—Abraham Lincoln

If you are starting your first year of law school, the last thing you may feel you need is more reading, so we’ll keep this short. Here are a few things we wish we’d known before starting law school:

1. Remember why you’re here. Law school is like a river: it moves fast and pushes you hard.  But if you have a clear sense of purpose—if you can keep in mind why you came to law school and what you want to accomplish while you’re here—you don’t have to drown in the demands of law school or get swept along in directions you don’t want to go.
2. You can’t do everything.  Like most law school students, you probably have the attitude that you can accomplish anything you want if you just work hard enough.  It’s an attitude that has served you well in life.  But it won’t work in law school!  Why not?  Because the river of law school  is bottomless. There are not enough hours in anyone’s week to do everything law school offers. Moot court, trial advocacy, law review, student government, meditation, clubs… there are dozens of worthwhile pursuits available in law school.  Saying “no” to a challenge may be a new experience for you, but you need to learn to do it. Better to accept that now than wait until you’re in over your head.
3. Find a balance. The law school river is not only fast and deep, it’s also long.  Three years long.  To do your best, you need to find a pace you can maintain. Do not ignore your health, your relationships, or your emotional and spiritual well-being for the sake of academics.  In the long run, staying balanced and healthy will give you your best chance at success.
4. Commit the time. We don’t want to downplay the importance of studying-obviously that’s crucial.  In our experience, the best approach is to decide (in consultation with your significant other) how much time you will commit to study every week.  Then block those hours into your schedule. Don’t leave it to chance to study “when you can”.  Decide exactly when and where you will put in those hours, and the stick to your schedule.  (Try starting with 45 to 60 hours of study-time per week and reevaluate after a few weeks.)
5. Form a study group. Find three or four classmates you want to work with. Each of you choose to be the “expert” in one of your core classes.  Do the reading and take notes in all your classes, but in your chosen specialty class go above and beyond.  Read supplemental materials.  Ask questions. Get to know the professor outside of class. Ask for extra reading. Master that one subject as well as you can. Then, once a week, meet as a study group to review your class notes for one subject. (For example, on the first Saturday of each month you may go over your Contracts together; Second Saturday may be Property;  Third Saturday, Civil Procedure, etc).   In that weekly study group, bring your class notes completely up to date.  Each member prepares his or her own complete class study guide, but you can help each other by comparing notes, asking questions and pointing out errors. The “expert” on that subject leads the discussion and helps other members by answering their questions, adding insights and making clarifications.

   Obviously, choosing your study group partners well can be crucial. Look for people you can work with and respect: capable people who are committed to being there and doing their best.  Being the “smartest” doesn’t necessarily make someone a good study partner.  Meet together and discuss your goals before committing to the group.  Make sure you’ve ironed out exactly what you’ll do and what you expect of each other.

6. Don’t let school get in the way of your education. As you settle into the routine of law school, and find your pace, try to stay open to extraordinary learning opportunities.  You can’t do everything, as we’ve said, but you can take advantage of opportunities that aren’t necessarily on the syllabus. An on-campus lecture, a service project, a research assignment for a professor, a recommended reading… they may lead to some of the most rewarding experiences you have in law school, even if they don’t offer any class credit.  Your classes are important, but your education is even more so.

If you’d like to share some of your  own advice for 1Ls, or if you have a question about law school, post it below.

–ASLLC Managing Editors

Most law school applicants, if they’re entirely honest with themselves, have doubts like these. That’s not surprising, since law school seems to be a catch-all for a lot of really bright people who have no idea what they want to do with their lives.  As we’ve worked with students over the last decade, we’ve been amazed at how little thought has often gone into such a life changing decision.  Before you drop thousands of dollars and put yourself through the wringer of law school, you should take a very serious personal inventory.  Is law what you really want to do with your life?  If so, can you explain why?

Most reasons candidates give for going to law school are shallow and based on false premises.  They would make poor arguments for choosing a brand of car to buy, let alone choosing a life-long career.

Let’s look at four of the most common reasons people give for applying to law school and analyze each reason through the eyes of a typical law school admissions committee.

#1- “I think law would be a fun and interesting challenge.”

