Lessons · Law foundations · The file a school reads
What a school is actually reading
An application is a small file with two numbers in it and several pieces of writing. The numbers -- the undergraduate grade record and the test score -- do most of the sorting. The writing decides among people whose numbers are close, and explains anything the numbers would otherwise say wrongly.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by an attorney. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
A candidate with an uneven first year and a strong finish assumed the average buried her. It did not: the file has a place for an explanation, and a short factual one about a year she was working nights changed how the record was read.
How to think about it
Build the file in two halves. The numbers are what they are, and a central service collects the records and reports them in one standard form. The writing is where you have control: a statement about why this, letters from people who have actually watched you work, and a short factual addendum for anything that needs context rather than apology.
Worked example
A central service collects transcripts and letters and issues one report.Schools read that standard report rather than your envelope.
The grade record and the test score do the first sort.Most schools publish the middle range of the class they admitted.
A personal statement, read after the numbers.Its job is to be specific and true, not impressive.
Letters from people who watched you work, not from famous people who did not.A specific letter from a supervisor beats a vague one from a name.
An addendum only where a fact needs context.Short, factual, no apology. One paragraph.
Your turn
Which two items do most of the sorting before anybody reads your writing?
The first sort is done by the grade record and the
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Writing the statement about how much you have always loved justice. Every reader has read several hundred of those this month. A specific thing you actually did, told plainly, is rarer and carries further.