Operation: Enduring Yale 250s Forum

(Personal Statement Examples, Advice, Critique, . . . )
Lady Croft

New
Posts: 78
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:32 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by Lady Croft » Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:52 am

:|
Last edited by Lady Croft on Tue Dec 07, 2010 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

operaden

New
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:24 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by operaden » Sat Apr 18, 2009 5:06 am

...
Last edited by operaden on Sun Apr 19, 2009 4:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

heyguys

Bronze
Posts: 285
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:57 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by heyguys » Sat Apr 18, 2009 5:24 am

I would really like this thread to keep existing, as I would have loved to have a 250 reference guide/example list beyond the few I could dig up at LSD. That said, I won't be posting mine until at least the fall for sake of anonymity.....so......

here's to hoping that I can free ride off others!

User avatar
minicooperguy88

New
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:49 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by minicooperguy88 » Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:27 pm

Yale.... out of my reach this cycle.. perhaps always. I'll by trying again this upcoming cycle-- one last time. Here is what I won't be submitting again. Hope you really love it, or unsparingly loath it. Congrats to all those who made it this year.

Modernity liberated us from the Aristotelian world of the Ancien Régime, where God and Nature inscribed inequality upon men before they were born: some were marked slaves; others, peasants; few, kings. Modernity erased those divine inscriptions and revealed a Tabula Rasa, thereby opening up heaven and earth to revision by human hands. Yet, like Israel in Scripture, fear and suspicion spoke, “Give us a king to judge us!”

Today, Science is god and King, tyrannically measuring, dividing, and ranking us. The standardized test, sociologists, psychologists, economists, and physicians – dissect, examine, conspire, and diagnose our living bodies and minds, phlegmatically prescribing justice and life to some, injustice and death to others. Science’s incontestable decrees fill our Tabulae Rasae with writings we cannot erase, leaving little room for the scribbles of our own hand.

A semiotic prison of Science enwraps our flesh and entraps our souls. Look upon my form and I tell you that the objective sun reflecting off the bars of my prison will blind you. Those beams are refracting who I am. When my body meets your eyes, you will see my adamantine bars are 6’1’’, X.XX, 1XX, 1XX, 12X/XX…. Seemingly infinite strings of scintillating variables blind and bind you and me to accept deceptions as truth. To bow before Science is sin. Close your eyes and rebelliously stand. You will then see your slate free from the metrologist’s tainted ink. As God is veiled, so are we - “ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ!” [greek: Know Thyself] ; and like Abraham, smash the obstructing idols.

User avatar
sealrsqr

New
Posts: 45
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:49 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by sealrsqr » Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:47 pm

mahmadza wrote:I really like this. At first I was confused by what you were talking about, but after I had finished I kept thinking about what you had written and it stuck with me for the rest of the day. I think the admits will appreciate the honesty and candor that you wrote with. Best of luck for admittance!
Thanks for the kudos and well wishes.

I've got to say, though, that I'm loving Objection's entry. It may be a bit sweeter for me as I have a big headed brother-in-law who shared many of Objection's experiences. Tragically, his given name even rhymes with head. I will say, he has finally grown in to his noggin - but he is 6'4" and still identifiable from a distance.

Want to continue reading?

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Absolutely FREE!


User avatar
joschmo

New
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:16 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by joschmo » Sat Apr 18, 2009 2:26 pm

Reeeeejected:


Both tourists and native New Yorkers often wonder why local taxi drivers accelerate aggressively towards red traffic lights, only to slam on the brakes at crosswalks. Why do they do this when faced with reduced fuel economy and increased vehicle wear? The answer lies in the design of the Taxi & Limousine Commission's official pricing scheme.

Of the four contributing factors, which include a fixed fee, a surcharge during rush hour, a rate for mileage, and a rate for time stopped in traffic, all but the last is determined at the outset of each trip. This encourages cab drivers to complete each fare as quickly as possible, thus maximizing the number of fixed fees received during each shift. Increasing total fares further requires drivers to maximize the portion of each fare spent idling in traffic. By accelerating into red lights, drivers increase the amount of time spent idling, without extending the lengths of complete trips. Therefore, this approach optimizes the number of trips, the time spent idling, and, thus, the total fares received in each shift.

The driver also has little incentive to prevent wear on the vehicle, since most cabs in New York City are leased to different drivers each day. And additional fuel costs, which are estimated at only 5%, are far outstripped by the thousands of dollars in inflated fares earned by reallocating only seconds of each trip.

The moral: Hope yours is one of the few New York City cabs still equipped with a seat belt.

User avatar
pushkin

New
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:26 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by pushkin » Mon Apr 20, 2009 5:20 pm

Here's mine, which got me a rejection after about 7.5 months of stony New Haven silence...