Response:  The rigors of law school and a legal career may be a lot of things, but few lawyers would describe them as “fun.”  Such a shallow reason as this one makes me wonder how much the candidate really knows about the law.  Has he worked in a law firm or court  setting?  Talked to actual attorneys?  Sat in on a few real law school classes to see what he was getting herself into?  Or has he just formed romantic images based on Hollywood movies and old reruns of Perry Mason?

#2- “I want to make a real difference in the world”.

Response:  Great, but how does that point you to law school?  Trash collectors make a real difference, too. Why don’t you want to make a difference as a business owner, a teacher, a therapist or any of the thousands of other influential careers?  The reason (on its own) is not a persuasive argument for going to law school.

#3- “My parents/teachers/friends always told me I should be an attorney because I love to argue”

Response: This reason makes me nervous about the candidate.  First, is law school something she has chosen for herself, for her own reasons?  Or is she really relying on someone else’s opinion? And second, does this candidate really believe that the major attribute (or even an important attribute) of a good attorney is a knack for arguing? It’s not! Sure, there are successful attorneys who excel at argumentation and debate, but there are just as successful attorneys who excel at avoiding arguments, reconciling parties and finding creative compromises.  There are scores of attributes that could be more useful to a law student than being argumentative: fair-mindedness, civility, critical thinking, determination and integrity, to name just a few.  In give-and-take of a law school class, an especially argumentative student can be more of a liability than an asset.  So the simple fact that a candidate “loves to argue” is a very poor reason for admitting him or her to law school. **(Whenever I hear one of these “My mom always said I was a great arguer” stories I have to wonder, was that just her polite way of saying “Why must you contest every point, you arrogant twit?”)

#4- “I’ve known I wanted to be a lawyer since I was six!”

Response: Their “Age of Enlightenment” varies, but a surprisingly high percentage of applicants cite this as a major reason they want to go into the law, but hopefully a lot of subsequent experiences have given some substance to the goal you may have set in elementary or high school.  I’d hate to think that you made such an important decision based on what you knew at age six and haven’t seriously revisited the question since!

It’s not too soon to start writing about your motives and figuring out exactly why law school makes sense in your life-plan.  The better you can articulate in clear, compelling prose why law school is right for you, the better your chance of convincing admissions committees that their school is right for you.

For information or hiring an experienced editor to help you with the writing process, click here.

You might think it would be easy to impress the committee with a  few noble-sounding phrases, but you should realize that an experienced reader can easily distinguish genuine motivation from rhetorical fluff. And law school admissions officers are very experienced readers. You can’t fool them, and you shouldn’t try.

What you should do is, first, clarify for yourself exactly why law school is the next right step in your life plan and second, show that to the committee in a compelling personal statement.  This article can help you with the first task.  An ASLLC editor can help you accomplish the second.

What’s Your Motive?

Experience has shown that law school candidates come in two different types, depending on their motives for going into law.

Focused-Interest Candidates: These applicants are going to law school because they have a very specific end goal. Perhaps  it is a particular job they want, like tax attorney or prosecutor. Maybe they are passionate about a particular cause such as improving immigration laws or sorting out campaign finance reform. Or maybe there is a specific clientele they want to serve such as children who are lost in the legal labyrinth. Whatever their personal end-goal is, focused-interest candidates need to show the committee (not just tell them) the particular passion that drives them into law.

Broad-Interest Candidates: Most law school applicants (roughly 80-90 percent) don’t have a specific goal that motivates them to go into the law. For these broad-interest candidates, identifying their motives can be a bit tricky.  If you think you may fall into this category, try answering the following questions to help you start sorting through your thoughts. Answer the questions honestly, thoroughly, in writing.  Short-cutting this stage of the process will only create more work for you later.

Questions: To what degree do the following statements reflect my own feelings about law school and legal work?

1-      “Law appeals to me because it represents a challenge”

2-      “Being a lawyer will allow me to achieve or maintain a certain lifestyle.”

3-      “As a lawyer I hope to find and devote myself to a worthwhile cause.”

4-      “I will never be completely at peace with myself until I have been through law school.”

5-      “The idea of engaging my law school classmates in rigorous intellectual debate excites me.”

6-      “I see law school as a way to refine my thinking and/or communication skills.”

7-      “What impresses me about attorneys is their confidence and bearing.”

8-      “ I see law school as a way to open doors and create career possibilities.”

