As admissions consultants, we often hear college and graduate school applicants ask, “I’m applying to multiple schools, and each one requires essays/personal statements. Can I use the same essay for different schools?” Understandably, applicants want to maintain the quality of their essays and avoid burnout when having to write so many drafts. We can sympathize. Even better, though, we have some practical solutions for determining when and how to use an essay for more than one school. The good news is that what makes practical sense in terms of efficiency also makes sense in terms of quality – if you view the process as “adapting” rather than “reusing.” Reusing an essay more or less verbatim is very rarely advisable. On the other hand, the core content of some application essays – personal statements, in particular – includes information that is central to your candidacy and would naturally be relevant to share with multiple schools. And sometimes when you rework an essay/personal statement for additional applications, its quality improves as you reflect further and discover new subtleties.

So, if multiple schools ask similar questions, it’s logical to consider adapting some or perhaps even a significant portion of an essay you wrote for one program to fit another program’s prompt. One thing to keep in mind is that required essay lengths tend to differ from school to school, and your messaging will likely vary according to the nuances of each question. Most importantly, many application essays/personal statements demand some discussion of the specific program the candidate is applying to, so this content would certainly need to be revised for each school. 

When considering revising an existing essay for a different school, start by reading the new question out loud to make sure you clearly hear and understand exactly what the school is asking. Many times, an essay prompt will have more than one question within it, and you don’t want to overlook any of them and not deliver the information the admissions committee has requested. I also suggest highlighting key words in each school’s essay prompts and checking against them later in the review process to ensure that your essay touches on all the main points. Be guided first by the question and then, more broadly, by your understanding of the character of the school/program – and adapt your essay content accordingly.

Here are some additional tips to keep in mind when attempting to adapt an essay for one school into a submission for a different school: 

1. Create a list of the essays you need to submit and the qualities you wish to highlight in each one.

When juggling multiple essays/personal statements, consider using a spreadsheet to track each question, the school asking it, and which experiences, accomplishments, and skills you can associate with each question. This will help you see where you might be able to adapt one school’s essay for a different application.

2. If you do any name-dropping, always be sure to double-check the names!

Always check very carefully (and then check again) to make sure you have the correct school and resource names in your revised essay. You don’t want, for example, to refer to the University of Michigan in an essay you’re planning to submit to the University of Chicago. Sending an essay that discusses why you want to go to UPenn to the Yale adcom won’t be good for your chances of being admitted! And believe me, it happens.

3. Never simply cut and paste an entire essay, even if two schools have very similar questions.

As I noted earlier, some schools ask similar essay questions, but no two questions will ever be exactly alike. Whenever you are writing, adapting, or editing an essay/personal statement, keep the school you are writing for front and center in your mind. Tailor each essay as much as you can to discuss and apply to each program’s unique culture, personality, and “flavor.” And when you feel you are nearly done, reread the essay prompts and go back to those highlighted words to ensure that you have truly answered every question the adcom posed.

Do you need help writing (or adapting) your application essays? Could you benefit from an expert’s assistance in identifying the strongest elements of your experience and profile? Schedule a free consultation with an Accepted admissions expert. 

As the former executive director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and assistant dean of admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School and the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School, Kelly Wilson has 23 years’ experience overseeing admissions committees and has reviewed more than 38,000 applications for the MBA and master’s programs in management of information systems, computational finance, business analytics, and product management. Want Kelly to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources

• How an Admissions Committee Views Your MBA Work Experience
• Proving Character Traits in Your Essays
• Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose

The post Can You Use the Same Essays for Different Schools? appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

In today’s world, where everything moves at lightning speed, we’re constantly making fast decisions. 

This applies to admissions committees, too. The pressure of their job forces them to make very quick decisions about whose applications they will invest more time in and whose will merit only an obligatory but cursory review before being set aside. 

Their reality is one of managing an overwhelming volume of applications with limited time for review, so when you’re applying to business school, medical school, graduate school, or college, you must capture your reader’s attention with the very first lines of your essay. Your opening sentence cannot fall flat. It needs to pull your reader immediately into your narrative. Every word counts.  

Engaging Your Readers Right From the Start

Think of your essay’s first line as the opening of a great novel. You want your reader to think, “I need to know more!” Let’s take a look at some good examples:

• Horns blare as tiny auto rickshaws and bicycle-powered school buses weave through the crowded streets of Old Delhi.
• After a near disaster on my first week as a case manager at a community center for women and children, I realized that to succeed, I’d have to suppress my anger at how poorly things were being run.
• My aunt’s cancer had spread throughout her body before anyone had diagnosed it properly – too late for treatment. That moment changed everything for me, making my interest in science personal.
• From the age of seven, while struggling with math but excelling in spelling tests and writing stories, I knew I was meant to be a writer.

Notice a trend? Three out of these four openers are personal stories. There’s no mention of GPAs or scientific breakthroughs. The first example is so vibrant and full of action that we instantly want to know who’s experiencing this scene. In each case, the reader’s curiosity is piqued, and that’s what you want. 

A strong opener will include three key elements:

1. A glimpse of your theme or story – who you are, what you’re passionate about, and the path you’re on
2. Creative details or descriptions – something that paints a picture and grabs attention
3. Energetic writing – language that makes the reader feel like they can’t stop until they’ve read the entire essay

Your opening should show a connection between where you’ve been and where you’re heading. Here are a few more examples:

• It was pitch black when we quietly climbed into the back of a truck, beginning our journey to freedom.
• Only six months after launching my start-up, I realized the money wasn’t flowing in – just out the window.
• Finding a green, scratched 1960s Cadillac in a junkyard last summer made me realize that mechanical engineering was my calling.

These lines pull you in. You can’t help but want to know the rest of the story. When done right, these kinds of personal anecdotes don’t just offer facts – they paint a picture, making your story more real and engaging.

Having read these examples, you might now have some ideas for your own essay introduction. Start by jotting down some key moments in your life that helped shape your career or academic goals. Maybe it was a job experience, a family event, or a “light bulb” moment that made you realize what you wanted to do.

For example, an electrical engineering applicant might remember the first time their home lost power and realize that that was the moment they discovered their career path. A future MBA student might recall a pivotal time when they helped a struggling person understand financial basics, which sparked their interest in nonprofit work. A law school applicant might recount witnessing a courtroom scene during an internship that inspired them to specialize in criminal law.

Once you’ve created a list of these defining moments, dig deeper. What stood out about each one? How did it make you feel? What sensory details can you include (what did you see, hear, or smell)? These tiny details will help you build a narrative that draws your reader in.

Still struggling to find that perfect hook? Our team of experts is here to help! We can guide you through crafting an essay that stands out, from brainstorming a compelling opening line to polishing the final draft. You’ve got a great story to tell. Let’s make sure the admissions committee doesn’t miss it.

Kara Keenan Sweeney has more than 15 years of experience in MBA admissions, having worked for some of the world’s top business school programs, including Columbia Business School, INSEAD, and The Lauder Institute’s joint degree MA/MBA program with The Wharton School and the MA/JD program with Penn Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Kara has guided, coached, and counseled thousands of MBA and EMBA applicants, reviewed innumerable applications, sat on admissions committees, and interviewed countless applicants, including while running Wharton’s Team Based Discussions both virtually and in person. Want Kara to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources

• The Resilience Factor: How Flaws and Failures Can Strengthen Your Application
• Three Must-Have Elements of a Good Statement of Purpose
• Proving Character Traits in Your Essays 

The post Writing an Engaging Essay Introduction appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

It’s the time of year for acceptances – and waitlists. But getting waitlisted is a positive thing, right? All things considered, it is. It shows that the admissions committee recognizes the strengths in your application. Unfortunately, though, getting waitlisted can be mentally more difficult than being rejected, because you find yourself in limbo. What can you expect without a firm “yes” or “no” status? And what should you do in the meantime to maximize your chances of ultimately being accepted? It’s never a sure thing, but here, we offer five tips to improve your chances of getting off the waitlist with an offer in hand.

1. Take stock of your weaknesses.

Think about what you believe the flaws in your candidacy are before you take any further steps. You need to be honest with yourself, but don’t start imagining weaknesses where they don’t exist. As difficult as it is to hear, the admissions process sometimes comes down to numbers, and there aren’t as many spots available as there are qualified applicants. With any shortcoming you identify, ask yourself what you have done to mitigate it and then share this information with the school – but make sure to focus on your takeaways and improvements, not your flaws, when drafting your letter of continued interest (see tip #2). 

2. Submit a letter of continued interest.

Every communication you have with the school at this point should highlight an update or recent achievement that is not mentioned in your application, and you should reiterate your interest in the school. You don’t want to flood the admissions office with calls or essays, but a well-written letter (sent via email) can explain what you are doing (or have done) to mitigate your weaknesses, spotlight your accomplishments, and reaffirm both your interest in the program and your reasons for having applied there. Schools want to know that the applicants they accept from the waitlist are truly committed and will actually attend.

3. Proofread all communications with the school!

You don’t want to send any correspondence that’s sloppy, rambling, or filled with errors. This is your last chance to make a good impression, and you don’t want to blow it by being messy.

4. Remember that the waitlist process is a marathon, not a sprint.

A law school’s waitlist process generally begins after its deposit deadlines and can last until the first day of orientation – from April to August. There’s a reason it is called the waitlist. Be prepared to sit tight. And remember that patience is a virtue.

5. Don’t be a stalker.

Do not write or call the admissions office every day. Once you’ve submitted your letter of continued interest, prepare a schedule of correspondence, reaching out to the school approximately once a month. Make sure to follow any guidance the admissions committee gives for how, and how often, to be in contact. When you write to the school, mention anything new that has occurred since you filed your LSAC application or since your previous outreach, such as a new honor, a new internship, a new job, or a promotion. Every correspondence you have with the admissions office should concern a timely update, so don’t feel compelled to write a letter just because “it’s time.” It’s typically better to say nothing at all than to write just for the sake of writing. 

If you are ultimately not accepted to your dream school, you might want to consider starting your studies at a different school and then transferring. If the LSAT or the timing of your application was the problem this year, and you’re able to take a year off and reapply with a new score or earlier in the cycle, go for it.

Being waitlisted at the school of your dreams is undoubtedly frustrating, but it can also be an opportunity! Contact us to schedule a free consultation and learn how Accepted can help you strategically navigate the waitlist process. We can assist you in writing a great letter of continued interest and answer any questions you might have about positioning yourself to get accepted!

Daniel Waldman is a graduate of Harvard Law School and an experienced law school admissions consultant with a background in corporate income tax and large-scale securitization taxation issues.

Related Resources

• The 9 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make on a Law School Waitlist
• Law School Selectivity Index
• So You Didn’t Get into Law School…

The post Five Tips to Get You Off a Law School’s Waitlist appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

A speaker recently told a story about traveling in Asia, where he saw a stunning emerald. Enchanted by the stone’s beauty, he decided to buy it on the spot.

He returned home and took the emerald to a jeweler for appraisal. The jeweler began examining the stone through his magnifier, and as he did so, his face went pale.

“What’s the matter?” asked the proud owner of the emerald.

“I can’t find a flaw,” said the jeweler.

“Wonderful!” said the stone’s owner.

“No, it’s not. If it’s flawless, it’s a fake. A phony. Nothing in the natural world is flawless,” replied the jeweler.

“Then find a flaw!”

After a few more tense moments, the jeweler discovered a small flaw, and the owner of the stone stopped worrying that he had been taken in by a piece of plastic masquerading as a gem.

What does this have to do with admissions? Just this: When the adcoms ask you to write about a flaw or weakness in your essays, and you either fail to offer any or the ones you come up with sound like you are just checking a box – mentioning something vague and generic and not of much significance – you will seem like a fake in their eyes.

Everything in nature has an imperfection or two (or three), including human beings. Don’t misunderstand: we’re not suggesting that you talk about every weakness you know you have and say, “This is me. Take it or leave it.”

But if you have learned and grown from your weaknesses or succeeded in overcoming obstacles, you are well positioned to flip those shortcomings into strengths in your essays. It takes honest self-reflection, a desire to improve, and hard work to break an unhealthy habit, pattern, or way of thinking. The ability to demonstrate self-awareness by working to minimize your flaws and develop new skills or talents to compensate for weaknesses will prove your maturity while also building your resilience. These are qualities that adcoms especially want to see these days. 

How Failures and Flaws Can Build Resilience 

Recently, we worked with a client who was applying to MBA programs and had once made the type of mistake that could have not only gotten him fired but also destroyed a lucrative business relationship between his employer and a major customer. 

Here’s the story: “Sami” was working in an analytics department and played a role in the incorrect interpretation of some key data. This incorrect reading led his employer to recommend a business strategy to the firm’s customer that was the exact opposite of what it should have been. What a disaster! Sami didn’t discover this catastrophic error until after the new strategy had been implemented. 

He could have watched from afar as the strategy failed and things fell apart. Instead, he came clean and waited for the blowback. Sami expected the worst and nearly began clearing out his desk.  

Instead, he was rewarded for his integrity, despite the risk to his reputation. Not only did he keep his job, but the relationship between his employer and the firm’s customer actually flourished. This experience clearly positioned Sami to write about a “failure” and the lessons he learned about owning up to one’s mistakes and accepting responsibility. He didn’t look smaller because of his mistake – his stature grew because of his honesty.  

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”

Essay questions that ask you to discuss failure, risk, mistakes, conflict, difficult interactions, or overcoming obstacles often make applicants cringe. After all, you’re on a mission to show the admissions committee that you are on top of your game and ready to conquer the world. The last thing you want to do is call attention to the details of when and where you’ve fallen short. 

As Sami’s experience proves, however, questions about failure provide a window into your character. How resilient are you in the face of a setback? How did you respond to the situation? Did you shrink from the impact of your actions, or did you muster the courage to try to set things right, as best as you could, under the circumstances? What did you learn about yourself, about the world of business, about relationships, and/or about communication? What wisdom did you gain that you have applied in your life since then? Can you show convincingly that you view your stumble as an inevitable, vital, even transformative step on the road to achievement?

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” So take heart: Writing about your flaws and setbacks is an opportunity for you to shine by showing your humility, commitment to growth, and determination to apply the lessons learned. Reading about your setbacks allows the admissions committee to understand what you’re really made of. 

Follow these four steps to transform your setbacks into achievements:

1. Demonstrate how your failure led to success.

The mistake you made might have led you to discover a new idea, strategy, or invention that you otherwise would not have discovered. Or, it might have given you the determination to strengthen your skills or knowledge base. It’s hardly a secret that some of the most successful entrepreneurs failed before achieving remarkable results. The late Steve Jobs was famously terminated from his own company before Apple became a household name. James Dyson created thousands of faulty, nonfunctional prototypes before patenting his best-selling vacuum. So, why do we forget the silver linings of these legendary failures when confronted with our own mistakes?

Be specific when you present your examples. A mistake you made in the lab might have cost you weeks of work. However, as a result, you learned something important about lab techniques, and now you’ve adopted more fastidious research practices. If you are discussing a personal failure, maybe you neglected an important relationship to the point where the relationship died. Feeling this loss keenly, you now make a point of treating people with greater respect. 

When writing about professional or personal failures and lessons learned, you cannot simply claim that you’ve changed without citing evidence. Clearly spell out what you learned and how you have changed. Offer true, believable examples of times when you behaved differently – more purposefully and sensitively – as a way of investing more deeply and wisely in your relationships.

2. Show that you truly understand why something went wrong.

Explaining what went wrong is only half the game in these essays. You must also explain why it went wrong. Doing so will show the adcom that you have taken time to really think about and reflect on your role in the situation and your understanding of the dynamics that led to the problem. Don’t play the blame game. Explain the process you went through to get real answers and solutions. Relate some of the steps you have taken to avoid making similar mistakes since. Perhaps you caught yourself about to repeat the mistake but realized that impulse was not the “new you” and saved yourself from making the error again.

Let’s look at an example. You pushed your colleagues hard to complete a work project, but your hard-driving nature made them resent you, and with no benefit to the project. Having realized your mistake – even though your sole intention was to get the job done on time – perhaps you could write about the focused attention you now pay to your colleagues’ suggestions, efforts, and capabilities. In other words, from that error, you have learned to turn lemons into lemonade. Offer at least one specific example of how your efforts have paid off.

3. Focus on what you’ve learned on a personal level.

Mature applicants view and consider situations and people differently – and make decisions more deliberately – after making mistakes. Prove that you are this kind of applicant. As the philosopher Plutarch stated, “To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.” Show how you grew by, for example, taking a course in time management to become better at effectively juggling all your responsibilities, starting therapy to help with your anxiety when work pressure feels overwhelming, or another significant step forward.

Add power to your explanations by describing “before and after” situations: the “before” stressed-out, not-well-organized person staying up till 3 a.m. to get everything done and delivering haphazard work, and the “after” person practicing time-management and mindfulness skills, and coping with responsibilities more calmly, deliberately, and competently. Demonstrating these changes through real-life examples presents you as more grown-up and emotionally intelligent. And you can bet the admissions committee wants to see these valuable traits.

4. Show the adcom how you’ve become more resilient.

“Resilience” has become a cliche, but it’s critical to appreciate the concept: it is the building of inner strength and fortitude in the face of conflict, pain, or disappointment. Successful adults must be resilient to cope with life’s rocky patches. Naturally, colleges and universities want to see evidence that you have this important quality. 

Earlier in this article, we said that a weakness or failure could be flipped into a strength, given the right attitude and effort. Similarly, a weakness can also be the flip side of a strength. For example, perhaps your tendency to be “too detail oriented” resulted in your discovering a critical error before it triggered a larger problem. Identifying your weakness and giving it careful thought might have prompted you to take steps to correct or minimize it.

Be thoughtful in your responses to questions about weakness or failure, and don’t shy away from them. Successful leaders must have honesty and integrity as part of their DNA and be able to identify and admit to failures and weaknesses. 

Nobody’s perfect, but a “perfect” answer to questions about flaws and failures just might get you admitted! To make sure your essays reflect you at your best, work with us. Every consultant at Accepted has years of experience in admissions and guiding applicants to gain coveted acceptances at top schools worldwide. Let them do the same for you!

Dr. Sundas Ali has more than 15 years of experience teaching and advising students, providing career and admissions advice, reviewing applications and conducting interviews for the University of Oxford’s undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, Dr. Ali has worked with students from a wide range of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Want Sundas to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources

• From Example to Exemplary: How to Use Sample Essays to Make Your Essay Outstanding!, a free guide
• Three Ways Writing About Obstacles Strengthens Your Application Essays
• Writing a Compelling Accomplishment Essay

The post The Resilience Factor: How Flaws and Failures Can Strengthen Your Application appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

When you write an application essay or statement of purpose, you’re trying to establish your worthiness for acceptance at your target school. And as part of that task, you need to show the adcom that you have the character traits their program values. But how do you prove in a written essay that you really are a person of good character, as well as smart, determined, focused, capable, and creative – without bragging? 

Show, Don’t Tell 

You’ve heard this from writing instructors many times: “Show, don’t tell.” That’s the rule here, too. “Telling” results in boastful claims, such as “I was considered among the smartest in my department,” “I’m a team player,” and “I have the maturity of someone much older.” And when candidates make these kinds of statements without backing them up with real examples, they sound hollow.  

In contrast, “showing” illustrates the personal characteristics you want to convey in a much more compelling way. By sharing selected experiences with the adcom that highlight your fantastic character and professional qualities, you’ll make a far more convincing case. 

Incorporate Real Stories

In this essay example from a law school applicant, we see how the narrative he tells reveals his character:

Driving home from a busy day at work as general manager of our family’s signage and graphics company, I received a text message from the director of a local, small, post-collegiate Talmudic academy. The director was going out of town in a few days and asked me if I would give his class on the Talmud in his absence. The class is given every day at 6 a.m., before prayer, to a group of men dedicated to studying this body of Jewish civil and criminal law. At only 21 years old, I felt honored to be asked to stand in for a man of his stature. Studying and teaching the Talmud is one of my favorite activities, and I gladly accepted. Now, in less than 12 hours, I must be ready to teach the next day’s topic. I’d be up late preparing. 

Right out of the gate, we learn that this candidate manages a family business and was tapped to substitute teach a high-level class on the Talmud. These simple facts with no embellishment establish that his character traits include responsibility, reliability, and the ability to teach sophisticated legal concepts.  

In the next paragraph, he explains the relevance of this subject matter, suggesting a link between the study of ancient Jewish law and modern-day law: 

I spent many years poring over the Talmud. Though codified in the 7th century, its exacting, sometimes tedious, arguments, legal theory, and decisions apply even in modern life. Jewish law applies to most facets and situations of our everyday lives. For example, there are laws, and nuances within laws, governing proper speech, business ethics, and obligations to honor parents, teachers, and elders. 