Since I was 14 years old, I’ve made a point of knowing as little in advance as possible about the movies I see and books I read. This is occasionally problematic. A novel’s meaning can be elusive if you don’t know who the author is or when the book was written. I can tell a few stories about taking people to movies that turned out to be disastrous (I recall bringing my mom to American Pie, a movie whose most famous scene involves a simulated sex act with a baked good). My friends don’t understand why I refuse to read the plot summaries at Blockbuster.

Still, I’ll happily remain uninformed. Walking into a theater knowing only the movie’s name, you open yourself to a whole different experience. If a favorite actor stars, or the movie turns out to be based on a novel you love, it’s like running into an old friend. And if the movie stinks, you’re not responsible for picking badly. The less baggage you bring into the theater, the easier it is to stand up and leave.

More than anything else, approaching films and books with a blank slate lets you form your own opinions, uncolored by prejudice or preconceptions. And when you unexpectedly find something wonderful, it’s a unique sort of joy – the “wild surmise” that Keats ascribes to Cortez’s men, first looking out on the expanse of the Pacific. Life’s full of signs detailing what’s over the next ridge. I’d rather wait and see.

User avatar
tinman

Bronze
Posts: 241
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:17 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by tinman » Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:25 am

Some of these are really great. I'll post mine after the ASW.

Kulax22

Bronze
Posts: 149
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:23 am

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by Kulax22 » Sun May 10, 2009 1:52 am

As someone who aspires to one day apply to Yale... I am appreciative of all these postings.

Here's a quick question: when applying to Yale, do you use the same PS as with other schools, plus this 250 essay? Or do you totally redo the PS for Yale, since you can get "interesting" facts about yourself into the 250 (therefore focusing your Yale PS on more academically oriented material)?

Want to continue reading?

Register for access!

Did I mention it was FREE ?


User avatar
minicooperguy88

New
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:49 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by minicooperguy88 » Tue May 19, 2009 12:39 am

Kulax22 wrote:As someone who aspires to one day apply to Yale... I am appreciative of all these postings.

Here's a quick question: when applying to Yale, do you use the same PS as with other schools, plus this 250 essay? Or do you totally redo the PS for Yale, since you can get "interesting" facts about yourself into the 250 (therefore focusing your Yale PS on more academically oriented material)?

Must admit my disappointment that we have yet to see any contribution from anyone who actually made it into Yale so far - as this question and others that may follow regarding what a successful Yale 250 might look like - would be in a much better position to dispense advice for us to follow. As someone who didn't make it, I'm not sure whether you should take my advice Kulax22 :cry: - But lets see whether a bump in this post can get those more qualified to answer this question a comment they can hopefully critique to help enlighten us all :idea: - All I can tell you is what I did, which though it might have been the right course to take, ultimately didn't lead me to New Haven (Still here, wandering in the Purgatory of Kansas).

I would suggest you read the following blog posting by Asha, which I believe I found posted somewhere on this website.
http://blogs.law.yale.edu/blogs/admissi ... tross.aspx

To directly answer your question however, I did not rewrite my personal statement - what I sent to Yale, I sent to all the other schools. What I attempted to do, seems to be nearly the opposite of what you proposed in your question. I wrote my PS without much reference to my academic passions or accomplishments, not because these were not central for preparing me for Law School, but because doing so would have been outside of the scope of talking about growing up and overcoming a particular situation. My strategy was to utilize my 250 to address this particular lacuna in my application - to indirectly demonstrate some of my intellectual or academic passions and training. As you can see from my prior post - though I thought it was pretty damn good when I sent it off, I read it now and see it for what it was -- I feel like Dr. Frankenstein who doesn't understand until it is too late the hideous and ugly monster he has unleashed upon the world, a monster that is certainly composed of good intentions and fine thoughts, but is too bulky and disproportionate, hastily and carelessly sewn together, too unreasonable to gaze too long upon.

