Jake is an admissions consultant at 7Sage, and over the last few years he's helped hundreds of students gain admission to their dream schools. Before that, he worked in undergraduate and law admissions for over a decade and has reviewed tens of thousands of applications. He most recently served as the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Notre Dame Law School. In that role, he was responsible for all matters related to recruitment strategy, file reading and decision making, yield programming, scholarship modeling, and connecting admitted students with faculty, alumni, and current students. Additionally, Jacob has been active in the law admissions community, serving on panels and subcommittees for the Law School Admissions Council. Despite a great deal of experience working on macro strategy for law schools, his most rewarding moments have always been connecting directly with students to help them achieve their goals, especially those from non-traditional backgrounds and marginalized communities.
When not working, Jacob spends a great deal of time with his family, coaching one daughter's Girls on the Run team and serving as the cookie manager of another's Girl Scout troop. He is an avid BBQ aficionado and never shies from sharing his strong opinions about the St. Louis Cardinals.
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@StressedLSAT I'll go back to "only say something if you have something to say." If you don't like your statement of perspective, that's an entirely separate issue (ie, my opinion is that those statements should either be fun to write because you're writing about something you love, or they're therapeutic to write because it's something personal, but it should be a statement that feels good to give to someone because it speaks to who you are).
1) Be consistent!
2) I wouldn't mess with my PS because that's the most important doc. I'd really try to work with the DS first. I'd also make sure that the schools I'm applying to have a one page requirement for the DS. If they don't, then it's ok to go onto a second page.
3) FYI that 11.5 exists as a font size! I know it's a minor difference, but - my dude - it's hard to read docs in 11 point font all day. I'm young-ish for this line of work and I struggle with 11 point font. Now let me go for a walk with my orthopedic shoes and tell kids about how awesome it was when Sony introduced anti-skip technology for their Discman products in the late 1990s....
I've always read NYU's optional statement as being a broad prompt that could be a diversity statement / statement of perspective. Some people use it as an addenda. I wouldn't recommend using it as a Why NYU unless that information is really mission critical to you!
This also brings up a larger topic - when does a Why School X carry benefit? The answer is: Only if you have something of substance to say. If you don't, that's alright! Plenty of people will be admitted without providing that information. So if you have some Why NYU Law, maybe it can get woven into the PS, maybe you can give that info in the optional statement. But if you have a PS and DS that you love and if you're clearly a good fit for what NYU Law has to offer, don't feel like you have to do anything big here.
@sophiak I really wouldn't sweat that. If you had some more detail to add - great, you have the space to do it. If you don't have more detail to add - that's ok, you've said what you've needed to say and I appreciate you not giving me more just for the sake of more.
So while freely admitting that I'm generally AI-sceptic (as in, "I'll ask a smart speaker to play music and tell me the weather forecast; I would not trust any smart system to do anything more complex than that"), this is one where I'd encourage you just to find another template to use rather than use AI. Reach out to your undergrad pre-law society, use the one on the 7Sage website, etc. Those are better options just so that you don't run afoul of any AI restrictions at different law schools.
Just my own two cents!
Just to be pro-active, I'd acknowledge/explain the gap on the resume via the addenda. I can almost guarantee that there's going to be someone at every school you apply to who will wonder about this when they review your app. So just control the narrative!
And speaking of controlling the narrative, do be professionally upbeat when explaining it. Even if the real reason is "the job crushed my soul every day," you can reframe that as "I found pretty quickly that it just was not the right position for me and that it would be to my benefit to seek other opportunities."
Congrats on the internship offer! That's great to hear!
Regarding your question about if an internship+vol looks bad, I have a few thoughts for you:
Is it as good as a full time job? Unfortunately not. However, you're clearly keeping yourself busy and this is a pretty normal thing to see someone do after they graduate and during their application period.
Even if I told you "you're toast!" (which you are NOT, by the way!), what would you do about it? You can't go back in time to change your job search. You're not going to go work for three years to boost your resume. You're going to - hopefully! - apply to law school after you get your November score. So it's alright! You're doing the best with the hand you've been dealt! Keep your chin up!
And back to the first bullet point, it really sounds like you've been staying busy. That's honestly the key things for admissions officers to see. If you've been using your time productively with part time work, volunteer engagement, LSAT prep, etc., you're fine! It's not as good as a full time job but it's also not a negative.
With the resume, you're welcome to put your projected start date on there. That's totally fine! Alternatively, you could put a note on the addenda section of the app to explain the situation.
Just confirming that this is the basic "life hack" advice I give to folks regarding the Berkeley PS. If they want 3-4 pages, the easiest way to bulk out your normal personal statement is to give them school specific material. What's an added bonus is that their optional Why Berkeley is specifically framed so as to NOT be about academics. So that's signaling to me that that information is totally fair game to bring into the PS.
