Personal Statements

Your personal statement is perhaps your first opportunity in life to flex some of your latent lawyering skills. Bear with us before rolling your eyes--we're trying our best to make the most painful part of the law school application process interesting and manageable!

In writing your personal statement, you are both the lawyer (advocate) and the client (subject matter). Your job is to advocate in the most effective way possible on behalf of your own law school candidacy. To "win" this case, you have to convince the judge and jury (the admissions committee) that your candidacy is compelling enough to gain admission.

By the time you fill out your law school applications, you can no longer change some aspects of your case, like your grades or your LSAT. Yet it is the way in which you advocate on your own behalf that can make the difference in persuading the admissions committee that your candidacy is compelling.

Some people have written whole books about the art and science of writing effective personal statements. If you've got the time to read 1 or 2 of them, good for you. It's pretty easy, though, to boil down the essential advice into Selecting A Personal Statement Topic, Popular Topics, and our 5 Do's and 5 Don'ts of writing personal statements. What follows is our best advice, in consultation with some of the most talented admissions deans at law schools today. At the end of this page, we quote from recent personal statement directions at top law schools, so you have a better idea of exactly what law schools ask you to write about in your personal statements.

Selecting A Personal Statement Topic

It's easy to get discouraged if you read some of the books out there about writing effective personal statements, because they often contain sample personal statements by people who vaguely remind you of Barack Obama, an extraordinary individual with a unique life story that in no way reflects the life experiences of most people applying to law school. And you're left to think: "Well, I can't exactly compete with that, so how am going to come up with a compelling topic on my own?" Actually, it's pretty easy. Just follow these 3 steps.

First, Make A Chronology of Your Life.

Go back through your life and make a chronology that includes: (1) academic, personal, and extracurricular accomplishments; (2) tragedies and obstacles overcome; (3) books or other pieces of writing that really stuck with you over the years; (4) important/inspirational courses and professors you've taken; (5) meaningful jobs and volunteer work you've done; (6) the most important/inspirational people in your life (and, to help fit them into your chronology, an experience or event that exemplifies them best); and (7) if you're leaning heavily towards a type of law you'd like to practice someday or a cause you'd like to serve using your legal education, then list in your chronology the events that pushed you in those directions.

Second, Canvass Those Closest To You.

Ask your 3 closest family members and 3 closest friends to list the qualities they admire most about you, and the accomplishments, obstacles overcome in life, and life and academic experiences that most immediately come to mind when they think of you. Compile and condense those lists to see which qualities, accomplishments, obstacles overcome, life and academic experiences would make the best source material for a law school personal statement. Then add these to your chronology (and for the qualities, list any life experiences that exemplify those qualities). When canvassing your family and friends, you may want to show them your chronology as a way to help move along your conversations with them.

Third, Develop Personal Statement Topics From Your Chronology.

With all this information organized into a chronology, you should be able to easily generate compelling topics for personal statements. By the way, this process of making a chronology of the important facts and ideas of your life is very similar to what good lawyers do when they first get a case: they create a case chronology or evidence outline and use that to develop the legal and factual themes to convince a court that they should win the case.

Popular Personal Statement Topics

Of course, you can write about almost anything when it comes to a personal statement for law school. In our experience, though, the majority of personal statements -- and certainly many of the most successful ones -- fit into 1 of the following 3 categories.

1. Answering A Question An Admissions Dean Would Logically Ask.

Sometimes, after an admissions dean has read through an applicant's resume and list of activities, it's just plain obvious what a person should write about. If you're a serious collegiate athlete, and athletics has infused most of your extracurricular experiences, then tackle an athletics-oriented topic as it relates to leadership, or focusing your efforts in pursuit of a dream, or learning the true meaning of team, or seguing into the law. If you've had significant leadership positions in student government or non-profits, then write about how they've matured you or how you hope to carry those efforts forward with a legal education. If a serious obstacle in your life has affected how you've studied or spent your time in extracurriculars, then write about that experience. The point is, if your resume or extracurriculars have a predominant theme, then hammer home that theme in a compelling personal statement, so an admissions dean can understand an essential aspect of your life in a meaningful way, and in the process can see your persuasive writing abilities.

2. A Memorable Academic Experience.

Sometimes, a college or even high school course steers you towards a life in the law. It could be a hands-on government experience during a college independent research course, or a science class that covered the intersection of science, policy, and the law, or a term paper that explored law, policy, or politics. Whatever that memorable academic experience, write about it and its impact on your career goals.

