…but I did work roughly 25 hours/week I wrote “why x” statements for every school that I thought would want them for someone with my numbers (Penn, UVA, NW, Berkeley, Michigan, Duke, Cornell) All statements followed the same formula except Penn. I am fairly unremarkable, so I spent my energy on creating a compelling…
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Advice applicants left on their LSD.Law profiles, searchable by topic, school, and stats.
47 entries matching "personal statement"
Admitted to Duke University…(essays, LORs, etc.) are outstanding. I spent months on my personal statement, and I’m really glad I did. I wrote additional essays for Stanford, NYU, Georgetown, and Duke. I did Kira for Northwestern and Berkeley. I submitted a diversity statement everywhere but Stanford (error in judgement).
…school rather than sending more generic Why X/Background statements to a ton of different places. I applied based on available pathways back to TX, location, and quality of certain programs. I wrote Why X + every optional essay that was relevant to my experience for every school I applied to. Let other people read…
Write a good application. Do the research, work with a mentor to nail your personal statement, don’t skimp on the supplemental essays. Be able to say something honest about why you want to go to this school. Make yourself a known quantity. Go to campus if you can. Be that annoying person who “just happens” to run…
…but i did include a small paragraph why x at the end of my personal statement for every school except asu wrote optional essays for michigan (something about a group you have been a part of), gulc (top 10 list), and a pretty detailed fun fact for columbia (not an essay but in their app) sent diversity statement to…
…Wrote books essay; one of “up to 500” invited to do video statement for Knight Hennessy but not selected as finalist (such a tease) Harvard interview: The most one-sided of all my interviews. I immediately felt good about it (told some friends I probably had a 9/10 performance), but then I fell into a downward…
Your personal statement is your gold. Also, I highly recommend doing social work or something adjacent to it prior to law school. You learn a ton about how the law interacts with vulnerable people at systemic and individual levels, and it makes for a great narrative. I think that’s what gave me the edge in…
…leadership experience (probably makes for a compelling personal statement!), and then separate from the military with 36 months of free tuition + housing and book stipends. You’d be guaranteed to graduate law school debt-free. And you’d likely learn some interesting lessons and meet some amazing people along the…
…take your time with the lsat. No matter how good your personal statement and supplementals are, there are just some schools that are going to push you to one side or the other based on your lsat score. If you really want to go to a top law school then you need to really dig in hard on the lsat… with that being said,…
…earlier than you think you need to, particularly your main personal statement, as it was hard for me to get momentum for a while. Likewise, get a few trusted friends/family members to proof read for you, because you will inevitably miss silly things from staring at your essays for too long. My only super “unique”…
…the essays. Try out first drafts of different potential personal statement topics before you lock in on one. You want to find the topic you can not only write about in a compelling way, but that will showcase what you have to offer. And if you think waiting another year to apply will make a material difference in…
…of rec by the end of June. Write a first draft of your personal statement by then too, so that the PS is completely done by mid-August and you can start writing optional essays then.
…goals. Low-income & first-gen were also emphasized in my personal statements.
…Do your absolute best on the LSAT and craft a killer personal statement if your GPA is on the lower side for any reason.
…to make sure that each part of your application (your personal statement, your resume, and your optional essays) tells a cohesive story; and to be deliberate in formulating your list of schools to apply to. The law school application cycle is impossible to predict, and the process can be incredibly stressful. Make…
Didn’t write any optional essays in addition to my personal statement, unless you count the mandatory Yale 250-word supplement (in retrospect, this definitely hurt me at UVA, Penn, and Columbia, where I was above 75th for both stats and didn’t do a good job demonstrating interest) T4 softs, did some research at my…
APPLY EARLY! I submitted all applications except for Penn and NYU in early September. While I had strong personal statements and wrote optional ‘Why X’ essays for Berk, Duke, Mich, UVA, Georgetown, GW, and Vanderbilt, I think being in the first wave of applicants in the early fall helped me stand out. I also highly…
Good luck! If you are a reverse splitter really try to have a memorable personal statement! I think taking a bit of a risk there paid off for me.
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