Law
Azra**
*Azra’s Dream School!
- Cornell University
- UC Berkeley
- NYU
- Career focus
- Genuine passion
- Work experience
Azra
The Setup
Immersed in the world of fashion since childhood, Azra had a palpable interest in the intersection of fashion, law and technology. When she came to Crimson, her Strategist noted the potential to build a compelling narrative that united these strengths. Her career focus was specific, her passion was genuine, and her years of experience as an attorney in Southwest Asia had given her a professional foundation to build on.
Azra’s GPA from the BA of Law she received from a regionally recognized university was lower than optimal for her dream program, and her resume was in need of a substantial amount of work around content and organization. Noting these challenges, Azra and her Strategist began honing her story. Their goal was to ensure that every piece of her application served to highlight an intentionally crafted narrative of who she would be as a future fashion lawyer in the US. The trick with this client was crafting a story that would convey the most essential and compelling elements of her rich background and forward-looking career focus.
Crimson’s Strategy
The overarching strategy for developing Azra’s profile involved mining her experiences and helping her to identify an engaging story that was really unique to her. Azra’sindividualized strategy materialized in 3 phases
Phase 1: Crystallization & Strategic Packaging
Azra had a passion for fashion, law, and technology, but she initially wasn’t clear on how to merge these interests. By thoroughly reviewing her history in each field against the profile types optimal for her dream law schools, her team supported her in narrowing an intended career focus. Azra came to realize that she hoped to merge her two biggest passions, fashion and intellectual property law, while also exploring the ways in which emerging technologies intersect with these passions. It became clear that a law career in intellectual property and fashion technology was her most natural pathway.
Phase 2: Workshopping The Story
Azra’s next challenge was to polish and repackage her newly crystalized career goals into a digestible narrative with intentionality in her positioning. She initially presented a range of complex topics at the intersection of fashion, law and tech, which her team knew might not be easy for Admissions Officers to understand. They began in-depth research into the topics she was considering presenting in her personal statement and worked with her to translate these into a simplified yet personable format.
Workshopping the piece across many rounds, Azra and her team identified the most essential elements to include her essay, from a fast-paced introduction—where she helps with a local police raid—to various highlights of her work in fashion and animal rights, and her engagement in the local bar association.
Phase 3: Polishing the Presentation
The final phase of strategy was refining Azra’s presentation of her experiences. Her resume was initially a weak point: lengthy, repetitive, and difficult to read. Her team’s intentionality continued with an involved process of breaking down what was in her resume and why, and Azra and her Strategist removed any elements that provided no unique perspective on her narrative or aspirations.
During this phase, Azra and her Strategist extensively workshopped her interview responses, ensuring that her full narrative—from resume to personal statement to live presentation—would be cohesive and engaging.
The Conclusion
Azra came to Crimson with the intent to transition her law career from Southwest Asia to the US. Setting her sights on UCLA, she and her Strategist engaged in a process of leveraging her unique passion, career focus and prior experience in her homeland. As a result, she successfully earned admission to four of her top LLM law programs, including her dream school!
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Commentary from Azra’s Strategist:
Ultimately, Azra’s captivating stories about her work as an attorney in Southwest Asia successfully mitigated the weakness in her GPA. She took feedback really well, and the end result reflects that, displaying a genuine voice and credible passion. Through a strong, collaborative relationship and lots of iterations, we did a particularly good job with crystallizing her goals and telling the story. All of the unique things she brought to the table tied together, and the different pieces of her narrative and application were very coherent and polished in the end.
Azra’s Reflection:
Everyone at Crimson really supported me during my application process. They always made their presence felt and used every means possible to better my experience. I’m deeply thankful to everyone at Crimson, but most specifically to Brian.
Brian was very supportive throughout the application and decision process. With his amazing feedback and ideas, I was able to captivate schools I never thought I’d be lucky to get into. With his constant presence and encouragement, I was able to get acceptances from schools in the Top 15 list. He devoted hours talking to me about my needs and expectations. After I got several acceptances, he helped me choose the best fit for me by making pros/cons lists, and talking about his own experiences.
Communicating with him was very easy. He always quickly responded to my messages and then scheduled sessions to talk at length. He always understood me, listened to me, and gave me his unconditional support. Whenever I felt down, he helped me get back on my feet. He gave me insights about not only the application process but also about life in the US. Thanks to his amazing advice, I was able to secure a great apartment very close to the school of my choice. I’ll always be grateful for all the things he did for me. Thanks to him, I’ll be going to the school of my dreams on a scholarship.
Amir**
- Strong vocational placements
- Range of publications
- Presenting a compelling narrative
- Essay writing
Amir
- Presenting a compelling narrative
- Essay writing
- Strong vocational placements
- Range of publications
The Setup
Amir was within the top 25% of his undergraduate law class when he began working with Crimson. He entered the LLM application process with strong internships and publications that set him apart from the average LLM applicant. He had interned at several law firms in his home country, assisted a member of a UN commission, and launched a significant human rights NGO. Amir had all of the right profile elements to get into his target programs, but he needed Crimson’s help to present his experience as a compelling narrative.
Crimson’s Strategy
Noting that Amir’s International Law work placements had all been at the same level, Amir’s Strategist advised scaling these placements up. Amir had already been working with professors but had missed opportunities to develop his profile strategically based on where he was eager to study and work. With his Strategist’s guidance, Amir landed a research assistant position with the head of the largest international think tank in the world. Meanwhile, by advising on more meaningful vocational placement, Amir’s Strategist uncovered Amir’s deeper career goal of working on State Responsibility.
Amir’s Strategist also supported Amir in synthesizing his publications into a career stream. He had dozens of publications and had been focusing significant energy on writing. Given that Amir’s applications would only allow him to feature a couple of pieces, his Strategist helped him identify his strongest work, reorienting time and energy with a new focus on quality over quantity. Amir’s Strategist also advised a new approach to recommendation letters, steering him toward work with professors who could effectively contribute.
The Conclusion
Amir and his Strategist successfully reworked the lens through which he viewed and presented his application narrative, resulting in an offer and scholarship from a Top 20 US law program.
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Commentary from Amir’s Strategist
"Amir obviously had a great starting background, but the reason why it was so great to work with him was because he approached his application process with an open mind. He was amenable to virtually all strategic suggestions and demonstrated follow-through that got him favorable results."