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I'm in the preliminary stages of constructing my PS (read: am racking my brain for topic ideas), and I have a question. I was homeschooled up through high school, and I believe this makes me different from most traditional law school applicants. So should I write about this (or mention it) in my PS? Or is there some other place I should mention it? Or should I hide it?

Any advice is appreciated.

alphagamma wrote:I'm in the preliminary stages of constructing my PS (read: am racking my brain for topic ideas), and I have a question. I was homeschooled up through high school, and I believe this makes me different from most traditional law school applicants. So should I write about this (or mention it) in my PS? Or is there some other place I should mention it? Or should I hide it?

Any advice is appreciated.

When I was in HS I had a little pony. I think it made me different too. When pony got sick my dad spent 20K to treat it. When our gardener got injured we kicked him out. Illegal gardeners are replacable. Little ponies however are not. Good stuff.

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alphagamma wrote:I'm in the preliminary stages of constructing my PS (read: am racking my brain for topic ideas), and I have a question. I was homeschooled up through high school, and I believe this makes me different from most traditional law school applicants. So should I write about this (or mention it) in my PS? Or is there some other place I should mention it? Or should I hide it?

Any advice is appreciated.

If you wanted to spin it, I bet you could create an overcoming adversity statement talking about the transition between being homeschooled and going to a (non-homeschooled) college. It would definitely make you stand out, at least I think so-- then again I am not an addcom either.

alphagamma wrote: I believe this makes me different from most traditional law school applicants.

my impression of home schooling is based on TV telling me its weird and uber fundamentalist. unless it was like Kadi from Mean Girls.

Seems like most people don't have a very kind view of homeschooling

pany1985 wrote:Seems like most people don't have a very kind view of homeschooling

That's why I was asking if I should hide it. It's my experience that most people view homeschoolers as antisocial weirdos. However, it's also my experience that people who actually know homeschoolers (my college professors and friends, for example) know that the opposite is true. Most homeschoolers (myself included) are actually more studious, more polite, etc. than the average public/private high school graduate.

However, the chart above makes me lean more towards the "hide it" side of the argument.

For the record, I have a 4.0, and I'm currently PTing in the 171-173 range, with more improvement in sight.

Thanks again for the input, everyone

Edit: Where did that chart come from, by the way?

I think homeschooling = liability more so than something you want to center your PS around.

JustDude wrote:

alphagamma wrote:I'm in the preliminary stages of constructing my PS (read: am racking my brain for topic ideas), and I have a question. I was homeschooled up through high school, and I believe this makes me different from most traditional law school applicants. So should I write about this (or mention it) in my PS? Or is there some other place I should mention it? Or should I hide it?

Any advice is appreciated.

When I was in HS I had a little pony. I think it made me different too. When pony got sick my dad spent 20K to treat it. When our gardener got injured we kicked him out. Illegal gardeners are replacable. Little ponies however are not. Good stuff.

I think this is pretty funny.

I think that discussions of high school experiences are somewhat dangerous in a law school application. You should come across as a mature adult. If high school is the focus of your personal statement, you risk coming across as immature. This doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but be aware of the risk and write accordingly.

I was homeschooled from 2nd-9th grade. Unlike some of the comments on this blog, it is not entirely for religious fanatics. In fact, my family isn't religious at all. It was entirely academic. I decided to go back to private school for HS, because I though it would be useful to have classroom experience before college.

I certainly disagree with the "overcoming adversity" argument that was tossed around; being homeschooled isn't adversity. Unless you lived in some remote area in which traditional education just wasn't available, then you were homeschooled because a) your parents made the sacrifice to stay home to teach you or b) your parents hired a private tutor to teach you. Neither one of these imply "disadvantaged." I certainly was not, and would immediately raise an eyebrow if someone tried to claim that in a PS.

Personally, if you used your homeschooling to do something unique or cool (for example, most Olympic athletes are homeschooled, and so are many child movie stars), then yes, but otherwise, pick something more recent and more unique.

YCrevolution wrote:

JustDude wrote:

alphagamma wrote:I'm in the preliminary stages of constructing my PS (read: am racking my brain for topic ideas), and I have a question. I was homeschooled up through high school, and I believe this makes me different from most traditional law school applicants. So should I write about this (or mention it) in my PS? Or is there some other place I should mention it? Or should I hide it?

Any advice is appreciated.

When I was in HS I had a little pony. I think it made me different too. When pony got sick my dad spent 20K to treat it. When our gardener got injured we kicked him out. Illegal gardeners are replacable. Little ponies however are not. Good stuff.

If you can't stay on-topic outside of the Lounge, don't post. You were already warned about this before.

LOL

NewtonLied wrote:

YCrevolution wrote:

JustDude wrote:

alphagamma wrote:I'm in the preliminary stages of constructing my PS (read: am racking my brain for topic ideas), and I have a question. I was homeschooled up through high school, and I believe this makes me different from most traditional law school applicants. So should I write about this (or mention it) in my PS? Or is there some other place I should mention it? Or should I hide it?

Any advice is appreciated.

When I was in HS I had a little pony. I think it made me different too. When pony got sick my dad spent 20K to treat it. When our gardener got injured we kicked him out. Illegal gardeners are replacable. Little ponies however are not. Good stuff.

If you can't stay on-topic outside of the Lounge, don't post. You were already warned about this before.

LOL

I dont know who is that guy. Some mod I guess

No. It doesn't make you different, and I think it sounds kind of pretentious to pretend it does.

x

Perhaps you can mention it in passing, but I wouldn't recommend focusing on it. Focus on your undergrad achievements, not on things you did during high school. Adcomms may infer that you did nothing exciting for the last 4 years if you talk about something from high school the whole time.