In the next paragraph, he connects the dots between his work in the family business and his aspirations in law. The attention to detail required in his job feels relevant to the practice of law and its endless details: 

I’ve learned many invaluable skills: project and time management, creative thinking, customer service, and leadership. I have had to develop extra attention to detail, particularly because of the customized nature of nearly all our jobs and because one of my duties is to make sure we are in compliance with the very strict signage codes in Santa Monica as well as the City of Los Angeles. Additionally, I review the signage criteria and create a “permit package” for the city, after which we hope to obtain the permit without too much bureaucratic aggravation. 

He also discusses a part-time job he had at an employment law firm, which illustrates his commitment to readying himself for law school. This section builds from a strong foundation that has convincingly revealed his broad-based personal character traits, becoming tightly focused on how he has gained a basic orientation into the workings of a law practice: 

Because it is a small practice, I was able to speak directly with clients, send out personnel requests, and draft documents required before, during, and after litigation. Although I enjoyed learning about the various stages of the civil litigation process and had an excellent experience, I also learned that I don’t foresee myself practicing civil litigation. Instead, I hope to work as a regulatory and corporate compliance specialist in the context of commercial real estate and mergers and acquisitions.

The applicant concludes by explaining his particular interest in the law school to which he is applying, pointing to its outstanding reputation, large local alumni base, employment rate of more than 80% for the most recent graduating class, and emphasis on practical legal theory:

One civil litigation attorney I met – at a World Series party – told me (during a commercial break) that Loyola’s hands-on training and practical approach prepared him for his career better than he could have imagined, and he found a job within a week of graduating.

This essay effectively models our “show, don’t tell” advice. By the end of the essay, the reader cannot help but be impressed with the applicant’s personal character traits, which he has illustrated by providing examples, not simply making claims. 

Now, let’s look at an equally strong essay, in which the candidate is asked to discuss a time when she was a team player. This is a valuable trait for just about any career and especially important for aspiring MBAs. Good examples would be times when you came up with a creative compromise to a problem over which your coworkers/teammates were deadlocked, offered to take on additional responsibilities at work or on a school or club project when everyone else was overloaded, or asked your supervisor what you could do to add more value to your department. 

For this applicant, the challenge was even bigger, as we see at the opening (Note: This essay appears in MBA Admission for Smarties, by Linda Abraham and Judy Gruen, pages 93-94.):

I arrived in Chicago in the summer of 20__ as tech lead to revamp the website of a large chain of hotels. My company, Bright Zone (a pseudonym), was in an uncommon position as a subcontractor to a management consultancy. I discovered that my coworkers’ morale had been falling for the past four months, a casualty of negative attitudes and the widely perceived incompetence of the previous firm that had been hired for the website overhaul, which had ended in disaster. I had been hired to direct development, but that was like putting out small brush fires when the whole forest was burning. I pursued team unification.

Right off the bat, we learn that this candidate has formidable tech abilities, having been asked to revamp a failed website overhaul. Second, her observations about low morale among her coworkers reveal her emotional intelligence and sensitivity.  

In the next paragraph, she starts proving her commitment to her team and to the success of this huge engagement. Notice the thought process that sparked her idea to invite the team out for social dinners after hours: 

I theorized that if people enjoyed being with each other socially, it would be harder to vilify each other at work. Over many dinners, the other techs under my supervision, as well as the consultants, seemed to begin to actually like each other and began trusting my recommendations.

Moving her story forward, she pinpoints the main perpetrator of the negativity. Barry is not only very senior to her but also her friend. Yet his severe antagonism toward the client forces her to overstep her normal boundaries, and she convinces her firm’s vice president and company chairman to take action:

My friendship with Barry complicated this dynamic, but I believed that for my team to succeed, we had to purge toxicity. After two weeks of meetings and interventions, he was fired. With Barry’s negativity removed, my social activities began to have a dramatic impact. We became a true team, as the other consulting company now trusted us and gave us broad influence with the client. In moving beyond a tech lead’s responsibilities, I helped build a multimillion-dollar strategic account.

Let’s recap the specifics the writer offers here: inviting team members for meals, talking privately with key players, and pushing to remove a toxic team member from the mix. These decisive actions all illustrate her maturity and her ability to assess the situation, take risks for the sake of the team, and earn her success on the other side. 

Demonstrate Action

Whether you want to reveal creativity, intelligence, dedication, commitment to social action, or anything else, make sure that you offer specific examples of times when you actively displayed the trait in question – rather than simply claiming in a vague and unconvincing manner that you possess it. Your actions will make the case for you.

Our consultants have many years of experience guiding applicants to admission with compelling, detailed, and story-filled essays. Are you ready to join the ranks of our numerous accepted clients? Explore our Admissions Consulting and Editing Services, and learn how we can help you create a winning application essay that highlights your greatest character traits, ones that will get you noticed and accepted at your top-choice program.

Dr. Sundas Ali has more than 15 years of experience teaching and advising students, providing career and admissions advice, reviewing applications and conducting interviews for the University of Oxford’s undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, Dr. Ali has worked with students from a wide range of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Want Sundas to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources:

• Revise and Polish Your Application Essays
• Three Ways Writing About Obstacles Strengthens Your Application Essays
• Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Grad School Statement of Purpose, a free guide

The post Proving Character Traits in Your Essays appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Your law school application provides the admissions committee with the narrative of your life, and the resume you submit with your application serves as a great starting point for telling your story. In this post, we explain three “musts” to keep in mind when creating your resume that will help you make it as effective as possible.

1. Always follow the school’s instructions.

As with every aspect of your law school application, you want to follow the application instructions explicitly when preparing your resume. If the admissions committee asks you to limit your resume to one page, for example, or to use a certain font size, make sure to do exactly that and submit a one-page resume with the requested font size. Disregarding the school’s specifications will not reflect well on you, potentially implying a lack of attention to detail, or worse. 

2. Don’t leave any gaps.

On your law school application resume, you should generally present your entire professional experience from the beginning of your undergraduate career to the current date. Do not include references to positions you had in high school. If you are applying to law school directly from college, you might be tempted to mention the wonderful awards you won and lifeguarding positions you had before college, but fight that impulse. 

Include all part-time, full-time, paid, and unpaid endeavors from your first year of college until the point of application. Do not leave any gaps. If you traveled during the summer between your sophomore and junior year rather than holding a job, that’s great, but you still need to account for that time on your resume. Committees want to understand how you have spent all your time, as do bar examiners. Why are we concerned about bar examiners at this point? They will have access to your law school application and will hold you accountable for all the information provided. This means that in three and a half years, when you’re applying for the bar, examiners might ask you to explain what you were doing for the two months in the summer of 2023 that you didn’t cover on your application resume. It’s easier to answer those questions proactively now.

3. Understand that it’s okay to list positions you’ve held outside of law.

Committees are not looking for law-specific work experience only. If you do not have a job as a paralegal, that is okay. I have seen flight attendants, bartenders, and firefighters admitted to law school and do quite well. When listing any work experience on your resume, be sure to provide ample detail about your responsibilities. You also want to emphasize any leadership roles you have held and highlight jobs and tasks that demonstrate your communication skills. In addition, you can include interests and activities that you enjoy in your free time. For example, do you like to learn new languages, run marathons, bake, or play video games? Let the admissions committee know! Schools are interested in understanding how you balance your life and work. Do you have an outlet that could assist you in managing the stress of law school? Although having a hobby or outside interest is not a prerequisite for admission, it can provide depth and context, thereby enriching your application.

If you’d like to see an example of a good law school admissions resume, check out this sample resume.

Daniel Waldman is a graduate of Harvard Law School and an experienced law school admissions consultant with a background in corporate income tax and large-scale securitization taxation issues.

Related Resources:

• 5 Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Law School Personal Statement, a free guide
• Why Is Writing Your Law School Personal Statement So Difficult?
• Getting into Law School: What You Need to Know When You Start the Process, a free guide

The post Three Musts for Your Law School Application Resume appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Maybe you’re familiar with the concept of macros, which are the nutrients your body needs to function. Achieving the proper balance of macros in your diet leads to optimal health. When it comes to writing your MBA personal statements and application essays, it might be helpful to think of your accomplishments as the macros that can make your submissions the best they can be. A fascinating discussion among Accepted’s admissions consultants revealed that MBA applicants don’t always understand how the adcoms define an accomplishment, so we wrote this post to help remove the guesswork on your part. Here are the kinds of accomplishments you should strive to include in your essay:

• Examples of impact and initiative
• Evidence of having overcome obstacles
• Demonstrated leadership

Examples of Impact and Initiative

In your accomplishment essay, offering examples of when you have had an impact and/or took initiative are what will show the adcoms that you have the “right stuff,” that you have had a meaningful influence on a person, organization, or entity.

For example, maybe you proactively stepped up to boost membership in a group or to lead a team to victory. Perhaps you built a coalition in student government. Or you might have increased sales, cut costs, or found a solution to a problem that paved the way for a critical deal to go forward.

When you are assessing whether an achievement belongs in an essay about your greatest accomplishments, consider the level of impact it had and/or initiative it demonstrates. 

You might now be wondering whether awards count. It depends. If you won an award for a story you wrote that was published, your performance in an athletic competition, or some other “personal best,” then yes, those would be excellent choices for an essay about a personal achievement. More often, however, you will be asked to write about a significant achievement that involves impact beyond your own personal growth. In these situations, an award that would be appropriate to write about would be one that resulted from an effort – either academic or professional – that involved a team or people other than yourself. This is the kind of achievement that transcends a “personal best.”  

By now, you can probably see the difference between a primarily personal achievement and a career-related one. And you might already recognize some of your accomplishments that would be notable enough to write about. 

A good place to find potential experiences for your accomplishments essay is by reviewing your resume. Ideally, it will be loaded with quantifiable achievements, from both your professional and extracurricular roles. If you work in marketing and clinched four new accounts in a single year, leading to a promotion, that’s an achievement. If you work for a social service agency and developed a new intake system for clients that the agency adopted, leading to a more organized and streamlined process, that’s an achievement. In college, you might have been involved in a student organization that promotes career development and leadership among minority students, and even became president of that organization. That’s an achievement.

Which experiences on your resume stand out to you now? No doubt you’ll start to see things popping out at you.

Seemingly small achievements can actually be big. The following sample essay offers a great example of an impact that initially seems limited to one person but that ultimately radiates outward: 

From the first day I was tasked with mentoring a new hire, Thomas, it was a challenge. He had strong work experience in product development from his previous job, but he was soft-spoken and reserved, and had a strong stutter. I felt pain for him as he struggled to complete a word or a sentence, but it was also awkward for both of us as I waited for him to finish his point. During a department meeting, someone actually rolled her eyes as Thomas was answering a question. I just glared at her for being so cold. At our weekly department lunches, which were meant to be a relaxed social time for everyone, Thomas hung back quietly, seeming like he was a million miles away. 

I didn’t understand why Thomas seemed a little slow to catch on to the ways of our department. He was clearly very intelligent. It was taking longer for me to complete my own work because of the extra time I was spending with him on his assignments. One afternoon on a whim, I invited him to join me for dinner at a popular burger place. He looked surprised but agreed.

That night broke the ice. Thomas relaxed and enjoyed his dinner, and I noticed his speech was more fluid. We discovered a mutual love of soccer and political thriller novels. I really enjoyed his company and told him so. We went out again the following week to an Italian place that he chose. On our third “date,” Thomas opened up about a broken engagement that happened just before he started this new job. He was aware that his grief was distracting him, clouding his thinking, and making his stutter worse. 

“I know I’ve not been easy to train,” he told me, “but I’m starting to come out of it now.” After that night, Thomas’s work improved rapidly. He risked speaking up more at the weekly lunches and at meetings, and everyone was patient when he struggled to say something, though those occasions were less frequent. 

I consider this mentoring experience one of my greatest accomplishments, because in trying to befriend a coworker, I not only gained a true friend for myself but also helped him gain confidence and perform to his capacity at work. It was the first time in my life I felt I had such a strong and positive impact on another person. It showed me the power of small gestures of friendship and understanding. 

This writer’s decision to offer a listening ear to a coworker who was clearly in some sort of distress became an inspiring achievement that was both personal and professional. His actions had impact that flowed outward beyond just Thomas to the entire department and organization. 

Evidence of Having Overcome Obstacles

Showing the adcom that you have , such as a lack of resources (e.g., time, money, talent, people), magnifies your accomplishments. Our best-laid plans rarely go smoothly, so make sure you discuss any difficulties you faced. Be aware that obstacles can often work “double-duty,” not only by representing a setback that you experienced and found a way to navigate, but also by showing that you emerged from the experience wiser and more capable. When discussing obstacles, never blame other people or circumstances, or complain about the unfairness of the situation. Pointing fingers makes you look small and as though you are trying to avoid accountability. State the facts simply, and the situation will speak for itself. 

Here’s an example of how one applicant dealt with a significant obstacle: 

My book launch had been planned for nearly one year. This was my first book, a biography about my great-grandmother, a trailblazing homeopathic physician who lived at a time when even regular women MDs were a rarity. I wanted to self-publish but knew there was a huge amount of work involved that I didn’t feel suited for. There was editing, design, layout, marketing, getting the book accepted into the book distribution system, logistics, and more. Most published books are quickly forgotten and sell few copies. I didn’t want that to happen to mine. 

My solution was to sign an agreement with my friend Haley to publish my book. She was a talented graphic artist who had set up her own publishing company to publish her husband’s book. Our agreement spelled out our individual financial obligations and responsibilities, but I had a nagging worry. Her marriage was tumultuous, and she could make impulsive decisions. 

Six weeks before the publishing date, a popular book blogger promised a 5-star review on her blog. I also sold an excerpt to a women’s magazine with more than 4 million readers. I was still doing my “happy dance” when Haley called to tell me that our deal was off. She was leaving her husband and driving to stay with her mother, who lived in another state. She said she’d be in touch to work something out. She didn’t say when.

I was furious and anguished. My biggest problem was that the book’s ISBN (identification) numbers for print and digital downloads were assigned to Haley’s company and could not be reassigned to anyone else. Haley also had the distribution and payment agreements in her name. I could have kicked myself for not listening to my intuition, which warned me against working with someone whose life was so upside-down.

I researched my options. The ISBNs could not be transferred to me, but if I bought her publishing company, I would also own her ISBNs. I had no idea whether Haley would agree to my proposal or how we would work out terms, but the only way to save my book was to do the very thing I had tried to avoid: become a publisher myself. 

The following week, Haley agreed to sell me her publishing company for a token amount. It had no assets, and I had already paid for all book-related costs, except for Haley’s time. She also promised to help me with the transition of all the accounts. I decided not to look too far ahead and just focus on giving my book the best send-off into the world that I could. I named the publishing company after my great-grandmother. 

This story about a close call with a publishing disaster reveals the applicant’s achievement of stretching beyond what she thought she could do and finding a way to keep moving forward to achieve her goal. Making lemonade out of lemons this way is certainly an achievement worth sharing.        

Demonstrated Leadership

Leadership accomplishments that work well in application essays usually involve one’s ability to influence, motivate, persuade, direct, and work effectively with others.            

To identify good examples for your accomplishment essay, think about how you have worked with other people – how you led a team, what you learned, and so on. What specifically did you do in your role as leader that can demonstrate your leadership skills for the adcom? What did you learn about leadership, and how did you grow as a leader through the experience?

In the following essay example, the applicant’s leadership-related accomplishment seems almost accidental but had a profound influence on her career path:

My job teaching in a private school began uneventfully. I had a class of bright 4th graders, with only a handful expected to be “challenging.” I loved my supervisor, Monica, who was a gifted teacher but new to her role as a team lead overseeing the 3rd and 4th grades. In addition to having one class of her own, Monica was supposed to create interventions for struggling students, incentivize specific behavior or achievements, plan events and trips, and offer guidance to teachers. 

Monica quickly showed that her skill set was strong in the classroom but not in administration. She let requests from teachers for interventions or advice pile up, and she got testy when I reminded her that I was waiting for her feedback. I wanted to work with her, not against her, so I offered to help. I suggested we meet twice a week after school to review her inbox, which was when I discovered that she focused much better just by having me sit and listen to her discuss the situations. Although I only had two years’ experience as a teacher, Monica still seemed to value my opinion on handling awkward situations, such as when a wealthy parent who was on the school’s board of directors refused to face the reality of her daughter’s chronically aggressive behavior in class. This case was bigger than the both of us. We agreed that Monica needed to bring it to the headmistress of the school for her intervention.

About halfway through the year, Monica and I were still meeting regularly. It was an unexpected partnership, and it was clear to both of us that she wanted to return to full-time teaching. I realized that the administrative tasks and decision-making came more naturally to me than to her, and that after a few more years of teaching experience and a master’s degree in education, I might enjoy having a job like hers. 

Another person in her situation might have simply become angry or resentful at my trying to play a role in her job. She could have shut me out completely. But Monica and I became friends, and I learned a lot from watching her dynamism in the classroom. Additionally, she courageously told the headmistress about our arrangement and asked if the school could pay me for my extra hours – which it did. 

This was a totally unexpected situation that helped me realize that I wanted to take a fork in the road of my career in education. 

Finding the experiences in your life when you have shown initiative and impact, overcome obstacles, and demonstrated leadership will help you write an essay deserving of a chef’s kiss!

Are you thinking about what you could include in a winning accomplishments essay? Team up with an Accepted consultant for help identifying your best material. As your partner and guide in this process, we will ensure that your selections make you stand out for all the right reasons!

Dr. Sundas Ali has more than 15 years of experience teaching and advising students, providing career and admissions advice, reviewing applications and conducting interviews for the University of Oxford’s undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, Dr. Ali has worked with students from a wide range of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Want Sundas to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources:

• From Example to Exemplary: How to Use Sample Essays to Make Your Essay Outstanding, a free guide
• Four Ways to Show How You’ll Contribute in the Future
• Four Ways to Highlight Your Strengths in Your Application Essays

The post Writing a Compelling Accomplishment Essay appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

At this stage of the law school admissions process, you probably have Application Season Fatigue Syndrome. You just feel done. So corralling people to write your letters of recommendation (LORs) might be the last thing you feel like doing. After all, haven’t you already proven your worth through your polished essays, work experience, LSAT score, and GPA? 

We get it. But take a deep breath, and give your LORs your full attention. They carry considerable weight, and the adcoms read them very carefully. A convincing recommendation can be the icing on the cake of your already compelling law school application. 

In this guide, we tell you everything you need to know about these all-important LORs, including the following:

• How effective law school recommendations boost your competitive advantage by building a more holistic image of you
• Why it’s vital to choose the right people to write these letters
• How to identify the specific traits and qualities your recommenders must discuss convincingly on your behalf 
• How to make your recommenders’ job easier, and thereby make their letters more influential  
• What to do if your recommender insists, “You write it, and I’ll sign it”

And as a bonus, we include two sample law school LORs for two very different applicants.

Six Ways Strong LORs Boost Your Candidacy 

Compelling LORs can be additive to your candidacy in six key ways: 

1. They affirm that what you have claimed about yourself is true, because a third party has corroborated your assertions. 
2. They help reassure the adcoms that you are capable of managing the rigorous academic work required at a top-tier law school, especially if written by a professor or thesis advisor.
3. They can help offset a weakness in your candidacy, such as a dip in your undergraduate GPA, especially if one of your college instructors attests to your success with a challenging course load. 
4. They showcase distinct qualifications and personal characteristics that you didn’t have the space or the opportunity to discuss in your personal statement. 
5. They reveal a more complete picture of you – beyond the numbers – by providing a complementary (and complimentary) perspective on your intellectual abilities and personal qualities. This helps the adcom see you as a well-rounded person of high academic ability and good character, one who will fit well with the school and its community. 
6. They can prove your commitment to a specialty field when written by a supervisor from somewhere you worked or had an internship, such as a business and intellectual property law practice.    

When you consider how much heavy lifting these letters can do, it’s understandable that an adcom struggling to decide between two otherwise equally qualified candidates will give the nod to the one with the stronger LORs. Beneficial LORs are ones that are written with genuine enthusiasm and highlight specific academic and personal strengths. Conversely, lackluster LORs – ones written by recommenders just going through the motions, without adding any new insights about you or your career potential – will do little to move the needle in your favor.

Identifying the Right People to Write Your LORs

Choosing the right people to write your LORs is crucial, yet only certain individuals will be qualified to do them justice, so you need to be thoughtful when selecting your recommenders. 

