Oct 13, 2026 · 1 hr 15 min · 11 segments
What does an admissions dean actually think when she opens your file? In this first episode of our admissions professionals series, Dean Z of Michigan Law reads three real listener applications and…
Sarah ZearfossGuestEthanHostAlexHostPaulineHostBaileyHostSo to move towards concluding, I, something I would hope that a lot of our listeners are taking away is just how much information they're relaying with their tone.
That l- that, like, what you're responding to is you're trying to figure out emotional maturity, worldview, mindset, you know, how one conceives of oneself through the tone of an essay.
And maybe if we called it, like, the, uh, the personal writing section of the LSAT, people would understand, like, like, there, there is intentionality here-
... of how I'm portraying myself.
Well, that is, uh, the question I wanna ask every time I read an essay is, okay, what was your point? What did you want me to take away from this essay? And do you think you achieved it? Because I think often, too, people have a story that they just wanna tell because it's a, you know, very meaningful to them, but it doesn't have a lot to do with why they-
Yes
Um, but you, you, this is, you're on a mission here, right? You've got a job to do, and you have to think, is this the essay that's gonna get me that job?
Yeah, that's right.
Looking ahead, I mean, um, with AI infiltrating the writing process, I wonder how this is going to play out where-
... you know, you're using the personal statement as a way to get a lot of information about people.
Now we have this kind of other actor interacting with writing that is-
... obfuscating that information.
I mean, I'll, I'll note that all the essays that I looked at for this, uh, podcast, none of them struck me as being AI essays, which I could be completely wrong about.
But, you know, uh, and I have colleagues at other schools who say they are 100% confident that they know when something is AI, which I just think is not true, right? You, you just-
Yeah.
Uh, but mostly I just know whether this is a good essay with interesting detail or a bad essay that fails.
So to move towards concluding, I, something I would hope that a lot of our listeners are taking away is just how much information they're relaying with their tone.
That l- that, like, what you're responding to is you're trying to figure out emotional maturity, worldview, mindset, you know, how one conceives of oneself through the tone of an essay.
And maybe if we called it, like, the, uh, the personal writing section of the LSAT, people would understand, like, like, there, there is intentionality here-
... of how I'm portraying myself.
Well, that is, uh, the question I wanna ask every time I read an essay is, okay, what was your point? What did you want me to take away from this essay? And do you think you achieved it? Because I think often, too, people have a story that they just wanna tell because it's a, you know, very meaningful to them, but it doesn't have a lot to do with why they-
Yes
Um, but you, you, this is, you're on a mission here, right? You've got a job to do, and you have to think, is this the essay that's gonna get me that job?
Yeah, that's right.
Looking ahead, I mean, um, with AI infiltrating the writing process, I wonder how this is going to play out where-
... you know, you're using the personal statement as a way to get a lot of information about people.
Now we have this kind of other actor interacting with writing that is-
... obfuscating that information.
I mean, I'll, I'll note that all the essays that I looked at for this, uh, podcast, none of them struck me as being AI essays, which I could be completely wrong about.
But, you know, uh, and I have colleagues at other schools who say they are 100% confident that they know when something is AI, which I just think is not true, right? You, you just-
Yeah.
Uh, but mostly I just know whether this is a good essay with interesting detail or a bad essay that fails.
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