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actuallybasically wrote:This isn't even mentioning the sometimes-obscure material we studied, which we examined from an interdisciplinary viewpoint.

actuallybasically wrote:Maybe those 180 LSAT photographic-memory process-regurgitating NERDS will be the undoing of me. I don't know. But I do know that almost none of them could be as good an attorney as I can be.

actuallybasically wrote:Maybe all of this is for naught. Maybe I won't get in, maybe all the hundreds of thousands of middle- and upper-class 'straight' white kids with well-bolstered backgrounds will take the spots I might have otherwise gotten at a law school. Maybe those 180 LSAT photographic-memory process-regurgitating NERDS will be the undoing of me. I don't know. But I do know that almost none of them could be as good an attorney as I can be.

actuallybasically wrote:Rad Law... I really disagree with your negativity in this post. Did you know that Stetson is NUMBER ONE for litigation?

Look-- making a career for yourself with a law degree is UP TO YOU. It is not about regionality of a school or whatever. What I really cannot stand about so many people on these law school sites are how darn negative some of you can be. So condescending and just NEG-A-TIVE! If you can't go out and get in the kind of career you want to, on your OWN, without your school's connections, you are in trouble as a professional anyhow.

Stop being a Negative Nancy. Srsly!

disco_barred wrote:From another thread:

actuallybasically wrote:Rad Law... I really disagree with your negativity in this post. Did you know that Stetson is NUMBER ONE for litigation?

Look-- making a career for yourself with a law degree is UP TO YOU. It is not about regionality of a school or whatever. What I really cannot stand about so many people on these law school sites are how darn negative some of you can be. So condescending and just NEG-A-TIVE! If you can't go out and get in the kind of career you want to, on your OWN, without your school's connections, you are in trouble as a professional anyhow.

Stop being a Negative Nancy. Srsly!

What we have here is a grad-A troll...

manbearwig wrote:

disco_barred wrote:From another thread:

actuallybasically wrote:Rad Law... I really disagree with your negativity in this post. Did you know that Stetson is NUMBER ONE for litigation?

Look-- making a career for yourself with a law degree is UP TO YOU. It is not about regionality of a school or whatever. What I really cannot stand about so many people on these law school sites are how darn negative some of you can be. So condescending and just NEG-A-TIVE! If you can't go out and get in the kind of career you want to, on your OWN, without your school's connections, you are in trouble as a professional anyhow.

Stop being a Negative Nancy. Srsly!

What we have here is a grad-A troll...

I really don't think she's a troll. Just someone who's oblivious about law school and the application process.

actuallybasically wrote:Maybe I am just being a bit Pollyanna about all of this, but, it seems to me if I have a unique story and very strong case made in my personal statement, along with an undergraduate education specifically geared towards government, law, and policymaking, I have a really decent shot of getting into law school.

I just took my first (and only, hopefully) LSAT this February. Actually it was this past weekend. I think I got somewhere in the 150s range. I knew this test was not a strength of mine, and I stated in my applications before even taking the test that I went to an undergraduate institution which doesn't use ABCDF grades and standardized testing as a means of evaluation. Instead we have a system of self- and faculty evaluations of our performance. Then the professors decide how much credit we will receive for the work we did in a given quarter. My point is, testing under tightly-timed conditions is by no means my forte but to make up for that I am quite strong in my writing, communication, and also critical thinking skills BECAUSE I went to a school which focused on developing those attributes within its students. This isn't even mentioning the sometimes-obscure material we studied, which we examined from an interdisciplinary viewpoint. I am so happy I had a nonconventional education because I feel I know a whole lot about the world we live and and how it became the way it is that I might never would have otherwise known if I went to another school. I never had a professor who didn't know my name and personality, and I never had a classtime lecture with 100+ people. Thankfully.

Aside from my undergraduate education, I'm unique in the fact that I am part of a distinctly oppressed group in society. I made specific mention in my personal statements of how that affected my life and what I had done to resist the tides against me. Additionally I made the case of how I would be a groundbreaking pioneer if I was to attain a JD and actually do the type of work I wish to do with that degree. Actually all of the schools I have applied to (and I applied to 6-- again, am I being a Pollyanna?) have a JD-MA or LLM program in International Affairs or International Law so I specifically stated that I was applying to get two degrees. In other words, I wasn't just applying based on rankings, but was applying because of what the school OFFERED. I don't have the exact luxury of applying to 10-11-12-13-14 schools, because there just are not 14 schools that have a dual-degree program like I really want. Jeesh, I can't imagine how expensive that would be to apply to all of those schools! Before I decided to go to law school I was just going to apply for a Master's in International Affairs, but something clicked in me last Autumn and that all changed.

Maybe all of this is for naught. Maybe I won't get in, maybe all the hundreds of thousands of middle- and upper-class 'straight' white kids with well-bolstered backgrounds will take the spots I might have otherwise gotten at a law school. Maybe those 180 LSAT photographic-memory process-regurgitating NERDS will be the undoing of me. I don't know. But I do know that almost none of them could be as good an attorney as I can be.