Effective LORs highlight a range of qualities that adcoms look for when assessing an applicant’s potential to succeed at their law school, such as the following: 

• Intellectual abilities, particularly analytical, verbal, and writing skills
• Commitment to academic excellence
• Leadership potential
• Good character and strong ethical grounding
• Discipline
• Collegiality
• Creativity
• Maturity 

Nearly all law schools require at least one, and often two, LORs from professors or other college instructors who can attest to your academic promise. Some programs require two academic recommendations, even if you have been out of school for more than two years. Ideally, you will have cultivated a relationship with at least one professor with whom you have taken two or more courses and who can discuss your intellectual and personal growth and performance over a longer period of time. A strong recommender could be an advisor on a research project or someone who can offer evidence of your success in completing advanced coursework. 

The professor you choose should also know you well enough to be able to compare you favorably with other students they have taught. They should be absolutely convinced of your academic abilities and potential.

Unless the law school you’re targeting wants only academic recommendations, you have other options. For example, if you’ve been working for several years or served in the military, one LOR should be written by your employer or supervisor. Again, your recommender needs to be able to write knowingly and enthusiastically about your intelligence, focus, character, leadership, research and writing abilities, and other relevant skills and qualities. 

If you are working currently but don’t feel you can afford to reveal to your manager that you are applying to law school, go to the next-best source, such as a former supervisor. Do not seek a recommendation based on a position you held more than three years ago. 

If you’re self-employed or run your own company, you can choose a partner, consultant, major client, vendor, supplier, attorney, or accountant to write your LOR. You should have a long-standing relationship (of at least two years) with anyone you select. Additionally, that individual needs to have had opportunities to witness your intelligence, integrity, professionalism, and other strengths. The same holds true if you work in a family business – don’t make the mistake of asking a relative to write your LOR, especially if the relative shares your last name. 

Always choose a recommender who is authentically supportive of you over someone who simply has an impressive job title. A teaching assistant or internship supervisor who can write about you with genuine enthusiasm and deep familiarity with your background and strengths is a better choice than the chair of the political science department, a family friend who is a lawyer, or your brother-in-law’s stepmother, who’s a judge you met once at a summer picnic, writing a vague and lackluster endorsement that could be about almost anyone. 

Good writing takes time and thought, and this is especially true of meaningful and beneficial LORs. Writing a recommendation is a lot to ask of someone who is generally a busy person, so you might feel a little hesitant about asking, but you won’t know whether your professor, boss, or mentor will be available for the task or receptive to the idea unless you make your request. Asking a professor shouldn’t take long – college instructors are used to being approached for recommendation letters and will readily understand what you need. Still, it will help your professors if you explain your career goals, why you have chosen the schools and programs you’re targeting, and what you’d like them to highlight in their letters. 

People who work outside of academia might be less familiar with this process, so make sure to explain why these letters are so important. Be up-front about the time you estimate it will take to draft the letter, and assure them that you’ll make the task as easy as possible by providing a copy of your personal statement and resume, along with a list of highlights from your work/internship experience that will help reinforce your abilities and skills. Once you’ve delineated your goals, ask your potential recommender whether they feel they are the right person for the job. If they admit – or you sense – that they cannot endorse you enthusiastically, or if they’re hesitant about being able to give the letter the time and attention it requires, they will probably politely decline. If that happens, just move on to the next prospect. 

How long should all this take for you, the applicant? It might sound excessive, but we recommend giving this entire process a good three months from the time you approach a recommender with your request until the date the letters are due. This avoids adding pressure to your already packed schedule or to that of the recommender. This is especially true for professors, who are at their busiest in the fall and receive many similar requests. That is why asking for LORs should be done early in the application process. You do not want to be waiting for your letter(s) when the rest of your application is ready to submit.

Supporting Your Recommenders in Writing Their LORs

Now that you’ve secured commitments from your recommenders, your next task is giving them what they need to be able to write strong letters on your behalf. Provide them with as many of the following as are relevant:

1. Your personal statement (assuming that it’s ready to submit or at least close to being finalized) – If your personal statement focuses on a personal topic and does not highlight your academic or professional achievements or aspirations, you should also provide your recommender with a note detailing how you are positioning yourself and your profile to the school’s adcom. Then, explain what you would like your recommender to emphasize in their LOR that is not covered in your personal statement.
2. A description of your short- and long-term goals
3. Your resume
4. Your college transcript
5. Any significant work or reports you did for the recommender, with the associated grades and/or their comments highlighted – This could be in addition to, or in place of, copies of work evaluations and/or a list of projects, experiences, or other anecdotes that your recommender will recall. These documents will further underscore your academic strengths, analytical abilities, collegiality, creativity, maturity, personal or academic growth, and integrity. To the extent possible, the examples you suggest should be different from those you wrote about in your personal statement.
6. The specific wording from each school regarding what the adcom wants to see in an evaluation letter – Most are open-ended requests for material that verifies an applicant’s academic abilities and character. However, many law schools explicitly list the qualities they want evaluators to confirm in their LORs. These can include intellectual ability, work ethic, analytical skills, maturity, and leadership potential. Check each program’s website to see how specific its requests are. Pay attention to nuance and details in the different schools’ requests. 
7. Deadline by which to submit through the Law School Admissions Council’s (LSAC’s) Credential Assembly Service – This service is used by most American Bar Association–approved law schools as a clearinghouse for law school applications and supporting materials. Some law schools will accept additional letters above and beyond their baseline request, but in such cases, the letters usually must submitted directly by the recommender to the school and might not be accepted at all if sent by the applicant. It’s a good idea to check out the LOR preferences among the LSAC’s participating law schools. 
8. A copy of this brief, excellent guide: Ten Tips for Writers of Letters of Recommendations

Responding to “You Write It, and I’ll Sign It” 

It’s possible that even with all the supporting materials you have provided, your recommenders might doubt their ability to fulfill their commitment because of time constraints (or maybe they just don’t like writing). In these cases, they might ask you to draft the letter on their behalf and say they will then approve and sign it. 

This option might be very tempting. However, it will be a huge red flag if the adcom suspects that you wrote your own evaluation letter, and it’s very difficult to pull off sounding like someone else, no matter how hard you try. Your distinctive voice has come through clearly in your personal statement. That’s a good thing and was precisely your goal! Similarly, your LORs must reflect your evaluators’ unique voices, observations, and assessments. 

Your employer or supervisor might insist that they simply do not have the time or the ability to write an endorsement, even though they seem sincere about wanting to support you. In such a case, you might have to default to the option of writing the letter for them. However, this should absolutely be a last resort, and you could also consider drafting a basic letter that includes the points and examples you want the recommender to share, and then asking them to simply rewrite the letter in their own voice. If your recommender is not a native English speaker and writing their LOR in English would be especially burdensome, suggest that they write the letter in their native language and offer to pay to have it professionally translated.

Sample LOR #1: The Environmental Policy Analysis Major 

Daniel is a 22-year-old recent grad who majored in environmental policy analysis. Although he had two internships in the field of environmental planning and research, after much thought, Daniel decided to devote his personal statement to the life lessons he learned from more than 14 years of studying piano and performing in music competitions. Daniel is counting on his LORs to prove his capacity to handle challenging academics. 

The following letter was written by one of his professors: 

It is with great pleasure that I recommend Daniel R. for admittance to your law school. I have been a professor of public policy and environmental law for the past 18 years and first met Daniel during his sophomore year, when he took a lower-division course in environmental law, a challenging topic in which he earned an A-. This course doesn’t lend itself to a lot of class participation, and I appreciated that Daniel seemed thoroughly engaged during every class. He also approached me during office hours for clarification on points he had not understood to his satisfaction. I was pleased to have him return to an upper-division course of mine during his junior year, in ethics in environmental policy. This was a much more participatory class that involved not only class discussions but also cooperative student projects. In class, Daniel’s questions and comments were always thoughtful and to the point. When responding to others who made comments with which he did not agree, Daniel debated them respectfully and often won over classmates with his logic, pleasant attitude, and command of the facts. 

Because Daniel is extremely bright and very personable, when my research assistant graduated, I offered Daniel the job. He seemed both flattered and enthusiastic about the prospect, and with his help, I was able to expeditiously collect research on a paper I am now finalizing on the performance of incentive-based policy instruments as they relate to industrial greenhouse gas emissions. My trust in Daniel’s abilities was not misplaced. He was organized and responsible, and showed a refreshing ability to conduct extensive literature reviews with little direction from me. These included data-driven literature reviews and small-scale studies from which he extrapolated the relevant data. His analytical abilities, organizational skills, and sense of responsibility will help him perform at the top of his game in law school and beyond. 

I’d also like to point out that Daniel’s major in environmental policy analysis is highly demanding. It requires coursework in both hard science and social science, including biology, chemistry, physics, and calculus, as well as environmental and natural resource economics, ecology, spatial and dynamic bioeconomic modeling, and policy analysis. This makes Daniel’s 3.8 GPA in the major that much more impressive. 

This past year, I supervised Daniel again for his senior thesis on water quality planning and public policy. He asked me for feedback on the critical analysis of his data collection methodology a good month earlier than most of his classmates, and also asked me for advice on whom to approach to learn about the latest research on the topic that hadn’t yet been published. His thoroughness and planning showed: his thesis was an outstanding and incisive analysis of this complex issue, particularly his focus on the long-standing issues of water shortages and political turf wars over water in the state of California. Daniel does have a tendency toward perfectionism, but I have seen him learn to trust himself more over the past year and worry slightly less about the final results. 

In addition, he has a friendly, collegial personality and many interests, including piano, which I understand he has played at the competitive level for many years. His written and verbal communication skills are of a very high level. (In fact, I have rarely heard him use the irksome verbal tic “like” every third word, as so many other young people do nowadays.) Daniel’s training in environmental analysis and public policy will serve him well in the field of environmental law, and I give him my highest recommendation for admittance to your program. 

Let’s look at some of the aspects that make Daniel’s evaluation letter so effective. His professor established his credibility as a recommender from the start, noting his tenure as a professor at the university and offering examples of interactions with Daniel that substantiate their long-standing relationship. These include the following: 

• Distinguishing Daniel from his peers on a comparative basis by detailing the rigors of his major and his impressive GPA in that major
• Quantifying Daniel’s organizational, verbal, and analytical strengths, evidenced through his work as a research assistant and how he planned and carried out his senior thesis project
• Noting his class participation, which also underscores his respect for others and personal warmth
• Putting his weakness of perfectionism in context, noting that this trait is common among high achievers while also giving Daniel credit for his efforts to relax and overcome it 

All in all, Daniel comes across as not only extremely capable but also likable and well-rounded. 

Sample LOR #2: The Social Worker

Now let’s look at another applicant. Sonya is 27 and has worked for three years at a not-for-profit agency serving immigrant, refugee, and low-income women and children in need of housing and other social services. 

The following letter of recommendation was written by her direct supervisor: 

I have known Sonya D. for the past three years, since she joined our agency as a novice case worker. Last year, during a management shake-up, Sonya was promoted from case worker to housing specialist, and I became her direct supervisor. Sonya brought an abundance of enthusiasm to both her roles, successfully going to bat for clients who were entitled to housing and other publicly funded benefits but whose applications had fallen into the quicksand of government bureaucracy. She is firm and unyielding on behalf of her clients, a trait that will make her a very effective legal advocate on behalf of the underprivileged. 

In my eight years as a supervisor in the world of social services, I would rank Sonya in the top 1% of the dozens of case workers and volunteers I have worked with. Most people enter this field with a strong emotional commitment to helping the underprivileged, but far fewer also have the intelligence, ability to see the bigger picture, and even business smarts that can make their efforts most effective. For example, Sonya joined the agency during a rocky time when finances were perilous, employee turnover (including management) was rapid, and morale was low. Despite her youth and relative inexperience, within three months, Sonya had suggested creative initiatives to streamline and improve our services and to boost morale. 

Sonya caught my attention in particular when she documented the inefficiencies in our client intake system and made specific recommendations for streamlining that system. She lobbied hard for these changes, which were approved and have allowed us to save countless hours of paid staff time each month. Notably, it has also saved as much as two weeks from the time a client registers with us to when she is transitioned into safe, appropriate housing – a dramatic difference in the life of someone who might lack any adequate or safe housing at all. Sonya also offered to manage several volunteers to work on staff-initiated projects, freeing up the time of employees for other casework and reducing administrative costs. Although she is much younger than nearly all our volunteers, she was granted approval. Despite a few bumps along the way, she was able to earn respect from our much older volunteer corps. She is a young woman who is clearly eager to improve her performance in every task she undertakes. 

In addition to these achievements, Sonya organized a series of community events in collaboration with our local police precinct to raise our profile in the community, engaging social media and local media outlets to spread the word. Two other community events are already on the calendar for next year. 

When Sonya joined our agency, we desperately needed to increase our client base to secure more government funding. Within nine months of implementing her initiatives, we more than doubled the number of clients we had served from the year before, to well over 300 a month. She has been the driving force in helping to reverse our agency’s fortunes. Her ability to see the bigger picture and think creatively and with a business mind-set has made our agency more stable and better equipped to fulfill our mission of helping a vulnerable population find safe housing. 

Sonya’s outstanding performance as a case worker and her significant contributions to improve workflow agency-wide resulted in her becoming the first staff member to receive a raise during the two years our agency hobbled along during a severe financial crisis. Last year, she also earned the Best Employee Recognition Award for her service. 

Her biggest weakness, in my opinion, has been learning to control her frustration when faced with inefficiencies or ineptitude in the government agencies and other social service arms we work with. She is impatient when waiting for weeks for housing when a more efficient system would have transitioned her clients within days. But she has learned that she must swallow her frustration, because many of these colleagues are often overwhelmed by their own workloads and also lack her talent at envisioning a better way of getting things done. I am satisfied with her progress in this area and am confident that as she grows in maturity and experience, she will manage these trying situations with relative calm.  

I can easily imagine Sonya bringing the same commitment, drive, intelligence, and initiative to her studies in law school that she brought to this agency. Our loss will be your law school’s gain. 

Sonya’s evaluation is chock-full of impressive achievements. Although none are related to academics or research, it’s clear that someone with this level of intelligence, foresight, determination, organizational and problem-solving skills, and creativity is also likely to excel in law school. Let’s look at a summary of her achievements:  

• Pushing bureaucrats harder to get clients desperately needed safe housing
• Diagnosing problems and conceiving solutions to streamline client intake processes and other efficiencies, improving agency functionality and staff morale
• Helping the agency double the number of clients served and thereby earning more government funding
• Raising the agency’s profile through community events and a targeted social media presence
• Leading volunteers to ease the workload of the paid staff 
• Getting better at handling frustration (probably a nice way of saying “anger”) – Sonya’s weakness is understandable given her work with governmental channels, but the supervisor documents her growing maturity, which has helped to control the problem.

You should now be ready to supercharge your law school applicant profile by choosing the right recommenders and giving them the tools they’ll need to write a powerful LOR. 

Remember, there’s no better feeling during law school application season than knowing you have a supportive, experienced expert guiding you every step of the way. Whether your recommenders would appreciate assistance, or you would personally, we have helped thousands of applicants gain seats at top law schools across the country – and we can help you, too. Want to get Accepted? Schedule a free consultation with an expert today!

Daniel Waldman is a graduate of Harvard Law School and an experienced law school admissions consultant with a background in corporate income tax and large-scale securitization taxation issues.

Related Resources:

• 5 Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Law School Personal Statement, a free guide
• Help! My LSAT is Low – Should I Still Apply to Law School?
• Assessing the Quantitative and Qualitative Aspects of Your Law School Application

The post Law School Letter of Recommendation Quick Guide and Samples appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Check out the other posts in this series:

1. Identifying the Ingredients of a Winning Essay
2. Writing Your Career Goals Essay
3. Starting Your Application Essay: Three Tips
4. Revise and Polish Your Application Essays

All original essays have a unique and distinctive theme, and it can take time and careful thought to identify what yours should be. If you go back to the essays we examined in the previous post in this series, you will see that the public health program applicant opened her essay with her theme, which she cleverly presented as a question: “What if people lived healthier lives, practiced preventive medicine, and took precautions against illness and disease?” This theme was her passion for finding answers to significant public health issues. 

In contrast, the law school applicant’s theme was his yearning for greater intellectual challenges while remaining in the healthcare field. While he persuasively built his case in his initial paragraphs, he saved the clincher for the final one: “I feel that my successful work experience and rigorous scientific training will allow me to debate with the best attorneys. Since medical technology and the law in this area are developing rapidly, I am also confident that this field will be constantly challenging.” 

Today, introspection isn’t as popular an activity as, say, yoga or streaming TV and movies, but it’s an invaluable part of this process. Give it the time it deserves. Your essay will be much better after it. If you are beginning to think about what the themes should be for your essays, the following questions will help you identify and define your essay’s main message. Your answers will also guide you toward expressing your goals, values as they relate to your career choice, motivations for pursuing a graduate degree, and professional dreams.

• Why are you passionate about – or at least committed to – your career choice?
• Exploring the previous question more deeply, what experiences in your life (personal, educational, professional) have influenced your career goals most powerfully?
• Has any individual played a major role in helping you discover these goals or values?
• What do you hope to achieve in your career?
• Can you visualize what career success will look like in five years? Ten years?
• What personal strengths, such as communication skills, empathy, and persistence, do you bring to this career?
• What professional skills, such as organizational abilities, clinical knowledge, teaching, and mentoring, do you bring to this career? 
• What experiences do you have that will showcase these strengths?
• After the admissions committee reads your essays, what three words do you hope they will use to describe you? How about “driven,” “intelligent,” and “creative”? Or “dedicated,” “leader,” and “focused”? Whatever the image is that you want to create, identify experiences from your life that will illustrate those qualities.

As you think through these questions, some of the answers will come to you quickly, while others will need time to percolate. Write down your ideas, memories, and insights as they come. Eventually, they will build into a satisfying little inventory, and you will be able to identify the ones that are colorful or dramatic enough to become your essay introduction. 

If you are writing multiple essays, such as for different MBA programs, each one must have its own theme. The admissions committees want to see you as a multifaceted individual and have, therefore, crafted their essay prompts accordingly. These questions provide you the opportunity to display various aspects of yourself, your values, and your personality.

Summary Tips

• Carve out some time for introspection about your career goals, values, and motivation. (That means your phone is in another room or at least in “do not disturb” mode.)
• Develop a distinct theme for each essay required by any program that demands more than one. Use each essay as an opportunity to show yourself as a multifaceted individual.

In the next post in this series, we’ll share insights into how to write an exemplary MBA career goals essay.

Work one-on-one with an expert who will walk you through the process of creating a slam-dunk application. Our admissions consultants have read thousands of essays and know the exact ingredients of an outstanding essay.

Dr. Sundas Ali has more than 15 years of experience teaching and advising students, providing career and admissions advice, reviewing applications and conducting interviews for the University of Oxford’s undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, Dr. Ali has worked with students from a wide range of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Want Sundas to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources:

• From Example to Exemplary: How to Use Sample Essays to Make Your Essay Outstanding
• Three Ways Writing About Obstacles Strengthens Your Application Essays
• Admissions Straight Talk podcast 

The post Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Ideally, you should be applying to law schools that are realistic given your credentials, but if your LSAT score or GPA is lower than you would like – or there’s a significant discrepancy between your stats and the medians at your target school – you might be encouraged to learn that most schools provide the option to submit an addendum in which you can explain the circumstances behind any weaknesses in your profile. 

You never want to leave the admissions committee wondering why you might not have performed at your best in the past, so you should seize this opportunity to explain the situation in your own words. For such an explanation to be effective, however, you must offer the school sincere, reasoned clarifications for your unsatisfactory performance. In preparation for writing an addendum or optional statement, consider the following three tips:

1. Be honest about what happened.

Law schools value honesty and integrity, so don’t offer half-truths or spin the facts. Likewise, avoid making excuses or assigning blame to others or outside forces. Simply describe the situation, including all the relevant facts and circumstances.

For example, you might have had a particularly bumpy semester because of a death in the family, and this understandably resulted in a dip in your grades. Or perhaps you bombed the LSAT the first time you took it (and hopefully it only happened once) because you were ill on the day of the exam or filled out the answer sheet incorrectly. In your addendum, show that there was a concrete reason for your shortcoming, and testify to whatever occurred having been an anomaly. 

2. Be concise.

When explaining your situation, keep your statements straightforward and brief. Although you want to present the necessary details and clearly outline the circumstances, you don’t need to justify your performance in a lengthy diatribe or belabor your points. And of course, any addendum should be grammatically correct and free of typos.

3. Emphasize upward trends.

Punctuate for the admissions committee why the low score/GPA is not an accurate reflection of what you can offer by demonstrating improved performance over time or focusing on a different angle of the situation. For example, if you took the LSAT more than once, point to this information as evidence of your dedication and commitment. Or if a challenging semester or year lowered your overall GPA but your grades subsequently improved, highlight the positive upswing for the admissions committee. You can then speak to how you navigated this change and will apply what you learned from the experience to your time at law school. You might even want to recalculate your GPA without the troublesome grades and offer it as evidence of what your academic performance would have likely been if not for the problematic issue you encountered.

