Leland+ Content Library
The 3.4/150 Personal Statement That Got Me Into UVA Law
The essay I submitted to UVA Law with a 3.4 and a 150, reproduced in full, plus a breakdown of what it is doing and what it deliberately is not. It never mentions either number. Almost every personal statement example you can find belongs to an applicant whose scores were never the problem — this one is the other kind: below median on both, first-generation, a splitter. Names and dates are removed and my family appears by relation only. It was one piece of a file that got in. It was not the whole file, and no essay is.
The 150 LSAT Addendum That Got Me Into UVA Law
A real below-median LSAT addendum, reproduced verbatim, with a line-by-line read of the four things it does and the four things it refuses to do. Written for a splitter whose score sat roughly twenty points under the school's median — a low LSAT against a low GPA. Includes how to decide whether you need an addendum at all, because a weak one is worse than none. Reproduced as submitted, which means it names the sitting: the October 2021 LSAT.
The 3.4/150 Resume That Got Me Into UVA Law
The two-page résumé that went into a below-median file, reproduced in full, plus a read of the five things making it work: numbers in nearly every bullet, promotions stacked to show trajectory, campaign work filed as professional experience rather than extracurricular, and one line that carries the whole financial story. Written by a first-generation, low-income splitter with a low LSAT. Only the contact block is removed — the schools, employers, campaigns, dates and thesis are all real and all mine.
The 2.0-Semester GPA Addendum That Got Me Into UVA Law
The transcript addendum I submitted about a semester with a 2.0 and a 2.7, reproduced in full. It names the medical reason — a PCOS diagnosis and surgery — because a verifiable circumstance is the whole difference between an addendum and an excuse. Written for a low-GPA, below-median splitter file. The breakdown centres on the sentence most drafts leave out: the one naming the writer's own mistake rather than only the circumstance. Includes when to write one and when writing one hurts you.
