The Personal Statement
What is a Personal Statement?
The Personal Statement is one of the most difficult aspects of the law school admissions process. You need to write an essay (often without a specific prompt) that provides some context for who you are and why you are applying to law school. You want to get the admissions officer to believe that you’re a normal person, and that you’re motivated to be a good student. Also, you need to do it in two pages. Double Spaced.
How do I write a good one?
A good personal statement is a good story. While there is no one correct structure to a personal statement, a common way to do it is to tell a brief, interesting anecdote, and then tie that anecdote into your broader life story that has brought you here, applying to law school.
You also want to keep your audience in mind: Admissions Officers. Their most frequently repeated advice is authenticity. Be yourself, not who you think admissions officers want to see. The people making the decision on your application read thousands of these personal statements each year, and often dozens a day, so they can tell when you’re being inauthentic.
The Writing Process
A good personal statement takes time to write. Expect this process to take at least a month. You’ll need to brainstorm your narrative and then start drafting. It’s easy to get caught trying to write the perfect essay on the first draft. It’s an impossible task. Embrace multiple drafts. Write your draft, leave it, and come back to it for revisions. Rinse and Repeat. Eventually you’ll start to see something you’re happy with.
As a friend told me, “A first draft’s only job is to exist, and it should suck.”
Letters of Recommendation
Who do I ask?
You should limit your recommenders to professors or supervisors. Beyond that, your recommender’s title is not important. Who your recommender is matters much less than what they have to say about you. Your recommender should know you and be able to speak to the character qualities that you want represented in your application.
How do I ask them?
If it has been a while since you’ve spoken to the person you’d like to act as your recommender, reach out asking to schedule a quick chat, either over coffee or virtually. You can talk about how you’ve been, what you’ve been up to, and your plan to go to law school. If the conversation has gone well, you can broach the topic directly, asking if they’d be willing to serve as a recommender. You’ll want to follow up with an email, providing them with more concrete details.
If you feel a catch-up meeting is not necessary, reach out via email to confirm if they would be willing to write a letter on your behalf. The tone of this email can vary depending on the nature of your relationship with the recommender, but it never hurts to err on their side of overprofessional. If they confirm, you’ll add them as recommenders on your LSAC account, upon which they will receive an email from LSAC with the details on submitting their letter. You should waive your access rights to viewing their letter, as law school admissions officers do not look favorably on applicants not waiving these rights.