The Personal Statement
The personal statement is the third most important piece of your law school application and it is a very strong third.
All law schools advertise for students they want.
- You see this in the publication of average, median, and 25th/75th percentile GPA and LSAT data.
- Students whose GPA and LSAT statistics are at the high end of or exceed the profile a school is advertising for are very likely to be admitted and even a poor personal statement is unlikely to pull those students out of the admit pool.
- Students whose GPA and LSAT scores are significantly below the profile a school is advertising for are very unlikely to be admitted and even a stellar personal statement is unlikely to pull those students into the admit pool.
Most students who apply to a school, however, are within the range of the advertised profile.
- Quite simply, law schools receive many more applications from perfectly qualified applicants than they can seat.
- They must pick and choose among students with similar, and decent, statistics.
- The primary tool for choosing is the personal statement.
The personal statement has two functions.
- The first, and least important, is that it shows the admissions committee what kind of a writer you are.
- The second, and most important, is that it gives the admissions committee a window through which to see you as a human being and not as a statistic.
- Given that law schools don't interview, it is their only opportunity to see you this way and it is your only opportunity to show them what's unique about you. Don't blow it.
Sometimes a law school will ask you a specific question in the personal statement. For example, the ... asks ....
- When confronted with a question as specific as that, answer it.
- However, most law schools ask "kitchen sink" questions, designed to allow you to tell them about yourself in terms of something that is important to you.
- For this sort of question, the sky's the limit. You can write about just about anything, just as long as that anything is you.
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