my personal statement will be the end of me

[whitak24]

damn.....

i've been trying to write my personal statement for law school for the last 2 or 3 months. i just can't figure out what to do with it.

key problem: should i put in information about why i want to go to law school and what i play to do with my law degree, or not?

one book i have (which is written by a firm that specializes in helping people apply to top law schools), says that most people recently out of college shouldn't even touch the subject. basically, the book says those people don't have anything meaningful to say about the topic....it all sounds cliche to admissions committees.

on the other hand, last week i emailed my statement to a professor who is basically the law school expert at my undergraduate college, and he responded to me tonight and said that i should include some of that info in my statement.

so i'm trying to figure out something to write, and everything i try just sounds retarded. i mean, basically, i want to go to law school because a.) i'm an anal, detail-oriented person, b.) i like analyzing stuff, and c.) when i read court cases i actually find them very interesting. plus, i think i would be good as a lawyer. but that stuff doesn't come out sounding all that intelligent on paper.

basically, i don't expect any help here....i'm just bitching because it's driving me crazy. of course, if anyone has opinions on the subject, i'd be happy to hear them.

[mojo]

Originally posted by whitak24
key problem: should i put in information about why i want to go to law school and what i play to do with my law degree, or not?

one book i have (which is written by a firm that specializes in helping people apply to top law schools), says that most people recently out of college shouldn't even touch the subject. basically, the book says those people don't have anything meaningful to say about the topic....it all sounds cliche to admissions committees.
dork :hihi:

ok, i just wanted to get a cheap shot in and get the most attention doing it. now that that's out of the way...

do most people put this information in? i remember something in my essay when i applied to college had to do with why i wanted to go there and stuff. anyhow, it just seems that if you gotta do it, you gotta do it. and if it's just fluff for them, then just be advised of that...but there's no way you can omit that on any grounds. being in law means you gotta dot your t's and cross your i's and stuff like that.

maybe i don't understand the (non)question here. when it comes down to it, we all know you wanna be a laywer cuz of the huge void that opened when LA Law was canceled anyhow. so what gives? :P

[eSDee]

Yo whitak why do you want to be a lawyer anyways? It seemed to me that you are too honest to be one of those types ;)

j/k. You know, there is a honey at my work who applied to grad school(to be a doctor) and I got to read her personal statement. Basically she started out her statement with a story of her personal life, about a time when she was in college and her roomate had an attack of some sort(perhaps asthma, maybe epileptic). She explained how she was forced to take control of the situation in a room full of scared girls, and how afterwards everyone told her that she was cooler than the other side of the pillow. She claimed this was when she decided that her calling in life was to work in medicine.

The way that she told the story really caught a hold of my attention, and apparently it worked really well for her because she got accepted to UCSD School of Medicine and hence why she was working where I work. I think that's a good strategy to separate a personal statement from the others; to grab the attention of the reader right away in a creative and original way. Think about how many times those guys read the letters of people saying the same thing over and over. "I want to become a lawyer because I believe in justice, and taking care of the little guy". :puke: I mean, you can use that if you want, but make sure they are paying attention to you first. Grab em by the sack and say cough, you know what I mean?

Anyways, good luck to you brutha I'm sure you'll think of something great.

[Butch]

A buddy of mine included his reason for why he wanted to go to law school and be a lawyer in his personal statement, but his situation may have been a little different . . . he was a Physics major . . . and needed to explain that his decision to go into law and abandon his Physics background wasn't just a sudden/random decision (As it might appear initially).

Anyway, it worked well for him . . . got in pretty much everywhere he applied . . . (of course, I'm sure part of that was due to the fact that he got a perfect score on his LSATs)

[attgig]

Originally posted by eSDeeLoco
she was cooler than the other side of the pillow.

:hehehmm:

nice expression :)

anyways whitak....doanwurry :P

just keep on plugging away, and have other people read it..... if it sounds cheesy when you write it, don't worry...just write it and get the input from others.... just sounds all weird and stuff cuz it's yourself you're talking about...
and post it up here, we can give you feedback too :P

[Grimm]

Looks like you already have it written. You just need to cut and paste it, and maybe do a bit of editing. :P

You enjoy doing it, and learning about it. That is the best reason in the world to do something. You aren't in it for the money or some political cause. You found something that you love to do and can get paid for. You lucky bastard.

That's what you have to put in there, "I found something that I love to do, and that is practice law". Go on to say what you like about it. And that your personality of being detail oriented is well suited for the type of work. Law is what? 99% research?

[whitak24]

Originally posted by mojo
dork :hihi:
bastard :P

Originally posted by mojo
do most people put this information in? i remember something in my essay when i applied to college had to do with why i wanted to go there and stuff. anyhow, it just seems that if you gotta do it, you gotta do it. and if it's just fluff for them, then just be advised of that...but there's no way you can omit that on any grounds. being in law means you gotta dot your t's and cross your i's and stuff like that.
well, from what i understand, a lot of people's personal statements go kind of like this:

"i knew that i wanted to be a lawyer from the time i was little and i watched perry mason on TV. also, my daddy is a lawyer and everyone has always told me i should follow him.
"in college, i suddenly realized that all the problems in the world are caused by bad laws. so i decided that if i became a lawyer, i could solve all these problems. woo hoo!
"to help prepare myself to save the world, i interned with my local state representative. this reconfirmed my deeply held ambition to help people as a lawyer. thank you."

ok, a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea. basically, a lot of people write really boring personal statements that contain statements that seem naive and illogical admissions officers. so my challenge is to craft a personal statement that is "different" -- but not so different that it makes admissions committees not want to take a risk on me.

Originally posted by eSDeeLoco
Basically she started out her statement with a story of her personal life
esdee....always helping out the "honeys" at work :2far: :hihi:

my whole statement is a story, actually. it's just the end where i try to transition from my story (which is supposed to give the admissions committee the idea that i am a responsible, mature, organized leader with good interpersonal skills and analytical ability who is willing to take calculated risks) to an explaination as to why they should let me into their law school.

but basically, i'm ready to just move on with it. like Grimm said, i pretty much have it right now. i just need to edit it and be done.

damn....it's never going to be perfect. but oh how i wish it could be....

btw, thanks for the moral support guys :)

[dbax791]

Originally posted by whitak24

"i knew that i wanted to be a lawyer from the time i was little and i watched perry mason on TV. also, my daddy is a lawyer and everyone has always told me i should follow him.

Don't forget how your idols are Judge Wapner and Judge Judy and how you feel the world would be a better place if you could solve the problems of the "defective prom dress" or the "barking poodle". :P

j/k Good luck!

[cheapie]

do what i always do for cover letters. search the net for examples and then modify them to fit my situation.