Ultimately, though there are many whispers about the shrouded mysteries of what the Yale 250 should be - it is perhaps most important to not ignore what is not esoteric. For example - BEWARE - don't do as I did - Don't try to shove too much into too small a container. Whether your 250 is about sex, love, rock n' roll, or an abstract elucidating and distinguishing the two types of heterotic string theory - be clear, precise, and ensure the structure is made of firmer stuff then fancy words, ideas, and sentiments. I THINK that you have the absolute freedom to do whatever you want - as long as you can construct your sentences into an argument or compose a conclusion that the minds of Yale would be at ease wandering around within; as long as your intellectual ceiling is secure and not prepared to fall upon their heads you'll be fine. I get the impression that the Yale faculty may spook easily when confronted with a crack in wall, a leaky roof, and a door that doesn't quite fit the frame or the color of the rest of your Yale 250 house. Going with this simile, I think the Yale 250 is like a house you're constructing for the admission's committee - you want them to feel at home, safe and secure, amongst familiar, logical, and well reasoned surroundings. You don't want them to come over to the place you invited them to, and while they are no doubt polite to your face, they are secretly thinking to themselves - "Where the F**k am I?" The moral: build your Yale 250 with the high intellectual tastes of the admission's committee in mind. You don't have to be Emerson in your language or ideas - you just have to be the most reasonable, logical, clear, and hospitable self you can be. Fix the cracks, mend the leaks, buy some marshmallows, and invite them over from some hot cocoa and a fun game of Taboo! You'll be friends before your know it 8) (At least that's what we all hope).

User avatar
bgc

Bronze
Posts: 127
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 6:14 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by bgc » Tue May 19, 2009 1:13 am

Fran and I are both attending Yale, so there are at least two successful 250s in this thread. I'm glad this thread was bumped, actually, as I had not yet read her contribution. I have no idea what her PS was like, but the dissimilarity of our 250s shows that there is no single approach.

I did rewrite my PS for Yale. I am both older and making a major career shift, so I used the PS to outline a research agenda, explain why I was suited to the task, and describe how that research would apply to practice. There is a professor at Yale whose work I hope to build on, so writing a version for Yale felt more like putting back what was left out of the others than adding an extension (I hope that's how it read!).

My combination of 250 and PS matched your description. The critical thing, I suspect, is to communicate as much about yourself as is possible.





Any more 250s out there?

Yalias

New
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:29 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by Yalias » Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:50 pm

OK, I'm posting my 250 to help future applicants. I would have liked to have seen examples when I applied. For what it's worth, I think that it's good if your 250-word essay is completely different from your PS.

My application was successful: I applied near the end of Nov and was accepted at the beginning of Feb. Yale was the last application I submitted (because I wanted to spend a bit of time on the 250) and my last acceptance (and where I'll be going next year).

I hope it's helpful to next year's applicants.


Here it goes:



"In the next few paragraphs, I explain the main finding of my first research project as a graduate student.

Most bacterial, viral, or cancer populations are very large. The evolution of these populations is shaped by the simultaneous spread of multiple adaptive mutations. By showing that only a small subset of such mutations is actually relevant, my collaborators and I demonstrated that this apparently complex process can be significantly simplified.

What is the fate of adaptive mutations? Most confer only a small fitness improvement (small selective advantage), which means they will spread through a population slowly. Highly adaptive mutations, which confer very large selective advantages, are so rare that they tend to occur late or not at all. Therefore, mutations carrying intermediate selective advantages typically arise, spread, and dominate the population before smaller mutations multiply to appreciable numbers and before larger mutations appear. Guided by this insight, we showed that an initially homogeneous population soon becomes a mosaic of subpopulations containing favorable mutations that are neither too small nor too rare. We further established that the selective advantages of the prevalent mutations can be approximated as being equal and thus represented by a single value. This representative selective advantage, which we determined experimentally for a laboratory population of bacteria, can be used to make further predictions about a population’s evolution.

The simplified description that we developed provides a new paradigm for characterizing adaptive evolution of large populations and promotes our understanding of infectious diseases and cancer."
Last edited by Yalias on Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:15 pm, edited 3 times in total.

User avatar
Marko Ramius

New
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:37 am

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by Marko Ramius » Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:54 pm

Yalias wrote:My application was successful: I applied near the end of Nov and was excepted at the beginning of Feb.
I wish I could say the same of your attempt at crafting a proper sentence.

Register now!

Resources to assist law school applicants, students & graduates.

It's still FREE!


User avatar
OperaAttorney

Silver
Posts: 512
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:48 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by OperaAttorney » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:04 pm

Marko Ramius wrote:
Yalias wrote:My application was successful: I applied near the end of Nov and was excepted at the beginning of Feb.
I wish I could say the same of your attempt at crafting a proper sentence.

Come on. Don't hate on the Yalie! :lol:

Yalias

New
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:29 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by Yalias » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:07 pm

OperaAttorney wrote: Come on. Don't hate on the Yalie! :lol:
Thanks, Opera, the post wasn't even up five minutes ... :)
Last edited by Yalias on Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tally72

New
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:24 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by Tally72 » Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:57 pm

.
Last edited by Tally72 on Sun Jun 21, 2009 1:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

haosquared

New
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:01 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by haosquared » Sat Jun 20, 2009 9:34 am

.
Last edited by haosquared on Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Get unlimited access to all forums and topics

Register now!

I'm pretty sure I told you it's FREE...


