The Official September 2017 Study Group Forum

[dj9i27]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

You need to stop worrying so much, your numbers are killer compared to mine and I'm going to make it out alive. My softs were garbage. But on the real, I had so few things to list and some schools only allow 1 page anyways, so my resume put my WE and other involvement in 1 section ordered by when I did them. I didn't do too much so I listed things that sounded good even if they were shortlived (i.e. some cool short term volunteer opportunities)

I have spent 6 months scrapping PSs because I think they sound stupid or my grammar is off everywhere. I am not entirely sure how to Personalize a PS either but that is a bridge to cross for the waiters time. I am so relying on my softs for any sort of money, I don't like this roll of the dice.

[oopsu812]

Happy Sunday, everyone. My cycle's going to go to complete hell because my softs are fucking terrible, my WE is shit, and my UG is not Harvard. Oh noez.

I don't even know what good softs are. Oh noez x2.

- Rhodes Scholarship
- Olympic Gold Medalist
- Tiffany Trump
- Win Nobel Prize

"Average" softs:
- President of at least 4 different student groups
- Founder of at least 3
- at least 4 different fancy internships, one of which is Goldman Sachs
- Hella legal work experience

TLS user Alexandros:
-
-

Lmao I can't tell if this is a joke or not, and that's a scary thought.

Mostly but not fully joking. Find some threads on it - It's scary. Like, I get that KJDs come here asking if founding or being pres of something is going to be some kind of huge admissions boost and obviously it's not, but atm my concern is getting shot down because, Jesus, I have an unimpressive resume. Honestly should've gunned way harder from day 1 in UG but, like I said, that shit can take serious time and energy.

Eh, I'd like to think that adcomms value longer term commitments... I'm not going to force myself to do things that I have 0 passion for just for the line on my resume. I also hope they know that international universities are really different from US ones, lol.

[Alexandros]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

You need to stop worrying so much, your numbers are killer compared to mine and I'm going to make it out alive. My softs were garbage. But on the real, I had so few things to list and some schools only allow 1 page anyways, so my resume put my WE and other involvement in 1 section ordered by when I did them. I didn't do too much so I listed things that sounded good even if they were shortlived (i.e. some cool short term volunteer opportunities)

I have spent 6 months scrapping PSs because I think they sound stupid or my grammar is off everywhere. I am not entirely sure how to Personalize a PS either but that is a bridge to cross for the waiters time. I am so relying on my softs for any sort of money, I don't like this roll of the dice.

I have no idea what to do for PS. Tried writing a few and just gave up for now, will come back to it when I actually have an idea about what to say. I've had such a boring mc white kid background I have no idea how to talk about myself or how to tie in 'why law' etc.

I know you're out of UG now but are there writing services you can utilize? I used what they have here for papers once or twice and they were quite helpful in pointing out tiny stylistic issues/grammatical errors I hadn't really noticed. I'm probably going to run them by there or something similar once I have something finalized.

[dj9i27]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

You need to stop worrying so much, your numbers are killer compared to mine and I'm going to make it out alive. My softs were garbage. But on the real, I had so few things to list and some schools only allow 1 page anyways, so my resume put my WE and other involvement in 1 section ordered by when I did them. I didn't do too much so I listed things that sounded good even if they were shortlived (i.e. some cool short term volunteer opportunities)

I have spent 6 months scrapping PSs because I think they sound stupid or my grammar is off everywhere. I am not entirely sure how to Personalize a PS either but that is a bridge to cross for the waiters time. I am so relying on my softs for any sort of money, I don't like this roll of the dice.

I have no idea what to do for PS. Tried writing a few and just gave up for now, will come back to it when I actually have an idea about what to say. I've had such a boring mc white kid background I have no idea how to talk about myself or how to tie in 'why law' etc.

I know you're out of UG now but are there writing services you can utilize? I used what they have here for papers once or twice and they were quite helpful in pointing out tiny stylistic issues/grammatical errors I hadn't really noticed. I'm probably going to run them by there or something similar once I have something finalized.

I have a circle of friends and family who have graduated from ivies in English who I use for spell&content check. I also think my career center will still review it (or I'll contract my UG friends to do sub out). I would just write something genuine because I feel like facadeness can be kind of seen through.

[Alexandros]

.

[chargers21]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

You need to stop worrying so much, your numbers are killer compared to mine and I'm going to make it out alive. My softs were garbage. But on the real, I had so few things to list and some schools only allow 1 page anyways, so my resume put my WE and other involvement in 1 section ordered by when I did them. I didn't do too much so I listed things that sounded good even if they were shortlived (i.e. some cool short term volunteer opportunities)

Dude if you TA'd in UG your softs are very good by my book (altho probably not TLS's)

and yeah I feel like I've donated the same-ish time/energy to student orgz and stuff as I have actual paid work so I'm trying to expand those areas a bit to make me sound more competent. Hopefully get some more volunteer work (hopefully legal-ish) this summer and then hopefully an internship or two after I graduate to flesh it out more.

