Personal Statement Tips

A law school personal statement is one of the most open-ended papers you will ever have to write.  The basic instructions are: tell me something about yourself, in English, and keep it to two double-spaced pages.  Ready?  Go. But for most students, the personal statement seems daunting precisely because it is so open-ended.  Where do you start?  The Back to School issue of preLaw magazine (Vol. 15, No. 1) has a few short tips.

1. You don’t have to tell them why you want to go to law school.  Some of the best personal statements have nothing to do with the law.  A good personal statement is exactly that: personal.  It should be sincere, from the heart, and about a topic you really care about.  That being said, it is a good idea to bring the reader back to the present and mention law school, usually in the final paragraph of your essay.
2. First impressions matter.  Spend time coming up with a good first sentence that really grabs your reader’s attention.  Admissions officers read upwards of fifty personal statements a day.  They are pressed for time.  Make your statement stand out right away, without sounding gimmicky or scripted.  If you can’t keep a straight face while saying the words out loud, don’t write them.
3. Stay focused.  Two pages is not a lot of space, so don’t cram too many topics into your statement.  Come up with a theme and stick to it.  If the school accepts optional essays, write about another topic there.  Remember that you can also submit a resume with your application, which will contain information on jobs and internships not mentioned in your personal statement.
4. This is your “interview.”  Law schools don’t do personal interviews, so your personal statement is your only chance to show an admissions officer that you are a person, not Applicant #2367.  Tell them something that they wouldn’t otherwise know from reading your application.

Deciding Where to Apply

Applying to law school is expensive. Applications range from $60 to $100 (stay tuned to find out more about getting fee waivers from schools).  Therefore, it is important to make sure that you have carefully selected what school’s applications you are going to spend time and money on. Keep in mind that while the rankings provide a guide to how difficult admission is at a particular school, they fail to take into account many factors that can make or break your law school experience. Here are a few factors to consider when deciding which schools you are going to send applications to:

Are you a competitive applicant? Look at the LSAT range and GPA range for the school. If you fall in that range then you have a chance of getting in. If one of your numbers is below the range then you can sometimes compensate for that if your other number is above the range. If both of your numbers are significantly below the 25th percentile of a particular school, then you probably shouldn’t waste your time.

Safety Schools. Always have one or two schools that you can be pretty sure you will get into (you can figure this out by looking at your numbers also; if both GPA and LSAT score are greater than a school’s 75^th percentile). You may want to consider applying to schools that you would be “safety” schools to up your chances of getting scholarships.

Bar Passage Rate. This is a really good indication of how well a law school prepares its students and the quality of lawyers coming out of the school. Further, this will show how invested a school is in its students. You still have to pass the bar to be a lawyer, not matter what school you go to.

Jobs. Getting a job after you graduate is a big part of the reason of going to law school for most people. So this should be considered when looking at what schools are worth applying to. If you are interested in doing a certain type of work see if they have connections in the field of the law. What is the job security after graduation for a particular school’s graduates? What type of career services do they offer and how is the alumni network?

Location. This is an important to consider because not only are you going to be spending at least 3 years of your life there, but school’s reputations will be different regionally. When you are considering top 14 schools, location is not as big of a factor. However, outside of the top 14, this should be weighed heavily. If you want to work and practice in a certain region after law school make sure to look at what schools place well in that region. An example would be Loyola Law School, which places very well in the LA area, better than many schools that are ranked much higher but are outside of the area.

What you are passionate about? Keep in mind what you want out of your law school experience and look for schools that you think will give you that. If you are passionate about small business law and that is the reason that you want to go to law school then look for schools that have great business law courses, or possibly a reputable joint MBA program, or even small business clinics (a great program at law schools that provide students which actual clients).

All questions can be sent to prelaw@usc.edu!