Law School Admission Essay: Personal Statement
Law School Admission: Ages and Stages
Article courtesy of Accepted.com,
admissions consultancy
Law school applications are steadily on the rise, and your
personal statement is the best place to make yourself stand out
from the wannabe attorney crowd. What should you include in your
essay to convince the admissions committee to stand up and take
notice?
Law School Applicants Are Not All The Same
Law school personal statements do not follow a set formula or
template to fit what an admissions committee is looking for. However, there are guidelines to keep in mind as you begin to outline and write your law school personal statement. Not only will the details be different, but also the focus of your essay depends upon where you are in your career and life when you are applying to law school. Keep in mind that you do not want to try to include every detail about your life, nor do you want your personal statement to be a resume in prose. You want to give the admissions committee a snapshot of who you are and what makes you a compelling applicant for admission to their school.
The College Graduate
You are getting ready to finish up at Big State U. and have decided you want to begin law school the following September. An effective personal statement from a recent or soon-to-be college graduate could have any of the following components, depending on where your strengths lie and on what you'd like to emphasize. It is not necessary to have all of these details, but at this stage in your life, any of these areas could be fodder for your essay.
- Work Experience. You don't need to have had internships
on Capitol Hill, a summer paralegal job, or other legal experience
in order for your work experience to be relevant to your application.
The important thing is that you demonstrate and articulate a
strong work ethic, a track record of increased responsibility,
examples of leadership, and the writing, speaking, and organizational
skills that you honed during your summer or school-year employment.
- Volunteer
Work and Community Service. Perhaps you were involved
in a sorority, in a fundraiser for the local chapter of the Red
Cross, or in serving dinner to the homeless at Thanksgiving.
It doesn't really matter what kind of volunteer work you have
done, just that you can show some kind of giving back to your
community. Emphasize offices held, leadership positions, or any
original ideas that you took from conception to implementation
and execution. The more details and quantifiable data you include,
the better. Here's an example: Rather than saying, "I volunteered
for the Santa Clara County chapter of Big Brothers", say
"I spent an average of four hours a week teaching English
to Spanish-speaking elementary school students. After only four
weeks, their teacher sought me out to let me know that their
grades and attitude had dramatically improved."
- Academic Interests. Do not repeat information that
can be found elsewhere in your application, but emphasize the
things that you have studied that are particularly appealing
to you and their relevance to your pursuit of a degree in law.
Again, you do not have to be a political science major, but if
your current studies are leading you to a desire for an advanced
degree, then talk about how that transformation happened. Perhaps
you took a course in Computer Science that introduced you to
intellectual property law, or a sociology course that triggered
an interest in family law. If this is the focus of your essay,
show how your decision to attend law school was influenced by
a connection in the classroom.
- Extracurricular activities. Do you compete on the
school's water polo team? Play the violin? What else is there
about you that distinguishes you from other applicants? There
probably won't be another place in your application to include
this information, so make sure you show and tell everything about
yourself that makes you a unique and interesting candidate.
Two To Six Years In The Workforce
- Work Experience. Depending on what your current occupation
is, you may or may not have work experience in the legal field.
If you are working as a paralegal, the connection between your
current job and your desire to attend law school will be clear.
But suppose you aren't working in the legal field. Perhaps you
have worked with the corporate counsel on closing deals, or you
have negotiated contracts with outside vendors, or have been
involved in developing marketing materials that are focused on
branding and trademark. All these things have ties to the legal
field; it's up to you to make the connection and show that your
work experience is relevant to your new career goals. And as
with the recent college graduate, you want to show increased
responsibility, leadership, and writing and speaking skills that
have served you well in your current career.
- Community service. Law school admissions committees want to see
that you have donated some of your time and talent to worthy
causes. If you don't have any community service to speak of,
consider adding this to your list of pre-law school to-do's.
It is particularly significant, though not necessary, to have
volunteer work for a legal organization such as CASA (if you
want to practice family law), or Legal Aid (should you want to
become a public defender). But suppose you have been heavily
involved in your child's school, as president of the PTA, or
a member of an advisory board. Suppose you have brought a new
reading program to your local public school. While this is not
related to the study of law, it does show leadership as well
as a demonstrated philosophy of giving back to your community.
- Other exposure to legal field. Were you the trustee
of your grandmother's estate? Were you involved in trying to
get a new ordinance passed in your neighborhood? If there is
something else in your life that has motivated you to pursue
your law degree, let the admissions committee know. The more
you can describe the path that led you to your decision to attend
law school, as well as your plans for once you graduate, the
better the adcom will know, understand, and appreciate you.
Older Law School Applicants
- Work Experience, including why you have decided to change
careers. So, you've been working for 18 years as an engineer,
and have had a successful career. Now you want to become an attorney.
Why? This will be the most important question you will address
as an older applicant to law school. Perhaps it is an unrealized
dream that you have finally decided to pursue, or perhaps there
is some connection between your current job and the legal field
that is appealing to you. Maybe you are ready for a new challenge
and you believe law school and a second career as an attorney
will provide that stimulation. Whatever the reason, you will
need to address it in your personal statement, with specific
details.
- Connections to the legal community where you plan to practice
law. One of the most important things that law schools will
want to know is what you plan to do once you graduate. Presumably,
if you plan to practice law in the same community where you have
lived during your first career, you have made connections to
the business and community. As a more experienced applicant,
you will likely have a better idea of what you want to do with
your degree once you graduate than the 22-year-old just out of
school. Tell the adcom what your plans are, and how you plan
to get there. Maybe the local judge is a friend who has been
encouraging you to get a law degree for years. Perhaps you have
ties to the business community, and have already decided that
you will work for XYZ Corporation down the street, and they have
all but guaranteed that they want you to come on board once you
graduate. You want to make clear that you don't need to rely
on the school's placement center to obtain your first job as
a lawyer. These are details that will make you application stand
out from the others.
- Clearly defined short and long-term goals. Know what
you want to do the day after you graduate, and five years after
that. As an older applicant, you should be more focused on the
specific reason why you need a legal degree in order to pursue
the career you have chosen.
Guidelines That Apply To All Law School
Applicants
No matter where you are in your career or your life, there
are a few points that every law school applicant should cover
in their admission essay:
- Clearly defined and articulated reasons for seeking a
law degree. The days of attending law school as a stopgap
while deciding what you really want to do are over. Law schools
want to be sure that you know what you want to do after you graduate,
and that you have a plan for getting there. No one will hold
you to this on the day you earn your degree, but you want to
have a working plan in place when you submit your application.
- What you will bring to the law school community. What
are you planning to bring to the party? Your work experience?
Your extracurricular interests? Your desire to write for the
law review, or sit on a student committee? What will you do for
the school that will make it a better and more interesting place
for the other students and faculty?
- Why a particular law school appeals to you. Why have
you chosen the University of Greatness as your first choice law
school? Concrete, specific reasons are the details that laws
schools are looking for. Is there a professor whom you want to
serve as your mentor? A particular course of study or class that
you can't wait to take? Avoid reasons like proximity to family,
but emphasize the school's ties to the community, the alumni
affiliation, and the reputation for a certain program. Show that
you have done your homework.
- Why you and the law school are a good fit for each other.
Finally, why are you and the school a good match? Is the
program tailor made for your career goals? Did you attend as
an undergraduate and want to continue at the same school? Is
the diverse student body the right match for your unique background?
Follow the above guidelines and let the admissions committee
know why you should be admitted, and they will have every good
reason to send you a letter of acceptance!
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If you would like the guidance and support of experienced editors as you apply to law school, Accepted.com offers a
range of services to help with your essays, letters of recommendation, and wait-list
letters. Our singular goal is to help you gain admittance to the
law school of your choice!
By Catherine Cook, Accepted.com Senior Editor
Accepted.com 2003
Copyright Accepted.com
2003