Consider getting personalized guidance on how to approach your low stats in your law school application by working one-on-one with an Accepted law school admissions expert!

Daniel Waldman is a graduate of Harvard Law School and an experienced law school admissions consultant with a background in corporate income tax and large-scale securitization taxation issues.

Related Resources:

• 5 Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Law School Personal Statement, a free guide
• Help! My LSAT is Low – Should I Still Apply to Law School?
• Assessing the Quantitative and Qualitative Aspects of Your Law School Application

The post Three Tips for Effectively Justifying Your LSAT Score or GPA appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Landing on a school’s waitlist can be disappointing and even nerve-racking. As a result, waitlisted applicants sometimes let their anxiety or disappointment cloud their thinking, but if you’re waitlisted, try to stay calm and focused.  

Remember, if you’ve been waitlisted, you have not been rejected. If you play your cards right, you still have a fighting chance of getting into your dream school. 

In this post, I will explain how to make the most of this opportunity. But first, I want to tell you about some common but unwise actions that really turn adcom members off. 

1. Reacting emotionally

One thing adcom members really cannot stand is having to deal with waitlisted applicants who – perhaps without even realizing it – become demanding, rude, disrespectful, or otherwise inappropriate. This behavior can show up in emails and calls, and even in the form of unscheduled drop-in visits to the adcom’s offices. These types of responses reveal immaturity, self-absorption, and lack of judgment. If you react emotionally and engage in any of these unpleasant tactics, they will be duly noted and could easily eliminate your chances of moving from a “maybe” to a “yes.” 

2. Not following instructions

As a waitlisted applicant, you’re still a contender. Don’t blow your chances by ignoring the school’s exact instructions on managing your new status. Follow the adcom’s directions precisely. Send the schools what they ask for, and don’t send what they don’t want.

For example, if the school states explicitly that it doesn’t want to hear from you, leave the adcom alone. Contacting them isn’t smart perseverance; it’s arrogance, and that will hurt your case.

If your target program is open to further communication, tilt the odds in your favor by writing a well-crafted waitlist update letter or a letter of continued interest. If the program allows, you could also submit a few letters of support written by others on your behalf. These letters should focus on three areas: your enhanced qualifications, the steps you’ve taken to overcome any shortcomings, and the ways in which you are a perfect fit for the school.

Five Rules for Writing a Winning Waitlist Letter

1. Keep it short – no more than two pages, double-spaced. 

How are you a stronger candidate now than when you first applied? That’s what you need to focus on. As you brainstorm about the content of your letter – and then again after you’ve written the letter – double-check that you haven’t repeated material that is already in your application. The adcom has read that already, so don’t waste their time.

2. Update your qualifications.

What is new and improved about your profile since you submitted your application? Ideally, you will be able to convey these new elements and link them to some of the themes or experiences you addressed in your essays.

Have you earned a promotion? Scored A grades in relevant courses? Taken on a leadership role on a project or assumed additional work responsibilities? Volunteered or taken on other initiatives in your department, business, club, or community? Be specific when describing these roles and achievements.

3. Explain how you have strengthened areas of weakness or mitigated other shortcomings.

Show the adcom how you have upped your game in areas where you might have originally come up short. Rather than dwelling on a specific shortcoming, focus on what you have done to become stronger in that area, personally or professionally. For example, if you had weak communication skills, discuss how you joined Toastmasters and are now a more confident, fluid speaker as a result.  

Also, if you have plans to take additional classes for work but have not yet begun to do so, state when and where you will take them, as well as your willingness to enroll in any additional courses the school recommends or to follow any other instructions it provides.

4. Thank the school for continuing to consider your application.

Restate your commitment to the program and your belief that its philosophy and approach make it an ideal fit for your educational objectives and goals. For example, if you are 100% sure that you would attend if accepted, say so. The message you want to get across is this: You were born to attend this school, and the program was created just for you. 

Other ways to prove your “fit” include explaining what specifically you have done to expand your knowledge of the program and how you have worked to build your network there. If you mentioned in your application or interview how the school’s philosophy and approach match your educational objectives and goals, in your waitlist letter, you could cite new examples that support your argument. For example, if you have visited the campus (post-submission), share which class you sat in, who taught it, and what your impressions were.

Similarly, refer to any recent email exchanges you’ve had with alumni or students. What else have you learned about the program through these connections that align with your interests? Offering this evidence proves that you are invested in attending the program and drives home the message that the school is the best place for someone with your goals.

Admissions directors want waitlisted applicants to show passion, not obsession. Follow these steps with professionalism, maturity, and courtesy, and you can be sure that schools will respond favorably to this extra bit of personal effort.

Writing Effective Waitlist Letters: A Quiz

1. Waitlist letters can be three or more single-spaced pages long…

(a) if you have a lot of accomplishments to talk about. 

(b) never. They should never exceed two pages. 

(c) only if they are law school waitlist letters.

(d) if you are not including an additional letter of recommendation.

2. Expressing frustration or disappointment in the waitlist letter about not being immediately accepted is…

(a) okay, if the school is really your number-one choice.

(b) appropriate if it reflects how you honestly feel.

(c) never a good idea.

(d) useful in the letter’s conclusion to elicit sympathy.

3. During the waitlist process, you should generally aim to contact the waitlisting school…

(a) a few times a week if it’s really your number-one choice.

(b) weekly by email or mail.

(c) only when prompted by the school.

(d) every three to four weeks (if the school allows contact).

4. The main topics of a waitlist letter should be…

(a) developments in your work life since applying that underscore professional achievements.

(b) supporting evidence that the school is a good fit for you.

(c) updating the school on ways you have strengthened areas of weakness in your application.

(d) all of the above.

5. It’s acceptable to repeat wording from your application essays in the waitlist letter…

(a) never.

(b) if you are in a rush to get the letter done on time.

(c) if it was an especially strong part of your application.

(d) if you think it’s important enough to reinforce.

[Answers: 1b, 2c, 3d, 4d, 5a]

So, how did you do? 

I hope this post has helped you understand the purpose of a waitlist letter and how to make yours stand out in a positive way. Still, there’s nothing like having an expert who can guide you in drafting a winning letter that will turn the school’s “maybe” into a resounding “yes.” Our admissions experts have helped hundreds of waitlisted applicants do just that, and we can help you, too. From developing a waitlist strategy to identifying key areas you can highlight to your advantage to helping you edit your letter so that it makes the strongest case for your admission, we provide personalized, supportive guidance at this critical juncture. Sign up for a free consultation to discuss your waitlist options. Let’s get started!

Dr. Sundas Ali has more than 15 years of experience teaching and advising students, providing career and admissions advice, reviewing applications and conducting interviews for the University of Oxford’s undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, Dr. Ali has worked with students from a wide range of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Want Sundas to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources:

• The 9 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist
• The 9 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make on a Med School Waitlist
• The 9 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make on a Law School Waitlist

The post Get Off That Waitlist! appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Your LSAT score is in, and if you did not do as well as you had anticipated, you might be reevaluating your law school choices or plans. Let’s talk through a few considerations that might help you decide how to approach your law school applications now.

1. The LSAT matters.

An applicant’s LSAT score and GPA are tools – with statistical significance – that law schools use to predict whether the candidate will be successful in their first year of law school and is likely to pass the bar exam. You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of your LSAT score; law school admissions committees count on it.

2. How low a score is too low?

Quite frankly, if your LSAT score is below 145, it will be difficult for you to be admitted to an accredited law school – not impossible, but very difficult. And if your LSAT score is low, your GPA will need to be higher to compensate for it. If your LSAT score is 150 or higher, your chances of acceptance increase if you choose prospective law schools wisely. If you have a score over 160 combined with a solid GPA, you will have more opportunities.

3. Should you retake the LSAT?

Some schools will accept future LSAT scores but will hold your application until the new score can be added to it. Retaking the LSAT could be worth it if you think you will score more than 3 points higher. However, if you don’t think you will score higher, delaying your application by retaking the exam could hurt your chances of admission. Ultimately, you want to apply when you have your strongest application. If that means improving your LSAT score, applying a bit later might be beneficial.

4. Don’t repeat your mistakes.

If you decide to retake the LSAT because you didn’t do well, make sure you change your test strategy. If you studied on your own from a book the first time, consider hiring a tutor or taking a class this time around. Timed practice tests are a good tool to give you an idea of how well (or not) your strategy is working. The LSAT requires preparation, and it’s your job to make sure you’re using the approach that will get you your best score. Practice, practice, practice.

5. Make the rest of your application strong.

Law school admissions is a competitive process, and many candidates will have LSAT scores and GPAs that fall within range of a school’s median. As an applicant, you want to give a law school reasons to admit you (beyond just mitigating or removing any possible reasons not to). The best way to distinguish yourself from other applicants is with a compelling personal statement. Law is a writing profession, so the personal statement carries a lot of weight. It is your opportunity to explain to the admissions committee via a clear and concise narrative why you are applying to law school and will be a great member of their community.

Most importantly, don’t despair! If your LSAT score is holding your application back, you can study harder for the exam, retake it, and improve your score. You can also check to see whether the schools you plan to apply to accept the GRE. If they do, consider taking a practice GRE to see whether you score better on that test. Beyond these options, you can ensure that your written materials reflect the best story of yourself as an applicant.

For a list of LSAT scores by school, check out our Law School Selectivity Index.

Median LSAT Scores of Accepted Law School Candidates

As mentioned earlier in this post, 145 is generally the LSAT score below which it will be hard (though not necessarily impossible) to be admitted to law school. Here are some additional data points for you to consider from the 2024-2025 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings:

Sadie Polen has more than ten years of experience in higher education. She reviewed statements of purpose, personal statements, and resumes for political and public service opportunities and made candidate selections for elite programs at Harvard University. She also has experience advising individuals on their career and post-graduation plans. Sadie holds a BS from UC Davis, an EdM from Harvard, and a DEI certificate from Cornell. Want Sadie to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Law School Personal Statement
• LSAT and Law School News, podcast Episode 509
• Law School Admissions Calculator

The post Help! My LSAT Is Low – Should I Still Apply to Law School? appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

When crafting application essays – whether for graduate school, business school, or any other competitive program – applicants often focus on highlighting their accomplishments. And it’s easy to understand why. Most candidates are eager to share their significant achievements, such as leading a groundbreaking project, making a meaningful impact through research, or spearheading a successful community initiative.

While these accomplishments are no doubt important, many initial drafts of application essays are missing a critical component: obstacles. In this post, we’ll explore why addressing obstacles head on in your essays can significantly strengthen your application and provide valuable insights for the adcom into who you are as a candidate.

Here are three reasons discussing obstacles can elevate your application.

1. Showing that you have overcome obstacles demonstrates your problem-solving ability.

We all frequently encounter obstacles: the traffic detour, an incompetent customer service representative, a disagreement with your partner, the approval you expected on a project unexpectedly turning into a no.  Every single person faces challenges, but people deal with them in wildly varying ways. Those who are more successful in life come out on top because they understand that obstacles are to be expected. They learn how to navigate them with patience, creativity, and a problem-solving attitude, and by – to borrow a phrase – “keeping calm and carrying on.” 

But too often, when asked to discuss their accomplishments, applicants selectively and completely forget the things that got in their way en route to their achievement. When they experience this kind of amnesia, they are shortchanging themselves. Triumphing over the hurdles they encountered might have been just as difficult as executing all the anticipated elements of their plans – and is therefore worth sharing.

2. Discussing obstacles adds depth to your story and highlights your character.

Read the following examples and see if you don’t agree.

First we have the “stop-putting-me-to-sleep” example:

As the leader of my product research group, I came up with a plan for a new widget that would save us 10% in costs. After I communicated my vision to the team, we worked hard for four weeks on a prototype, completing it by the deadline, to the delight of management. Today, my widget is still the standard for my company, saving us over $300K annually.

Okay, this sounds like a solid accomplishment, but it’s hardly memorable. How did the candidate communicate her vision? What specific example does she offer of the hard work that was done over four weeks on the prototype? We have absolutely no idea.

Now let’s look at a “dazzle-is-in-the-details” example:

As the leader of my product research group, I came up with a plan for a new widget that would save us 10% in costs. But when I explained my vision to the team, two senior engineers immediately argued against it, saying that there were key flaws in the design. After revisiting my design and realizing that they were correct, I revised my plan and was able to eliminate the flaws. We worked on a prototype for two weeks before discovering that the cost of the material we had planned to use for it had increased by more than 30% in recent months. I worked many late nights that week, researching alternative materials before finding one that was both appropriate and cost-effective. By the skin of our teeth, we met our four-week deadline and presented the prototype to management, but the VP of Manufacturing argued that we would need to purchase major new equipment to produce the widget. I convinced the team to work overtime on a manufacturing proposal that proved we could craft the product with existing equipment. Today, my widget is still the standard for my company, saving us over $300K annually.

There’s no contest here, is there? The second example, loaded with specifics about what went wrong and what almost derailed the project, is mighty impressive. The details highlight the applicant’s creativity, thoroughness, tenacity, communication skills, and leadership potential. Spelling out the story of an obstacle this way can make your essays shine by conveying the drama of the situation and associating you with lively elements and images. For example, in the second example, it’s easy to visualize the two dissenting engineers, the surprise of discovering the price hike for the materials, and the VP’s frown. In the first, we get only the haziest impression of an employee smiling about a job well done.

3. Discussing obstacles makes you more relatable and shows your full potential.

Think through the examples we just offered and consider how including specific, key obstacles in your essays and explaining how you negotiated them can showcase your ability to overcome the unexpected. This will assure the adcoms that you can capably execute a well-defined plan, even when you encounter unexpected bumps in the road. Moreover, it shows the school how you spring into action when the chips are down. This facilitates a fuller understanding of who you are as an individual – and as someone the school would like to have in its next class.

Obstacles are an inevitable part of life and an essential part of your story. By sharing how you have overcome challenges, you not only enhance the depth of your application but also give the adcoms a clearer sense of your ability to thrive under pressure, adapt to change, and keep moving forward. And these qualities will serve you well in any graduate or professional program.

Kara Keenan Sweeney has more than 15 years of experience in MBA admissions, having worked for some of the world’s top business school programs, including Columbia Business School, INSEAD, and The Lauder Institute’s joint degree MA/MBA program with The Wharton School and the MA/JD program with Penn Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Kara has guided, coached, and counseled thousands of MBA and EMBA applicants, reviewed innumerable applications, sat on admissions committees, and interviewed countless applicants, including while running Wharton’s Team Based Discussions both virtually and in person. Want Kara to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources:

• Admissions Straight Talk Podcast
• Four Ways to Highlight Your Strengths in Your Application Essays
• The Resilience Factor: How Flaws and Failures Can Strengthen Your Application

The post Three Ways Writing About Obstacles Strengthens Your Application Essays appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Did you create a law school application schedule for yourself over the summer? If so, maybe that timeline had you submitting your application by Thanksgiving. Are you on target to do so?

With Thanksgiving and the subsequent holidays approaching, now is a good time to evaluate where you are with your law school application and where you need to be. If you have already submitted your application, congratulations and good luck! For many candidates, though, a significant life event or the need to retake the LSAT might have derailed an otherwise well-thought-out schedule. 

Rolling application cycles can be confusing for applicants, so the important thing to remember is that the best time to submit your application is when you are ready to submit your strongest application. So, even though having a schedule can be helpful, think of that schedule as merely a guide that you can adjust as needed. If you need more time to create your strongest application, take that time.

The idea of applying “the earlier, the better” can create anxiety, and multiple factors should be considered when deciding the right time to apply. It might be November, but keep in mind that applications submitted by January 1, or even in mid-January, are still timely applications. If you needed to retake the LSAT, had a few rough months at work, or struggled with a challenging semester, it might be a good idea to reevaluate the schedule you made months ago and adjust it to meet your current needs. 

As you modify your timeline, make sure you’re building the most compelling narrative possible for the admissions committee, rather than just trying to submit your application the earliest you can. That means you might need to continue working on each component of your application to create your best submission. 

If you need some assistance with updating the schedule for your law school application, consider scheduling a free consultation with one of our law school consultants.

With planning and thoughtfulness, you can still take time to enjoy the holidays and submit your strongest application to law school!

Sadie Polen has more than ten years of experience in higher education. She reviewed statements of purpose, personal statements, and resumes for political and public service opportunities and made candidate selections for elite programs at Harvard University. She also has experience advising individuals on their career and post-graduation plans. Sadie holds a BS from UC Davis, an EdM from Harvard, and a DEI certificate from Cornell. Want Sadie to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Getting into Law School: What You Need to Know When You Start the Process, a free guide
• Five Qualities that Law Schools Want to See
• Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid In Your Law School Personal Statement, a free guide

The post It’s November. Have You Submitted Your Law School Application? appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Have you been invited to interview at the graduate school of your choice? Great news! This means the program is seriously interested in you, and you are one important step closer to acceptance. To make the most of this opportunity, preparation is essential. Your goal is not only to demonstrate your enthusiasm for and knowledge of the program but also to show that you are well prepared for graduate study and have strong communication skills. You want to come to the table ready to answer questions, some of which might be questions you answered in your application, some of which might build on those responses, and some which might be unexpected. You should be prepared to ask the admissions staff, faculty member, and/or alumnus/alumna conducting the interview intelligent questions about aspects of the program that you were unable to find on the website or through other research. Don’t ask questions for which the answer is available online.  

There are many formats for graduate school interviews. In addition to individual interviews (a one-on-one conversation between an applicant and a school representative), there are series interviews (a number of one-on-one meetings between an applicant and different individual interviewers) and panel interviews ( in which an applicant is interviewed by a group of individuals at the same time). Another format is the group candidate interview, wherein several applicants are interviewed together by admissions representatives or faculty members. (Group candidate interviews are more common at graduate programs in the fields of clinical psychology and counseling.) Your interview day might include meetings with students and, if it is an in-person interview, a campus tour.

Before we discuss ideas for questions you could ask at your interview, consider and plan for questions your interviewers might ask you, such as the following:

• What would you like us to know about you?
• Why are you interested in this program?
• Describe an accomplishment of which you are proud.
• What personal attributes would you bring to this program?
• Is there any area of weakness in your application that you would like to address?
• Tell me about a time when you made a mistake. How did you fix it?
• What are some of your interests outside of work and school?
• What do you think would be the most challenging part of this program for you? How might you prepare for that?
• Describe your long-term career goals.
• Is there anything that you did not share in your application that would be useful for me to know as I consider your candidacy?
• What questions do you have for me?

Although you might have already addressed some of these topics in your application, be prepared to discuss them with your interviewer(s). This is an opportunity to go a bit deeper in person and expand on topics you might not have had room to write about in detail, or even at all. It’s also an opportunity to share additional examples and new insights.  

Mock interview prep is the best way to ensure that you are well prepared both to answer questions and to ask your own questions of the interviewer. With strong preparation, you should be able to minimize your stress, allowing you to present yourself as relaxed, confident, and appreciative of the opportunity. Practicing your answers, without memorizing them, is an essential part of interview preparation.

Here’s how to begin your prep work for your interview. 

1. Review the program’s website thoroughly.

This will help you discover where you have gaps in your knowledge, with respect to such topics as career support, internships, faculty members’ research interests, and teaching or research assistantships. Read about the program’s values, review faculty profiles, and learn about co-curricular opportunities, including graduate student organizations. Review data on recent graduates’ employment opportunities. When you identify faculty members whose research is of interest, read one or two of their publications, and write down some notes. If you selected a particular specialization or focus area in the program, review its features. If you attended an admissions open house, read the notes you took during that session.

2. Review the details of your application.

Reread your application to refresh your memory about the content and specifics of your essays, short answers, and other data. So, if your interviewer asks, for example, “What are some of your interests outside of school and work?” or “Tell me what you learned from a failure,” you will remember which interests you indicated in your application or the details of the failure you wrote about, including what you learned from it.  Just because you described an anecdote in your application doesn’t mean you have to repeat it, but be thoughtful in deciding what stories to tell in your interview. 

3. Review the interview schedule. 

Most programs will send you a schedule prior to your interview. Look up your interviewers on the program’s website and LinkedIn to learn about them and their background(s). Make notes about whether they are admissions staff, faculty, alumni, or students. In-person interviews might include lunch or a campus tour with one or more students. If your interview is to be conducted virtually, test the platform ahead of time. You might have experience using Zoom, but that doesn’t mean you know how to use Google Chat.

