dilemma is that, putting the PS aside, if you asked me how my lived experiences have shaped who I am and how I'd contribute to the school's environment or if you asked what motivates me to pursue law, my answers would also be where I'm from/my background. Obviously I'm simplifying a bit here--there are a lot of layers to my topic and many experiences and anecdotes I could pull from--but I'm not sure how to approach writing a diversity statement or why law statement without it feeling like it's largely echoing my PS.

Is it okay to have a general overarching theme across multiple essays if the specific anecdotes and internal challenges I focus on are different in each, or should I be trying to figure out a completely separate topic for one of the essays (even if that runs the risk of becoming a little less sincere)?

I hope this generally made sense--any advice is welcome!!!

I'm debating about taking the Nov LSAT (I've already taken Aug and got a 160, and am taking Oct...I'm still pt-ing in the low 160s and want 167-170). I don't think I'll get to my goal range by October, maybe just mid 160s at best. The most important factor to me for law schools is receiving financial aid. I'm just applying to regional state schools (Chapman, Pepperdine, USD, etc.) nothing too fancy, but it's pretty competitive in California. Is getting my score back in early December then submitting right away too late to receive substantial scholarships? Or should I submit after I get my October score and take Nov (you can wait right?)? Is there any other option around these? 🙏

Hi everyone! I was considering applying to George Mason's early decision scholarship program, but it looks like it's gone from their website. It is also not on the LSAC application preview.

Is anyone else able to find it? Or is it not an option now?

I figured I should reach out to this community before I email the admissions office, just in case I'm missing something or not looking in the right place.