This is the word for word Personal Statement (who gave me permission to use it) of an applicant who elevated above a top law school’s medians and was admitted. Kudos to her and many thanks for letting me share! - I sit and I play. I play until it is too dark to read my music. Then comes that indescribable moment, sought by all musicians, when thinking becomes subordinate to instinct. The music is no longer just s
1. Not proofreading your own work. We’ve all been there: we just want to be done with the darn thing and send it off. You’ve looked at it many, many times, dissecting every word and comma but you missed that you wrote pubic instead of public. Not the same word! We are not the best judge of our own tone because *we *know what we meant to convey, but does someone else reading it know what you meant? Have someone read it. Then, before submitting, read again. Out l
Here is a personal statement from last year’s transfer cycle we think worked very well. The results were equally strong, 1 (top 6) school applied to, 1 (top 6) admit. - The dissolution of Dewey & LeBoeuf in 2012 led to my realization that the law is like classical music. Dewey’s implosion occurred the spring before I had planned to begin law school; it was the same year that I first applied to Princeton Law. As I
We get a good deal of unsolicited testimonials, and every so rarely we throw one up on our website to share :) Here's one below, especially noting the Personal Statement part. Nine out of every ten personal statements follows a typical pattern that is based on bad advice that has persisted online -- and does nothing for the application. Believe it or not, the target audience of your PS is YOU, not an unnamed admissions committee that doesn't even exist (applications are not reviewed by committe
Added July 24th Not many applicants have such an incredibly gripping experience to convey, but everyone has their own emotionally important event. Put the reader IN your story, just like this client of ours did. -Mike The door slammed shut and now, it was just me, three other guys, and one dead man in the room. None of us -- that is, the four of us who were alive -- had ever washed a dead body before, but the phone call I received the day before would soon change that. A congregant from my mos
“But I don’t have a WOW factor.” It is that time of year when applicants realize the LSAT may not be the hardest part of the law school admissions process after all. For many, it will be writing the personal statement. This difficulty often stems from one of two sentiments: the perceived lack of a “wow factor” altogether or the perceived lack of a “wow factor” that is unique. Two of the most common questions we hear from law school applicants are: “But there’s nothing unique about me; I grew up
Another example [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/homerun-law-school-personal-statement/] of an applicant who was admitted to their dream school and stood out with a wonderfully sincere and powerful Personal Statement. We will keep sharing exceptional examples of how to do the process -- these matter so much. -- Mike I sat, pondering both the murky nature of the grey slush on the floor and my own murky future as my university applications sat on an admission officer’s desk somewhere. Then I t
This is another example about how writing about something differentiated and sincere about you — not targeted to an anonymous file reader — works. This client punched above her numbers at multiple schools and received several handwritten notes about how exceptional her Personal Statement was. Always remember, the target audience of the Personal Statement is you, not an admissions committee. With this advice alone you will do well. Enjoy! -Mike-
With more than 100 years of law school admissions experience between us, we have read over a hundred thousand law school essays and applications. That is an incredibly rewarding experience, but there can be times when you start to see the same words used, or used out of context, again and again. The following list of words includes some of the most overused and/or at times aggravating usage of words we see in applications. Keep in mind that not all of these words annoy every admissions officer —
