jdMission Senior Consultants - 50 Real Law School Personal Statements: And Everything You Need to Know to Write Yours

Maybe you have taken the LSAT, or maybe you have not. Maybe you have finished college, or maybe you have not. Maybe you are making a career change, or maybe law will be your very first career. Regardless of who you are and your current situation, if you have decided to apply to law school, you are definitely facing the challenge of writing an effective personal statement.

First, the good news: because the personal statement question or prompt is fairly standard from one JD program to the next, you will likely be able to use your final essay to apply to multiple schools. Your task is to demonstrate, in a two- to four-page composition, why your target law school should accept you into its next incoming class of aspiring JDs.

Consider these recent personal statement prompts from the applications of several top ten law schools:

Law School 1: Candidates are required to submit a personal essay or statement supplementing required application materials. Such a statement may provide the Admissions Committee with information regarding such matters as: personal, family, or educational background; experiences and talents of special interest; reasons for applying to law school as they may relate to personal goals and professional expectations; or any other factors that you think should inform the Committees evaluation of your candidacy for admission. This statement should be printed on a supplementary sheet or two and should be returned to the Law School with other application materials.

Law School 2: An applicant may write a double-spaced personal statement on any subject of importance that he or she feels will assist the Admissions Committee in its decision. There is no minimum/maximum length.

Law School 3: The Personal Statement provides an opportunity for you to present yourself, your background, your ideas, and your qualifications to the Admissions Committee. Please limit your statement to two pages using a minimum of 11-point font, 1-inch margins, and double spacing. Please refer to the Statement Form for more information. Attach your statement to the Statement Form when submitting on paper.

You get the idea.

Of course, you will encounter some exceptions and variations. Some schools have relatively short page limits, while others have no page limits at all. Some schools ask specifically what you will contribute to their program or what draws you to it rather than others. But most admissions committees generally want the same thing, which is for you to tell them something about yourself that is not already demonstrated by the other elements of your application. In short, what can you convey about yourself as an individual who is more complex and three-dimensional than a resum or GPA or LSAT score? You must show the schools that you are someone they want in their classrooms, among their students, and eventually, on their roster of alumni.

This book is designed to help you write the best personal statement you can (which you can then tailor, if necessary, to particular schools). The best part is that our guidance and tips are not presented to you in a vacuum. We do not simply say, Show rather than tell! and then leave you on your own to figure out what that means. We include here a total of 50 personal statement reviews discussing numerous facets of the essay-crafting process, from drafting to the final revision. Each lesson is derived from an actual personal statement that in some way embodies the lesson we want to imparteither it illustrates the mistake we are advising you to avoid, or it demonstrates a technique we are encouraging you to employ. A jdMission Senior Consultant offers a thorough critique of each essay, including a First Impression based solely on the personal statements first paragraph, an enumeration of the essays particular Strengths and Weaknesses, and a Final Assessment of the statement as a whole.

Start by reading through a few essays and their critiques. Before long, you should begin to develop a sense of what a personal statement is and the kinds of mistakes applicants commonly make in writing them. Once that happens, try this: read the first paragraph of a personal statement, determine your first impression, and then skip ahead to read the jdMission Senior Consultants First Impression in the review. Was your judgment similar to that of the consultant? If not, how did it differ?

Then, as you read through the rest of the essay, do so with a critical eye. Ask yourself repeatedly what you think of it. If you were an admissions officer, how would you feel about the essay and the candidate who wrote it? Is the applicant trying too hard to sound smart or to sell a sob story that does not ring true? Do you find yourself wanting to be friends with her or to hire him as your attorney someday? Do you lose interest midway through and think about skipping ahead to the next essay? As you go, jot down your thoughts in the margins or on a separate sheet of paper.

When you reach the jdMission review of the essay you just read, ask yourself these questions: What did you notice that the critique does not mention? What does the review reference that you missed? If your opinion differs greatly from the jdMission consultants, that could be a valuable indicator for you. It could mean that you are susceptible to making the same mistake(s) that the candidate who authored that particular essay did, so you should pay particular attention to the advice provided in the accompanying review. Of course, you could simply disagree with the consultants opinion, but keep in mind that the observations and guidance in these reviews are based on our many years of professional experience in this area, and we are being entirely frank about these essays weaknesses and merits for your benefit.

If you have already drafted your essay and are in the revising stage, consider scanning the table of contents for specific tips that may pertain to you and/or consult the index to learn which reviews touch on writing/elements that may be giving you trouble. This way, you can target your reading so that it is tailored to your personal revision needs. However, we would encourage you, if time allows, to read through all the chapters, because you may find a suggestion or idea that you might not have otherwise considered but that may be key in taking your personal statement to the next level.