soft factors for non traditional students?

[bisquen]

hi,

i wonder what kind of "soft factors" can help a non traditional student or make you distinct candidate. when i was reading personal statements i saw things like "being the first person graduating from college in the family", "growing up in rural area", "having financial difficulties", etc. i mean those are very personal situations, how can they help your admission? do they really care those stuff, or are they more realistic giving lsat score and gpa more importance?

i personally believe in numbers. i am just surprised to see such resumes&personal statements and wonder whether that is true or not.

[SwampFox]

Besides admissions officers, I don't know if anyone can truly know why a particular application was accepted or not.  As you say, statistically it seems that the numbers really are the true determining factor, and that the other stuff may just help someone who is "on the line."  I certainly played up as much of my non-traditional background in my personal statement as I could, especially as my 10+ year-old GPA wasn't that stellar.  I put in all kinds of stuff about my successful career and my kids; I figured it was no less dumb than any of the other standard criteria law schools seem to care about that have nothing to do with how well you'd actually do in law school, e.g. ethnicity, growing up poor, charity work, or unusual hobbies.  Did it work?  I have been accepted almost everywhere I've applied, but of course I have no idea if it helped.