...And then again, maybe all of you should be so fortunate as me to be an intersex, transgender-identified female (FOR ONCE it could help and not hurt me- hysterical). Going back to earlier in this post when I wrote about not being tested-- well, that is to say the least! I never took the SAT or ACT and I dropped out of high school in the 9th grade, despite being near the top of my class, because I couldn't take being harassed and beaten and called "[homophobic language redacted]" Monday through Friday anymore. That's right, folks-- I am a high school DROP-OUT who eventually got a GED at 18 years of age and then made it to the doorstep of law school. My unique circumstances and experience, laid out in the context of what I consider to be the all-important Personal Statement just might be the edge in getting me to the point of becoming the shark litigator that I know I can be :::rrraawwrrrr:::

Maybe, just maybe, 'trans' or 'high school dropout' are the magic keywords to law school. Try it and see?

((The point of this comical but narrative piece, in case you missed it, is to emphasize the importance of bringing out those things in your personal background which unmistakably set you apart in your Statements, during the application process))

((The point of this comical but narrative piece, in case you missed it, is to emphasize the importance of bringing out those things in your personal background which unmistakably set you apart in your Statements, during the application process))

BaiAilian2013 wrote:

actuallybasically wrote:Maybe those 180 LSAT photographic-memory process-regurgitating NERDS will be the undoing of me. I don't know. But I do know that almost none of them could be as good an attorney as I can be.

Burn. Shame on them for their patriarchal, oppressive, more-useful-than-yours cognitive strengths.

I try really hard not to be a jerk on TLS, so forgive me my weakness just this once.

betasteve wrote:Is this your manifesto?

Tofu wrote:

BaiAilian2013 wrote:

actuallybasically wrote:Maybe those 180 LSAT photographic-memory process-regurgitating NERDS will be the undoing of me. I don't know. But I do know that almost none of them could be as good an attorney as I can be.

Burn. Shame on them for their patriarchal, oppressive, more-useful-than-yours cognitive strengths.

I try really hard not to be a jerk on TLS, so forgive me my weakness just this once.

i certainly wouldn't mind being (or being called) a photographic-memory process-regurgitating NERD!

disco_barred wrote:From another thread:

actuallybasically wrote:Rad Law... I really disagree with your negativity in this post. Did you know that Stetson is NUMBER ONE for litigation?

Look-- making a career for yourself with a law degree is UP TO YOU. It is not about regionality of a school or whatever. What I really cannot stand about so many people on these law school sites are how darn negative some of you can be. So condescending and just NEG-A-TIVE! If you can't go out and get in the kind of career you want to, on your OWN, without your school's connections, you are in trouble as a professional anyhow.

Stop being a Negative Nancy. Srsly!

What we have here is a grad-A troll...

My unique circumstances and experience, laid out in the context of what I consider to be the all-important Personal Statement just might be the edge in getting me to the point of becoming the shark litigator that I know I can be :::rrraawwrrrr:::

actuallybasically wrote:Everyone- this is NOT a personal statement I submitted to any law school. I wrote this today.

Borhas wrote:If I were you I'd play up the transgendered aspect of your life, etc not just how you were oppressed, but how you overcame it and became a better person because of it, but you are going to do that anyway I hope. Just realize that a unique life isn't enough, you also need to write creatively, and succinctly. But even if you do that, your PS probably won't help THAT much.

Practice more for LSAT. LS admissions is a numbers game, it's not just, it's not fair, it doesn't measure your intelligence, it just is. So what if the LSAT is not what you are good at? Think of it as another obstacle to overcome.

scribelaw wrote:

Borhas wrote:If I were you I'd play up the transgendered aspect of your life, etc not just how you were oppressed, but how you overcame it and became a better person because of it, but you are going to do that anyway I hope. Just realize that a unique life isn't enough, you also need to write creatively, and succinctly. But even if you do that, your PS probably won't help THAT much.

Practice more for LSAT. LS admissions is a numbers game, it's not just, it's not fair, it doesn't measure your intelligence, it just is. So what if the LSAT is not what you are good at? Think of it as another obstacle to overcome.

If the LSAT is one thing, it's fair. It's a straightforward standardized test that anyone with the basic skills to be a decent law student can prepare for and get good at. There are no tricks. What wouldn't be fair is if law schools admitted people on whim, or tried to peer into the souls of people like the OP and divine that they are special snowflakes who would be better lawyers than people who actually studied for and performed well on the LSAT.

Also, these people who complain that the LSAT isn't a good judge because they don't do well under pressurized testing conditions -- what do you think law school is? And then BigLaw after that?

actuallybasically wrote:Everyone- this is NOT a personal statement I submitted to any law school. I wrote this today.

rad law wrote:

actuallybasically wrote:Everyone- this is NOT a personal statement I submitted to any law school. I wrote this today.

We are assuming that some of the ideas you touched on will be included in your PS. The point still stands that law school admissions is basically a numbers game and that life experience, while it may make you a better lawyer, will probably not give you a huge leg up for law admissions.