Religious Diversity

[tbird]

Do law schools see religion as a type of diversity that they might want to include in their incoming class? For example, being Mormon and applying to BYU might not be very beneficial, but being Mormon and applying to Notre Dame might be more rare. There probably are not a ton of Mormons applying to east coast schools since the church is more strongly rooted in the Southwest. Would this play any role?

Is it worth talking about the 2 year service mission in a PS? I think that is the main life-changing event I have had. And two years of complete service is pretty substantial as far as service, and maturity is concerned. Would that be seen at all like work experience in the sense that it helps one mature if approached correctly?

Conversely, would it hurt one's application to disclose your religion? Whether that be explicitly or implicitly through experiences.

As a side note, I am not looking to start a discussion on religions, but am really curious about how this might be viewed and applied to any religion.

[monkey85]

I'm sure the 2-year mission will make a nice personal statement. The AdComm will enjoy browsing through it.

But in the end, still just GPA + LSAT. So don't over think your essay. Just write it and apply.

[gaud]

I know a Mormon dude who spoke about his religious experiences in his DS for Harvard. He felt it helped with his acceptance.

[buddyt]

Since LSAT and GPA are 99% of the game, I don't think talking about your mission experience will help in terms of acceptance. One way in which it does help, though, is that it gives you something interesting to talk about in your PS, and probably (hopefully) something about which you are passionate.

I drew quite a bit from my 2-year mission in my PS last cycle, although I only applied to ASU and BYU, both of which get their fair share of LDS applicants, so it probably wasn't unique at all. FWIW, I plan on leaving my PS basically the same this cycle, but with some tweaks regarding the year of full-time WE that I now have from sitting out a year.