9-      “I’m going to law school to meet someone’s expectations.” (i.e. my parents’, my spouse’s, my own)

10-   “I want to set an example for others by going to law school.”

11-   “In law I see the best application for my individual talents and interests”

Also ask yourself:

“What careers other than law have I seriously considered?”

“If I never went to law school, what would I likely do instead?”

Chances are, you’ll identify several other motives that apply to you. Try to find which one or two are most essential to your law school plans. Don’t worry whether your motives are the “right” ones or the “best” ones. There are no points awarded for having the noblest motives. What we’re really talking about is getting rigorously honest with yourself.  The sooner you do the work of sifting and weighing your own motivations, the easier if will be to

• decide whether law school really is an essential part of your life plan;
• identify which law school programs will best help you accomplish your goals;
• fully commit to a focused, personal plan for preparing for law school;
• write a compelling personal statement that will show the committee exactly why you belong in law school.

For more information on law school applications and personal statements, contact an ASLLC editor.

Try this exercise.

Imagine the perfect law school applicant, the person every law school wants in their class.  This person is a slam dunk for admission.  If you were this person, getting in would be a cinch.  Can you picture that person?  Okay, now describe whom you see.  In your mind, what is the perfect candidate’s…

• GPA?
• LSAT score?
• Race?
• Gender?
• Undergrad Major?
• Economic Background?
• Political Leanings?
• Work History?

Whenever we do this exercise with law school hopefuls, a predictable pattern emerges.  Most people will say that the ideal applicant has a 4.0 GPA and an LSAT score of 175 or better.  Okay, that much is obvious.  But caucasians will say that racial minorities have an edge.  Women will say that law schools are looking for men, but men will say the schools are looking for women.  Applicants from underprivileged backgrounds tend to think that law schools give the nod to applicants with upper-class educations, and wealthy students say they’d have a better chance if only they had a “hard-luck” story to tell.  PoliSci majors feel like they’re at a disadvantage because so many of them apply every year, but Education or Linguistics or Chemical Engineering majors worry that they’re coming from fields that have nothing to do with law.

Do you see the trend?

The one thing that everyone seems to believe is that “the ideal applicant has higher scores than mine, has a different background from mine, has a different resume, graduated from a different school with a different major, has different political and religious and ideological leanings….”

In other words, the ideal law school applicant is…NOT ME!

Once you see this core assumption (which nearly every applicants makes without realizing it), it becomes clear why most applicants bungle their personal statements.  Follow the reasoning here:

1. Law schools are looking for a certain kind of applicant.
2. I can maximize my chances of getting into law school if I make myself look like that person.
3. The person they are looking for is unlike me.
4. Therefore… in my personal statement I should do my best to not look like myself!

Thus one faulty assumption leads you to a conclusion that is wildly, dangerously off the mark.

Trying to appear like someone other than yourself is exactly what you should not do with your personal statement.  It misses the whole point of the statement, actually, yet that’s what most applicants do.  And that’s exactly why most personal statements end up sounding either like academic, impersonal recitations or like desperate performance pieces.  They aren’t personal statements at all.  They’re attempts to look like someone the author imagines law schools are looking for.

We have good news for you.

There’s no such thing as “the ideal applicant.”  There is no single type of person that law schools want to fill their classrooms with.  On the contrary, law schools go out of their way to admit a broad range of students because while they don’t have an ideal applicant in mind, they do have an ideal class.  They want a group of students who are ready to have a lively, searching, respectful, eye-opening debate on any topic under the sun.  What every law school hopes is that you’ll be able to open your classmates’ eyes with what you share, and they’ll open yours.  Sure, they want people who can read and write and reason well, but more than that, they want people who bring something vital to add to their class.

That’s so important we’re going to rephrase it: What law schools are really looking for are applicants who bring something unique and valuable to their ideal class.

So, what do you bring to their class?

Obviously, that’s for you to figure out, and we can help you in that process.  But you’ll never be able to show the schools your uniqueness and value if you mask yourself behind a generic, impersonal statement.

Do something revolutionary.  Have the confidence to show the schools who you are.

For more information, see our Law School Statement Clinic available here, or contact us.

