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Think of the medical school interview as a giant, modern dating ritual. Your AMCAS application and secondary essay were the first two online dates, and now you have agreed to meet each other in person. The admissions committee already has a rough skeleton of the greatest hits of your adult life, and they have decided that they really like you. However, before they will extend a proposal, they need to meet you in person, and they are willing to spend enormous amounts of their time and your money to arrange this meeting. What your interviewer writes about you for the admissions committee will either make your application come alive, remain flat on the paper, or tragically fail.

Yes, the personal statement is the most important part of your college application. No, you do not need to be so stressed about it. You dictate almost everything about the personal statement: the topic, the style, and most importantly, the way you want the admissions officers to react to your writing. Remember, you are in complete control here. You know your life and your experiences better than anyone, including the reader.

I didn’t go to law school thinking I would transfer. I enrolled at Georgetown University Law Center, happy to spend three years in our nation’s capital studying at one of the country’s best law schools. But when I got back my 1L grades, I realized I had a shot at transferring to the schools I never could have gotten into originally, given my LSAT score and undergraduate GPA. This fall, I enrolled at Yale Law School as a 2L; I couldn’t be happier with my decision. Here’s some wisdom about transferring that I picked up along the way: