Oh This. I just decided to submit and get it over and done with. Submitted! Now the waiting begins.

Someone PMed me the answer to this question!

The description for the "Academic Interruption" attachment makes it quite clear that Yale wants all post-college WE described there.

Ah, I see now why the legal job market is so bad. Work is considered just a lowly 'academic interruption' (possibly before one re-applies for an LLM or PhD).

haha...well Yale can do whatever the f*** it wants because it's Yale...

A couple questions on how I dealt with the resume/activities and work sections via Pm, thought'd I answer here to add my choices to the general conversation on what could/should/has been done.

1) I did decide to both fill out the addendum as instructed and submit a 1 page resume for two reasons - a) to include a "summary" type form at the end of the application with the pieces split over the application put together (ie. advanced degrees with recognized dissertations, most prestigious awards, then just my most impressive titles held in work experience) and b) I had a "personal" section on my original resume that had a few interesting recognitions/participation in events that don't fit well into standard breakdowns of activities or awards and I didn't want to exclude them, think "fun facts" (ie. my undergrad dissertation was recognized by an dissident and intellectual who has been on house arrest for many years for activities pertaining to its topic, a sporting event, and then a purely personal fact). My reasoning is that if they didn't want something you felt it was applicable, there would be no need for a code as they would just not ask for or leave a place for it. I did keep it to one page though and tried not to be terribly repetitive with content

2) I interpreted the section on "activities and work" in this way:

a) Activities that I participated in outside of work and academics - I didn't put every little volunteer activity because I've been out awhile, but I could see someone wanting to do that if they were younger.. I included here any unpaid internships, athletics, etc.

b) Work experience that I had while actively enrolled in any of my degrees, since it merely says "college" and not "undergraduate" studies - so any actual paid jobs (though I didn't put a server job at a restaurant I could have I suppose, but these things slip my mind and probably aren't going to matter) and any paid TA or research positions. I put my work/study my freshman year.

c) I put work experience I had while not actively enrolled. It was a little disjointed since both positions were between undergrad and going back for advanced degrees, so they were literally taken from the middle of my work experience since I've held other positions while doing my masters and PhD. This is how I interpreted the questions though I think it would have been just as "acceptable" to just put undergrad jobs in b and put all other work since in (c). Could go either way and don't think it matters too much either way.

I did elaborate on my work experience where necessary (not all), though it does just say list, which could have been done as a pure list, then elaboration in a resume as necessary. Either/or seems reasonable IMO.

As for an academic disruption addendum, I used the same one I used on all my other apps, just explaining the brief leave I took from my Phd for work reasons. I didn't elaborate my break between undergrad - grad degrees. Its plain that I worked full time in my work experience section. Shrugs - I guess I could have added one sentence to the addendum saying, "I also took a year and one half off between my undergraduate and graduate education to work full-time on XXXX and XXXX." I would have left it at that one sentence had I thought about it.

Anyhow, those were my choices.

180.

In listing extracurriculars, did you guys include a description? It doesn't say so specifically apart from time commitment, but I'm inclined to...

I listed most of my activities. However, for ones which I really wanted to highlight I gave a brief description. One of my activities was the subject of my PS and another the subject of my 250 so I didn't highlight them as much on the resume.

Just submitted! Here we go!

So, is there a consensus that a Why Yale? is a waste of time, even if you've done an on-campus visit? I remember Asha saying something about how the professors reading your application already know how awesome their classes are--they teach them! That was about the PS, I'm pretty sure, but I'd imagine it applies to a Why Yale? as well. What do you all think?

Don't write a Why Yale. Just write your 250 and PS.

Do not write a Why Yale? They know they're the best of the best. You need to ask yourself what you can do for Yale, not what Yale can do for you. See what I did there?

Yeah I decided to include descriptions when I wanted to highlight beyond what it says on my resume. I figure if they don't want to read it twice they can just skip over it when they get to the resume, the instructions were vague so I hope I'm following directions

Edit: Submitted! *hail mary pass*

What did you guys write your 250s about? I haven't even started mine because I don't know where to start. Sigh.

Write about your free stallion.

why are there a plethora of ps's to look at and critique but almost no 250's out there? aside for the fact that only yale requires. there are still hundreds of people applying. are people more possessive over them?

Only if you write about Sweeney Todd.

ill be bold enough to post a rough draft

Balancing emotion with logic is something I struggle with. While my emotions are what make me who I am and give me direction in life, my intellect is what enables me to make the correct decisions in how I get there. Whenever I find it difficult to disregard my feelings in favor of the logical choice, I think of the old lady from my neighborhood. Mrs. S. never threw out milk. She would even drink sour milk so as not to waste it. She did this because she felt that if she would dispose of it she would be losing the money she paid for it. Although I was originally shocked by this, I realized that to an extent we all engage in this behavior. We may buy one slice of pizza too many and eat it so as not to lose the money we paid for it. In actuality, once we no longer want that slice, it has lost the value it had when we bought it. In fact, had we not bought that slice, one would have to pay us to eat it now. So although eating this slice has a negative value, we eat it because if we throw it out, our emotions will make us feel as if we are wasting money. This is but one example of how our pathos can lead us to irrational behavior. Being cognizant of this tendency has enabled me to make decisions for the right reasons.

Very philosophical.

Yeah, that's what I figured. Thanks.

I won't post mine (yet, anyway), but I ended up writing a humorous piece about Kansas. I went through several topics, ultimately deciding that this topic provided something nothing else in my application did. My PS was academic, as are my softs, so this was a way to get across something of my history and personality.

Did you include Dorothy?

Just for that, I'll post the first three sentences...

Submitted to Yale.

Well, I don't feel like posting mine publicly until after a decision, and maybe even not then since it's kinda personal, I think a lot of people feel the same way.

I felt my PS was about my academic background/desire to go into law, so I used my 250 to show some more aspects of my background and demonstrate writing skill. As a suggestion, one thing that I did was write several 250s - it's not a lot of writing, so I tried out a few different topics and one stuck, for better or worse.