TABLE OF CONTENTS: Straight Answers: Getting Inside the Head of an Admissions Officer The Wow Factor: What Admissions Officers Really Look For 11 Bring Tears-of Joy!-to Their Eyes: The Application Essay 53 Damning with Faint Praise: Recommendations 94 Your Life in One Page: The Reacute;sumeacute; 125 "Please Let Me Explain": Addenda and Other Appeals for Clemency 171 The Thirty-Minute Audition: The Interview 198 Prestige and Price Tags: How to Pick a Law School 230 Final Thoughts 250 Appendix Brainstorm Questionnaire 253 Sample Essays 261 Sample Recommendations 286 Sample Reacute;sumeacute;s 294 Sample Addenda 302 Index 305