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…
Applicant wisdom
Advice applicants left on their LSD.Law profiles, searchable by topic, school, and stats.
41 entries matching "personal statement"
Admitted to Vanderbilt UniversityApply early! Don’t overthink your personal statement–have a good 2-3 people that you trust review it but no more than that. There shouldn’t be so many cooks in the kitchen that it drowns out your own voice. The T-14s have plenty of students applying with great stats–those are useful but your real power is in your…
…supervised work (public interest/pro bono focus) Essays Personal Statement - focused on story from childhood about parent’s job loss and how this connected to the field of law I’ve worked in/want to continue in. Made a clear point as to the why this field is important, why it mattered to me, how it connected to my…
…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”…
…my Berkeley and Northwestern apps because I wrote on my personal statements that I would attend if admitted—I don’t recommend doing this.
Ask for help for your personal statement. Study really hard for the LSAT. Once submitted, get off this website and wait for your emails to roll in! (◕︵◕)
…safeties. I included why X paragraphs in every one of my personal statements, and I think it helped me avoid YP at safeties (no comment on Mich or UVA LOL). If you genuinely can’t write a why X, you probably shouldn’t apply to that school IMO. Mental health: Know when to log off LSD and reddit. Some info on here can…
…sections for NYU, Columbia, Penn, Berkeley, and UMN personal statements.
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…
Ph. D. in a humanities field related to the law I wish to practice, connection drawn (I hope convincingly) in the personal statement. Have four peer-reviewed articles in print (sole author) and a dissertation. I’m sort of known in my field, not a celebrity by any means but definitely a member of the profession.…
…Do all the optional essays you can. Write multiple personal statements on different topics and then choose one based on what felt natural. Never turn in an application the same day you finish. Review with a fresh set of eyes before hitting submit. It seems like a lot of work to study and take the LSAT. It seems like…
Though my “softs” are individually T4, I have an outrageous amount of them; thus, on an overall basis, they may be considered T3. STEM Major. Wrote Diversity Statement for all schools. Wrote a tailored Why X for about 1/3 of applied schools (e.g., Berk, Penn, Duke, etc.) My advice is to focus on overshadowing your…
…applications I wrote most optional essays and felt that my personal statement was fairly impactful. I had three letters of recommendations from professors and supervisors who I know quite well. My undergad was a large public flagship university in the Great Plains and I had four majors (not the most challenging…
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.
I don’t really know what I’m doing. But if I had to say, here’s my best advice: Knock it out of the park on the personal statement. The advice I got was to be memorable – so I did not write about law (although I had a few sentences in the end). Draft early (like really early) and get help from the best writers you…
…longer—and were much harder—than I expected.- Start your personal statement and résumé early. Ideally, have them ready before fall so you can hit the ground running when applications open. Transparency:- I didn’t use a consulting service, but I did ask strong writers in my life to review my essays. Deciding Where to…
Start the personal statement earlier than you think you need to. It was the thing delaying me from applying earlier, because I wasn’t sure what to write about, or I wasn’t happy with what I had written.
figure out a theme for your personal statement asap. My apps got delayed by two months because I couldn’t figure this out for so long. you might need a higher lsat than 170 for the top schools. hoping I can pull through without it, gearing up for the probability that an R&R may be necessary because you’re all so…
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