4. Create a list of questions for your interviewer(s).

After you have reviewed your application, reread your essays, and gone through the program’s website with a fine-tooth comb, make a list of questions that relate specifically to your personal interests, experience, and goals. Jot down whatever comes to mind. You don’t need to ask your interviewer every question on your list, but make sure you have a good number of options available. The best questions will help highlight how well suited you are for the program. In other words, you want to connect the dots between the features of the program and your particular objectives, needs, and interests. Because everyone’s questions are individualized, it’s difficult to offer specific examples, but here are some general ones that might inspire your more personal queries:

• What do you think is most distinctive about this program?
• Tell me more about _______. (Fill in the blank based on your website research; some examples are opportunities for teaching and research assistantships, opportunities for starting graduate student organizations, networking with alumni.)
• Describe the kind of career support available to students and alumni.
• What is something I would not know about this program from reviewing the website?

You might develop additional questions based on what you learn during the interview.

If your admissions interview is with a recent graduate or a student, ask about their personal experience in the program. As the conversation flows, other questions might naturally arise, such as the following: 

• What are/were your favorite classes? Professors?
• Are there any activities, clubs, or competitions that should not be missed?
• Do you wish you had done anything differently while in the program?
• For alumni: Tell me about your career path since graduating from the program.

Final details

Part of making a good impression at your interview is dressing appropriately. Business attire is recommended, and avoid any distracting accessories. If you’re doing a virtual interview, make sure you will be in a quiet place without disruptions, and that your background doesn’t detract from the focus on you as a prospective student. Your light source should be in front of you so that the light falls on your face. For in-person interviews, comfortable footwear that looks professional is important, given that you might be walking long distances. 

Bring your materials, including paper and pen, in a folio that is easy to access, and make sure to have extra copies of your resume with you. Turn off your cell phone as soon as you arrive at the interview, and remember that your interview starts the moment you get to campus (for in-person interviews). Even casual interactions with individuals on your way to the interview location could end up being important. 

After your interview, send thank-you emails to everyone you met during the process.  Ideally, include references in these notes to topics you discussed during your interview, and reiterate your enthusiasm for joining the program.

You can do this! Go ace those interviews now!

The best way to feel confident going into your interview is to be absolutely sure you’ve taken the right steps to prepare. A mock interview and feedback from an Accepted admissions expert can help you put your best foot forward on the day of your interview. Schedule a free consultation today to get started!

By Alice Diamond, former associate dean for career and community service at Lesley University. Alice has a BA from Colgate University, an MA from Bryn Mawr College, and an MS from Cornell University. She has more than 35 years of experience in career and admissions advising for undergraduate and graduate candidates. Alice’s clients have been accepted to top programs in a wide range of fields. Want to work with Alice? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Acing the PsyD Interview: The 3-P Plan
• How to Prepare for Your PhD Interview
• The Anatomy of a Post-Interview Thank You Email

The post Ask Away at Your Admissions Interview! appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

How do you put your heart and soul – and 20-plus years of your life – into a two-page, double-spaced document? The personal statement is often a source of many starts and stops for law school applicants. It’s also a powerful tool through which you can share more about who you are with the admissions committee – which might be why it’s so difficult to write! 

Your personal statement is a statement of purpose

First, as mentioned, your personal statement should be two pages, double-spaced. While it is challenging to condense your life into just two pages, your personal statement is not meant to be a comprehensive memoir. It is a statement – a statement of purpose – and your purpose is to attend law school and pursue a legal education and career. Therefore, unless you are given a prompt that directs you to write about something specific, your personal statement should answer the questions “Why do you want to go to law school?” and “Why now?” And your narrative should be clear. 

If you find yourself stuck and haven’t yet been able to get through a draft of your personal statement, it might be helpful to begin with a conversation. At Accepted, we start by asking, “Why do you want to go to law school?” It might take a couple of follow-up questions to really tease out the answer, but the narrative exists – and it really can fit on two pages! For instance, we might discuss an applicant’s reasons for putting themselves through the stress of the application process or why now feels like the right time to act on an idea they’ve had for a long time. In the end, their answer could be something like “I have been working for a couple of years and enjoy the work I do but realize I’m missing the knowledge and skills necessary to really effect change.” Or maybe “I come from a family of lawyers and have grown up knowing what I want to do.” Or perhaps “I have seen firsthand the injustice in the world and want to give voice to the voiceless.” Everyone has a reason, and the key is to figure out what that reason is for you. 

Your personal statement is not a resume

As an applicant, you have over two decades of life to share with the admissions committee, but your personal statement is not meant to be a memoir or a recitation of your resume. Your application already includes your resume, so the committee will have access to it. Although your personal statement might provide insight into a specific aspect of your resume, it should not read like a recounting of it, such as “Sophomore year I interned at X law firm, and it was great, and that lead to another internship at Y Public Defender’s office, but it wasn’t until I took a job as a paralegal at Z firm that I really knew what I wanted to do.” Remember, your personal statement is only two pages long, and you want to make the most of that space. 

Your resume and your personal statement should be complementary; they should build on one another to tell a more complete story. Pick a specific point, and then dig deeper to go beyond the banal, superficial, or obvious, so the admissions committee learns more about you. What motivated you to apply for your first internship? How did one summer job lead to another? Why was the work at Z so transforming? Peel back the layers to reveal your motivations and lessons learned to create an insightful, engaging personal statement that combines anecdote with analysis and helps the committee get to know you as a unique applicant. 

Again, each candidate has just two pages with which to demonstrate their ability to convey a point: why they want to go to law school. Make your application stand out by being clear and concise. Let your narrative shine so that the admissions reader knows that you are confident in your decision to pursue your JD and that you possess solid reasoning and writing ability. After all that work, make sure that your statement is proofread as many times as possible – and then once more – before you submit it. Now get started! 

Do you need help crafting your law school personal statement so that it showcases your greatest strengths and abilities? Check out our Law School Admissions Consulting and Advising Services and work one-on-one with an expert advisor who will help you get accepted.

Sadie Polen has more than ten years of experience in higher education. She reviewed statements of purpose, personal statements, and resumes for political and public service opportunities and made candidate selections for elite programs at Harvard University. She also has experience advising individuals on their career and post-graduation plans. Sadie holds a BS from UC Davis, an EdM from Harvard, and a DEI certificate from Cornell. Want Sadie to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Getting into Law School: What You Need to Know When You Start the Process, a free guide
• Navigating the Law School Admissions Process, podcast Episode 550
• Sample Law School Personal Statement Essays

The post Why Is Writing Your Law School Personal Statement So Difficult? appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Show Summary

This week, Linda Abraham welcomes Dean Shane Cooper, Senior Associate Dean for Admissions, Financial Aid and Student Services at Cornell School of Law. Dean Cooper shares insights into the admissions process at Cornell Law School, emphasizing the mutual goal of finding the right fit between the school and the applicant. We discuss the benefits of small class sizes, close faculty interaction, and strong international programs. Despite its Ithaca location, the school offers abundant opportunities for experiential learning. Dean Cooper explains that Cornell accepts LSAT, GRE, or GMAT scores without preference, with financial aid linked to the strength of these scores. He highlights the importance of diverse experiences and well-rounded characters in applicants, and we explore how interviews, re-applicant growth, and the Why Cornell essay play significant roles in the admissions process. Dean Cooper underscores Cornell Law’s commitment to opening doors for students and making a positive impact on the legal community.

Show Notes

Thanks for joining me for the 590th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Are you applying to law school this cycle? Are you planning ahead for later? Are you competitive at your target programs? Accepted’s law school admissions quiz can give you a quick reality check. Just go to www.accepted.com/law-quiz and complete the quiz. You’ll get not only an assessment but also tips on how to improve your qualifications and chances of acceptance, and it’s all free. 

For today’s interview, I’m delighted to have Dean Shane Cooper, Senior Associate Dean for Admissions, Financial Aid and Student Services at Cornell School of Law, on Admissions Straight Talk for the first time. Dean Cooper earned his bachelor’s from Holy Cross University and then became a nuclear submarine officer in the US Navy. You might be the first former submarine officer in the US Navy on Admissions Straight Talk also. He came to Cornell for the first time to earn his JD, which he did in 2003. He then returned to the Navy, serving with increasing responsibility in the Judicial Advocate General Corps until 2021. During the last two years of his service, he was the commanding officer of the Naval Justice School. Since separating from the Navy, he served initially as associate dean for admissions and enrollment at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, and then joined Cornell Law School in January 2024. And today he had his responsibilities increased to include student services because before it was just admissions and financial aid. So congratulations on joining Cornell and your promotion. 

Dean Cooper, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [2:35]

Thanks for having me.

Can you give an overview of the more distinctive features of the Cornell JD program? [2:41]

Sure, absolutely. I’ll share a few ideas here. Just to note that I’m an alum of Cornell Law from 2003, so for me it’s been a great experience to come back to the law school just about seven months ago and see it through a new set of eyes as part of the administration. So what really stands out to me about Cornell, it’s amongst our peer schools, one of the fewer smaller schools. We only bring in about 200 JD students per year, which leads to a really small, close-knit collaborative community of students who support each other. So I think that that’s distinctive about us. Something I noted as a student and I still see here today is just the strength of our faculty. I think the strength of any educational institution really is about the faculty and we have some great faculty that both are hardworking in their scholarship, advancing legal thoughts in society, but also just great teachers.

We have small sections here of about 30 to 35 students per section who get to work with these faculty and then the faculty will work with them as teaching assistants and research assistants. And so in a small town like Ithaca, the faculty really are never far away from the law school so that’s a distinctive part, they’re not off about outside in the city or something like that. And then surprisingly, even with the smaller student body, we have a ton of student organizations. We have a lot of clinics and practicum experiences here in Ithaca. And I think the last thing I’d touch upon is the strength of our international programs. We have a lot of exchange opportunities abroad, a lot of foreign students that come here to Cornell and study with us alongside our JDs, which I think really adds to the community.

As I mentioned to you before we started recording, I’ve been to Ithaca. It’s absolutely gorgeous and the Finger Lake district is magnificent. How would you respond to an applicant concerned that it’s far from any major city, they might fear the location could limit opportunities for experiential learning or internships? [4:25]

Sure, I get that question quite a bit.

Let me just say I lean into the beauty of Ithaca, and I lean into those winters. People from warmer climates ask about that as well. I’m a huge fan, and I think anyone, regardless of what climate you come from, can enjoy Ithaca and the law school. But to your specific question, to your point, I think that’s why you see that we have for this upcoming year, we’ll have 28 clinics and practicum experiences here at the law school, which is an amazing number when you think about it; there are only 600 students at the law school in general.

So we know that we need to bring those legal experiences to the campus here, either through in-house clinical faculty or through our other practitioners who do the practicums with us. So if one were to look at our website and look at the 28 different topics we cover, they really span a wide array of different topics and issues of interest. Of interest to our 1Ls is that in our spring we have an elective, which is an actual immigration law and advocacy clinic, which is pretty rare to have a clinical opportunity in your 1L year. And so we have a limited number of spaces for that opportunity. 

Beyond that, we have externship programs, really robust externship opportunities where we work with students to craft perhaps a semester where they won’t be with us here in Ithaca, but they’ll do a full-time externship off campus somewhere. And then we have a really exciting partnership with Cornell Tech, which is for our graduate students at Cornell here in Roosevelt, I say here, it’s in Roosevelt Island just a few hours away in New York City. For some of our students, by the time they are 3Ls and they’re craving some of that city life, then they can look at Cornell Tech. We are three and a half to four hours away from Manhattan; we have a Cornell Campus Connect bus.  We’re four to five hours from Philadelphia, five hour drive to Boston, and five and a half to Washington DC. So I think there are students, I always say, “Hey, you’ll come to Ithaca, really get to focus on your legal studies. And then when you are craving that weekend to get back to the city life for just the weekend, there’s that opportunity for sure.”

Let’s turn to the application. The site says that applicants can apply with LSAT, the GRE or the GMAT. Is there any preference? Do you find them equally predictive of success in law school? [6:57]

I find that they are equally predictive, and then I would say that the vast majority of our applicants use the LSAT and that a smaller minority will use the GRE. And to be frank, I don’t see much of the GMAT at all or anymore. And so that’s something I’m looking at with our admissions committee for the future. So if we focus primarily on the LSAT or the GRE, what I would say is that we weigh either of them equally when they come in. However, there may be applicants that will submit both scores and I would say for that, the LSAT takes primacy. There’s a reporting requirement for medians and so for those students that ask me that question or we get that question quite frequently, if you have reportable LSAT and GRE scores, we’re going to focus on the LSAT. If you submit one or the other, I would just say based on my experience here with the admissions committee, we’ll look at either of those with equally predictive strength and weigh it accordingly.

Is there any difference in the likelihood of receiving financial aid if you take the LSAT or GRE? [8:03]

No. What we do is look at the strength of the scores of the LSAT or GRE. And GREs are also reportable at certain volume levels within the ABA reporting as well. So we will calibrate our scholarships if it’s based on merit, based on the strength of either test.

Are you anticipating any changes to the application process for the 2024/25 cycle? [8:28]

Broadly speaking, no. So for those that went through and were very patient with this last cycle in all of the other law schools, there was significant change across the industry, particularly with the essays and the prompts. And so we followed suit as well and had changed our prompts pretty significantly. We are anticipating for this upcoming cycle, no major changes at all. In fact, we’re in the final stages of updating our website, our FAQs, and we’re starting to get some questions already from those that are looking ahead. We’ll have that updated on our website shortly. But to calm anybody’s concerns out there, they won’t have to update their essays necessarily if they had been working it.

I should comment for anybody who listens to this later on, today is August 1st so by the time this airs, the changes that Shane is talking about will probably have already occurred. 

What kind of experience are you looking for in applicants? Full-time work experience? Specific volunteer experience? Legally related experience? Do you have any preferences? [9:14]

It really depends on the nature of the applicant and where they’re at in life when they come to see us. So I’d say that all of the above that you said, those are all positive factors. So for example, you could have a student who doesn’t have much time between undergraduate school and law school, so they won’t have as many professional work experience opportunities. And there we would look at what volunteer opportunities they had, internships, anything they’ve done in the time, in the summers and that so that we can see what their work ethic might be like. We can see the different experiences that they’ve maximized with the time or even limited time that they had.

And then if we encounter an applicant who has been out of school for a year or two or longer, then absolutely you will be considering their resume looking at their work experiences. It’ll be interesting to read letters of recommendation from work supervisors, but it all really boils down to us trying to get a better sense of the character, the professional character of that student, and really the future employability and their talent and potential for being a great lawyer out in society.

So you don’t necessarily have to see legally related experience? [10:47]

Oh, thanks for highlighting that. No, legal experience is helpful so I may see a student who works as a paralegal at a big city law firm and now they’re applying to law school and they tell me in their application they want to work for a large law firm when they graduate. I have a better feeling about that student knowing what they’re in for and what they want to do with themselves. But I’ll have students that have a broad array of work experience in education or other service opportunities that have nothing to do with the law, but I can see that that’s making them a well-rounded individual because something about the legal industry, it’s all really about people in many ways. So we’d like to find well-rounded individuals from all walks of life.

As you mentioned, Cornell has some very specific prompts in lieu of their traditional personal statement. I’m going to focus on prompt number two for a second. Can you give listeners some tips for that?

Prompt 2: In the aftermath of the US Civil War, Ezra Cornell wrote, “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” For over 150 years, Cornell University has remained deeply committed to Ezra’s vision. Explain how your life experiences will help inform your contributions to a law school learning community devoted to “Any person, any study.” We encourage you to think broadly about what you’ll contribute to a law school class and eventually to the legal profession including, but not necessarily, the expertise you have, experience you can share, and how communities of which you have been a part have shaped your perspective. 

That’s a long prompt. [11:39]

It’s a long prompt. Does it sound like a law school exam question? I shed a little light on these prompts, this was produced by law professors who helped us reshape our prompts last summer. And broadly speaking for the audience, there are four prompts that we offer. We offer up to five pages, which is a little unusual, I imagine, and you don’t have to use all five pages, but we offer the five pages of space and four prompts of which you can address any or all of those prompts. The fourth prompt is sort of a catch-all question so frankly you could talk about just about anything. But I have to say, when I first arrived at Cornell, I saw the prompts. I thought to myself, “Oh, I feel like a 1L with my law school exam here and all the other ways I could take this.”

I thought you were going to say that you felt lucky you didn’t have to answer them when you were applying. [13:29]

But let me say this, I have reviewed applications in my past on other, what I would say more generic prompts. And now I had a great cycle to look at thousands of applications using these prompts and seeing how all the applicants took various directions and approaches to it was very enlightening as well. And particularly prompt two for me, and it’s interesting that you focused in on prompt two as well, it really speaks to the core of the institution itself at Cornell and how it was founded is that for any person, any study standards, and what I found in the response or what I’d advise an applicant is that gives you the great opportunity to speak about yourself in an authentic and genuine way. And if there’s one thing I could leave with a law school applicant, at least a tip that I think is important to me, so I’ll speak just for myself as one file reviewer, is that authenticity is really the coin of the realm here.

If you can stand out as an applicant, and I have a better feeling of who you are, not who you think you want me to think you are, but who you are, I think that will serve you really, really well because admissions is a two-way street. You’ll want to be accepted by the right law school for you, and if they know who you are, that helps and then you’ll want to then fit in and thrive there. So in response to that prompt, I’ve seen a number of just tremendous essays and stories about personal experiences from various individuals in all different directions, it could be about their family background, it could be about a very specific event in their life that impacted them and then altered the trajectory of their life and then why they are pursuing the law or a career in the law. And so for me, it’s been a privilege to read thousands of applications and just essentially meet or learn of all these people with all their experiences and then what’s driven them to apply to Cornell.

Anecdotally, I’ve been an admissions consultant for about 30 years, and when I first started, law schools typically had just a generic two-page personal statement. We’ve worked with a variety of graduate and undergraduate programs and business schools, and MBA programs had much more demanding application essays. Over time it’s reversed, but when I started, I always found it very perplexing that the law schools had relatively little writing requirements in their application 20 years ago. If you think back to when you applied and the business schools at the time, again, that’s changed, they were much more demanding and learned much more about their applicants than they do today. [15:30]

Yeah, that’s interesting. Thanks for that insight because I want to just be upfront for people that are trying to understand at least how Cornell’s doing in the admissions front. I’ve been doing admissions for about three plus years, so it’s a different perspective. I spent a career of professionally developing young attorneys back in my military background, so I think of it from a practitioner’s lens. So as we approach this admissions cycle and I work with our admissions committee and our faculty, we have all different viewpoints.

But I will say this, that when I pair up my experience just initially with those more generic prompts and then I see what we’ve done here in the past year, the amount of information we’re able to elicit and provide the opportunity for the applicant, I think is much better in my opinion, from the quality of what I read and hear or see from people in these statements compared to the old. I found it to be very helpful for our committee.

I would assume it makes it much easier for you to differentiate between applicants. [17:10]

Yes. I will say this, for those that are interested in Cornell or maybe any other school with unique prompts, you can kind of tell when it’s been cut and pasted and it’s not necessarily your prompt.

What this used to be was you’d cut and paste the basic essay, and you would have a paragraph about why this school. [17:26]

Yes. So I get that too and I understand it. We are one of however many a student decides to apply to. I will say that those that differentiated themselves by the level of effort and how much they were really focusing on our prompts and our essays in addition to our Why Cornell essay, which you might touch on a little bit later, which we’ve changed our approach a little bit on that, that I think helps the applicants really stand out.

All right, since you mentioned it, let’s touch on the “Why Cornell?” essay. [18:00]

Yes. So I know in the law school world or what I hear from Reddit or other places is the dreaded Why X essay or something like that. And we do at Cornell have a Why Cornell. And it used to be in a text box prompt of number of characters you filled out and the decision was made last cycle to require a one-page standalone Why Cornell essay.

And what I found is that it’s extremely helpful to us and something that we do pay attention to. I’m a big proponent of the fact that in order to thrive or succeed at law school, you’ve got to go in with a mindset like this is a place I want to be. And so the Why Cornell’s help us start to differentiate amongst our applicants, those that have researched us well and really are very strongly interested in Cornell. And I get that we’re not everyone’s top choice, but I will look at those Why Cornell’s and statements and that’ll allow us to identify a particular applicant that one piece might help them in that case as someone that we would want to pursue.

If applicants had a bad semester, drop in grades, took the LSAT more than once, should they write an addendum? Are there other reasons that you would encourage people to write an addenda? [19:04]

Sure. So there are certain, what I would say required addenda based on application instructions at various law schools and ours, for example, for character and fitness issues one raises for the law school application that will require an addenda that we would need in the application, and that’s for various bar exam and bar certification purposes down the road as well, as well as our own admissions committee. But for the example you raised, and by the way, if it’s an academic misconduct or infraction, that as well would fall under the umbrella of character and fitness that would need to be discussed.

