RFOZ '22–'23

Take as much time as you need for the LSAT, start very early or reapply if you can/need to, and have faith in yourself! Only take the LSAT once you are getting practice scores that you would be happy with as official scores!!!!! <<<<<

Good luck!

Harvard Interview:
I am one of the few people who got rejected from Harvard after getting an interview lol. Harvard published stats from the 20-21 cycle and reported that 74% of interviewees were accepted, making me part of the bottom 26% (assuming the percentages are comparable this cycle). After reflecting more on how my interview went, I actually think it did not go all that well. It was not a bad interview by any means, but it had issues. For one, I think my answer for “why Harvard” could have been much stronger. Importantly, I think my answer lacked cohesion with my overall application. To be less stressed and to come off more “genuine” I didn’t really spend all that much time practicing my answers or writing notes to review before the interview. I think this also hurt me. I also gave a pretty weak answer to the “what can we expect from you as a student” question. I basically said I would participate a lot in class lmao. To my credit, I followed that answer with a much stronger response, but still, my first answer was pretty lame.

Chicago Interview:
After getting rejected from Harvard, I reviewed a lot more for my upcoming Chicago interview. I really reflected on the kind of narrative I had crafted for myself with my application. I drilled the following questions the day beforehand: “Why Chicago Law”, “Why Law now”, and “Why Chicago the city”. For Why Chicago Law and Why Chicago the City, I mentioned tangible qualities of Chicago Law (like their clinics for instance) before following with a more abstract response. I would finish my answer with how all of this tied into my professional goals.

ex) I want to go to chicago because it has great criminal law clinics –> but more importantly because I like the essence of the school and its community (described what made UChi as a law school completely unique and why that worked for me as an individual) –> then explaining how these qualities would aid the career I am trying to build for myself. IF you are someone who loves to learn for the sake of learning, absolutely say that in the interview and give an example. My interviewer mentioned how UChicago students love to learn for the sake of learning at least three times haha.

Despite me saying that it’s important to practice/review for interviews, do not write scripts, just understand the point that you are trying to get across and repeat that to yourself in a way that works for you (i.e. written form, verbally, etc).

I felt very confident after the UChi interview. I interviewed Friday, Mar 24th and was accepted Monday Mar 27th!

General Notes for Specific Applications:

Yale: Personal statement + Diversity Statement + 250 essay
I wrote my 250 essay on my undergrad honors thesis and how I had to confront challenging ideas that made me reconsider my position on things that I felt really strongly about.

Stanford: Personal statement + Diversity Statement + Who would you talk to and what would you ask + Library statement

UChicago: Personal statement + Diversity Statement

Columbia: Personal statement + Diversity Statement

Harvard: Personal statement + Diversity Statement

UPenn: Personal statement + Diversity Statement

NYU: Personal statement + Diversity Statement

UC Berkeley**:** Personal statement + Diversity Statement + Why UC Berkeley

UMichigan: Personal statement + Diversity Statement + Why UMichigan

I felt like my “Why UMichigan” essay was relatively weak. It was based on a template I used for my “Why UCI” and “Why UC Berkeley” essays which were probably more cohesive since I really emphasized my public interest motivation and how that connected to UCI and UCB. I think that made less sense for the UMichigan essay.

Duke: Personal statement + Diversity Statement
I did not write the “why Duke” essay. It was the last application I submitted on Feb 06 and I was not super excited about Duke at the time so I submitted my app without it. I expect to be waitlisted or rejected because of that. (I was correct, I was waitlisted April 25th haha)

Northwestern: Personal statement + Diversity Statement
I opted to not do the video interview when submitting my application. Based on my other results, I suspect that declining the interview had at least some impact on their decision to WL me. Main takeaway, if you are set on NW do the optional video interview!

Georgetown: Personal statement + Diversity Statement + Top 10 list
I wrote the top 10 list about the top 10 restaurants I would want to eat at if I studied in DC haha. Point is, that supplemental statement seems like it really is supposed to be a fun way to share your authentic self.

UCLA: Personal statement + Diversity Statement

UCI: Personal statement + Diversity Statement + Why UCI

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