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.