For GPA or academic performance issues, I think it’s at the discretion of the applicant. I think the effective ones that I’ve read might describe a bad semester based on maybe circumstances, a particular odd course with a grade that stands apart from anything else going on in the record. So those can be helpful. Something that’s more generic across the entire four years, maybe not. I have seen other effective ones from those, although it kind of stands out on its own already that someone who was younger struggled in their undergraduate several years of work experience, life experience, perhaps a successful graduate degree, and then they might explain, “Look, I was young naive, not prepared.” Those make sense to me as well.

I assume for somebody who had family issues and was working to support their family the whole time, that would also provide context around a lower GPA. [20:35]

Yes, and I should address that too. We do see LSAT addenda and in those cases, we usually haven’t found many of those to be extremely helpful except maybe there’s one outlying score perhaps lower that you want to explain. We here at Cornell looking at your highest LSAT score, but I could see if you had a really aberrant low low score that you want to explain the difference for that might be helpful. And then gaps in resume can also be helpful. I’m going to be looking at your resume and trying to piece together the chronological order of how things have gone leading up to law school. And every once in a while we’ll notice there’s this missing year or two and those that write the addenda that explain what’s going on in that year or two, it’s extremely helpful. Most commonly we would see that during COVID perhaps or taking a pause to help with caretaking for an individual back at home, those sort of circumstances.

The Cornell Law website says that, “Interviews are at the request of our admissions committee only.” What percentage of admitted students are interviewed, and why would you request an interview if it’s less than a hundred percent? [21:46]

Thanks for giving me a chance to talk a little bit about that because we’re going to slightly update our FAQ and the website regarding the interview process. But I will describe what we do here is we rely on an online assessment platform run by Kira, K-I-R-A, it’s a company and a few of peer law schools will use Kira. We’ve been using it at Cornell for about eight years, and it had been used in various ways in past cycles, but what I can say, at least for now going forward, and in this most recent cycle, I’ve been ensuring that anyone who’s going to be admitted to our school will go through the Kira online assessment process. And to be transparent with the audience, to speak about the last cycle, approximately one-third of our applicants were invited to take part in a Kira online assessment. About 90% decided to go through with the assessment, and then about two-thirds of those that took the assessment were then offered admission.

So hopefully those numbers will give some context. I would tell people, and I just recorded the welcome video for the upcoming cycle for the Kira when you take it, and I explain it’s not a make or break part of the application;  it’s one of all the entire pieces of the application that we take in holistically. So I’ve tried to lower the stress a little bit about it. Then we really appreciate the online assessment platform because it really takes the interviewer out of it, it’s really not meant to be a two-way street. This is really all about allowing the applicant to express themselves on an equal playing field. Everyone gets to use the same opportunity to provide us with information. And we also mix in verbal responses, but then written responses to written questions as well.

So when you talk about an interview, it’s just the Kira interview. It’s not like you and I are speaking now. It’s certainly not in person in Ithaca and about a third of applicants were invited to interview. Is this something that you’re testing out to see if you want to add it for all applicants? Is there a reason that you invite some people to interview? [23:40]

I think that’s a great open question about whether we expand one day to everyone. We’ve had an approach here where it was only offered in a limited fashion for just those that we are very serious in moving forward with. And I think in terms of efficiency, our thought process is not to open it up to the entire applicant pool right away, that we would go through and do a first rough screen of the applications that we have, those that we know that we’re serious about considering for a possible offer and then go into that assessment process. I think in thereby, I would imagine it eliminates a little bit of the time for the applicant who are applying to several law schools. And then from a sheer efficiency standpoint for our admissions committee, it lowers that number.

But I am really open to, as I’ve told our team here, we’re open to all sorts of ideas and continue to assess our process and improve. I am aware of other peer schools that will offer a Kira, I think voluntarily or to everybody, or in our case, we are selective in how we do the Kira right now. And you’re right, even to use the word interview, I need to change the language really. It’s more like an online assessment. It’s really not a two-way interview, right?

But if you are going to be admitted, you will do the Kira interview. Obviously, not all interviewees are admitted. That makes perfect sense. [25:10]

That’s right. And I think that that was an open question because of the way in which Cornell in the past before I got here had been using the platform. I personally just feel strongly that I want to ensure that everybody that ends up at orientation that I’ll see here in a few weeks, they’ve all gone through the same process, if you will.

Your site says that the entering class in 2023 had a median LSAT of 172, and the median undergrad GPA was a 3.9. It also says that you received roughly 4,000 applicants. You mentioned earlier that the total school is 600 people, which means that the entering class is roughly 200. Those are pretty stratospheric stats and tough odds. I’m guessing that you reject people with stats at that level or even a little higher, not that they can go much higher, and that you admit people with stats lower than the median because that’s the nature of a median. What transforms a competitive application into an accepted application? [25:39]

Thanks for the opportunity to highlight some of that. I think through those that have been admitted with us and there’s so many wonderful people that we have not had the ability or to be able to admit and accept and are going to go on and do great things. I’d say the word complete comes to mind when I think about an application. It’s really a well put together application that at every aspect and phase of it that we’re looking is really a well-done complete application. So whether that is from well-crafted personal essays that are authentic and allow us an insight into who they are that are geared towards our prompts, a strong Why Cornell statement so we understand why that person is thinking of joining us here at Cornell and that we can envision them here in Ithaca, New York.

And then you move to their resume and you can see some great experiences there. And also just a well put together resume so we have a sense of how they’ll be employable down the road when they graduate from us in a few years. Letters of recommendation from their professors or supervisors in work and just getting a sense of maybe a 360 degree view of the applicant from a different way. And also understanding who the applicant worked with and chose for the recommenders, that’s also kind of a thing in the background to consider. And then down to, if I need to, looking at LSAT test writing samples so I can kind of compare the writing in that to the personal statement writing. And then the Kira online assessment where I get to see their verbal responses to questions where they’re thinking on their feet and then writing impromptu text-based answers to random questions that we put to them as well in Kira.

We hope in this process it’s imperfect for sure that we can learn as much about an applicant, and those that I think that have been successful, the ones that I think through that stand out to me or those that I just tell was – it was a complete package. They cared about that application knowing that they had many to put together during that time and that they cared about joining us here at Cornell.

Does Cornell Law consider update letters at any point in the process? This is from applicants who have something significant to tell you after they submit their applications and before hearing back from you or perhaps if they’re waitlisted. [28:27]

Absolutely. We will welcome correspondence to the office.  They can email it to the JD admissions inbox. And then we also have introduced a feature on the online status application feature, there are ways for you to upload documents. In fact, we’ve been asking applicants this cycle to upload those letters of continued interest or other update letters because it ensures that it gets into their file. So there’s absolutely a line of persistence to going beyond that line for any admissions team. And I think it’s fine to be politely persistent, and people, you’ll have to use your own intuition to judge what that line is, and those that get it right, I think it works well with the admissions team.

And you mentioned waitlist and we call it reserve list here, but it’s the same thing. I’ve noticed that there have been candidates this summer who we encourage them in our emails that we sent to like, “If you have an update or you want to send us a note to say you’re still here and you’re still interested, let us know.” That’s helped some of the applicants out, gets our attention and we take another look and we’ve brought some wonderful people here to the class over the summer.

Do you have any advice for re-applicants to Cornell Law? [29:55]

What I would say is that we do have access to their last application and we will take a look at that. So it would be helpful if they would update their application with any new information. And I think even in the personal statements, I’d recommend not necessarily just recycling it completely that at some point something’s changed in the past year that would be worth talking about that would help you update your personal statement as well. So my general advice, and I know it’s extra work, but my general advice is that you don’t want to just cut and paste and send in what you had last year. Some updates would help. That’s a great point. Yes. And yes, we’ll have more file readers and other people that see it for sure from different angles, but at the end of the day, I know when I’m looking, if there’s absolutely nothing that’s changed from the last year, that tells me something too.

One of the most frustrating kinds of conversations I have as a consultant is somebody who is a re-applicant, and it goes with any program and they say, “I know my test score was the problem. My essays were good. I improved my test score.” And I’ll say something like, “What have you done during the last year?” They’ll say, “Well, I did this and this and this and this.” Look, the schools want to see not just that you got a better score, they’ll definitely be interested in that, but they’re going to want to see that you grew, that you’ve matured, that you’ve done something, contributed something, had some impact. You need to show them that otherwise you’re not only showing them that you’re not dynamic and growing other than the test score, you’re showing them that you’re lazy.

You don’t want to commit the effort necessary to present this new and improved you. And every so often I make a dent, and sometimes people just are like, “I don’t want to do it.” I know they just don’t want to hear it. And for me, it’s personally very frustrating. When I hear somebody like you say a little more courteously than I just did, I’m cheering here because I think it’s an important message that has to get out there. Some people won’t hear it because they just don’t want to hear it, but for those who are thoughtful about the reapplication process, I think it’s a really important message. [30:51]

Agreed, hopefully it helps.

What advice do you have for transfer applicants to Cornell Law? [32:19]

I think it’s on our website as well that we really aren’t historically known to have many transfer applicants at our law school. We had two last year, we had three coming in this summer so it’s not a huge number. So what I’d say for the transfer applicants is we’re going to look of course at their underlying application from when they were applying to law school because it usually recycle some of that information, LSAT or GPA. But we’re really going to focus on how they performed at the law school that they’re at.

So we’re looking for good strong academic performance at the law school they’re currently with, and then an understanding as to why us and why now, and what can we do at Cornell Law to help further their ambitions and their career goals. And again, I’m speaking to just my experience here as the new admissions’ dean, I work extremely closely with the associate Dean for career development here. And in fact, candidly I’ll say we don’t bring anyone in until I double check with the career services’ dean, that we both feel strong and confident that we can help this person with their employment outcome. And once we both feel assured about that along with their strong academic performance, those are the ones that are successful to join with us here.

What advice would you have for somebody who’s not planning to apply this cycle but is planning to apply in 2025 or 2026. Perhaps they’re in college, perhaps they want to work for a year or two. What should they be thinking about doing to prepare themselves to apply to Cornell Law? [33:44]

Well, I applaud them for thinking ahead like that, which is really good because from speaking with the applicants or others that are in the application process, the sense I get from talking to many of them is that everything seems to speed up and catch up on them very quickly. And so even as well-prepared they are, it still doesn’t feel like enough time. Few things if they haven’t been to an LSAC Forum where a hundred plus law schools will be in one place in one major metropolitan area, and they can walk by the tables and pick out different schools and just meet different law school admissions professionals who all have different opinions and different points of view and experiences and start to get a sense of feedback from not only just one person, but from several different points of view that I think is helpful. If they happen to still be in college and they have a pre-law fair that’s happening at their particular school where 30 to 40 or 50 law schools are there, I think that’s extremely helpful as well.

And then ultimately though, most people are going to be taking the LSAT and I would say study, prepare, study, study, study and prepare. If you have one minute to spend left, and you asked me how to spend the minute, I’d say spend it on the LSAT preparation. So getting ready for that test, which is extremely important for law school admissions, whether or not we believe that it should be that high of a priority, and I’m coming at it from a relative newcomer here, but I also understand the importance of LSAT. So that’s how I would advise my own family, and that’s what I would say to the applicant out there.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [35:39]

Well, I think that we sort of touched upon it, which is just the impressions of a relative newcomer to the field and coming into this. I could share a little bit of the background maybe as context to what will likely be a rambling answer, we’ll see where it goes. But what I’d say is I went to college, ROTC, Navy, submarine career was wonderful, and I had always thought law school would be somewhere possible and the Navy made it possible. There’s a funded law education program that I went through, and at the time, the admissions’ dean, Rick Geiger, here at Cornell Law took a shot on me because I’ll be candid, I’ll just throw it out there, my scores are not at the medium here, but I got here and as a veteran, or yeah, I was a veteran at the time as well, I had a great time here at Cornell Law with a young family. And then for me, it was now I live this institution, it’s been on my resume, thinking the legal profession where you go to law school is with you for the rest of your legal career, it’s extremely important. And so I’ve been proud to be associated with Cornell Law in that way.

Fast-forward years later is a great career in the judge advocate general corps. Towards the end, one of my opportunities was to work with the Naval Justice School where I supported the training and development of young attorneys coming from all over the country at various law schools. And that kind of focused me on the idea of mentorship, professional development, and giving back to the next generation of lawyers. And so by happenstance, I had an opportunity with the University of New Hampshire School of Law, which I’m very grateful for them giving me my entry point into law school and law school admissions. And I just fall in love with it because now I’m dealing with even slightly younger generation of people who are pursuing a legal career.

And so what I’d say is that you walk into a law school admissions industry that has certain expectations and certain ways that we’re all corralled. Unfortunately, due to, in my opinion, the US News and World Report rankings and all sorts of other pressures on the industry, here I am really looking for just good individuals that are going to be great lawyers out in society, which is what Cornell Law is trying to produce. There’s a motto here at Cornell that our founding principles, were trying to create lawyers in the best sense, and we’ll try to repeat that phrase often to our students. And that is not just being lawyers, but good lawyers in society is what we’re trying to train here. And so I’m always looking for potential and talent, people that we think that are going to be like that. And while yes, the numbers are important, we’re really hoping that it doesn’t have to just be about that as well here.

And so this is going to be a continual journey for me professionally as I work through the law school admissions world because of the different constraints that already exist in our industry, and we hope here in some small way with our Cornell law team that we can maybe make a few adjustments here and there that will impact the industry particularly, I don’t mean to sound promotional, but I might as well take the moment, we recently changed our loan repayment assistance program to help those that want to get into public interest law, which frankly, Cornell many students, for great reasons, will look to us for large law firm, big law firm outcomes, which we’re very good at here.

But with our expanded loan repayment assistance program where we’ve increased our caps on salary for loan forgiveness, I think that we’ll be able to incentivize those students that also want to pursue a public interest career. So the way I look at it here is Cornell, is that we can help you open any door. So if we can just keep making these small adjustments here and there, hopefully we’ll make some positive impact on our legal community.

Right. Somebody told me a saying once, “If you want to lead the way, you have to first start with a step.” Something along those lines. [39:40]

I agree with that.

Dean Cooper, this has been delightful. Where can listeners learn more about Cornell Law? [39:53]

Thank you. They can go to our website, lawschool.cornell.edu. We have a JD admissions page there with several FAQs, and as you pointed out, hopefully updated by the time that listeners hear this, with some updated FAQs there. And they can reach out to our team at any time. We’ll have a law school ambassador standing by to engage with them and our admissions team as well.

Relevant Links:

• Cornell Law School JD Program
• Are You Ready for Law School?, Accepted’s Free Law School Admissions Quiz 

Related Shows:

• How to Get Into George Washington School of Law 
• How to Get into Washington University in St. Louis School of Law
• How to Get into USC Gould School of Law
• JD-Next: A Great Option for Law School Applicants
• How to Get into the University of Chicago Law School

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The post Get Accepted to Cornell School of Law [Episode 590] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

So you’ve sat down and brainstormed, and you’re now ready to hit the ground running with your essays. Great! You might be wondering how to best convey your reasons for pursuing graduate school to the admissions committees. What kind of tone or approach should you use? A good rule of thumb is to project three key qualities: confidence, professionalism, and positivity. But how? Let’s drill down on each of these and think through how best to approach them.  

Confidence

Confidence is not the same thing as conceitedness or arrogance. You’ll need to practice self-awareness as you think through your abilities and how to communicate them effectively. What are some ways you admire how others express genuine confidence? If someone has to yell from the rooftops how wonderful they are, that should give you pause. Only world-class athletes can get away with saying, “I am the greatest!,” and even then, it’s only for a moment in time. Real confidence is projected through accomplishments and authenticity, not braggadocio.

Confidence lies in your ability to show what you did and how you contributed to your organization, team, or project. You can sound self-assured without diminishing your contributions. Write in clear, direct language that includes colorful and relevant details but avoids exaggeration or superlatives that could make you seem as though you are patting yourself on the back. 

Avoid making vague and unsupported boasts, such as “I have strong communication skills.” Instead, show those skills in action: “As a research assistant, I met regularly with all five members of the research team and made formal presentations of my findings each week.” Whenever possible, quantify your achievements, and provide relevant, impressive specifics. 

To sound confident in your writing, do not use words or qualifiers that weaken your message, such as “seems,” “appears,” and “maybe.” Use strong adjectives, such as “compelling,” “notable,” “dramatic,” and “inspiring,” but only if the situations or people deserve such descriptors. (If you’re talking about provisional research findings, provisional-sounding words are okay!)

Crossing the line from confidence to arrogance is an application killer, so make sure to root out any whiff of the latter in your essays. Because so many grad programs rely on teamwork, adcoms look for candidates who will be good colleagues. Include anecdotes that show that you are someone who works well with others. Even if you aren’t going into a team-oriented program, nobody wants a haughty or arrogant person as a classmate.

Avoid arrogance

When describing your achievements and contributions, don’t minimize the contributions of anyone else on your team or in your group or make their work sound less important than your own. Don’t exaggerate or inflate your contributions, and do not explicitly state (or even imply) that you are smarter or better than your colleagues. If you think this sounds obvious, we can assure you that we have seen plenty of essays in which applicants wrote some variation of “I left this job because I was so much more advanced than my colleagues there.” Even if it’s true (and it might not be as true as you think), don’t write that or anything close to it. 

When writing about having left a position, express the decision in a positive way. It’s far smarter to write that you moved to a different position to gain new skills, increase your level of responsibility, and/or broaden your knowledge of the industry than to bad-mouth your former colleagues or companies. Don’t focus on what you left behind; focus on what you were working toward.  

You’re not the only candidate qualified for a seat in the class and are unlikely to be the very best of the bunch, so don’t say things like “I am the only one who has done X.” Avoid any words that could connote arrogance, especially if you use them primarily in reference to yourself and your accomplishments. If you are truly “superior,” “exceptional,” “creative,” “industrious,” and so on, it will naturally come through in the way you describe your experiences, without your needing to hammer the point home. 

This should go without saying, but never belittle other people, whether in life or in your grad school application! Don’t even hint that other people from your school or company were not as successful, ambitious, emotionally balanced, or prepared as you were. In other words, do not write something like this: “Coming to college was a revelation, because I had been surrounded by unmotivated and underperforming students all my life.” Instead, write this: “In college, I realized I was in my element, surrounded by other motivated students.” Remember, you never need to put others down to raise yourself up.

Confidence will allow you to convey genuine enthusiasm about the program that you know is the right place for you. Arrogance will tempt you to write as though the program should be lucky to have you. 

Last but not least, there is no need to boast about test scores, grades, or other achievements that probably shouldn’t be in your essay because they are already conveyed clearly on your resume/CV and application form. 

Let’s recap the main points in this section:

• Write about your achievements with clear details but without puffery or exaggeration.
• Avoid words that weaken your writing and make you sound uncertain.
• Find the source of your confidence: the reasons you’re applying to the program in the first place.
• Never belittle other people or the environments where you worked before.

Professionalism

Consider that you are writing for an educated, professional class of individuals: they could be admissions officers, professors, students, alumni, or a mix. While you do not need to sound stilted or overly formal, you’re also not writing an email or text message to a friend. Take a respectful tone, and remember that grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation all count.

Burnish your professionalism by following all the adcom’s directions. This means answering the questions as they are asked, keeping your essays and short answers to the stipulated length, and not submitting additional materials that haven’t been requested. Schools tell you what they want, so follow their lead.   

Show mature engagement with your field by describing your experiences, interests, and goals thoughtfully. For example, there is a difference in both content and tone between saying you want to study a particular language because it will give you the skills to work in international development in country X, and saying you want to study that language because you’ve always liked the way it sounds.

Professionalism also involves showing your positive, collaborative outlook. When you describe work you did with a team, write in a way that reflects that cooperation (“we”), show what you gained/learned from the collaboration, and discuss how it prepared you for graduate school. Acknowledge mentors, supervisors, teachers, and colleagues you have admired and from whom you have learned valuable lessons.

We also cannot stress this highly enough: your professional tone should extend to every interaction you have with the school, whether written or spoken. Each email, phone call, visit, interview – every engagement with every person you encounter who is affiliated with your target school must affirm their overall impression of you as a courteous, professional, positive candidate.

Let’s recap the main points in this section: 

• Without being stuffy, write in a respectful tone to your audience of educated professionals. 
• Write about fruitful collaborations by using “we,” and clearly explain what you have learned from your experiences. 
• Maintain a high level of professionalism and courtesy in every interaction you have with the school, whether via email, over the phone, or in person. 

Positivity

If you have followed our advice so far, your confidence and professionalism will shine through. Now let’s add the icing on the cake by making sure you are also conveying the image of a positive candidate, someone the program would love to accept!

Compelling and successful personal statements present a positive perspective on your experiences, even those with a lot of rough spots. For example, you might have left a job because of a very negative work environment. However, you should never trash-talk your former boss or company. Instead, explain that you felt it was time to move on and develop yourself personally or professionally. You can hint at difficulties, and the adcom will understand without your risking coming across as complaining about something (or someone).  

