Good Law Schools

Law School Personal Statements: The Real Deal

When putting together your personal statement for your law application, the pressure can be immense.   This is a big document, one that could determine the shape of the rest of your life.   While it is true that law school is the biggest thing that has ever happened to you, it is vital that you remember that the statement is likely to be read by the most important people in the institution, people who see hundreds of these things every year.   Knowing what they don’t want to read in your personal statement is as important as knowing what gets them excited.

First up, and perhaps most importantly, always remember to keep it simple.   If you throw everything about your life into your personal statement, no one is going to finish reading it, never mind consider you for a place.   The panel don’t care about your Saturday jobs, or the fact that you helped out at the orphanage for a summer.   It really means nothing to them.   Try your best not to add all of your life ingredients, keep it focused and clear.   If you bear this piece of advice in mind throughout the writing process, you can’t really go far wrong.

And when it comes to word length, even though most law schools don’t make it an issue, a sensible attitude towards the number of words in your personal statement is advised.   Don’t go prattling on for ten pages about everything under the sun.   Keep the statement to a sensible length, about two or three double-spaced pages, and leave it at that.   And if you don’t think this advice is valid, ask yourself this question: would you read a document that covers more than or two three pages without feeling a little bit bored, especially when you’ve got two hundred more on your desk?

There’s a famous story about an Oxford don who used to hold the most unorthodox of interviews.  The story goes that he would sit there in his office whenever a new applicant to the university turned up on interview day and, with his feet on his desk, he would say, ‘surprise me.’   The story became famous because one day a candidate looked at the newspaper the professor was reading and used a box of matches to set it alight.

Whether this is a true story or not, it is always important to differentiate yourself from the many hundreds of applicants who are going for the place you want at law school.   But don’t go overboard.   The worst thing you can do is what some candidates have done in the past, such as write poems to the panel, or ‘for a joke’; slip hundred dollar bills into the envelope.   Law school is a serious business; some of you may go on to shape the country’s law.   So keep your personal statement serious and dignified, and let your background speak for itself.