Honestly I'm surprised by the soft factor sometimes. Like these things take a hell of a lot of time, and if you get involved in too much you're spending every afternoon/evening in meetings or volunteering at something and you can kiss that GPA goodbye. My softs are objectively almost null by law school standards, but I'm involved in way more than most of my friends are and definitely feel somewhat stretched sometimes as it is.

I was definitely on the fence at Chicago lol. But I did not write any full why X essays, until the one I'm currently writing for Texas after being solicited.

TAing wasn't too time consuming for 1 of the classes, but the other would have probably beeen a pain if I didn't have such an open schedule when I did it. Besides those, I mostly just worked every summer for the last 8 years for major companies in largely manual labor positions.

Regarding PS concerns, I wrote my first draft and then threw it away. Then I wrote my entire thing over with a new topic in about 8 hours, including editing and proofreading. Sent it out with my apps right afterwards and haven't looked back

[oopsu812]

Happy Sunday, everyone. My cycle's going to go to complete hell because my softs are fucking terrible, my WE is shit, and my UG is not Harvard. Oh noez.

I don't even know what good softs are. Oh noez x2.

- Rhodes Scholarship
- Olympic Gold Medalist
- Tiffany Trump
- Win Nobel Prize

"Average" softs:
- President of at least 4 different student groups
- Founder of at least 3
- at least 4 different fancy internships, one of which is Goldman Sachs
- Hella legal work experience

TLS user Alexandros:
-
-

Lmao I can't tell if this is a joke or not, and that's a scary thought.

Mostly but not fully joking. Find some threads on it - It's scary. Like, I get that KJDs come here asking if founding or being pres of something is going to be some kind of huge admissions boost and obviously it's not, but atm my concern is getting shot down because, Jesus, I have an unimpressive resume. Honestly should've gunned way harder from day 1 in UG but, like I said, that shit can take serious time and energy.

Eh, I'd like to think that adcomms value longer term commitments... I'm not going to force myself to do things that I have 0 passion for just for the line on my resume. I also hope they know that international universities are really different from US ones, lol.

Are they though lol?

I think so. Student associations and stuff like that are just not a big deal, and don't do much. The majority of the time there's only one person running for each position anyways. Nothing impressive about it. We also don't have crazy amounts of money pumped into the campus for things like clubs, greek life, sports, etc. In fact, our clubs have 0 funding now, and most of our sports teams have to fundraise like hell just to exist. It makes being a varsity athlete 0% attractive.

[Alexandros]

.

[dj9i27]

Every time Alex deletes a post, I'm positive he put his SSN up.

[Alexandros]

Every time Alex deletes a post, I'm positive he put his SSN up.

I accidentally posted 3 pics of my drivers licence and my LSAC account number, whoops.

[dj9i27]

Every time Alex deletes a post, I'm positive he put his SSN up.

I accidentally posted 3 pics of my drivers licence and my LSAC account number, whoops.

Honest mistake. Deleted not to provoke the overlords.

[Alexandros]

Protein pancakes, anyone?

[Rupert Pupkin]

Protein pancakes, anyone?

Loveeee PRotein pancakes

[studyingeveryday]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

I put WE separate from student org/volunteer stuff! I also put stuff that was only for a few months, experience is experience. I didn't personalize my PS but wrote why X essays for the schools I was really interested in.

*here even though I applied this cycle because I'm sad about the September 2016 waiters thread so I'll be following the discussion itt*

[Alexandros]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

I put WE separate from student org/volunteer stuff! I also put stuff that was only for a few months, experience is experience. I didn't personalize my PS but wrote why X essays for the schools I was really interested in.

*here even though I applied this cycle because I'm sad about the September 2016 waiters thread so I'll be following the discussion itt*

Thanks! That's how I've currently got it but we'll see. Finding it's hard to keep it to one page though.

Shh none of us got 200s so we're all retaking ITT, even the soon-to-be 1Ls.

[studyingeveryday]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

I put WE separate from student org/volunteer stuff! I also put stuff that was only for a few months, experience is experience. I didn't personalize my PS but wrote why X essays for the schools I was really interested in.

*here even though I applied this cycle because I'm sad about the September 2016 waiters thread so I'll be following the discussion itt*

Thanks! That's how I've currently got it but we'll see. Finding it's hard to keep it to one page though.

Shh none of us got 200s so we're all retaking ITT, even the soon-to-be 1Ls.

i just made mine two pages. i know some people have very strong opinions about this, but I asked a few schools and they were fine with it, so I decided to send two pages to all the schools I applied to!

i still feel like i need to retake i'm afraid this feeling will follow the rest of my life

[Alexandros]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

I put WE separate from student org/volunteer stuff! I also put stuff that was only for a few months, experience is experience. I didn't personalize my PS but wrote why X essays for the schools I was really interested in.

*here even though I applied this cycle because I'm sad about the September 2016 waiters thread so I'll be following the discussion itt*

Thanks! That's how I've currently got it but we'll see. Finding it's hard to keep it to one page though.