In the earlier section of this article about writing with confidence, we cautioned against using mealymouthed words and phrases that weaken your prose, such as “seems,” “appears,” and “maybe.” But many other qualifying words often end up as useless padding, too, especially adverbs (those “-ly” words). 

Deployed carefully, adverbs can be effective, but too often, they can drag a sentence down and create the opposite effect of what was intended. For example, compare “In the end, I found the experience genuinely enjoyable” with “I actually enjoyed it.”  To say you “actually” enjoyed something makes it sound as though you hadn’t expected to. A more positive phrasing would simply be “I greatly enjoyed the experience.”

If you need to address a weakness in your profile, such as a low GPA or test score, employ the same direct language that you have used in all other areas of your application. A positive attitude won’t let you play the blame game or make excuses. Take responsibility, and tell the adcom how you have worked to strengthen whatever weaknesses you’ve had, and detail the steps you have taken to avoid similar outcomes in the future.  

Finally, think and write in a positive tone about your reasons for attending graduate school, your goals, and what excites you about your program of choice. Adcoms are keen to see that applicants are genuinely interested in what their program offers as well as how a candidate will benefit from their program. Be sure to show genuine enthusiasm when communicating your “why” to the readers. 

Let’s recap the main points in this section:

• Don’t trash-talk a former employer or write negatively, even about negative experiences. Focus on lessons learned and how you have moved forward. 
• Avoid qualifying words that make you sound halfhearted or grudging.
• When writing about a profile weakness, explain what you’ve done to grow and improve. Show a consistent growth mind-set.
• Use a positive tone when explaining your reasons for attending graduate school and why you are excited to apply to and enroll at a given program. 

Read aloud as a final check 

When you’ve finished your drafts, read your essays aloud. Hearing the words is a different experience than reading them. As you listen to your words, ask yourself: Do I sound confident? Are my descriptions of my experiences clear, distinct, and compelling? Am I being self-referential, using “I” too much when discussing a team project? Do I give credit where credit is due and refrain from ever casting blame?

After you run this quality check for yourself, ask a trusted reader to also look at your personal statements. Ask them to pay special attention to your tone and mark any places that sound negative or uncollegial.

Keep this article handy, and use it as a checklist for when you’re drafting and polishing your statements. Follow our advice, and you will ramp up your chances of acceptance!

There’s nothing like personalized guidance when crafting your essays and statements of purpose. The expert advisors at Accepted can help ensure that you are projecting a voice of confidence, professionalism, and positivity in all your application essays. Schedule a free consultation with an Accepted admissions expert today.

Kara Keenan Sweeney has more than 15 years of experience in MBA admissions, having worked for some of the world’s top business school programs, including Columbia Business School, INSEAD, and The Lauder Institute’s joint degree MA/MBA program with The Wharton School and the MA/JD program with Penn Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Kara has guided, coached, and counseled thousands of MBA and EMBA applicants, reviewed innumerable applications, sat on admissions committees, and interviewed countless applicants, including while running Wharton’s Team Based Discussions both virtually and in person. Want Kara to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources:

• Should I Use AI for My MBA (Grad/College) Applications? 
• Highlighting Your Leadership Experience in Your Application
• Four Ways to Highlight Your Strengths in Your Application Essays

The post How to Project Confidence, Professionalism, and Positivity in Your Essays appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Show Summary

This week, we hear from Marla Schechter, a US immigration lawyer with 20+ years of experience. Marla shares her expertise on various topics related to obtaining a visa for studying in the United States. She covers the process of obtaining an F-1 visa, the advantages of studying in a STEM-certified program, the H-1B visa for working in the US, and the Green Card process. She also highlights common mistakes made by student applicants and the potential challenges of obtaining a visa for individuals with criminal records.

Show Notes

Welcome to the 589th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. The challenge at the heart of admissions is showing that you both fit in at your target programs and stand out in the applicant pool. Accepted’s free download Fitting In & Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions will show you how to do exactly that, both fit in and stand out. Master this paradox and you are well on your way to acceptance. You can download your free guide at accepted.com/fiso. 

It’s my pleasure to welcome to Admissions Straight Talk, Marla Schechter, an attorney since 1989. Marla has been practicing US immigration law for over 20 years. She earned her bachelor’s from UC Berkeley and then changed coasts earning a JD and LM from Duke Law. Marla is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. 

Marla, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [2:08]

Thank you, Linda. It’s a pleasure to be with you.

We have a lot of international wannabe students listening to our podcast. Let’s start with the basics. What kind of visa does a graduate student usually need and what is the process for obtaining it? [2:13]

Generally speaking, for most academic programs, a foreign citizen is going to need an F-1 visa. The normal procedure is that one would apply to the university or universities they’re interested in going to. When they get an acceptance and they want to go to that institution, one of their first calls is to speak with the designated student officer who is the individual at the school, the administrative officer responsible for international students.

And that’s at the school that accepted them, right? [2:58]

Yes, the school that accepted, the school they’re intending to go to. Okay? So they’ll speak to that individual, and they’ll have to pay what’s called the SEVIS fee. That’s the Department of State’s fee so that they can do all kinds of background assessments on that individual, and the officer will talk about finances with them. The person has to be able to pay for that education and they have to verify – the student officer has to verify that. So there’s a whole process that the DSO goes through. Once they’re finished, they will indicate the program of study, be it a bachelor’s degree or a master’s. In the case of this program, it’s usually a master’s degree that we’re talking about here. So they indicate a master’s or PhD, approximately how long it’s going to go for, and that’ll all be indicated on the I-XX form. That’s a state department form, and that form when it’s completed is brought to the consulate. This is where you have a situation where the individual has not attended university already in the US, so they’re a new foreign student the first time coming to the US as a student; they could have come here as a visitor. There’s a different procedure just so you know, and for your listeners, there’s a different procedure when the person is in the US as an undergraduate and they can switch their program of study over by again applying to and being accepted by the second-level institution at the master’s level, and they just talk to the DSO at the master’s level at university and they can switch their program over. It’s even an easier process if it’s at the same university and they’re not changing the level of the program.

But there is a way to do it within the US. It’s difficult. What is not a good thing to do, or it’s difficult at best, is to come as a visitor and hope to stay and then get accepted while you’re here and then just stay.

It takes a while to do it, and they don’t prefer that you do it that way and the moment you leave the US, in order to come back in, you’re going to have to go to a consulate anyway to get that F-1 visa stamp. So in my opinion, it’s best to just do it ahead of time. Everyone’s happy with how you’re doing it that way. And then you come in on the F-1, and they give you usually a few years, however long the program is, duration on your visa. And then when you come in, the ICE officer, so the Customs and Border Protection officer, at the border is going to give you what’s called an I94 record, and that’s how long the student is able to stay in the US. And for students, what they indicate on there is D/S. that stands for Duration of Status.

So because programs sometimes are longer or shorter than is originally indicated on I20, and there’s a lot of movement, they indicate as long as you’re a full-time student and you’ve complied with all the terms of the F-1, then you’re able to stay in the US legally. Okay. Once you become not a full-time student, if you take a leave of absence, all these things, any change of plan from the original plan, you must go to the DSO again. Talk to them. They may write a new I-20, you may have to file something if necessary. But the key thing is to go to the DSO. They’re very knowledgeable also in immigration law, and they can tell you exactly what you need to do. Sometimes they’ll say, “Go talk to a lawyer,” or “Have this done through a lawyer,” but they’ll certainly put you in the right direction.

Are there any restrictions in terms of travel while you’re a student on an F-1 visa? If you come in on an F-1 visa and you’re studying in the United States, can you take visits and go home? [6:34]

You have to be careful. It’s a good question because people in some situations can get into trouble.

Unfortunately, there’s country profiling, let’s just say. Certain countries like Western European countries, the person doesn’t even need a visa to come in. They use their ESTA. It’s a very easy procedure to get an ESTA. They don’t need a visa to come to the US. To come as a student, they do. Everybody needs a student visa with the exception of Canadians. Every other nationality needs to go to a consulate and get a student visa. But when it comes to a country that ordinarily it’s difficult to come as a visitor, and I think your listeners will know if that applies to them because a lot of times they may have applied and tried to get a visitor visa and the consulate will say “No, because we don’t really believe that you’re going to come back.”

There are a lot of people in the world whose circumstances aren’t great, unfortunately, and if given an opportunity, they will come to the US and stay. It’s a privilege that’s very frequently abused. And so customs and border protection is constantly on the lookout and consular officers in the first instance as well. But when you’re studying and you have the legitimate paperwork and you’ve shown that you can pay for this program and you’ve met the approval of the DSO at your university, it’s not so difficult. I would do it within the three-month period before starting because there can be delays. Sometimes there are administrative processing delays as they call them. If your name happens to be the same name as someone else on the no-fly list with the Department of State, you can get into trouble there. There are just innumerable types of trouble you can get into.

So just do things as early as you can and plan for the unintended, let’s just say. You just don’t know what’s going to happen, so you can definitely travel once you’ve come in, you have your student visa, you’ve come in, they’ve given you your DS, the I94 that says DS, at the port of entry. When you have a break from school, and you’re on vacation, you can certainly leave and come back on your F-1 visa stamp. I would always carry I20 with you in case the officer wants to see it. Okay? That’s something you should always have on you when you travel, but yes, you can come and go.

Now, there are some times when you shouldn’t be leaving the country. I just had a situation like this come up where the person had finished from Columbia University, her bachelor’s degree. This gets into another subject that we can go into in a moment, but after you’ve studied for at least one full year, you get what’s called OPT, which is Optional Practical Training, and you’re permitted to work for a full year continuing as an F-1 student, so you can continue in your student status and you’re able to work for a full year and be paid by a US employer.

Do you have to have graduated? [9:37]

You don’t have to have graduated. You have to at least go for a full year. So that brings up another issue, which is the OPT. That is part-time. You get one year of OPT for every level of school that you’re doing. So for a bachelor’s degree, which is typically four years, you get one year of OPT. You can break that up and do a few months every summer, but that will count against what you can get at the very end. Or you just save it all for the end. And that’s kind of a nice strategy because, very often you want to get to the next level, which I, say you’ve finished studying, say you finished your MBA, you have your OPT, you’re working for a year. You really like this employer, they like you and they want to sponsor you for an H-1B. So as many of your listeners may already know, H-1Bs are very hard to get. There’s a lottery and there’s a system you have to register for the lottery, and then only 1/3 to 40% of the people in the lottery will get selected.

You have a chance of getting selected in the lottery if you’ve gone to at least a master’s program or above at a US University. So you have a decent chance of getting it, but you may need a few years to try. So your first year of trying for it would be registering for it in March. The lottery is done by the end of March, and if you got selected, you can file in April or later. So they do kind of a rolling admissions kind of thing, but if you don’t get it that year, you might still be there the following year, depending on if you were STEM. We can get it into that later. You have several years, but you should try every year. I mean, I just had a guy who was STEM, he got it his first year, so he actually gave up two additional years that he could have just stayed in state on OPT, but he got the H-1B and so if you get it, you don’t give it up.

Is an interview necessary if you’re applying for the F-1 Visa and you’re going to the United States for the first time? [11:41]

So they often do interviews. It’s really at the discretion of the particular consulate you’re going to. They want to see who they’re getting. We’ve had problems in the past with people who are registered F-I students who have committed crimes here in the US, major crimes. I think the individuals, at the World Trade Center, were on F-I status. So they like to do interviews. I would say count on an interview if it’s your first time getting a visa other than a visitor visa, if you’ve gotten some other status before, say you’ve worked in the US, or you’ve had an H-1B in the past. So that means you’ve already been interviewed for the most… Not likely you’ve been interviewed before, so they would probably waive your requirement for an interview. Let’s just say, I won’t say probably, it depends on the consulate entirely. Depends on where the consulate is located, but they may waive it. Okay. So that’s the best you can do, expect to go in, but you might be pleasantly surprised and have it waived.

We’ve mentioned the F-I, we’ve mentioned H-1B, we’ve talked about permanent residency/Green Card, and tourist visas. Are there other visas? [12:52]

So the H-1B is the most common track though. The track from F-I to H-1B to Green Card is the most common track, I would say, for people to follow because you don’t have to have your own business, you don’t have to have started in a business, an international business that’s transferring you to a US office. Those are more niche, I would say, and those are more for people that are already solidly into their career. It could happen, but that would be kind of a special circumstance. In most cases, it’s H-1B, and there’s a lot written on that path from Green Card to OPT to getting the H-1B. And the key thing in my opinion, and if I were to give advice to anyone is don’t do too much in the way of OPT while you’re in school because it’s like two months during your summer break, did they really remember you and did you do very much in two months, you’re better off having that full year to get to know the employer, to get them really liking you and on board with hiring you.

Because a lot of employers in the US have a policy not to sponsor very expensive for the employer to sponsor. They’re just a lot of money and the employer under regulation, they have to pay the funds. It cannot be paid. There are a couple of things that can be paid if you choose premium processing that can be paid by the employee or getting their family members in, can be paid by the employee. But in most cases it’s all the employer paying all legal fees and a lot of the application fees and the application fees are higher than pretty much any other visa. So it’s a lot, and they’re not going to just give it out lightly. So once they get to know you, when you’re there on OPT status, that’s when they go to bat for you.

It’s interesting because certainly for MBA programs, many of the students are expected to do an internship between their first and second year. That’s usually a two-month internship, and it usually is a first look, if you will. [15:09]

If that’s the way that it works and then if the company likes you, you would go back there after and finish OPT there, then that could work. I see that as a good path.

We have had many international clients come to us who are applying to American graduate programs and their intention is to return to their home country. So then the F-1, OPT, et cetera, works great. What about those who are viewing a graduate degree as a way to facilitate immigration to the United States? Should they be following the same path or is there a different path for them? Should there be something that they should be aware of? [15:38]

That is kind of the default path I would say, and this is the F-1, OPT and then Green Card. I can get into a little bit more of how the Green Card works while you’re on H-1B and all that. But let me just also say that a lot of people at around that age now, some people will come in married with their spouses and/or children. Some people meet a spouse in the United States. So if that happens, and it’s always nice that way because it’s going to be a lot easier to immigrate. 

If you remember, you helped our daughter-in-law immigrate after marrying our son. [16:46]

Yeah. So they’re able to go right to the head of the line, basically. They don’t have to do a lot of the stuff that’s required for your average employee of a US company while they’re a student or at any point during the process, the US citizen files for them with the adjustment of status and the whole thing. And the first thing you get is an employment authorization document and you can start working anywhere you want and you’re treated kind of like a first-class citizen. Those are the best. They’re just the easiest because they value family togetherness, right?

So they don’t want people to have to be separate, people have to go home that are here legally and doing everything right, and they’re married to a US citizen. They want to help facilitate them staying here. 

Do you want me to go through the process of what the Green Card part of it looks like after H-1B?

Sure. [17:25]

Just so people know because that’s mostly what they’re going to encounter, especially if marriage is not part of the equation. So there is something called PERM. That’s the process most people have to go through. For most occupations. There’s a few that are excluded, but for most people it’s a PERM process. So the employer takes it on. In every case they work with an attorney because it’s too complex for an HR department to go on their own. But the attorney works closely with the HR department in placing ads because you have to show that there’s recruitment, and the only way that you can get in on the PERM on the Green Card is if you show that there’s no one else, there’s no US worker who’s available and has the essential qualifications to do this job and to fill this position. So you can imagine everything is drafted very carefully.

It has to be the minimum requirements and you can’t tailor it to this person that they want, but so it’s a kind of bit of a dance to get it done properly. So there aren’t a lot of applicants. We have to test the US labor market. It has to be a legitimate test in the US labor market. There’s a lot of waiting involved. Now that category, the EB-RE category or the EB-2 category, people with masters, it’s usually the EB-2 category. It’s a bit retrogress, so again… But once you’re in the H-1B status and your petition has been filed at least a year prior, you can keep getting extensions on your H-1B. So that’s really nice. The key is getting H-1B. Yeah, you can stay up to six years on an H-1B three years at a time, which is a nice long period of time, and if you don’t get your Green Card within that time, but you’ve done the filing early enough, you can get extensions past the six-year limit. So it is a really nice track. The key is getting clenching that H-1B.

And as I said, for people that have masters from US universities, you have an advantage over the rest of the world. So I’d give it 50% on something like that for people with masters. A lot of my clients get it for whatever reason.

I assume if one does not want to use the OPT while studying in the United States and one does want to work, whether it’s a summer internship or just a part-time job, you can do that. Or does the F-I not allow for one to earn money while in the United States? [19:51]

There’s something called curricular practical training CPT, which is something you can do up to 20 hours a week while you’re a student, and you can do that throughout school. What you can’t do is you can’t really work off campus in an area that’s unrelated. Again, it all has to be approved with your DSO. They have to know. They have to make sure that it’s less than 20 hours a week, and then you can do…

Oh, the CPT, by the way, has to be part of the person’s program. So a lot of programs, I know Drexel University is famous for this, that they have co-op built in to their undergraduate program. I don’t know about their graduate programs, but it’s required part of the program. So that does not count against your OPT. Yeah, it’s a nice thing to be able to do instead of going to school full-time, part of getting your credits in the class is working. So that’s when you get CPT and OPT is when you’re basically working full-time, usually full-time. You can work up from half to full-time. So it’s either part-time or it can be full-time, but that’s where it can be full-time. And CPT it cannot.

What about a spouse or a significant other for that matter? One member of the couple wants to study in the United States, gets accepted, and applies. Can the spouse or significant other also get a visa? [21:21]

Unfortunately the spouse comes in as an F-2 as do any children of the couple. So they can come, they can be here. They cannot work, as F-1 spouse so that’s an F-2, F-2 spouse cannot work under that visa in some limited circumstances. I think if they really explain that and can justify that they are able to, they’re really not trying to cover the cost of living for their F-1 student that has to have been proven ahead of time or the program and their cost of living, but they’re just trying to do it to be able to take their kids on cultural outings or something like that. Then sometimes they can, the F-1 student also can work on campus without any special arrangement made that doesn’t come out of CPT or OPT. They can work on campus on a part-time basis getting paid probably minimum wage.

What are the advantages of studying in a STEM-certified program? [22:34]

So the key advantage is that you have more OPT time. You can get up to another two years past your first year, and then you go back to your DSO and say, well, I studied STEM and so I’m here to get my extra two years, and then they’ll give it to you. And so you have multiple chances to get to H-1B at that point.

By the way, I should mention also that you asked about different visa types. So for people that are entrepreneurial, I get calls from people that are going to Stanford all the time, and they’re in the tech world and they’re starting ventures up in Silicon Valley and they say, well, I didn’t get into the H-1B program, but I want to start this venture. And I’ve got partners and we have capital. So sometimes they can come in as an E-two, it’s a non-immigrant investor visa, and it usually requires that individual own, at least 50% of the company, they put in significant capital. Sometimes they have family members who are able to help them with that, and it can just be a gift. And that’s totally fine, and they can come in and run their own company. It does not permit them to work for anybody else though. And they’re working for their own company and that’s the only company they can be paid for. They can get clients for their company, obviously, but they’re not working for those other companies.

Is there a time limit on that visa? Or is it just as long as the company is in business? [24:11]

It depends on what the reciprocity table shows. So, Canada, for example, you can get five years on it. I know in certain countries you can get only one year at a time. In some, you can get two years at a time. It just depends on the country. But what that means is that you have to go, every time you leave the country, you have to go to that consulate and get a new stamp, which is a real pain. A lot of people from those countries. I had a client from Afghanistan who every time he left on an L-1, which is intra-company transfer, before he got his Green Card, every time he left and he had to go back to the consulate and make an appointment, get a new visa stamping, it added in an extra day or two to his… Then you got to wait for your passport to be returned. So it’s a bit of a hassle.

And I just will say, too, that it’s sometimes best for people from those countries that don’t admit a lot of non-immigrants, let’s just say, to not leave very much. When you leave the country, anything can happen. I mean, I had a situation of a client, it wasn’t actually a client, but I got a call. It was a friend of a client’s from Pakistan who was here as a student. He went to a very reputable school as a student. He got his degree, got an H-1B, was working in the US, hadn’t left the US for five years and finally wanted to go home and visit his family. So because he had gotten onto H-1B status within the US, he never got a stamp in his passport, which is fine. You don’t have to, you don’t have to [inaudible 00:25:44] stamp you get in your passport is really in order to gain admission to the US.

