Top Law Schools

Has anyone ever been asked to verify something in their personal statement? My brother went on a trip and I took his experience and tied it into my story as my own, could I get in trouble for this

Well, you're off to a super start.

Why the fuck would you do that? It's just stupid and pointless.

Nobody is going to ask you about your camping trip, but I agree 100% with Rink--it's stupid.

You would almost certainly get away with it, but its still a bad idea.

Anonymous User wrote:Has anyone ever been asked to verify something in their personal statement? My brother went on a trip and I took his experience and tied it into my story as my own, could I get in trouble for this

No but someone (maybe an admin?) might bring it up if its profound enough.

I doubt you could get into trouble, but consider lying on your personal statement a new low. There is absolutely no point to lie bc your PS is basically immaterial.

Anonymous User wrote:Has anyone ever been asked to verify something in their personal statement? My brother went on a trip and I took his experience and tied it into my story as my own, could I get in trouble for this

Was the trip escaping to the US and is your brother Yasiel Puig or Elian Gonzalez? If not, probably won't be caught, but it's an endlessly bad idea.

Ignore these proles. Good writing always carries the day. You should post it and see if we can spot where your experience ends and your brother's begins.

I rmr some adcom saying the worst possible kind of PS was the "i went on this humanitarian trip and thought i would be helping these people, changing their lives, but in fact they changed *my* life" essay. Doesn't answer your Q, but avoid that topic.

Anonymous User wrote:Has anyone ever been asked to verify something in their personal statement? My brother went on a trip and I took his experience and tied it into my story as my own, could I get in trouble for this

This isn't embellishing the truth. It's just straight up lying.

Anonymous User wrote:Has anyone ever been asked to verify something in their personal statement? My brother went on a trip and I took his experience and tied it into my story as my own, could I get in trouble for this

Go hang yourself in a closet. You would enter the legal profession. You don't "embellish the truth." You would be relied upon, as a court officer in a non-inquisitorial judicial system, to educate judges and juries on facts and law. If you "embellish the truth," the judicial system doesn't work. That may not matter to you, but when everyone pegs you for a bullshiter, good luck a) getting a judge to go out on a limb for you (ever hear of "abuse of discretion?") and much more important, b) getting a fucking referral--good luck drumming up business in the phone book. You will fail financially as an attorney and cause damage to real people before you finally surrender or get disbarred. So go fucking away...off this site. Away from law school. We don't need a liar in the legal profession.

user has been banned for violating the "don't tell posters to kill self" rule

If I were the OP, I'd lie.

He's obviously boring as fuck if he has to resort to using other people's experiences in his PS.

Now we'll never see this ps. Damn shame. I'm going to assume his brother went to Africa and anonymously cured aids before slapping Bono.

powder wrote:Ignore these proles. Good writing always carries the day. You should post it and see if we can spot where your experience ends and your brother's begins.

Agreed. Also, there is a difference between taking artistic license and blatantly fabricating a story to place yourself in an unjustly favorable light. So I guess it depends what the point of the PS is.... If you want to get across some personal insight you attained or some other underlying theme that manifests itself through the narrative, embellish all you want! But if what your "embellishing" is how you personally saved an entire native elephant family from an incorrigible gang of seedy tusk poachers, and because of this act of heroism, you would make a great candidate for their law school, then you should probably reconsider.

manofjustice wrote:
Go hang yourself in a closet.

powder wrote:Ignore these proles. Good writing always carries the day. You should post it and see if we can spot where your experience ends and your brother's begins.

I don't think that's really the point here. If you're willing to lie on something as ultimately trivial as the PS will likely be, what else are you willing to do for professional advancement? This sort of attitude will ultimately catch up with you in the professional world, and it won't end well.

I guess I should definitively say this is a terrible idea. Good writing matters more than topic, but write about your own stuff.

This is probably a troll. If not, it's phenomenally stupid.

ImNoScar wrote:This is probably a troll. If not, it's phenomenally stupid.

Not really. No one would ever care enough to find out if this is true, unless the OP like ran for President or some shit.

Danger Zone wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:This is probably a troll. If not, it's phenomenally stupid.

Not really. No one would ever care enough to find out if this is true, unless the OP like ran for President or some shit.

I wasn't saying OP would get caught. I was saying that doing this on a PS, which is so low stakes because admissions is all numbers, is a really dumb idea. Even if you're an average middle class person there must be something in your life worth talking about.

manofjustice wrote:
Go hang yourself in a closet. You would enter the legal profession. You don't "embellish the truth." You would be relied upon, as a court officer in a non-inquisitorial judicial system, to educate judges and juries on facts and law. If you "embellish the truth," the judicial system doesn't work.

Ironic how much TLS flips shit about this sort of inconsequential lie while pretty much everyone I know perceives the legal profession as the most morally bankrupt pit of shit in the universe.

superdingle2000 wrote:

manofjustice wrote:
Go hang yourself in a closet. You would enter the legal profession. You don't "embellish the truth." You would be relied upon, as a court officer in a non-inquisitorial judicial system, to educate judges and juries on facts and law. If you "embellish the truth," the judicial system doesn't work.

Ironic how much TLS flips shit about this sort of inconsequential lie while pretty much everyone I know perceives the legal profession as the most morally bankrupt pit of shit in the universe.

Um, this post is one of the reasons the legal profession is regarded that way. That's not ironic -- that's a logical explanation.

ImNoScar wrote:

Danger Zone wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:This is probably a troll. If not, it's phenomenally stupid.

Not really. No one would ever care enough to find out if this is true, unless the OP like ran for President or some shit.

I wasn't saying OP would get caught. I was saying that doing this on a PS, which is so low stakes because admissions is all numbers, is a really dumb idea. Even if you're an average middle class person there must be something in your life worth talking about.

Why's it dumb though? Don't tell me you didn't embellish your PS. My life is pretty fucking boring. I doubt an ad comm would want to hear about my adventures through San Andreas.

Danger Zone wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:

Danger Zone wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:This is probably a troll. If not, it's phenomenally stupid.

Not really. No one would ever care enough to find out if this is true, unless the OP like ran for President or some shit.

I wasn't saying OP would get caught. I was saying that doing this on a PS, which is so low stakes because admissions is all numbers, is a really dumb idea. Even if you're an average middle class person there must be something in your life worth talking about.

Why's it dumb though? Don't tell me you didn't embellish your PS. My life is pretty fucking boring. I doubt an ad comm would want to hear about my adventures through San Andreas.

I didn't embellish mine, and my life is pretty dull. A good enough writer can make an essay about sharpening a pencil interesting.

rinkrat19 wrote:A good enough writer

But what if you want to go to law school and are a terrible writer

Wait, personal statements have to be true?