Shh none of us got 200s so we're all retaking ITT, even the soon-to-be 1Ls.

i just made mine two pages. i know some people have very strong opinions about this, but I asked a few schools and they were fine with it, so I decided to send two pages to all the schools I applied to!

i still feel like i need to retake i'm afraid this feeling will follow the rest of my life

Mmk. Did you add short descriptions for things? I don't want to make it excessively long by doing that but it helps flesh it out and say more about things.

I still have a stack of LSAT prep books on my desk to set my laptop on. I'll be 80 and still thinking about logic games.

[studyingeveryday]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

I put WE separate from student org/volunteer stuff! I also put stuff that was only for a few months, experience is experience. I didn't personalize my PS but wrote why X essays for the schools I was really interested in.

*here even though I applied this cycle because I'm sad about the September 2016 waiters thread so I'll be following the discussion itt*

Thanks! That's how I've currently got it but we'll see. Finding it's hard to keep it to one page though.

Shh none of us got 200s so we're all retaking ITT, even the soon-to-be 1Ls.

i just made mine two pages. i know some people have very strong opinions about this, but I asked a few schools and they were fine with it, so I decided to send two pages to all the schools I applied to!

i still feel like i need to retake i'm afraid this feeling will follow the rest of my life

Mmk. Did you add short descriptions for things? I don't want to make it excessively long by doing that but it helps flesh it out and say more about things.

I still have a stack of LSAT prep books on my desk to set my laptop on. I'll be 80 and still thinking about logic games.

Yeah, for important work/leadership experience I wrote a few lines, but for volunteer/shorter experiences, I made a section where I listed each position on one line but made sure to explain it so they knew what it was: ex. "volunteer in *NAME* community service group* as opposed to just listing the name of the organization. If it's not easy to understand our position just based on the name of the organization I think it's understandable we elaborate a bit. I personally would rather flesh it out and make it slightly longer (as long as it's still two pages) than risk them thinking ??? about an important experience.

I too still think about solving logic games just for fun, LG expert would also look quite nice on our resumes

[dj9i27]

why tf am I anxious about a test 6 months from now? Oh boy this better not be a sign.

[Alexandros]

Do y'all keep, like, student org involvement, volunteer stuff, and WE separate on your resume?
Also, if you did something for only like a few months, should you leave it off?
And did y'all personalize your PS for various schools?

I put WE separate from student org/volunteer stuff! I also put stuff that was only for a few months, experience is experience. I didn't personalize my PS but wrote why X essays for the schools I was really interested in.

*here even though I applied this cycle because I'm sad about the September 2016 waiters thread so I'll be following the discussion itt*

Thanks! That's how I've currently got it but we'll see. Finding it's hard to keep it to one page though.

Shh none of us got 200s so we're all retaking ITT, even the soon-to-be 1Ls.

i just made mine two pages. i know some people have very strong opinions about this, but I asked a few schools and they were fine with it, so I decided to send two pages to all the schools I applied to!

i still feel like i need to retake i'm afraid this feeling will follow the rest of my life

Mmk. Did you add short descriptions for things? I don't want to make it excessively long by doing that but it helps flesh it out and say more about things.

I still have a stack of LSAT prep books on my desk to set my laptop on. I'll be 80 and still thinking about logic games.

Yeah, for important work/leadership experience I wrote a few lines, but for volunteer/shorter experiences, I made a section where I listed each position on one line but made sure to explain it so they knew what it was: ex. "volunteer in *NAME* community service group* as opposed to just listing the name of the organization. If it's not easy to understand our position just based on the name of the organization I think it's understandable we elaborate a bit. I personally would rather flesh it out and make it slightly longer (as long as it's still two pages) than risk them thinking ??? about an important experience.

I too still think about solving logic games just for fun, LG expert would also look quite nice on our resumes

Great - That sounds like what I'm doing. Yeah, agree completely on the last bit - some of my stuff doesn't sound very impressive or it's not clear what I was doing so I feel like it makes sense to include a few notes.

[Alexandros]

why tf am I anxious about a test 6 months from now? Oh boy this better not be a sign.

Shh young DJ it will all be ok.

[dj9i27]

why tf am I anxious about a test 6 months from now? Oh boy this better not be a sign.

Shh young DJ it will all be ok.

It won't be. All my LORs will deny me and I'll go to Florida Costal at sticker because every school h8s me.

[Alexandros]

.

[dj9i27]

why tf am I anxious about a test 6 months from now? Oh boy this better not be a sign.

Shh young DJ it will all be ok.

It won't be. All my LORs will deny me and I'll go to Florida Costal at sticker because every school h8s me.

If u end up at Florida Coastal at schticker i will paypal u $500.

and you have two LoRs right now but one is a PhD candidate right?

Yes. I'm going to try and solicit 2 more Thursday, both went to schools in the T13 if that's worth anything.

[Alexandros]

.