What Do You Need To Go Complete? (A General Forum for Specifics.)

[FossilJ]

Good question.  I'm curious as well.

[FossilJ]

Anyone know?

[rtqw]

Anyone know?

I'm inclined to think that as long as it's well-written and relevant to the application, it won't hurt you. It probably won't help you much, but I don't think it would hurt you, unless you were explicitly told not to submit additional essays.

With that said, I'm not sure how much value there in a unsolicited Statement of Purpose. I think very few of us can write a Statement of Purpose that would help us standout- most of us don't have unique reasons for going into law. Law is a broad profession, people go in with one idea with the type of lawyer they want to be and end up as another type. Furthermore, the average applicant has an incomplete idea of what the legal field is really like. I think these two factors make it very difficult for most people to write a good Statement of Purpose. They'd probably be spending time better spent on crafting a better personal statement.

[FossilJ]

That makes sense.  I agree with your opinion regarding Statements of Purpose.  It just seems somewhat reversed -- you have virtually no experience with law (and probably no education in it), and now you want to tell this law school that you already know "what's good for you"?  Very few candidates will qualify for a sincere and adequate Statement of Purpose, unless that Stat o' Purp is specifically prompted by the school.

I've always thought Diversity Statements couldn't hurt unless the school stated explicitly that they wouldn't consider anything but the required materials.  If so, sending one in would probably just irk the adcomms -- "Look at this guy -- he can't even follow simple orders."

[rtqw]

Academic Transcript

          To procure, according to rtqw, "once you're signed up to LSDAS you can print out a form with your name and other information. You sign that form and then ask your school's registar's office to send a copy of your transcript along with that signed form to LSAC for processing."

          According to ....., however, "sending actual transcripts would be silly.  lsac sends copies with your summary report--schools will know what classes you took."

          SO WHICH ONE IS IT?  TELL US!

I don't think this is a contradiction. I think ..... meant that sending actual transcripts to the school itself would be silly. It's unnecessary because you send a transcript to LSAC and they send a summary report with the standardized GPA and all that fun stuff to the schools you apply to.

I signed up for LSDAS this week and those are the directions I've been given. No school I'm looking into asks for transcripts (other than the LSDAS report).

[FossilJ]

Sweet.  Done and done.

[Alamo]

William & Mary asks you to write an essay to "describe an event in your life of which you are especially proud."

It also requests an optional essay on one of 4 things: Institute of Bill of Rights Law, Courtroom 21, Law Library, or George Wythe Society of Citizen Lawyers.

I actually ended up not applying because the school's application was so weird, and I received an acceptance from a higher choice school of mine before I got my act together enough to apply there.

Opinions may vary as to whether optional essays are really optional, but I would really recommend writing a page or two any chance you get.  It's an opportunity to showcase your writing abilities, and also to give your application a little extra bump if you're not an auto-admit.  Even if your numbers are auto-admittable for a school, you're more likely to get waitlisted by a school, which may assume they're just your safety and could waitlist you to yield-protect.

[FossilJ]

Thanks for that.  I put the information under Personal Statement for future applicants.

[FossilJ]

Keep 'em comin', folks.

[FossilJ]

Bump.