So what are we going to write about here in the inaugural article for this one-stop, everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-and-even-some-stuff-you-didn’t resource of a website utterly and enthusiastically dedicated to getting the law school personal statement right?
Why, getting it wrong, of course!
In all seriousness, sometimes the best way to figure out how to do something right is to see how it’s done wrong. There are countless ways law school applicants muck up their personal statements, and in the last seventeen years we’ve just about seen them all. But we’ve noticed that almost every mistake stems from a few common misconceptions, which we’re going to spell out for you. If any of these beliefs are already lurking somewhere in your head, we invite you to stop now, and rethink carefully before you set about writing the essay that will represent you to law schools.
1) “The purpose of the law school personal statement is to impress the committee.”
This is it, friends. The mothership. The Grand Poobah. You know that queen alien in Aliens? The one that makes all the other little aliens that slither out of their hive, suck onto the poor humans’ faces, and plant eggs inside of them that eventually blast out through their chests and murder all their friends? That’s this one. I really hope I’m not understating the importance here. The vast majority of the mistakes that people make in their personal statements boil down to a desperate, misguided, quite frankly embarrassing need to impress admissions committees.
This belief about the statement is so pervasive that even when you’re aware it’s wrong, you’ll struggle to shut it out. It is exactly what pushes people into following predictable formulas and missing the whole point of the personal statement, which is to say something true, to have an authentic conversation, to be yourself. Figuring out how to do that, even when everything in your heart and mind is telling you to be more “impressive”—now that’s the challenge!
2) “The personal statement really isn’t that important.”
If Mistaken Belief Number One was the queen, then this one is the king. Two royal parents, working together to screw up your statement. If the queen manifests herself in all the ways we try to preen and perform for the committee, the king shows up in all the ways we tend to treat the law school personal statement like an afterthought.
So how important is the personal statement, really? It’s as important as you make it. Give it the time and respect it deserves and it has the potential to be the most important part of your application, even if you have stellar scores. But one thing is for certain, you’re not going to slam out a good one the night before it’s due. There’s a price to be paid to write a first rate personal statement, and you can’t pay it in a weekend.
3) “My personal statement should say something insightful about Truth, Justice, or the importance of the Law.”
Of all the ways applicants strive to impress (see Mistaken Belief Number One), this might be the most obvious. Too many applicants miss the opportunity a personal statement presents, to share something personally meaningful and let the committee “spend time” getting to know them. Instead, they think they have to say something “profound.”
We have literally seen an applicant try to turn a story about his golf swing into an analogy about the meaning of The Law.
Just stop already! If you spent hundreds of hours developing your golf swing, if the feeling of hitting a perfect drive off the tee makes you really feel alive, if talking about golf is the best way to help us get to know the authentic you, then why muck it up with some phony analogy to the Law? At its core, the personal statement should be about you, not some abstract, noble concept. Even a simple golf story, if it’s personal, is more engaging that philosophical nonsense about how there are certain laws that govern a golf swing just as there are certain laws that govern a civilized society…blah, blah, blah.
Let’s think about it. Do we really believe this law professor, who teaches law for a living, is reading this thing and saying, “The Law is like a golf swing! I’d never thought of that! We’ve gotta get this guy”? Do we think he’s calling his colleague in from the other office to have a look? That he’s telling his wife that night at dinner, “Honey, I read the most remarkable thing today”? Because he’s not. What he’s actually doing is muttering, “Here we go again.”
Alright, end of rant. Sorry. Please don’t do that; that’s all we’re saying. You’re better than that. Let’s move on.
4) “The most important thing I can emphasize in my personal statement is my impressive resume.”
No, the most important thing to emphasize in your resume is your impressive resume. Why waste your precious few pages of personal statement rehashing things they already know? You’ve got limited means of communicating with the admissions committee. Make sure that each part of your application is bringing something new to the conversation.
5) “I already know what I want to write about in personal statement.”
Actually, applicants who give the writing process the time and effort it deserves usually don’t find what they need to write about until well into the drafting process. Your initial ideas are often the most obvious and, consequently, the most trite, the least engaging, and the least memorable. If you give the process its due and put in the work, you’ll find something demonstrably better.
6) “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, diversity statement, 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.
7) “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. A law school personal statement is not a research paper or a critical analysis. It’s not a creative writing piece. The law school personal statement is an entirely different beast.
8) “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.” Is your hamster’s demise or even your best friend’s overdose really the single event most representative of who you are? Probably not. Chances are, you have better stories and topics waiting to be found.
9) “I should find an excellent personal statement to serve as a model.”
Following a model or a formula is often a great way to write a formulaic personal statement: an essay that looks just like everyone else’s essays. If you are a unique applicant with a unique life (and you are), your personal statement should be unique too. And remember, you can’t assume that your friend’s personal statement was the reason she got into law school. A lot of successful students get into law school in spite of their statements.
10) “I found an online service who will look over my statement and all of their editors are Harvard students!”
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.
First and foremost, someone offering to help you with your writing needs to be a good writer, and many of these guys simply are not. (Fun fact: when we do live presentations, we like to get our bad personal statement examples off the “Sample” pages of our competitors’ websites.) The fact that someone went to an Ivy League school has nothing to do with the quality of essay that he or she can help you write. Check the samples. In addition to having real writing chops, a good editor needs to take some time to get to know you, help you see your weaknesses and strengths, and bring out your best writing as you move toward a final draft.
And there you have it: the top ten misconceptions about the law school personal statement.
So now that you know how not to approach the statement, where should you go from here? Well, we’ve got lots more helpful information coming right here on the website and on our Facebook page, but if you’re ready to get started, click here to sign up for our Pre-Application Consultation. We’ll help you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your application, make a game plan for how to address each, discuss your stories and personality, brainstorm topics for your personal statement, clarify what your statement needs to accomplish for you, tell you more about our unique process, and answer any questions to get you moving in the right direction.