Sketch: 2 Questions

[VitalGiraffe]

Question 1:

Should I be reaching out to every one I put as a verifier? It seems like a resume reference.

Question 2:

I have volunteered for multiple campaigns of a political party. Should I put those down under one sketch for all of them, or one for each of them? Probably 4 or 5 of them I volunteered and 1 I was paid.

 

Thanks

[VitalGiraffe]

I've made up my mind for the second question. If anyone has input for the first question I would still appreciate it.

[scooter]

Personally, I reached out to all of the verifiers who are attached to significant experiences - longterm extracurricular involvement, full-time jobs, etc. Anything that might actually move the needle on my application. I didn't reach out to verifiers for less significant things like my summer job bartending 5 years ago — I doubt law schools will spend their time verifying if that is true.

[VitalGiraffe]

21 minutes ago, scooter said:

 

Yeah that's what I figured. Unless you say you won an Olympic medal or have some huge inconsistency, they're probably not following up on these.

[Piffle]

Re: question 1 

I notified all of my verifiers, even for the short-term and most insignificant things on my sketch. 

Looking back though, I don’t think all that effort was necessary. 

Becasuse realistically speaking, listing verifiers is effectively a formality. The chance of anyone from admissions actually contacting them to follow up is slim to none. And even on the off chance that someone does reach out, they wouldn’t be asking for a reference, but rather, a simple yes/no answer confirming you did the work.  

So in my view, the choice of how many verifiers to notify comes down to your personality. Are you going to neurotically loose sleep because you didn’t give a verifier a heads-up in advance, and you're paranoid about the overwhelmingly unlikely event that they're contacted and caught off guard?

There’s nothing wrong with being prudent, but leaving loose ends on this matter really isn’t a big deal.

Edited October 22, 2021 by Piffle

[VitalGiraffe]

9 hours ago, Piffle said:

 

I decided to reach out to them anyway. I figured its good to catch up with people. Haven't seen or heard from a lot of people in a while because of Covid so it was a good excuse.

[Piffle]

On 10/22/2021 at 9:26 AM, VitalGiraffe said:

I decided to reach out to them anyway. I figured its good to catch up with people. Haven't seen or heard from a lot of people in a while because of Covid so it was a good excuse.

That's also a perfectly sensible way of approaching the situation. 

Just so future readers of this forum don't misinterpret this thread, or my previous commment: I obviously don't think referees/verifiers should be unfailingly viewed in a cynical light, i.e., as being mere tools that help you get admitted. Especially if they made for a genuine and meaningful relationship in your life that helped you grow - in which case, do treat them as such and afford them with the due respect and courtesy they deserve. These are real people who've helped you. 

Assuing that's the case with @VitalGiraffe, which I have no reason to think otherwise, I definitely don't find anything objectionalbe with their attitude here so far - so good luck to them in particular!

Edited October 25, 2021 by Piffle