I believe this is something that's actually recommended, as it shows that you're engaging with the school beyond simply reading the website. Just make sure it doesn't feel like you tacked it on!

I believe in the prompt they strongly recommend that you cover Why Berkeley in the ps. It's usually not too difficult to integrate this, especially if your ps is one that is gearing up towards 'why law,' which Berkeley also recommends.

They technically have an additional 'Why Berkeley' optional, but it's focused more on the location and the environment rather than the academic elements.

Michigan gives me the impression that they really do want to know why you want to come to their school, so I would probably do so. I do think that if you're on the border of Admit/Waitlist, a good why x that makes the school think you have a high chance of going there will push you closer to that A.

In my opinion, I would not do that. If you're mentioning areas of law you're interested in, it should be a natural progression from whatever narrative is expressed in your personal statement, and it would seem odd if you said, "well, I'm not sure." AOs know that a lot of people will likely not go into the kinds of law they claim to be interested in. That's expected.

I'm not an AO or anything, but I would not mention the tiktok at all. I don't feel like it really adds anything to your argument that you couldn't introduce in a much better way.

@JacobBaska Yes, exactly. I always use it as more of a map, but the map is not the territory, so to speak. I just have to shake my head when anonymous redditors start acting like they know what's going on in an Admissions Office.

I'm not an AO, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I doubt that there's a crazy difference between submitting your application now or submitting it by the end of september. I think you'd be better off waiting until you have your new score and spending the extra time going over your materials.

Sure! For reference, I work in higher ed, so I review student essays all the time.

I'm not an expert, but I would suggest having the rest of your app ready beforehand. That way, you can fire everything off the day of score release.

I think it's a bit hard to say because we have no way of knowing whether or not the folks admitted ED would have been admitted regardless. Like, even with ED, they're not going to admit a candidate who doesn't catch their eye, and it's not as though they don't have plenty of strong candidates in RD, you know.

Now, I imagine there could be. ED gives a school confirmation that you will attend, so they don't need to worry as much about their yield, especially if you have some quality that might be deemed competitive. I think the biggest beneficiaries of a possible ED boost would be people above both medians and splitters.

Typically they're narrative, focusing on one or two formative experiences and connecting them to your desire to pursue law school.

My best advice is to write a straightforward, reflective story that talks about what inspired you to go to law school. And whatever you do, don't turn it into this verbose, ornate mess. I remember last year Yale sent out example PS to some folks, and the LSA subreddit bashed them because they felt the writing was mediocre. I read through them again a few weeks ago and found that they were quite solid; the real problem is that many people confuse style with substance.

I think Dean Andy, an administrator at Georgetown, put it best: your lsat and gpa set the bar, and your sifts determine if you clear it. What you need to understand is that top schools have many people with stats that could help them lock in their medians. What will differentiate them is factors such as essays, WE, and other softs. I think when people dismiss softs, they’re being overly cynical.

I don’t necessarily think there is such a thing as a universally strong soft. The tier list we use was actually created by a Redditor. A strong soft likely depends mostly on how it contributes to the overall cohesiveness of your application. If you want to go to law school for immigration law, for instance, working for a non-profit that helps connect immigrants to legal services will likely be a strong soft.

@bawstonlaw hey man, t14 medians are high as the clouds. I know my gpa is absolutely on the higher end, but it’s a different ballgame than it was even a few years ago.

@zunair to clear things up, I went to a school that pumps people into the t14, and having read many of their essays, you’re vastly overestimating their writing ability.