Just briefly saying from the admissions perspective that it’s alright to name drop although not necessary. Meaning, don’t feel like you have to be egregious about the name drop, but it’s also nice for me to know who I can go thank for your app after you’re admitted!
It could be good to provide a brief addenda here because it is a smidge odd to see classes taken outside of a degree granting program (ie, you were taking them just for fun). But it can be a really brief explanation!
That’s a perfectly reasonable thing to explain! But I may be able to save you some trouble because admissions officers already know that the service academies have gnarly grade curves and some different academic requirements (especially in the STEM fields) that you don’t see elsewhere. That’s before we even get into regular PT, leadership training, and all of that.
So I’ll put it as being something that you can totally do but don’t feel like it’s necessary.
@SafiyaDhunna Yuuuuuuuuuup. 6-8 points is a big difference not not for admission but also merit scholarship considerations. I think you gotta do what you gotta do.
@Epicness If it’s a school that won’t review your app if there’s a pending LSAT, then it’s a moot point since they will hold off reviewing things.
If it’s a school that may review your app before the new LSAT comes in, here’s what you’re banking on. If you take the LSAT on Nov 12 and apply on the 15th, what are the odds that they’ll review your file before December 2nd? And remember that Thanksgiving is in there. And that these are human beings who are apt to say things like “well, they’re great other than that LSAT, and we know that new score is coming in a week so we could just hold off for a smidge.”
@SafiyaDhunna The real difference comes when you get at/above the LSAT median. That’s the big whammy!
A good general rule of thumb is not to give a school something that they didn’t ask for. If they wanted this info, they would have asked for it, right?
But if you have a sincere interest and really want to communicate that, then the best options are either weaving it into the PS or giving a brief explanation in the addenda.
You can also give the admissions office a call to see what they advise! Although this is general advice, every school has different preferences.
Ditto the previous comment that it’s ok just to have one Experience section. No reason to break them up!
@Epicness You just click “submit” on your app and your CAS report. That’s really it. LSAC will automatically inform the school that you’ve registered for the Nov LSAT. It’s then up to the school to determine if they’ll complete your app before or after the Nov LSAT score arrives.
The first thing is to check with your schools to see what their policy is regarding reviewing apps that are complete if not for a pending LSAT. That may make this a completely moot point.
But if they’re willing to review the apps, then it’s a reasonable strategy to apply to the safeties now and then apply to the higher schools after taking the Jan LSAT. It’s not ideal, but you have to do what you have to do!
That’s really the crux of it, right? I know you had a convo on a thread here but I’d summarize it as: you should apply when you have your strongest profile, and if you think you can do substantially better on the LSAT and if that would change the game for either your school list and/or merit scholarship consideration, then taking the Jan LSAT is a reasonable calculated risk. But everyone has different weights on all of those factors - that’s what can make this tricky!
This is why I don’t even consider Early Decision through a strategic lens - it’s apt to drive you crazy and it would only lead to second guessing. Sigh!
My own advice for ED is that it can make sense as long as the school is you clear #1 choice and the fin aid policy for ED admits works for you. But if your reaction to being admitted would be “yay … but I hope I hear from Harvard in the next few hours,” that would seem to indicate that you’d be better applying RD everywhere.
If you feel like you can boost your score and if that score increase would help, then it’s worthwhile to take the Jan LSAT.
Regarding applying to some schools now, the first thing to do is reach out and be sure you know what their policy is for reviewing apps that are complete if not for a pending LSAT. What you want to hear is that they’re willing to review your app as it is. If you hear that, then it could make sense to submit those apps in the near future. But check the schools’ policies first!
Good question!
If you’re going to apply this cycle, really the only thing you can do is 1) be sure to write good statements, and 2) get your apps in before Thanksgiving if possible. There’s nothing you could do with your resume in the next few weeks to substantially change that aspect of your app. Rather than feel defeated there, just let it go! Make your argument elsewhere!
I’m really sorry you’re in this spot! I hear you!
Two things can be true at once:
Admissions officers assume that you’ll say what you need to say in your application. So why are you sending me an addenda about your interest now if you didn’t want to give it with your app, right?
On the other hand, it’s understandable that you now feel like you have to do everything you can to argue on your behalf.
The only thing I’d really nudge you on is if you already submitted some school specific stuff in your app. If you did that already, I wouldn’t send anything more to add to it. But if you didn’t provide that info on the app, I think it’s alright to say what you have to say.
Good luck!
The only other thing I’d add here is that I think it’d be a good idea to call the NU admissions office and get their advice. You might as well throw it out there to them.
Regarding the other schools, you also have the option of applying in the window between taking the Nov LSAT and the results coming back. That would help ensure your app is ready for them as soon as the Nov score comes back.
Since you already have two academic letters of rec, it'd be nice to have a professional one. But I also wouldn't overthink it or worry about it either way!