First, we saw that formulas lead to formulaic writing. No kidding, right? But think of the implications! Think of those poor admissions committees who have to read variations on the same ten themes over and over, year after year. When you’ve read a few thousand of them, they start to become very predictable and tedious. No wonder admissions officers respond enthusiastically when they see something different.

Second, the effort that some applicants make to be “original” and to “stick out” drives them inexorably into the same worn-out formulas as everyone else. Strange but true. Take almost anyone’s law school statement and hold it up against the following list: you’ll be amazed how easily it matches one or more of these basic formulas. It’s as though candidates are picking and choosing from the same moldy smorgasbord of all things cliché.

If you’re like 99.9 percent of law school applicants, you may find yourself reading this list and thinking, “Oh crap, that’s the one I was going to write!” Don’t despair. At the end of the article we’ll tell you how you can avoid letting your statement be cliché.

So here they are, the ten tired formulas for law school statements:

The Resumessay

This is the undisputed, all-time heavy-weight champion of bad essays, accounting for at least half of all law school statements. It’s really the resume rehashed in narrative form. “Now that you’ve already read my resume, let me tell you about…my resume.” Tragic! Here you have a group of people about to make a decision that will affect the rest of your life and they’ve agreed to read two pages of whatever you want to tell them. Why would you squander it repeating what they already know?

The Death Essay

The second most common essay, a bit facetiously named, is what we call the “death essay.” It isn’t always about death, but it is always about overcoming some kind of tragedy and hardship. For some reason many writers gravitate to the worst thing that ever happened to them. What that has to do with their plans or reasons for law school is generally an afterthought (see Forced Analogy below).

The “Truth and Justice” Essay

This essay is an attempt to convince the committee of the depth of the candidate’s knowledge regarding some majestic topic like “Justice” or “the Law.” It’s a dangerous narrative position to take: consider the arrogance of trying to impress a law school committee with your knowledge of the law!  Besides that, T&J essays are, frankly, dull. Regardless of their topics, they all blend together into a sort of forgettable gush of law-is-the-very-scaffolding-nay-the-very-fabric-underpinning-our-neighborhoods-our-cities-our-nations-our-world-because-aren’t-we-all-just-passengers-on-this-spaceship-called-earth.

You get the idea.

The Pro Bono Essay

Look. Let’s just say it: attorneys have the potential to make pretty good money. This is no secret. Nor is it a secret that many people who want a decent paycheck see law school as a path to that goal. This fact gives rise to the Pro Bono essay which seeks to assure the committee that for you, it’s not about the money. Your motivations are entirely philanthropic, and the essay tries ad nauseum to establish that point.

Of course, there are undoubtedly some applicants who truly are driven by a desire to serve the world. Pity for them this type of essay has already been ruined by the thousands of others who have already written it.

The “Ever Since I Was a Small Child” Essay

This one almost always contains one of two paragraphs: the one about debate club or the one about how people used to tell you what a great attorney you would make because of how much you like to argue. Sometimes it contains both.

The Thesaurus Essay

This formula just tries to wow us with vocabulary. Reading it, you can almost feel the effort to change every simple word to something bigger simply because it’s, well, bigger. At its worst, the thesaurus essay comes across as the most pathetic of the formulas. It makes you squirm to read it, like a first date who is trying desperately to impress you. You find yourself wondering how long this can go on.

The Creative Writing Essay

Some clever applicants figure out that everyone else is writing formulas, so they try to do something different. They write about the day they went skydiving or spent a night in jail. They might use heavy foreshadowing or attempt humor. They throw in literary references or write the essay in rhyming couplets—anything to stand out. While we have to compliment these authors’ ingenuity and willingness to take a risk, we have to point out that they too are falling into one of the formulas. Their creativity serves no purpose other than to catch attention. It’s more of a performance than a conversation. While their essays tend to be a bit more interesting than others, they are no more helpful.

The Name Drop Essay

Maybe you know a judge. Maybe you worked for a senator. Maybe you once ate dinner at the same restaurant as a movie star. Just like every other kind of name drop, the whole point in this type of essay is to drop the name—to cash in on your association with a particular person. The essay itself, and the actual candidate writing it, take a back seat.

The “Why ____ is the School for Me” Essay

Pretty straightforward: these candidates do some research into a particular school and then try to make it sound like they’ve always known it, always wanted to go there, etc. They try to make it sound sincere…for all ten of their schools.

