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PS topic advice!!?

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 2:08 am
by Anonymous User
Hey all! I'm wanting to start on my PS but can't decide on a topic! The topic that I considered was my journey towards taking the lsat and applying for law school. During this process many things have happened that should have caused me to lose focus and deterred me from applying ( lost my job, no money, trying to figure out how I'm going to provide for my 4 year old if I can feed her every night) etc. but through everything I've been through I've continued to be focused and dedecicated to go apply to law school.


Could this be somewhat a PS topic??

Re: PS topic advice!!?

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 11:06 am
by Mr. Archer
That would work. I would think most of the details in the PS would be about the life events you overcame with brief references to how those could have deterred you from applying or how it affected your journey.

Re: PS topic advice!!?

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 11:13 am
by 21157015576609
Anonymous User wrote:Hey all! I'm wanting to start on my PS but can't decide on a topic! The topic that I considered was my journey towards taking the lsat and applying for law school. During this process many things have happened that should have caused me to lose focus and deterred me from applying ( lost my job, no money, trying to figure out how I'm going to provide for my 4 year old if I can feed her every night) etc. but through everything I've been through I've continued to be focused and dedecicated to go apply to law school.


Could this be somewhat a PS topic??
Careful though, it's a little circular ("you should admit me to your law school because of the difficulties I endured while applying to your law school").

Re: PS topic advice!!?

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 8:15 pm
by galadriel3019
21157015576609 wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Hey all! I'm wanting to start on my PS but can't decide on a topic! The topic that I considered was my journey towards taking the lsat and applying for law school. During this process many things have happened that should have caused me to lose focus and deterred me from applying ( lost my job, no money, trying to figure out how I'm going to provide for my 4 year old if I can feed her every night) etc. but through everything I've been through I've continued to be focused and dedecicated to go apply to law school.


Could this be somewhat a PS topic??
Careful though, it's a little circular ("you should admit me to your law school because of the difficulties I endured while applying to your law school").

Yes I agree with the above. Talking about adversity in your life is one thing. I wouldn't ground it in "difficulties I had while preparing for the LSAT". How you frame it matters.

Re: PS topic advice!!?

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 8:37 pm
by k5220
First think about packaging your application as a whole - try to find 2 interesting, compelling things about yourself and weave those themes through your materials (I've heard you want at least 2 cause you don't want to be too one-dimensional). Your essay can pick up on one of those themes.

Then, within the larger package of marketing yourself using themes, the best advice I heard about picking a PS topic is to tell a good story. You want to show the admissions committee something about yourself that they want in applicants, and demonstrate with specific evidence that you have those qualities, not just tell them in abstract terms that you have them. Pick a story about yourself that shows that you have that kind of quality, and a story that you like telling.

How you overcame difficulties in applying to law school probably tells a story, but it probably doesn't fit into a very compelling theme unless the circumstances of the adversity you faced were more than just common first world problems. Hard to comment further without knowing what you're thinking of, but you might want to rethink