I. 25/M, Real estate / economic analyst consulting for major developers, investors, and local governments. I write papers explaining what needs to be built (office, retail, apartments, houses) and where to put it in order to maximize return on investment or tax revenue over time. Money is good and I certainly enjoy my work, but to practice law has always been the end goal.

II. My biggest concern is the reputation of my undergraduate institution. Because I was an active duty Marine deployed to Afghanistan, my options were quite limited --- I needed the flexibility of an online program. I graduated from American Military University with a BBA in Economics (3.7 GPA) in 2013. The school is accredited through the Higher Learning Commission, but I still fear that I may be at a disadvantage compared to more traditional T-14 applicants.

The rest of my application is good to go. Scoring high enough on the LSAT prep tests. On the soft side, I quickly earned an MBA in Finance at a mediocre state school after leaving the military in 2013; while there I also worked under a professor, helping with research and teaching undergrad corporate finance classes. Then I interned under the chief economist at a well-known D.C. think-tank for a while. Also, I'm a CFA Level 3 candidate, have published academic research, fluent in Arabic, etc.

III. My initial thought is to walk them through the level of adversity I've had to overcome BECAUSE it's not going to be apparent just reading my resume. Yes, my education is from an unranked online school. But in getting that degree, I had to teach myself statistics from a textbook in an armored vehicle rolling through Helmand Province. I'd return to base from night ops and, instead of recovering for the next couple days like everyone else, just pound a couple Red Bulls and get started on a 30-page paper about comparative economic systems.

Another example: I have an MBA, sure. That's cool. But there will certainly be other applicants to the T-14 with grad-level education from better schools and possibly harder fields (like science-related). So to provide more color on adversity, I'd point out that while in grad school and only 22 years of age I had to find a way to support seven people. Back story is dad got sick and couldn't work; mom is too old now and never worked a day in her life so no Social Security; no reliable family, either; Syrian Civil War causes my uncle, his wife, and three kids to flee here as refugees. Very hard for them to find any work due to language barrier and no marketable skills. I feel responsible for my family. So I take all the money I'd saved in the service and start applying theories from my education in practice. Fully utilizing my campus resources (Bloomberg Terminal, Compustat, SPSS), I developed a sophisticated trading strategy and went live with everything I had, day in and day out (combined w/ full-time classes and working as a low-paid teaching assistant). Slept maybe 4 hours a night. The more I made over time, the less risk I had to take and less time I had to devote in studying each trade. Now I've fully amortized all my family's liabilities with this separate income stream, and it doesn't take very much of my time anymore to maintain. By the time I start law school, I'll have enough capital to float my living expenses while continuing to support them and quit my current job. That's an oversimplified narrative glossing over the stress I had to overcome, which will be emphasized eloquently in the essay.

IV. No, no.

Apologies for the wordiness. Had to explain. Thoughts?

-Chris