Diversity- Personal Statement & Application

[imagineer]

Hello,

I had a quick question regarding the diversity factor in Law School Admissions. I am indian (asian) and several people have told me that I should/ could apply as a diversity candidate. I was wondering if that was correct? And if so, is there an advantage to applying as part of the diversity component? I'm not sure how much of an impact it will have or whether I should highlight and focus on that in my personal statement. I know the diversity component definitely helps for jobs and ugrad college admissions. Trying to figure out if being an asian will finally help me out when it comes to admissions Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for your time.

Cheers
Raj

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Raj,

Good to hear from you again

You are right that having diversity factors in your application can have a tremendous positive impact on admission chances. However, it is widely thought that being Asian is no longer a diversity element for law admissions since Asian enrollments in law school are relatively high. So, if your entire application was shaped around a diversity play based on that one factor, I don't think it would work out very well. If there were more diversity factors you could add in for their consideration, then maybe it would be more effective. But, my initial thought is that it will not likely give you the boost you'd want (sorry about that!).

Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

[imagineer]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the insight and I appreciate all your thoughtful responses. It really helps when it comes to preparing and applying to schools. I too was surprised when other people brought it up, but thought i'd bounce the idea off of you to get a perspective from someone who deals with law schools more often than family friends. I had no intentions of having my application revolve around diversity to begin with but as I was perusing some applications, I noticed a diversity essay/ supplement and was just curious to see if it had any merit to write something for it. After having gone to NYU Stern, I know being asian hasn't really helped me for ugrad admission so I'll stick with the same logic as I apply for law schools as well.

On another random note, I was wondering if you would have some suggestions as to which publications of yours would be good to prepare specifically just for the lsat exam? I have the three bibles but am just looking for question practice and explanations. I think I have the concepts down but am looking for lots more practice to improve and apply my understanding. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for your time and all the great advice. I really appreciate it. This forum is great and refreshing to have someone to talk to about the process without having to impress them like in an interview. So thanks very much for this space. I really appreciate it.

Cheers
Raj

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Raj,

Thanks, I'm glad you are finding it useful! I personally get a lot of satisfaction in helping out, and I find the feedback about the books and courses really helpful, so its equally useful for us too

In answer to your question about further resources, there are a couple of options available to you:

• 1. The LSAT Bible Workbooks
  
  These three books pair with the LSAT Bibles, and are designed to supplement the ideas and reinforce them through practice. I discuss this idea more in the following blog post: http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/279 ... Type-Books. Because these books have more drills and question explanations using the LSAT Bible concepts, they are the natural extension of those books.
  
  2. The LSAT Training Type Series
  
  These books (which are also mentioned in the blog post linked above) are for when you want extensive practice with particular sections, such as LG. They allow you to practice the ideas from the LSAT Bibles over hundreds and hundreds of questions.
  
  3. The LSAT Deconstructed Series and the LG Encyclopedias
  
  For when you need explanations for the questions you are practicing with the LSAT Deconstructeds take an individual LSAT and explain every question, and the LG Encyclopedias give LG explanations for every game in its entirety, from setup through each question.
  
  4. Specialized LSAT Question Collections
  
  Next week we will be launching our new download-only store at http://downloads.powerscore.com, wherein you will eventually be able to find e-versions of our publications, as well as new, specialized collections of questions and explanations. To give some examples, we'll add collections of every Grouping game, the 50 Hardest LSAT Logic Games, and every LR Principle question, etc.
  
  In addition, we'll be adding downloadable explanations of different LSATs (for example, right now I'm putting the finishing touches on our explanations of the June 2013 LSAT, which will then be posted on that site first). In any event, there will be a lot of different resources to access there to help you attack various problems you might have.
  
  This store has not yet launched, and what you see is a beta site, so it's not stocked with the full slate of products just yet, but it is operational (and we have a lot of interesting ideas for things to make available, so even when it launches not everything will be immediately available). Look for an announcement on the official launch of that store next week.
  
  5. The Advanced Courses
  
  If you feel like you've gotten the concepts down and are still looking to raise your score even more, or to simply refine and further expand your understanding, the Advanced Logic Games course and Advanced Logical Reasoning course are great resources because in those we take on the hardest level of question and discus what it takes to score in the 170s and how to get there. These courses are the highest natural extension of the LSAT Bibles.
  
  Advanced LG: http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/advanced-logic-games
  Advanced LR: http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/advanced ... -reasoning

FYI: The books discussed in the first three points above can all be found at http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/publications/.

Anyway, the above should give you different options depending on the direction you want to go with your studies. And, as always, if you have any questions please be sure to ask us. Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!

[imagineer]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for your response. I had a quick question regarding the question type training books. Are these going to have similar exercises like they have in the bibles (i.e. question type recognition using examples) or are they more focused on actual questions from the lsat and lsat prep test questions? Also, are there full sections in those books for practicing questions from each different section? If I were to buy any set of the preptests, which ones do you think best represent the style of questions asked nowadays on the lsat? Just wondering as it seems the style of the questions has changed over the years. Thanks again in advance for all your help. I really appreciate it.
Best Regards
Raj

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Raj,

The Training Type books already exist, and are just questions for practicing, and they are drawn from various groups of LSAT PrepTests (PTs 1-20 for the Training Type Volume 1s, and PTs 21-40 for the Training Type Volume 2s). The Training Type separate the questions into various groups--all Weaken questions for example, and all basic Linear games, and so on. That is really helpful when you are trying to isolate issues you are having and fix them. These books do not include full sections.

The Workbooks are the ones that have drills and exercises, as well as more question with explanations. These books DO include full sections.

The selection of PrepTests to buy depends on several different factors, one of which is the amount of time you have available to prep. Without question, everyone should do the last 15 or so PrepTests (PTs 54-69). Those are the most recent exams and the closest guide to what you will see next. But, I like to have students take those tests as full, timed exams. For general practice, we created books like the Training Types and Workbooks so that students can do questions without the pressure of having to do a whole section.

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!

[imagineer]

Hi Dave,
Thanks soo much for all your advice
I'm just about to put in an order for the encyclopedia's and a couple of the prep test books. Is the super prep test book still useful even though the exams are from a while ago? Thanks as always for your help.
Cheers
Raj

[Dave Killoran]

Hey Raj,

Great, glad I could help! Yes, the SuperPrep is still useful, and here's why: it's the only publication where you get to see the test makers explain the reasoning behind LSAT questions. They do play "hide the ball" a little bit, but you get to see how they think, which is invaluable.

Thanks!

[imagineer]

Great! Thank you soo much

[imagineer]

Hi Dave,
I just had a quick follow up question to the last post.

I went to the publications website and noticed Barnes and Noble had some books that weren't on the powerscore website??? I was just wondering if you clarify if there is another place I should be looking for all the publications other than the powerscore publications website? (For example, the deconstructed series has vol 62, 63 and 51 but nothing in between). Is that done on purpose? If you could let me know, I would really appreciate it.

Best Regards
Raj