Importance of PS Forum

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slax

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Importance of PS

Post by slax » Sun Jun 27, 2010 5:02 pm

I have been reading through this forum and am wondering: just how important is the PS? I know LSAT and GPA are the major deciding factors. So how much should I really be stressing about the PS?

My LSAT is 176 and my GPA is 3.9. I feel I'm at the point where I can have a bad PS that hurts me but can a great one help at all? Some people say they are writing a specific statement for every school. Has anyone had the experience that writing these tailored statements works?

Thanks for the input. I already have the first draft done, but I'm trying to decide if it's worth writing specific statements or making mine a masterpiece.

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rman1201

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Re: Importance of PS

Post by rman1201 » Sun Jun 27, 2010 5:05 pm

Writing a specific one doesn't matter, that's where the "Why X" essays come in. Schools don't expect you to write a unique PS for each school, just don't include the wrong school on your PS (listed on every site mentioning deans' pet peeves). A generic masterpiece is much better than a mediocre school-tailored PS.

The only time a great PS might help is if you're very borderline. And its more than likely going to be trumped by WE, Extracurriculars, and Grad School.

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DoubleChecks

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Re: Importance of PS

Post by DoubleChecks » Sun Jun 27, 2010 5:14 pm

iunno, i think the overall application should represent you and be something you're proud of. 3.9/176 are great numbers that should get you into the top schools...but i do feel like, for me at least, the PS helped.

i really took time to think about it and write/edit something i was proud to submit as it really let the adcomms know me as a person. was it unique to every law school? no. hell, it barely talked about law school haha.

dont write something generic and boring -- maybe w/ those numbers you can get by w/ it but why turn in subpar writing? :P

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slax

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Re: Importance of PS

Post by slax » Sun Jun 27, 2010 5:21 pm

It's not shitty by any means. I'd hand in for a class paper. But it's not literary gold. And it's not about law school. It's about teaching a leadership class on values and personal credos and my values and credo. It's a nice little story. Not too boring but not too exciting either. It kinda checks the PS off the list of things to hand in.

I guess my question is, is that good enough? It's early enough in the game to improve, but I also want to focus on my Why Penn and my Yale 250. I was hoping someone had gone through the experience before and could offer some advice on how much of a priority or how much time should go into the PS, which both of you have circled around.

Thanks to both of you for the input.

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Gefuehlsecht

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Re: Importance of PS

Post by Gefuehlsecht » Mon Jun 28, 2010 2:40 pm

You'll be fine. As long as you don't send in something which screams "My numbers are so high therefore I wrote this cartoon with crayon on a piece of toiletpaper." as a ps you've got nothing to worry about.

To answer your question: You should invest as much time in a ps as it takes to get it ready. Some people need days, some people need weeks. A good ps can make a difference when it really comes down to you and the other guy with equal numbers and softs. But a fairly generic ps won't break you if you do have good numbers.

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DoubleChecks

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Re: Importance of PS

Post by DoubleChecks » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:53 pm

slax wrote:It's not shitty by any means. I'd hand in for a class paper. But it's not literary gold. And it's not about law school. It's about teaching a leadership class on values and personal credos and my values and credo. It's a nice little story. Not too boring but not too exciting either. It kinda checks the PS off the list of things to hand in.

I guess my question is, is that good enough? It's early enough in the game to improve, but I also want to focus on my Why Penn and my Yale 250. I was hoping someone had gone through the experience before and could offer some advice on how much of a priority or how much time should go into the PS, which both of you have circled around.

Thanks to both of you for the input.
sorry, ill be more specific. w/ your numbers...guessing your softs...and based on what you've said about your PS (not literary gold but you'd turn it in, etc.)...id feel good about HLS but you never know w/ SLS or YLS, esp. w/ the 250 left.

how much of a priority? well if you have other things to do, then focus on that...i just dont see anything else taking precedence over the PS besides possibly the YLS 250. i mean, your numbers are WAY more important (they are by far the most important factors)...but you've already got those. LORs and resume, just do them.

so i kind of dodged the question because it varies from person to person, situation to situation. regardless, the PS, no matter how amazing, is still just a soft imo.

i wrote mine in a few hours, set it aside for a week, edited it a week later, then sent that draft out to 5 ppl i trusted (read: cared about their opinions). got the 5 ppl to return the PS w/ notes and comments and suggestions over the course of 2 weeks; read those and incorporated them to get an even better draft + my own new thoughts/fresh perspective after 2 weeks. finally went through a final grammar/word choice review and submitted it.

took about 3 weeks time but not that many man hours per se.

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