3. Words of Wisdom.

Sometimes a book, a speech, or even a quote can change the arc of your life. Or perhaps you were inspired by the example of a professor or teacher, and that inspiration has carried you forward to this day. If it has, then write about it, making sure to relate that writing or professor's example to your life in tangible ways.

5 Do's of Personal Statement Writing

While there are probably 100 instructions we could offer about writing effective personal statements, these 5 are especially important.

1. Follow Directions.

Every law school application has directions about the substance and format of the personal statement you need to write. Whatever those directions are, make sure you follow them. You could write a terrific essay, but if it doesn't address the topic requested, or if it's 3 pages long and you were asked to only write 2 pages, admissions committee members will wonder why it is you have trouble following directions. As simple as this advice sounds, you'd be surprised how many applicants fail to follow it (and equally surprised to learn how many law students fail to follow directions on exam questions and get dinged when they receive their grades). Take a look at some of the sample personal statement questions below that we've collected from various law schools to get a better idea of the directions you're asked to follow. And note: some law schools will tell you to write about pretty much anything and to choose the length of your essay. In such cases, it's far better to craft a traditional essay and to keep it to 2 pages in length or less, than to try something substantively risky that goes on for 5 or 10 pages. In all instances, you should double-space your personal statement and put your name and Social Security number at the top of every page.

2. Grammar, Spelling & Details.

The spelling and grammar of your personal statement must be flawless. Most personal statements are only 2 pages/500 words or so length. If at this point in your life you can't write flawlessly for 2 pages, then you're going to have a hard time making it as a lawyer, where you'll be expected to submit flawless 50-page briefs to courts and craft 100-page corporate documents on behalf of multi-billion dollar corporations. Whether or not spelling and grammar are your strengths, find at least 3 people with those strengths and make sure they read your personal statement before you submit it to any law school. And before you mail or hit the "Send" button on your applications, make sure you are sending the right personal statement to the right law school. This sounds like such obvious advice, but each year law schools receive the wrong personal statement from an applicant and that, alone, is enough to deny you admission.

3. Distinguish Yourself.

The whole point of writing a strong personal statement is to convince an admissions committee that your written communication skills and some aspect of your life (or your outlook on an aspect of life) are more compelling than another applicant with a similar LSAT score and grades who attended a similarly prestigious college. Put differently, if a law school admissions committee is looking to fill out its incoming class with an academic pedigree that's similar to yours, then you need to explain why you're more interesting or will contribute more to the incoming class than the next person with your LSAT and grades.

You'll often hear the following advice about personal statements: "You have to tell the admissions committee something in your personal statement that distinguishes you from the 5,000 other applicants." That really overstates the challenge you face in writing your personal statement, however. If a law school has 5,000 applicants in a given year, there are likely to be 1,500 presumptive admits based solely on grades and LSAT scores, 1,500 presumptive rejects based solely on grades and LSAT scores, and a middle group of perhaps 2,000 who probably have the requisite grades and LSAT to succeed at that law school. Then, within that middle 2,000, the admissions committee wants to fill out its incoming class by selecting applicants with certain geographic, race, gender, undergraduate, work experience, and life experience traits and will begin to group applicants accordingly. At the end of the day, you'll fit into one or more of those categories and you'll be competing to some degree with applicants that share many of your same traits. It's those relatively few applicants against whom you're truly competing when it comes to assessing your personal statement.

So out of an applicant pool of 5,000, if you're in the presumptive reject category, your personal statement is very unlikely to push you into the admit category. Conversely, if you're in the presumptive admit category, a well-written but otherwise unremarkable personal statement is probably enough to gain admission. And if you're in that middle group of 2,000, your personal statement is likely competing against maybe 100-200 others applicants with similar LSAT scores, grades, quality of undergraduate institution, and some combination of other traits. And it is from that relatively small pool candidates that you're hoping your personal statement truly stands out.

4. Be Confident & Positive.

It almost always helps if your tone exudes confidence and positivity no matter the subject matter of your personal statement. People naturally gravitate towards confident, positive personalities in life and admissions committee members are no different. Revealing these traits in your personal statement is not only good on its own, but it also tends to demonstrate that an applicant is resilient and patient and morally centered--all characteristics of successful law students/lawyers. So here's what confidence and positivity mean in the context of a personal statement:

Confidence: Confidence, in a personal statement, means stating forcefully yet humbly what you expect to accomplish with your law degree (if your personal statement focuses on career aspirations), taking affirmative credit where credit is due but without false modesty or exaggeration (if your personal statement focuses on a notable accomplishment), or stressing how you overcame something as opposed to dwelling on the obstacle (if your personal statement focuses on a setback or tragedy in your life).

