While you are applying for law school, you must know what matters most for securing admission. Though undergraduate GPA and LSAT score are the most important components of a law school application, one more component needs your keen attention i-e a law school personal statement.
Your law school personal statement holds power to decide whether you would get admission to the desired law school or not. For students with qualifying GPA and LSAT scores, a personal statement acts as a tiebreaker.
Therefore, right after taking the LSAT, you should drive your attention towards writing an impressive and mind-blowing essay.
In today’s guide, we have jotted down some general guidelines on writing a good law school personal statement with examples to help you write the best personal statement for your admission.
What is a Personal Statement?
In a personal statement, you articulate who you are and why you chose law school. You can think of it as your narrative about your life or argumentation on your case.
In other words, it must show your passion, solid context, rigorous thinking, and impressive writing ability for securing admission. It reflects your creative argumentation capacity to defend your claim as an attorney.
Here are the general guidelines to write an effective law school personal statement:
Intriguing opening
Start with an attention-grabbing and intriguing context that the reader finds himself in the midst of the scene. An essay in the form of a story will be more understandable and interesting than one that only depicts your eagerness to join law school.
You must know that every person that applies has an interest in law school. What differentiates you from others is your unique and memorable narrative.
Example: After graduation, I was utterly blanked on what career appeals to me. During the first two years in university, I enrolled in various courses in various departments to explore my interests. I learned about the theory of relativity, cubism and cubic functions, philosophy, stats, and psychology.
I learned a lot about the world, but most importantly, what I come to know was about myself. Unfortunately, no course fascinated me to continue it for life. I realized that no course could give me direction, but I do have a set of skills and values required for a career in law……..
Connect your story to your motivation
In the body paragraphs, connect your narrative to your motivation for applying to law school. Articulate your point on why you care about law school or what motivated you to choose this path.
You can also write about what kind of lawyer you want to be, keeping in view your qualities and values. Also, connect your opening to the profession. Instead of letting the intriguing opening dry out, connect it with your profession.
Although you don’t need to mention every detail of what you have been through, you must maintain a strong connection of your narrative to the profession.
Example: I was always eager to know how different abstract theories are applicable in the real world. This compelled me to study economics as an undergraduate major. Through this, I learned how theories are applicable for a good change in healthcare, domestic policies, and the environment.
Similar to this, the law also requires the application of abstract thoughts to reality. Although the field of Law is challenging, it is among those building structures that can positively change society.
➡LEARN MORE: Should I go to law school?
Don’t lose interest
Don’t make it boring by losing interest in the middle of the personal statement. Try to maintain a strong presence of your narrative throughout the essay.
Example: Definitely, deciding on a career was not an uncomplicated process for me. The knowledge I acquired over the past few years has made me clear that law is the right choice. I aspire to improve the old unrewarding system that has affected people’s life badly.
This sounds naïve as many came with the hope to change the world but ended up in failure. I know how it operates, and I am prepared for this. I might fail to bring the change, but in the end, I will be satisfied with doing what is right.
Change of interests
Demonstrate your change of interests’ overtime. Articulate your personal growth and how it influenced your interests and finally led you to this path.
Conclusion
Make your conclusion natural rather than forced. Words like that’s why, I will, for this reason sometimes work quite well but not always. You must try to end just as the writer ends the story. In the end, the reader must understand who you are and why you applied.
Example: I want to attend the University of C because no one can beat it in terms of quality of education, students, and teachers. Law students at the University of C don’t need to wait until graduation to work on their passion and influence the community.
They get the opportunities through various institute-supported legal offices and organizations and work for the community. Keeping this in view, I am sure that the University of C will prepare me to seek justice to the fullest to bring change to the community.
Note: Always remember that you should not be using a legal tone in your personal statement. Law school is looking for a person who understands his background; knows what his goals are and what qualities he should have to be a good attorney. Moreover, you must tailor your statement for each law school while applying.