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I would bet at least some schools would ding you for it.

Not sure why you would do either of these things. You should just write a semi-interesting, non-plagiarized two page essay and not worry about it.

kumba84 wrote:Not sure why you would do either of these things. You should just write a semi-interesting, non-plagiarized two page essay and not worry about it.

im a firm believer that numbers speak for themselves, as evident in the incoming 1L class statics of all T-14s.

They might get a good laugh if you include all rap lyrics in place of your PS.

That is of course if they read your PS.

SandyC877 wrote:

kumba84 wrote:Not sure why you would do either of these things. You should just write a semi-interesting, non-plagiarized two page essay and not worry about it.

im a firm believer that numbers speak for themselves, as evident in the incoming 1L class statics of all T-14s.

This makes no sense. Schools taking high-LSAT/GPA applicants ≠ Schools taking all available high-LSAT/GPA applicants. Schools end up rejecting folks who have the same numbers as the people they accept. There are enough people applying to top law schools that those schools can reject the occasional total fuckup without hurting themselves in any way.

SandyC877 wrote:

kumba84 wrote:Not sure why you would do either of these things. You should just write a semi-interesting, non-plagiarized two page essay and not worry about it.

im a firm believer that numbers speak for themselves, as evident in the incoming 1L class statics of all T-14s.

DO IT. The worst that can happen is that you remove yourself from the competition.

not that I would do it, it just seems possible.

I vote for you doing it and then letting us know how it goes If it does work it'll be valuable knowledge for future applicants....

SandyC877 wrote:not that I would do it, it just seems possible.

Do it. You can report back on your findings to the rest of us. Be bold, be brave, be the test case!

kazu wrote:I vote for you doing it and then letting us know how it goes If it does work it'll be valuable knowledge for future applicants....

You honestly don't think that at least a few top schools, even those just outside T-14, would take me?

SandyC877 wrote:

kazu wrote:I vote for you doing it and then letting us know how it goes If it does work it'll be valuable knowledge for future applicants....

You honestly don't think that at least a few top schools, even those just outside T-14, would take me?

I didn't say that, I suppose there may be a few, it's just that nobody honestly knows which schools are the true numbers whores and which actually look at the applications "holistically". I guess I was being half-serious when saying that if you do decide to go ahead, the results will be valuable for the rest of us.

edited for typo...

vanwinkle wrote:

SandyC877 wrote:

kumba84 wrote:Not sure why you would do either of these things. You should just write a semi-interesting, non-plagiarized two page essay and not worry about it.

im a firm believer that numbers speak for themselves, as evident in the incoming 1L class statics of all T-14s.

This makes no sense. Schools taking high-LSAT/GPA applicants ≠ Schools taking all available high-LSAT/GPA applicants. Schools end up rejecting folks who have the same numbers as the people they accept. There are enough people applying to top law schools that those schools can reject the occasional total fuckup without hurting themselves in any way.

Exactly. They don't need one person all that bad.

Though if the OP ED'd at NU or UVA, they'd be in. Probably even if they repeatedly used the N word in their essays.

He should ED to UVA and just write watermelon 1000 times for his PS and see if he gets in.

Maybe if the poem was actually good.

SandyC877 wrote:

kumba84 wrote:Not sure why you would do either of these things. You should just write a semi-interesting, non-plagiarized two page essay and not worry about it.

im a firm believer that numbers speak for themselves, as evident in the incoming 1L class statics of all T-14s.

If you're a firm believer that numbers speak for themselves why write a risky PS that could possibly get you dinged from the best schools? A 176 with a 3.9 is great, but not so good that it will ensure acceptance into some schools if your PS is a pile of shit; or, even if they are, why tempt fate? I agree with the quote above. It seems odd that someone would work so hard to secure a 3.9 and 176 LSAT score only to jeopardize their chances by producing a risky or gimmicky PS. Then again I haven't read your PS, and maybe it very good, you'll have to be the judge of that.

.

SandyC877 wrote:If I have a 3.9/176 and wrote an auto-biographical style poem as a PS, would it hurt my chances? How about if I copy and paste an entry of Wikipedia. Would schools care?

if you want to test out your hypothesis, try it for schools with large classes that aren't known for yield protecting like nyu and georgetown. They're probably the schools where it's easiest to predict admissions decisions. some small schools may try to tailor their class in particular fashion and other schools may yield protect, so for these it would be harder to tell whether a rejected/waitlisted decision was do to these factors or a provocative PS.

jawsthegreat wrote:He should ED to UVA and just write watermelon 1000 times for his PS and see if he gets in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkF7Bj5cxJU

SandyC877 wrote:

kumba84 wrote:Not sure why you would do either of these things. You should just write a semi-interesting, non-plagiarized two page essay and not worry about it.

im a firm believer that numbers speak for themselves, as evident in the incoming 1L class statics of all T-14s.

i would say schools would totally care...at least a good number of schools in the T14

BUT on a more self-serving note, plz do it and tell us how your cycle turns out because this would be GREAT anecdotal evidence for or against schools being just numbers oriented lol

I wanted to see if I could write a PS that turned even Cooley off, but they don't even want a PS!

I also wanted to write a PS to Liberty about evolution, but the problem with a 2.8 GPA is that some really terrible schools might reject you just for the GPA. So I wouldn't know that it was because of the PS.

jawsthegreat wrote:He should ED to UVA and just write watermelon 1000 times for his PS and see if he gets in.

lol...this is pretty overt.
there are probably better ways for OP to go about testing his theory without seeming to admissions people like he's blantantly trying to undermine the admissions process.

vanwinkle wrote:

jawsthegreat wrote:He should ED to UVA and just write watermelon 1000 times for his PS and see if he gets in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkF7Bj5cxJU

I...what just happened?

From what I can gather, the majority opinion is that PS can hurt you, but it can't help you.

SandyC877 wrote:From what I can gather, the majority opinion is that PS can hurt you, but it can't help you.

I would think that for schools like Stanford or Yale, that have smaller bodies and are probably more selective about the "type" of student they admit, a good PS would definitely help. Your original question, will a terrible PS hurt a 3.9 / 176 applicant, didn't really ask whether good PSs can help your application, only whether a bad one could hurt.