Apart from your LSAT and undergraduate GPA, the most important aspect of your law school application is the personal statement. It is the one part of your file that is solely you. In your own words, you express your voice, experiences, and story. Every day we help students put together exceptional applications with our law school admissions consulting packages. We dispense tidbits of wisdom that help students craft a top-notch and unforgettable essay. Stick around for a preview of some of the advice we give to our students.
The Goal of Your Personal Statement
In a space as short as a law school admissions essay, your goal is to do three major things.
- Provide a compelling hook that lets the reader know that something interesting is coming.
- Guide them through a narrative that gives intriguing and personal reasons for your decision to come to law school.
- Leave them with the unmistakable impression that this story provides a strong basis for you to not only become a law student but to become an excellent one.
Structure & Revisions
- Applicants in the “mushy middle” (those whose numbers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles for a school) can basically write their way into law school… or out of it. Take the time to brainstorm, think, and polish your essay. If you don’t, the only thing you’ll be writing is your own rejection letter.
- Length does not necessarily equal quality. Don’t use 1,500 words where 800 would do.
- There is no good writing; there is only good rewriting. Re-reading and editing what you’ve written are the most important parts of the personal statement.
- Don’t write your essay in a vacuum! After you’re done, give it to someone else to critique. Ask them to describe the person the essay talks about back to you. You’ll be amazed at what your essay may convey about you.
- For overly long essays, it’s helpful to make a brief list of the characteristics you want your reader to remember about you thirty minutes after reading your essay. Go through each sentence of the essay and remove it unless it connects to at least one item from your list.
Content is Key
- The purpose of the personal statement isn’t to show the admissions committee that you have the skills necessary to be a great lawyer. Teaching you those skills is the law school’s goal.
- It’s important to focus your essay on why the committee should want you, rather than why you want to go to law school. That being said, having a good reason to go to law school can make you more desirable to a committee.
- Prepare the reader for your epiphanies. Don’t let your essay come out of nowhere.
- Details make your essay interesting. However, make sure that those details, especially those that are easily verifiable, are 100% correct.
Questions to Ask Yourself While Writing
- When you write your personal statement, one of your guiding questions should be, “What do I want the committee to remember about me?”
- Each sentence has to tell something about you. Ask yourself, at the end of every paragraph, “What part of myself have I just revealed to my readers?”
Common Mistakes
- Don’t write about your past experiences with the law, regardless of whether or not those experiences are personally significant. The admissions committee members don’t want to learn about the law from your essay; they want to learn about you.
- Don’t try to make your essay sound like legal writing; instead, keep your language clear and concise.
- As a general rule, anything that stops or slows down a reader is a problem. Make sure the narrative is linear, makes sense, and does not leave the reader waiting or asking for an integral piece of information.
Your personal statement says a lot about you, so put the time and effort into making it stellar. If you want help, we’re here for you. We have several packages to suit your needs, as well as open-ended consultation hours. Let’s get you into the law school of your dreams.
Amaya says
I first took the LSAT in March 2019 and got a score of 170. I retook in July 2019 and bumped up to 173. I am gunning for Top 6 and I know that my 173 puts me at median for HY and at or above 75 for all other Top 6. I am trying to weigh the pros and cons of applying to HY by Oct 1 with my 173, or hold off, retake the LSAT in November, and then submit. I am 100% sure that I can boost my score by 2-3 points. I have taken four PTs since the July exam and have gotten 176+ scores. Someone else told me to send in my app with my 173 by Oct 1 and then retake in November. But what if my app goes in review before HY even get a chance to see my November score (which would be released in December)? Someone else told me to save my energy and just not retake–my uGPA of 3.8 on the dot and 173 apparently make me a competitive enough applicant that applying early would give me a better chance than retaking in November.
I would appreciate your insight!
A.M.
Amaya says
Sorry it is off-topic!
Dave Killoran says
Hi A.M.
This is a very tough question, mostly because the T3 are like black boxes: moreso than other schools, their applicant base is so strong that they routinely reject applicants with so-called qualifying numbers. It’s been said often that simply meeting their numbers is no guarantee at all of admission; you have to have the softs and intangibles along with those numbers to make the cut. Having worked with hundreds of successful applicants to these schools, I’d have to agree. Which makes it all the harder to determine what effect a few more points would have here vs the earlier application date. My inclination is to say retake it, since the black and white ABA reporting advantage of a higher score (and hitting the 75th at HY) is hard to argue whereas applying earlier is not a black and white advantage to the school.
Second, if you do sign up for November, the likely chance is that as soon as HY sees that they will put you application on hold. That’s how most schools do it (although I’d check HY because things change yearly). So if you sign up, you likely won’t get that decision immediately from them.
My general lean is to retake, but I fully understand the counterargument here and it has some merit.
Thanks!