Once you’re here already, it goes to USCIS who then gives you the I-94, which shows you how long you’re able to be here. So the moment you leave, you need that stamp in order to reenter. So he goes back to Pakistan, has a lovely two-month visit with his family, and then is ready to come back. His employer’s like, “Okay, we need you, we need you back.” He goes to the consulate and they interview him. I mean, he’s already been accepted by USCIS, Department of Homeland security. They should not be re-adjudicating whether or not he’s eligible for the H-1B. He’s already been on it for like two years. And they don’t have to tell you much. They really don’t. They just will give you maybe a letter saying, we need more information. And they said that it’s an administrative processing, it had been an administrative, at the point he called me, it was an administrative processing for over six months. There was really nothing much I could do for him. I mean, it was Pakistan and they had his passport and they just were not giving details, at that point.

This was the US government, not the Pakistani government? [26:49]

It was the US consulate. But from certain countries, they’re just not that free and easy. I mean, honestly, he should have gotten his Green Card before leaving the… I hate to say that, that’s awful to not see your family for so long, but that’s what happens.

For which countries is it more difficult to obtain a US student visa? [27:15]

I would say the African countries. Australia’s super easy. They’re great. I mean, any country that had been in the British Commonwealth, Canada, Australia, UK, and most of Western Europe is very easy. For South America it’d be harder. The poorer the country is the more difficult it is, unfortunately. I had a client who’s Canadian, but was originally from Nigeria. She had an awful time. It was known in immigration circles that there was a lot of fraud committed by people coming from certain countries and one of them was Nigeria. Even though she was Canadian, they saw she was born in Nigeria. So they just wouldn’t accept anything at face value. We had to have every document certified more than other people.

What if one previously had an infraction in the United States when visiting, for example, a DUI or overstaying one’s tourist visa. You then return to your home country and now you want to study. Are you toast? [28:19]

So let’s talk about those two different options. They present different challenges. So one is an immigration violation. You stayed here too long, there’s no criminal activity or anything, but you overstayed. Now it’s a matter of how long you overstayed for. If you overstayed your visa, so if you came in as a visitor and you had, it wasn’t a visa waiver like Western Europe, but say you had a six-month visitor visa, which is what most people in the world get, you’re able to be here legally for six months. If you go over that by a few days or a few months, and then you get an F-1, you go through the process properly, it should be fine. They might give you a little bit of a harder time, but you should be able to get your visa. If you overstayed by at least 180 days, you are not eligible to come back into the country for three years. There’s a bar for reentry for three years, and if you overstayed by at least a year, there’s a 10-year bar. It depends. So if you’re coming to go on F-1 status, this has to be over the age of 18, you don’t have any bar against you even if you overstayed before, that is considered your parents doing not your own. But at the age of responsibility, then it’s on you. So after 18, so if it had been three years already, then you’re fine, but if it hasn’t, you’re going to have to wait that extra six months to come in. There is a waiver available that you can get, but it’s usually not for people coming for non-immigrant to study in the US. It’s unlikely that you would get it to come and study.

And now the situation with someone who commits a criminal offense, it depends on what the offense is. So what ends up happening, say a DUI in the US, and it depends on the state it’s in. I think it’s mostly a misdemeanor charge, but they usually will look at every type of criminal activity and they want to get the complete court and sometimes police records as well. But for sure the court record and the disposition. When I’m asked to work on these cases to apply for a waiver of some sort of criminal inadmissibility, you’re inadmissible if you had a situation that requires… Now statutorily requires someone to spend over one year in prison. If that’s the situation, even if you weren’t sentenced to that, if that is a typical what the guidelines say, then you will be inadmissible to the US and you would have to remain outside until you can get a waiver and the waivers can be a non-immigrant waiver. So not because you’re immigrating here just to come and set foot on US soil, you’re going to need that waiver.

It doesn’t go away. Just because you may have been pardoned in your home country, it doesn’t matter. You still are going to need that waiver and they know about it, just don’t expect that they don’t, they generally do. If the case is pending against you, and if there hasn’t been a final disposition, they’ll sometimes say, we need to see how this case is going to be resolved before we can allow you to come into the US. So you have to wait until and see what the final disposition is.

What if somebody has a criminal record in their home country? [31:45]

That’s equally a problem.

Again, they’ll need a waiver and all of that? [31:51]

Yeah.

What would you say are the most common mistakes that student applicants make when applying for a visa to the United States? What are some pitfalls to avoid? [31:55]

The F-1 area has so many rules. It’s pages and pages and pages with the CPT and the OPT and all the documentation and SEVIS and everything that’s involved. Don’t feel like you’re bugging your DSO. That’s what they’re there for. Call them on a daily basis if you need to, make meetings with them, just understand and do research yourself, understand what the rules and obligations are for when you go from finishing your program to getting onto OPT. There’s a specific timeline you have to follow. So you can apply up to 90 days before the end of your program, but no more than two months past your program. So you have a five-month window to get that job, and then apply for your employment authorization document. If you don’t do it within that timeframe, then you don’t get your OPT. And some people were like, what? I didn’t know.

I was starting to tell you before about this individual who had graduated from Columbia and she didn’t find a job right away. So she said, “Well, I’ll take this time and go home and visit.” So she hadn’t filed for the EAD and she left the country and now she was saying… I think she came back in as a visitor because they were not letting her come back in as an F-1. They don’t always know, by the way. The borders don’t always know what they can and can’t do. They’ll send you to secondary, I hate to call it an interrogation, but it’s like secondary inspection, that’s what they call it’s kind of a room to the side where they have officers who will keep you there as long as they feel like it. So just know what you’re doing before you go in, especially for anything that’s irregular like that. So because she didn’t apply for that EAD (Employment Authorization Document), and then she left the country. You need the EAD to actually be able to work on the OPT. Once you get a job offer and the I-20 says you can. That’s just the first step. The next step is actually getting that document from USCIS that shows your employer “I have this card. I’m able to work here.” Plus you’re able then to go to the social security office and get a social security number, which the employer will need to give you to put you on payroll and for you to get a driver’s license. If you don’t have one already. Yeah, you can get one as an F-1 too, but this allows you to get one into your working years here.

So those are all important things. Just know what you’re doing. Don’t leave the country. Call me, book a short consultation just to find out if you think something’s a little off, just find what your rights are first, because this woman could have still applied. She was still within that two year period, she could have been on track and then there was a question, how can she do that in the US from a bachelor… not even a bachelor’s, she finished her F-1, she’s now a visitor. So the easiest way to be able to start soon is to go back to the border and reenter. But the question is your visa stamp still valid?

So the visa stamp technically was still valid. She shouldn’t have had to go back to the consulate, but the airport wasn’t aware of that. They don’t always know the rules. It’s unfortunate that they don’t. These rules are super technical in every little situation and differences create a whole new set of guidelines, and they’re not necessarily experts. Sometimes you need to have a lawyer write you a letter with citations to specific laws, quoting the language, showing how it applies, and you bring that with you when you go.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [35:59]

I think we covered it. I think I made the point fairly well to start early with the H-1B process. If you’re planning to stay or you’d like to stay, start as early as you can because right now those categories are retrogressed. So when we’re talking about filing that PERM application with the Department of Labor, the date that that’s filed… And that doesn’t come very early in the process by the way. First you have to wait for the prevailing wage determination for the Department of Labor to tell you this is how much this job in this area needs to be paid. You can look up what the wage range is, but they tell you what level you’re at. Are you at a very junior level? Are you a senior level? And you can kind of suggest to them, but they make a determination that then you use to apply. So you generally are going to need that before you go further. That takes, I think, six months, eight months to apply, six, seven months to get that back. So then after you get that, then you start advertising. Advertising takes 60 days minimum, usually longer because no one’s that organized with all the different forms of advertising they have to do. Then advertising.

Then if nothing came back and there’s no eligible candidates, then the PERM is filed. Once that PERM is filed, that’s your priority date, then, okay, you’re still not ready. You can’t possibly immigrate yet, but that’s your priority date. That priority date is always compared then to the visa bulletin for any particular month. That’s put out by the Department of State, but it’s used internally to by Customs and Border Protection and Department of Homeland security. And that determines that for any particular category. For people in the EB-2 category, which were someone with a master’s education that’s going to work at an advanced level for a US company, that’s the level. You have to see what the date is that’s posted there as to the earliest priority date they’re accepting applications for.

You can’t file your Adjustment of Status, which is the package, so it’s complicated, but that’s the package that allows you just to be able to stay in the US on H-1B status, and move to Green Card seamlessly without having to go to an interview at your home consulate, which is highly preferable if you’re already living in the US. It’s just much less fraught, let’s just say.

And in order to do that, you need that priority date, but now it’s a couple years behind in that category, in the EB-III category for people with bachelor’s degrees, it’s even further behind. So it’s just you got to start early so you can keep getting those extensions on H-1B status because you’re going to need it. There’s no category for you to come in under.

I hear universities constantly say that if you’re applying for the F-I, which is the one that any international student will need, it’s important that you start that process the minute you get an acceptance. [38:58]

Right. That’s why I said: call that DSA.

That sounds like a very good warning. Marla, this has been wonderful, very informative. Thank you so much for joining me today. I’ve really enjoyed speaking with you. Where can listeners learn more about you or seek your assistance with their visa and immigration needs? [39:48]

My website is getausvisa.com.

Relevant Links:

• Schechter Immigration Law
• Fitting in and Standing Out

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• Applying to U.S. Business Schools from Europe, Asia, the Middle East
• Former Wharton/Lauder Admissions Director
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The post How to Get a U.S. Student Visa – Even When There Are Complications [Episode 589] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

During my time as the director of admissions marketing and financial aid at the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, where I served on the admissions committee for more than seven years, I often heard candidates react with surprise when they learned how seamlessly the school’s master in international studies joint degree program fits with Wharton’s MBA or Penn Law’s JD program. If you are interested in international studies and exploring the option of earning a dual degree with your JD or MBA, Lauder could be right for you.

Want to hear more? Check out my interview with Linda Abraham, in which we talk about Lauder in depth here.

What Is the Lauder Institute?

The Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies was founded in the mid-1980s at the University of Pennsylvania with the initial goal of offering Wharton MBA students the opportunity to add a global lens to their business studies by earning a master of arts (MA) in international studies from the School of Arts and Sciences, in tandem with their business degree. In the 2000s, Lauder expanded to offer the joint degree MA program with Penn Law’s JD program, giving law school students the same opportunity to study language, history, culture, politics, and global studies as their MBA counterparts. Throughout Lauder’s 40 years of existence, more than 2,200 students have graduated from the program, coming from around the world to join Lauder’s cohort of roughly 70 students yearly.

The Lauder Institute’s 40th Year Anniversary

What Makes Lauder Unique?

Students in the Lauder program start their experience in the summer semester, one term before the start of the Wharton MBA program, arriving on the Penn campus in May each year. They join a small, incredibly diverse and global cohort and focus their studies on one of six Programs of Concentration. Once the MBA program begins in August, Lauder students take two classes per semester, and their studies are fully integrated into the MBA (or JD) program until they graduate two years later with both the Wharton MBA (or Penn Law JD) and the Lauder MA in international studies. While many joint degree or dual degree programs take three years or more to complete, Lauder courses are built into the same time frame as the Wharton and Penn Law programs. Aside from the initial summer term that kicks off the Lauder experience, no additional time is needed.

How Does the Lauder Program Work?

Each May, Lauder welcomes approximately 70 students to the Penn campus. The program kicks off with a few weeks of classes in Philadelphia, where students start their language studies and begin core coursework. A highlight of the summer, and of the program overall, are the international summer immersions. During June and July, these immersions take students around the world to such destinations as Africa, Europe, East and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. After returning from their summer immersions in late July, MBA students begin the Wharton program in August, and JD students start their second year at Penn Law (JD/MA students complete Lauder in their 2L and 3L years, so they graduate with both degrees at the same time).

In the first year, Lauder students take core courses as a cohort, while their other courses focus on language or are part of the Global or Africa track, depending on their chosen Program of Concentration and language proficiency. Students then continue to take two courses per semester over the remaining two years in the program and complete a master’s thesis research project. In their second summer, they are free to explore an internship or other opportunities.

What Are Lauder’s Language Requirements?

One of the core aspects of the Lauder program, from both the applicant and the student perspective, is language studies. Lauder students are required to take a language test called the oral proficiency interview, or OPI, as part of the application process. This involves a 20- to 30-minute phone conversation with a language tester. (You can learn more about the test, listen to audio clips, and register for the OPI via Lauder’s website here.) 

To be admitted to one of Lauder’s regional Programs of Concentration with a target language (e.g., Spanish in Latin America or French in Europe), students must test at the advanced low level (or above) in one of the 11 languages taught at Lauder. Currently, Lauder offers courses in the following languages, which are taught at the graduate level: Spanish, French, German, Italian (new in 2024!), Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese. Applicants interested in the Africa or Global track must test at the superior (or fluent) level in any language other than English; language classes are not a component of the student experience for those programs. Students in the regional Programs of Concentration who enter with a target language take language courses in that language until they reach the advanced or fluent level as part of the degree. 

What Are Lauder’s Global Immersions?

In addition to summer immersions, which take students around the world to focus on their regional Program of Concentration and delve deep into language or area studies, Lauder students take shorter immersions called Lauder Intercultural Ventures (LIVs). LIVs are one-week immersive trips with a specific focus or topic, for which students travel around the globe, often to locations not included in their summer immersions. Some recent topics and destinations have been “Infrastructure and Urban Resistance” in China, “Edge of Empires” in Georgia, “Interfaith Dynamics” in Ghana, and “Buddhist Material Culture and Magic” in Thailand. 

Lauder students also go on mini immersions and a unique first-year trip called the , which is not for credit but fully organized and run by students, with the support of the Lauder program team. 

I recall a Lauder graduate on an admissions panel a few years back who shared that they had been to 25 countries as part of their two-year MBA/MA program with Wharton and Lauder! In short, immersive travel experiences are key to the Lauder degree.  

Check out this post by Lauder on the 2024 summer immersions!

What Research Opportunities Are Available?

All Lauder students are required to complete a master’s thesis or capstone project during their second year in the program. Students take a dedicated course, have the support of aligned faculty and advisors, and even travel to do on-the-ground research as part of their project. Three capstone projects are singled out each year for their excellence, and these winners and associated prizes are announced at graduation. Some students use their capstone project as an opportunity to research an area they would like to work in or to pursue an entrepreneurial venture.

Take a look at the Lauder Class of 2024 theses project winners and topics, along with interviews with awardees.

What Kind of Profile Is Lauder Looking for?

If you are contemplating applying to Lauder, the first thing to consider is your language proficiency. Do you have advanced speaking skills in one of the 11 languages taught at Lauder, or are you fluent in any language other than English? Are you passionate about global issues and would like to orient your law or business studies within an international context? Have you had some global exposure in your professional, academic, or personal experience? If so, Lauder might be a good fit for you.

Check out student bios from the Classes of 2024 and 2025. 

The Lauder Institute Class of 2026

• Students: 77
• Counties Represented: 30+
• Languages Spoken: 25+
• Women: 47%
• LGBTQ+: 16%
• International Citizens: 42%
• U.S. Citizens: 42%
• Dual Citizens: 16%

Source: Lauder Institute

What Advantages Does Lauder Offer?

Undertaking an MBA or JD program is a time-intensive and costly venture, so you might be wondering what value Lauder can offer that a standalone program cannot. Lauder provides a unique global experience via not just its international studies coursework but also its highly international and tight-knit cohort and its on-the-ground global immersions. In addition, students often pursue globally oriented careers after graduating, such as working for an international organization, undertaking global social impact work, or working in the specific geographic area they focused on during their language and course studies. Also, Lauder has a dedicated Global Career Advisor who helps students think about how to leverage their joint degree studies and alumni connections to achieve their post-graduate goals. 

Read more about the Lauder Advantage. 

How Can You Boost Your Lauder Application?

One of the best things you can do as a prospective Lauder student is engage with admissions, whether that is by attending information sessions, participating in small group chats, or even reaching out to the program’s dedicated admissions directors to request one-on-one time. The Lauder team is keen to get to know the program’s applicants. In addition to participating in prospective student activities, you can request to chat with a student and visit campus in the fall or spring when classes are in session. This will also help you prepare for the Lauder interview, which will be conducted by a second-year student, as well as Wharton’s Team Based Discussion interview. 

You should also prepare for and take the OPI language exam. You can retake the OPI if you aren’t happy with your initial score (there is no limit on the number of retakes you may do), take the OPI in more than one language, or even request an extension on the OPI exam beyond the application deadline by contacting the admissions team. This is the first aspect of the Lauder application you should think about, because it is a key threshold to admission. 

What Are Some Tips for the Lauder Essays?

Essay One: Discuss why you are applying to the Lauder Institute, detailing specific reasons, experiences, and background for choosing your Program of Concentration, as well as your interest in further study in that Program. Applicants to Programs of Concentration involving language study (Africa-French; East and Southeast Asia; Europe; Latin America; South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa) should also discuss what they hope to gain from advanced language and cultural education, as well as describe how they have learned the language they will study (e.g. undergraduate courses, undergraduate major, etc.). Finally, please describe how you see yourself benefiting from, and contributing to, the Lauder community.   (800 words)

For this essay, you must explain in detail why you are applying both to Lauder and to your chosen Program of Concentration and share what you expect to gain from dedicated language and area studies, in 800 words. This is an opportunity to talk about your background and what you can bring to the community, as well as how you see Lauder fitting into your academic and professional goals. Be authentic, be specific, and most importantly, be you! 

Essay Two: Describe a challenging intercultural or politically sensitive situation where you had to navigate a difference in perspective or opinion. Explain how you handled it and any lessons learned. (200 words)

For the 2024-2025 application season, Lauder is requiring this second essay of 200 words. My advice here is to be specific and succinct. Two hundred words only allows for so much. The Lauder admissions team is looking for evidence of cultural and personal self-awareness, so provide a great example of a time when you displayed both.

Does Lauder Offer Financial Aid?

The Lauder program offers generous financial aid to both MBA and JD students, including full fellowships for Leonard Lauder Fellows. In addition, Penn offers Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships to students who speak certain languages, and Lauder provides funding for internships, as well as awards for students who are pursuing entrepreneurial ventures. You can learn more about funding opportunities here. 

Check out the Jacobson Global Ventures Award Winners!

If you are concerned about being able to fund a dual degree, Lauder is an excellent choice; most students receive either partial or full funding for the program. 

What Is #LauderLove?

One of the things you’ll often hear in the halls of the dedicated Lauder Institute building is “Lauder love.” Students and alumni even sign off emails with the expression, and it’s not just talk – many couples have met through the program and gotten married! My theory is that the Lauder Program is unique and attracts a special kind of person, someone who is curious about the world and their place in it, and who gets a buzz from meeting others who have the same mind-set. If you were to take a peek into the director of admissions’ office, you would see a wall of photos of Lauder couples throughout the years. Although Lauder can’t promise that you’ll meet your life partner while pursuing your degree, you will definitely feel the #LauderLove as part of this special community.   

Lauder Love: The Journey of Married Couples Through the Dual Degree

How Are Joint and Supplemental Applications Handled? 

Most Lauder applicants are interested in the dual Wharton MBA/Lauder MA program and therefore apply jointly to both programs. They do so via one application that the Lauder admissions team and trained student readers then review in its entirety. This includes the Wharton application, essays, letters of recommendation, GMAT/GRE scores, resume, and other necessary elements, along with the Lauder application, OPI language score, international exposure information, and Lauder essays. Keep this in mind as you pull your application together, and think about it as one application to a joint degree program, rather than two applications to two programs. You want to create a seamless story for the admissions readers that answers both why Wharton and why Lauder. 

Finally, if you are admitted to Wharton and then decide that you would like to pursue Lauder as well, you can submit a supplemental application to Lauder by the Round 3 deadline. Similarly, if you are admitted to Wharton’s Moelis Advance Access Program, you can apply to Lauder in the admissions cycle prior to matriculation. Lauder welcomes these supplemental applications. 

Check out some helpful FAQs on the Lauder program. 

Reach Out to Learn More About Lauder

With more than 15 years of MBA admissions experience, including seven years at the Lauder program in particular, I would love to talk with you about your interest in the program and how to build a strong application. Reach out to me directly to schedule your free 30-minute consultation!

Kara Keenan Sweeney has more than 15 years of experience in MBA admissions, having worked for some of the world’s top business school programs, including Columbia Business School, INSEAD, and The Lauder Institute’s joint degree MA/MBA program with The Wharton School and the MA/JD program with Penn Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Kara has guided, coached, and counseled thousands of MBA and EMBA applicants, reviewed innumerable applications, sat on admissions committees, and interviewed countless applicants, including while running Wharton’s Team Based Discussions both virtually and in person. Want Kara to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources:

• GMAT, GPA, and MBA Acceptance Rates: The Selectivity Index
• Admissions Straight Talk Podcast for MBA Applicants
• Highlighting Your Leadership Experience in Your Application

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