Positivity: Positivity, in a personal statement, means emphasizing the solutions to a problem or injustice rather than dramatizing for effect the problem or injustice (if your personal statement focuses on a legal, societal, or personal wrong), or stressing what you learned or how you've matured by overcoming adversity in your life.

5. Start Strong & End Strong.

Your opening paragraph or sentence must captivate your readers, and it must successfully introduce the subject matter of your personal statement. Likewise, your conclusion must resolve the topic you've raised in a memorable way, such that your readers really want to admit you to law school. Because the beginning and ending of your personal statement are so critical, you simply cannot spend enough time refining them. At a minimum, you should try out 3 different openings and 3 different conclusions to see which ones work best.

5 Don'ts of Personal Statement Writing

Just as there are probably 100 "Do's" we could offer, there are 100 "Don'ts" we could list, too, but the 5 below are among the most important.

1. Don't Distill Your Resume Into Essay Form.

A personal statement is not a long-form resume. Your resume exists to organize and summarize your achievements and experiences into 1 page. Your personal statement exists to demonstrate to an admissions committee that your written communication skills are strong, that you are insightful and interesting, and that there exists a coherent story about why you're applying to law school and why you'd make a good student at the particular law school you're applying to.

2. Don't Focus On Your Weaknesses.

Your personal statement is a positive essay to convince an admissions committee to admit you to their school. It is not a forum for excuses, explanations, or justifications about why some aspect of your law school application is weaker than it should be. If you got appendicitis the day you took your LSAT and that's why the score is low, or if your junior year college grades nosedived because your grandmother died that year, then explain these weaknesses in an addendum, not your personal statement.

3. Don't Write Colloquially.

Think of the admissions committee as the judge or the jury hearing your case. You would never submit a court brief written in an informal style, replete with contractions, sarcasm, and unconventional structure. Therefore, you should not write your personal statement in an informal manner -- admissions committees want to see that you have a strong grasp of the English language and can communicate effectively in a formal setting. Give them what they want.

4. Don't Focus On Another Person to The Exclusion Of Yourself.

Sometimes, if you write about a book or quote or professor or some other person in your life, it is tempting to spend a significant amount of time during your personal statement writing about that person rather than yourself. Resist this temptation. You are not writing a personal statement in order to get that person admitted to law school. You are writing a personal statement to show how their wisdom affected you in a meaningful way and, by extension, why you are a perfect candidate for admission. So spend a few sentences, at most, writing about that other person, and then focus the rest of the personal statement on you.

5. Don't Submit A Lightly Edited Draft.

A surprising number of admissions deans at top law schools have told us that their schools routinely reject applicants with super-high GPAs and LSATs when those applicants submit a personal statement that clearly reflects a lack of effort or attention to detail. Nothing -- nothing -- turns off an admissions committee more than an applicant turning in a rough draft personal statement.

Sample Personal Statement Questions

Below are the personal statement writing instructions for seven top law schools. They should give you a good sense of the kinds of questions most law schools ask of applicants, as well as the instructions on the form for completing your personal statement.

Columbia Law School

"Candidates to Columbia Law School are required to submit a personal essay or statement supplementing required application materials. Such a statement may provide the Admissions Committee with information regarding such matters as: personal, family, or educational background; experiences and talents of special interest; reasons for applying to law school as they may relate to personal goals and professional expectations; or any other factors that you think should inform the Committee's evaluation of your candidacy for admission. This statement should be printed on a supplementary sheet or two and should be returned to the Law School with other application materials."

Georgetown University Law Center

"An applicant may write a double-spaced personal statement on any subject of importance that he or she feels will assist the Admissions Committee in its decision. There is no minimum/maximum length."

Harvard Law School

"The Personal Statement provides an opportunity for you to present yourself, your background, your ideas, and your qualifications to the Admissions Committee. Please limit your statement to two pages using a minimum of 11-point font, 1-inch margins, and double spacing. Please refer to the Statement Form for more information. Attach your statement to the Statement Form when submitting on paper."

