Fair enough - thanks for the help. Good luck on your apps, too - I think I saw in another of your comments that you're applying this cycle as well.

So you're thinking they just mentioning full-time, part-time, and summer basically to say feel free to include whatever employment you think is important (no matter what or when it was)? They're not asking for comprehensive resume?

Obviously we're all different, but I took the test last December after a couple months of studying and drank frequently during that time. Then, I took the test again in Feb, and I'd cut alcohol out completely for about a month or so before the second test, and did a bit worse. I blame most of that on burnout (had basically been studying LSAT for 4 or 5 months at that point - my PTs the last couple weeks all of sudden went down, which only compounded the burnout-related stress), but perhaps some of it has to do with changing things up.

Long story short - if you're doing well on your PTs and happen to drink sometimes, it's probably fine. Boozing and studying hungover isn't good, but in my experience, going sober for a few months isn't going to suddenly make your memory (or your LSAT ability) a lot better.

It's definitely on my personal statement - just wondered if it needed to also be on the resume. Thanks for the advice - unless I get instructed to specifically on an app, I'll leave it off my resume for now.

Yeah, that makes sense. I certainly don't want to give the admissions reps more to do. Thanks for the info!

1) I'm a 25 year old white male from North Carolina who graduated (with honors) with a BA in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My GPA is 3.55 and my highest LSAT is 172 (I took it three times and the scores were 166, 169, 172). Since graduating, I've worked in publishing and for nonprofits, mainly doing communications work, and now serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA for a homeless shelter for families.

2) My biggest worry is that my GPA, while decent, is not high enough to get into T14 schools. I think it should be okay for the lower tier of T14, but I'm worried that it will set me back quite a bit from the top 10 schools.

3) One idea is to focus on how my writing has prepared me for law school. I've had fiction and non-fiction published and always wanted to write novels, and even went to school for it (studying English and Creative Writing). I'm interested in discussing how my identity has changed from someone wanting to be a writer to someone wanting to be a lawyer (using the specific moment of getting a story published as the moment this shift, strangely enough, began), how this process involved me working in social justice and seeing legal/policy work as a better way to help others, and comparing the process of figuring out a story to figuring out policy problems.

Another idea would be discussing my work in nonprofits and AmeriCorps and how that's informed my policy/legal interests, but this is admittedly still a vague idea that I'm sure other essays will also cover. I would also go into my interest in the law and how I see it as a social fabric that affects all aspects and avenues of life, and being able to affect that fabric gives me the chance to both try to change things in many areas, and also be a versatile public servant.

4) First time attending.

@.busis awesome, thanks so much for the help David.

1) 25 years old and graduated from college in 2013. I have a 3.55 GPA and a 173 LSAT (albeit with a couple slightly lower scores in the 160s). I've mainly been doing nonprofit work since graduating, but also worked at a publishing company and have done some freelance writing (I went to school for English/Creative Writing).

2) My biggest worry at this point is my personal statement - it certainly needs some work. I'm also wondering if I've already missed my best chance at getting into a great school since I haven't applied as early as possible. Is getting my application in during early November or before Thanksgiving still going to give me a good chance?

3) My first idea is to talk about how pursuing writing has prepared me to be a successful lawyer/legal student. Growing up wanting to write books, and going to school for it, is one of the most unique things about me, and so exploring how that perspective and the successes and failures of that have led me to law and prepared me for law is my main idea for a personal statement. Obviously I need to be a bit more specific and have more of a specific "story" to convey those ideas, though, but if I can pinpoint the moment when I really changed my goals from being a writer to being a lawyer, that would be a strong personal statement.

My second idea is to talk about my current AmeriCorps job at a homeless shelter. I don't want to have a cliche essay about seeing injustice or poverty and going to law to school to fix it, but instead to talk about how overwhelmed I was when I first started. I was managing projects and volunteers and had a lot more authority than I expected, and so there was a significant learning curve. Gaining experience, keeping my head above water, and getting to the point now where I'm managing lots of projects at once and using that to help people could make a good essay. Structure-wise, it could almost resemble the "Tourne" essay (specify a problem I faced, talk about my plan to overcome it, discuss overcoming it, and show how the skills I developed/demonstrated would make me a good law student/lawyer).

4) I did not attend last time, but I attended about a month ago (Sept 19 I believe) and you did not get to me.

@.busis One more resume question (if you don't mind):

I'm listing "Freelance Writer" as one of my post-college activities. I only have 3 publications I want to list, and since having a "publications" section seems like it should be reserved for people with academic publications, I'm just listing freelance writer as one of my two post college activities (other is on the Board of a nonprofit, so it's a good one).

Anyway, do I need to list an overall date range for freelance writing (like 11/2013-present). Or can I just list 3 publications and the dates published/date range I wrote for that publication.

For example, do I need the date on the top line below:

Freelance Writer, Durham, NC 11/2013–present

• Published X story in Y maagazine - 06/2016

• Published non-fiction piece "X talked to Y" on coolstorybro.com – 09/2014.

• Staff Writer for Happy Site Baseball Blog from 11/2013–12/2015.

Thanks David. I'll make the change then.

Fair enough - the study abroad is a nice touch to add. Thanks for responding to all my questions by the way! I've got a lot - there's so many little things to worry about in these applications.

Thanks for the advice!