What Should You Write About in Your Personal Statement?

The Personal Statement is a very specific, and challenging, kind of writing. You need to make yourself come to life as a person- not be just a law school application, convey why you want to attend law school and what you’ll do afterward, what makes you a good fit with a school, be tightly organized…. And be no more than 2.5 pages/500 words

 

  1. WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT – It’s called a “Personal” statement for a reason, the committee really does want to know about you. In fact the PS often will take the place of a face to face interview. I recommend to my clients that they either write about one experience that impacted them and their decision to attend law school, or 3 experiences that impacted them.

 

  1. WHAT IF YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN “BORING”? – It isn’t important that your life experiences be big, dramatic, extraordinary… in fact if they seem too over the top the integrity of you and your essay may be questioned. Most important is that you write about something you can describe with enough specific details that you, your passion, your motivation, your dreams, come to life. This can be something as simple as being in 4H club, or as complicated as a childhood of abuse.

 

  1. DON’T WASTE YOUR WORDS ON OTHERS – Remember this is your “Personal” statement and the committee wants to learn about YOU.  If someone influenced and impacted you, write enough about them to introduce that, but do not make your essay their biography. Instead emphasize the impact they made on you, your vision of your future, your decision to go to law school, what you want to accomplish as an attorney.

 

  1. INCLUDE SCHOOL SPECIFIC INFORMATION – Think of it like dating, your school likes to know it’s special to you and to be called by its name. State the specific name of your school/program, and write a school specific paragraph to say what you like about a school and what makes you a great fit with it.

 

The Personal Statement is the most important part of your application because you get to control what’s said about you. Write about your experiences and how they’ve influenced you. Don’t waste your precious word count describing others. And, let the school know how much it means to you to go there. The committee genuinely wants to know about you, this is not the time to dilute your presence.

….. Dr. Michelle Hubbard, Admissions Consultant

 

 

For a paragraph by paragraph tutorial on How to Write Your Personal Statement, and other video lessons, go to lawadmissionsconsultant.com .  Purchase the Personal Statement video and follow the format it teaches, and Dr. Hubbard will gift you with one review of your essay.