How to: Personal Statement Edition

So, you want to go to law school? By now, you know that you need a good GPA and LSAT score, not to mention some letters of recommendation, but what else does every good law school application need? A killer personal statement. This is where you write why you want to go to the school you’re applying to and, probably most importantly, why that school should choose you instead of the hundreds (maybe even thousands) of other applicants.

When I was applying to law school, I started to write my personal statement on my own, without any reference to samples or advice from people that got accepted into law school. I started to talk simply about who am I and what program I graduated from. After that, I began to talk about why I wanted to go to that school and then I got to the part I was most proud of…my passion for the study of law. When I finished this draft, I went to my lab supervisor and asked her to edit it for me. After graciously accepting, she said, “Please tell me you did not use the word passion”. I laughed, admitting the guilt and took back that first draft. What was wrong with passion? Well for one, she said that the word “passion” has many different definitions. Merriam-Webster defines one of those definitions as: an object of desire or deep interest. My supervisor told me to explain why going to law school was an object of desire without explicitly using the word “passion”. This made sense…passion can be shown through the careful articulation of words. In essence, simply using the word “passion” can be seen as a cop-out.

So that is TIP #1: remove the word passion, and instead articulate that passion using any of the infinite combination of words in the English language.

After that helpful conversation I realized I knew nothing about writing a personal statement. I went to talk to my Political Science professor who practiced law and asked him for his advice. He shared with me that the key to standing out is to be different. He specifically said, “Do not mention how you want to be a lawyer. Everyone says that.” He further explained how his personal statement focused instead on how he would use his law degree to further his legal understanding in order to become a university professor.

Not everyone that goes to law school will become a lawyer, so it is important to set yourself up to come across as unique. A legal education can serve many purposes, so I used his advice and framed my personal statement to discuss the potential of using my law degree in combination with my Bachelors of Science in Psychology to become a forensic psychologist — a discipline that equally combines both of the fields I am p̶a̶s̶s̶i̶o̶n̶a̶t̶e̶ (oops) interested in. This enabled me to discuss the strengths I have obtained from my undergraduate degree and how that would serve to further strengthen my knowledge of the legal framework.

Along the way I completely changed my entire personal statement, and it ended up getting me accepted into law school. For the purpose of this article, I dug up the personal statement I used in my law school application and wanted to share a few extra tips:

1. Avoid phrases like “My name is _____”.

• If possible, remove your name from the personal statement, as this is one piece of your entire application and they already know who you are from the other sections you provided.

2. Start off with background information about your post-secondary education (i.e. degrees earned, projects completed, etc.) and how that will contribute to your understanding of the field of law.

• If possible, tie in the roots of your undergraduate degree to the study of law and explain that relationship.
• For example: I discussed the impact that laws place on human behaviour, and vice versa, how human behaviour impacts laws.

3. Discuss your ultimate career goals, and how going to (insert law school name here) will help you reach that goal.

4. Include anything that you did during your post-secondary education that you are extremely proud of and what you learned from those experiences.

• Were you a teaching or research assistant? Did you start or join any meaningful clubs? Do you have any research publications or have completed a thesis?

5. Discuss experiences you’ve had that have nothing to do with your post-secondary education, such as jobs, volunteer opportunities, or plainly anything impressive that you’ve done that you want admissions to know.

• Do not forgot to discuss what those experiences have taught you and how that will help you in law school life and beyond.

6. The final paragraph should tie everything together and include a strong closing sentence!

• If applicable, discuss further distinctions between you and other applicants, such as personal challenges, cultural differences, etc.

I hope that this article was helpful, and it eased the initial process of the beginning of your future legal career! Just remember that every good piece of writing includes many drafts, but in the end, there will be a single document that you should remain proud of.