Weakness PS? Forum

[asoli]

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[entrechatsix]

people usually advise against a ps that flaunts or highlights your weaknesses, and i agree with that sentiment. on the other hand, i like the abstract that you posted and i think you could make it work. with that said, make sure that you aren't flaunting your weakness ("i did so poorly in school/i wasn't trying/etc"). the adcomms have your transcript, they already know. no need to tell them about your poor first two years twice.

i would write something along the lines of "before my third year, i realized that the lesson i learned on the football field could also apply to the classroom. there was no magic pill. if i wanted to earn stellar grades, i had to work hard. using the same work ethic that helped me become a great running back (or whatever), i was able to earn top grades/improve my gpa/fulfill my academic potential."

[asoli]

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[TheBigMediocre]

My biggest weaknesses?

I work too hard and I care too much.

[hiromoto45]

My biggest weaknesses?

I work too hard and I care too much.

Ok, Michael Scott.

[asoli]

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[starrydecisus]

Looking through other's posts and advice, I decided that I should base my PS on my greatest weakness. During my first two years, I had horrible work ethic. I got so-so grades until I went abroad where I received terrible grades. After the shock wore off, I decided something needed to change. Through hard work, I received 7 A's and 1 B+.

I seriously just think that's such a bad idea (for anyone to do).

I think you can touch on it, but I'm not sure you want the overall theme to focus on what a bad student you were. It sounds like you have other good experiences and qualities you can center your PS around, while still emphasizing what a good studnet you were after the hard work.

[Action Jackson]

I think it's fine to have a PS that talks about overcoming a weakness, which yours does.

The overall idea is very good, but this draft is very rough. It's good that you establish your work ethics in sports early on, but the distinction between your sports work ethic and your academic work ethic isn't clear enough. I believe the idea you're trying to get at is that what you realized you needed to apply what you learned in sports to how you prepared for class. To that end, you need to make it clear why you were treating them so differently. Did sports come naturally to you like studying did? Why couldn't you coast in college?

I would also recommend keeping that theme running throughout your PS. Did you apply your sports work ethic to the Con Law research you did? You need to explain why this should be viewed as an accomplishment, as well.

Lastly, the semicolon in second paragraph should be a comma, or an em dash (if you're comfortable using em dashes).

[asoli]

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll finish writing it and post another draft up.

[asoli]

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[CGI Fridays]

While working in physically demanding environments has never been an issue for me, sitting down to study and do homework seemed to be was/has always been much harder to deal with more difficult. I would always put things off until I absolutely had to do them the last minute. To For me, there was a difference between studying and practice.: If I didn’t do a day’s workout, then I lost that day forever. There was a perpetual ticking clocking that made each day count. (((a perpetual ticking clock that makes each day count strikes me as cheesy, but I dunno about others))) When it came to school, there was a life time lifetime to study and learn. Previously, I could get away with this habit, I could scrape by unharmed, but eventually my bad habit caught up with me. My grades were getting worse each semester until finally they reached rock bottom during my semester abroad in England. I couldn’t believe how bad they were when my transcript came in the mail. It was almost an unreal moment and I kept waiting for the alarm to go off, waking me up. The alarm never came. (((Ok that is extremely cheesy. If I'm the gatekeeper to your admissions, you just lost my vote. You're wasting valuable space on glorifying excuses. Make a GPA addendum & use your PS for a positive reason they want you; not fending off a negative reason they might not. I see you turn this into a "how I turned that around" essay, but you've lost my interest. Don't let that convince you though, I'm just one person)))

[asoli]

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