PS Strategy for Real Applicants Forum

[anonid]

Imagine for a moment that not all of us have started our own businesses, been published, saved lives, conquered poverty/abuse, or were inspired by the last words of a great feminist sage....

Execution is obviously everything, but how would you rate the following PS approaches for people without cool stories to tell.

-Being very introspective (speaking in general terms about changes in your outlook over time and how you've come to settle on LS)

-Being interested in an issue without a personal connection (other than reading/learning about it)

-Inflating one of your mundane curricular or extracurricular activities to give the impression that it was actually meaningful/formative

-Talk about how cool your very uncool UG research is and relate it to law.

-Talk about a boring family/friend experience, but try to make it sound endearing or like you have a heart.


It might be easier to talk about these in terms of riskiness rather than overall effectiveness. If anyone had a PS that fit one of these molds and got a student to punch above her weight that would be awesome.

Thanks!

[PeanutsNJam]

Step 1: Identify your current virtues. Are you hard working? Passionate, ambitious? Caring, empathetic, etc.?

Step 2: Pick a virtue that was most recently developed. You can't have been the perfect human being from childhood.

Step 3: Talk about where that virtue comes from. What made you the way you are.

[Gefuehlsecht]

I think it is a misconception that it is necessary to have experienced heroic feats in order to write a compelling personal statement.
It doesn't matter if you have lived a boring and sheltered life. That's fine. Nothing wrong with being normal or boring. However, there must be something out there you can talk about, even if you are a K-JD. Everybody has some stories to tell.

Regarding your examples, I think the first one has potential. The other ones are probably not worth exploring.