University of Michigan Law School

"There is no formula for a successful personal statement, and different individuals will find different topics to be well-suited to them. Applicants have, for example, elaborated on their significant life experiences; meaningful intellectual interests and extracurricular activities; factors inspiring them to obtain a legal education or to pursue particular career goals; significant obstacles met and overcome; special talents or skills; issues of sexual or gender identity; particular political, philosophical, or religious beliefs; socioeconomic challenges; atypical backgrounds, educational paths, employment histories, or prior careers; or experiences and perspectives relating to disadvantage, disability, or discrimination. Any of these subjects, and many more, could be an appropriate basis for communicating important information about yourself that will aid us in reaching a thoughtful decision. The length of your personal statement is up to you."

Northwestern University School of Law

"Include a typed, signed personal statement (recommended length: one to three pages, doublespaced). Please look upon this essay as an opportunity to introduce yourself to members of the Admissions Committee. In doing so, keep in mind that the committee evaluates applicants in many areas beyond test scores. We encourage you to discuss personal and professional goals that are important to you and to include information about your achievements. Feel free to comment further about your education, background, community involvement, and strengths and weaknesses in certain courses or activities. Please type your name and Social Security number on the top of each page."

Stanford Law School

"Enclose a statement of about two pages describing important or unusual aspects of yourself not otherwise apparent in your application. The statement must be submitted electronically with your electronic application. While admission to Stanford Law School is based primarily upon superior academic achievement and potential to contribute to the legal profession, the Admissions Committee also regards the diversity of an entering class as important to the school's educational mission. If you would like the committee to consider how factors such as your background, life and work experiences, advanced studies, extracurricular or community activities, culture, socioeconomic status, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation would contribute to the diversity of the entering class and hence to your classmates' law school experience, please describe these factors and their relevance."

University of Texas School of Law

"Your personal statement should give the Admissions Committee insight into your character and experiences. Please review the Admissions Bulletin for a list of factors that the Admissions Committee considers in the admissions process. Your personal statement may not exceed two (2) typewritten, double-spaced pages with a font size no smaller than 11 points."

Optional Essays

In addition to personal statements, many law schools offer applicants the opportunity to write "optional essays" about a range of topics. Below are optional essay topics from three law schools that provide a good cross-section of the kinds of optional essay topics law schools typically permit.

Columbia Law School

"Optional: Candidates may add brief supplemental statements they believe will enable the Admissions Committee to make a fully informed decision on the application. The Committee especially welcomes addenda that allow it to understand the contribution your background (e.g., socioeconomic status, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation) would add to the Columbia Law community."

University of Michigan Law School

"Supplemental essays allow you an opportunity to provide us with relevant information that you were not able to include elsewhere in your application materials. If you wish, write one or two essays (but no more) on the following topics. Each essay should be about one page."

1	"Essay One: Say more about your interest in the University of Michigan Law School. What do you believe Michigan has to offer to you and you to Michigan?"
2	"Essay Two: Describe your current hopes for your career after completing law school. How will your education, experience, and development so far support those plans?"
3	"Essay Three: If you do not think that your academic record or standardized test scores accurately reflect your ability to succeed in law school, please tell us why."
4	"Essay Four: Describe a failure or setback in your life. How did you overcome it? What, if anything, would you do differently if confronted with this situation again?"
5	"Essay Five: Describe an experience that speaks to the problems and possibilities of diversity in an educational or work setting. "
6	"Essay Six: What do you think are the skills and values of a good lawyer? Which do you already possess? Which do you hope to develop?"
7	"Essay Seven: How might your perspectives and experiences enrich the quality and breadth of the intellectual life of our community or enhance the legal profession?"
8	"Essay Eight: Describe your educational experiences so far. What kinds of learning environments, teaching methods, student cultures, and/or evaluation processes have you found lead you to thrive, or contrariwise, thwart your success?"

Northwestern University School of Law

"Although you are not required to, answering one or both of the following questions may provide you an opportunity to give the Admissions Committee relevant information that you were not able to include in your personal statement. Whether you select Optional Essay 1, 2, or both, please limit each response to one or two paragraphs."

1	"Optional Essay 1: The students at Northwestern Law come from many different backgrounds. Please describe an aspect of your background that you feel would allow you to contribute uniquely to the school and/or your classmates."
2	"Optional Essay 2: Briefly discuss your specific interest in Northwestern Law."