The Forced Analogy

This type of essay results from the writer choosing a favorite story or experience to write and then realizing near the end that the statement should relate to law school somehow. So they tack on an ending that forces the story to be (surprise!) about law school. “And much like the Egyptian tombs I visited in my youth, law school will….” You fill in the rest.

There you have it, the ten formulas that almost every law school applicant uses, whether they mean to or not. You probably recognized some of them as you read, perhaps because your mind was already leaning in those directions.

If so, we have some good news for you. You don’t need to fall into any of these formulas. Your essay can stand apart from the herd.  You can write a statement that’s original and unexpected and personal and memorable, an authentic personal essay.  We can show you how.

To find out how to make your statement as unique as you are, contact Admission Statements, LLC.  You can also learn more about the Basic Formulas and how to avoid them in our Clinic, available online.

1. “I’ll worry about the statement later.  With school, work and the LSAT, I’ve got too much on my plate right now.”

Most applicants drastically underestimate the time it takes to write a good law school personal statement.  This is not an assignment you can churn out in a weekend.  Well-written essays can easily require a dozen drafts or more.  There’s a price to be paid in time and effort for a stand-out essay, and the best time to get started was yesterday.

2. “With a good GPA and LSAT score, my law school application should be fine.”

That makes as much sense as saying “With solid pistons and spark plugs, what do I need with a good carburetor?”  The personal statement, done well, is an integral part of your law school application.  It works together with your scores, resume, recommendation letters and addenda to tell your story.  It puts a “face” to your numbers.  Not giving the personal statement the same attention you give your LSAT and GPA would be wasting a golden opportunity.

3. “I’m an A student; I should know how to write a good law school personal statement.”

Most people applying to law school are “A students,” and most of them write run-of-the-mill, mind-numbing statements.  The very skills and habits that make them good academic writers often make them lousy essayists (and English majors are some of the worst).  A law school personal statement is not a research paper or critical analysis.  It’s also not a creative writing piece.  The law school personal statement is an entirely different beast.

4. “I already know what I’m going to write about.”

Actually, applicants who give the personal statement the time and effort it deserves usually don’t find what they need to write about until well into the drafting process.  As with any creative project, your initial ideas are often the most obvious and, consequently, the most trite and the least engaging.  If you trust the writing process and put in the work, you’ll find something demonstrably better.

5. “My personal statement should say something intelligent about Truth, Justice, or the importance of the Law.”

The reason you’re going to law school is because you aren’t an expert on the law…not yet.  Pretending to have expertise you don’t have will make you sound arrogant, oblivious, or just plain silly.

6. “The most important thing I can emphasize in my personal statement is my impressive resume.”

The most important thing to emphasize in your resume is your impressive resume.

7. “If I’ve had a tragedy in my life, I should write about that.”

Maybe, but this isn’t a given.  Overcoming hardships/death is a topic that gets “done to death.”  Give the writing process its due.  Is your hamster’s demise or even your best friend’s overdose really the single event most representative of who you are?  Chances are, you have better stories and topics waiting to be found.

8. “I should find an excellent personal statement to serve as a model.”

Following a model or a formula is a great way to write a formulaic statement, an essay that looks just like everyone else’s.  If you are a unique applicant with a unique life (and you are), your essay should be unique too.  Besides, you can’t assume that your friend’s essay was the reason she got into law school.  A lot of students get into law school in spite of their statements.

9. “I found an online service who will look over my statement for only $50.”

Save your money.  The “help” you get from most online services is the same surface-level proofreading you can get for free at your college writing center.  Before you accept help or advice on your statement, look carefully at the product offered.  Shop around.  On one extreme you’ll find ghostwriters who give you a quick questionnaire or phone interview and then write the statement for you! On the other extreme you’ll find proofreaders who charge you just to look over a draft and make superficial corrections.  A good editor will take the time to get to know you, help you see your weaknesses and strengths, show you how to draft effectively, help you identify the right topic for your essay, and then guide you as you pull it together into a final draft.

10. “I can’t afford help with my law school personal statement.”

Consider what you have riding on your law school application and what a difference a stand-out essay can make.  The question you should be asking is: “Can I afford not to get the best help available with my personal statement?”