User avatar
minicooperguy88

New
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:49 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by minicooperguy88 » Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:39 am

.

User avatar
corresponding Cor

New
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:05 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by corresponding Cor » Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:51 pm

Objection wrote:I ended up getting rejected, but I was alive from 10/3 until 3/31, so I don't think they hated it. Given the fact my GPA is below the lowest they admitted last year, I think that maybe, just maybe, they liked it enough to keep me in consideration longer than I otherwise deserved.

Mine:

I have an abnormally large head. It has been that way since birth – just ask my mother. In home videos, I can be seen futilely trying to balance my head on my neck, only to have it tip forward or backward. When I was nine, it got stuck under the bed while I was trying to retrieve a Lego. My parents told me I would eventually grow into it, but I am still waiting.

Though balance is no longer an issue, other problems have arisen. Whenever I do something that requires entry into a small space, I have to mentally check its size against the dimensions of my head. Putting on shirts stretches their collars, while removing them requires body contortions that would put a “sixteen”-year-old Olympic gymnast to shame. I steer clear of sunglasses - put a pair on a watermelon and you will see why. The same goes for hats. “One size fits all” excludes “gigantic.” In high school, I was forced to either remove padding from my football helmet or get one custom made. And, as if to drive the point home, I was given nicknames such as “Mr. Potato Head,” “Bobblehead,” and the beautifully blunt “Bighead.”

But alas, my head is a part of who I am. It helps to make me unique and stand head and shoulders - mostly head - above the crowd. While I have learned to embrace it, I know that it may be impossible for others to do the same.
This is great haha.

User avatar
Lyov Myshkin

Bronze
Posts: 218
Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:28 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by Lyov Myshkin » Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:40 am

bookmark.

Kulax22

Bronze
Posts: 149
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:23 am

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by Kulax22 » Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:45 pm

So I must now ask: doesn't Yale say the 250 is their PS, and other PS may be attached? Do they really place more emphasis on the 250?

Just seems strange. I guess it's more of a catchy-writing exercise. If I apply to Yale, I don't think I will change my regular PS much, if at all.

Communicate now with those who not only know what a legal education is, but can offer you worthy advice and commentary as you complete the three most educational, yet challenging years of your law related post graduate life.

Register now, it's still FREE!


User avatar
Capercaillie

New
Posts: 50
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2009 1:11 am

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by Capercaillie » Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:54 pm

Kulax22 wrote:If I apply to Yale, I don't think I will change my regular PS much, if at all.
Thanks for this. Excellent stuff.

User avatar
GeePee

Silver
Posts: 1273
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 7:35 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by GeePee » Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:00 pm

Objection wrote:I ended up getting rejected, but I was alive from 10/3 until 3/31, so I don't think they hated it. Given the fact my GPA is below the lowest they admitted last year, I think that maybe, just maybe, they liked it enough to keep me in consideration longer than I otherwise deserved.

Mine:

I have an abnormally large head. It has been that way since birth – just ask my mother. In home videos, I can be seen futilely trying to balance my head on my neck, only to have it tip forward or backward. When I was nine, it got stuck under the bed while I was trying to retrieve a Lego. My parents told me I would eventually grow into it, but I am still waiting.

Though balance is no longer an issue, other problems have arisen. Whenever I do something that requires entry into a small space, I have to mentally check its size against the dimensions of my head. Putting on shirts stretches their collars, while removing them requires body contortions that would put a “sixteen”-year-old Olympic gymnast to shame. I steer clear of sunglasses - put a pair on a watermelon and you will see why. The same goes for hats. “One size fits all” excludes “gigantic.” In high school, I was forced to either remove padding from my football helmet or get one custom made. And, as if to drive the point home, I was given nicknames such as “Mr. Potato Head,” “Bobblehead,” and the beautifully blunt “Bighead.”

But alas, my head is a part of who I am. It helps to make me unique and stand head and shoulders - mostly head - above the crowd. While I have learned to embrace it, I know that it may be impossible for others to do the same.
ROFL this is even funnier for me because I just tried an attempt at a Y250... and mine was about the perils of being tall (I'm 6'7". I wish I was in the same percentile of June LSAT score as I am in height).

This was pulled off very well though. I approve.

User avatar
playhero

New
Posts: 66
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:04 pm

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by playhero » Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:43 am

OA you really should have picked just about any other topic. Congrats though on staying consistent!

Objection that is one of the best Yale 250's I've read congrats!

User avatar
worldtraveler

Platinum
Posts: 8676
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:47 am

Re: Operation: Enduring Yale 250s

Post by worldtraveler » Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:57 am

GeePee suddenly became very attractive to me...

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


Post Reply

Return to “Law School Personal Statements”