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bleu wrote:in a subtle way, let it fall quietly into an interesting story about yourself that makes you seem interesting and special

dont say "i want to go to law school," "this is why i want to go to law school," but make it a logical inference or conclusion from what they learned about you in your ps

bleu wrote:um... you convinced me but i cant take back my vote.

however i think there are some cases where an explination or hint as to "why" is necessary. For example, you are a sucessful business man who travels the world, your personal statement shows signs of having nothing better to do, or your ps gives the impression that your parents (situation etc..) are putting presure on you to attend.

It has to be relative to a degree? but for the most part i was wrong about putting it in, good thing i didnt write it yet.

CastleRock wrote:

bleu wrote:um... you convinced me but i cant take back my vote.

however i think there are some cases where an explination or hint as to "why" is necessary. For example, you are a sucessful business man who travels the world, your personal statement shows signs of having nothing better to do, or your ps gives the impression that your parents (situation etc..) are putting presure on you to attend.

It has to be relative to a degree? but for the most part i was wrong about putting it in, good thing i didnt write it yet.

I agree wit this. There are cases where it is extremely important to show why you want to go to law school. For example, successful, mature applicants who will be giving up a career that they have succeeded in. But as for a ugrad, I'm not sure it's as important.

Note: I changed the poll so you can now re-submit your response.

Albatross wrote:

CastleRock wrote:

bleu wrote:um... you convinced me but i cant take back my vote.

however i think there are some cases where an explination or hint as to "why" is necessary. For example, you are a sucessful business man who travels the world, your personal statement shows signs of having nothing better to do, or your ps gives the impression that your parents (situation etc..) are putting presure on you to attend.

It has to be relative to a degree? but for the most part i was wrong about putting it in, good thing i didnt write it yet.

I agree wit this. There are cases where it is extremely important to show why you want to go to law school. For example, successful, mature applicants who will be giving up a career that they have succeeded in. But as for a ugrad, I'm not sure it's as important.

Note: I changed the poll so you can now re-submit your response.

I don't think the PS is ever an appropriate place to state why you want to go to law school. Primarily because adcomms don't really give a shit.

CastleRock wrote:

Albatross wrote:

CastleRock wrote:

bleu wrote:um... you convinced me but i cant take back my vote.

however i think there are some cases where an explination or hint as to "why" is necessary. For example, you are a sucessful business man who travels the world, your personal statement shows signs of having nothing better to do, or your ps gives the impression that your parents (situation etc..) are putting presure on you to attend.

It has to be relative to a degree? but for the most part i was wrong about putting it in, good thing i didnt write it yet.

I agree wit this. There are cases where it is extremely important to show why you want to go to law school. For example, successful, mature applicants who will be giving up a career that they have succeeded in. But as for a ugrad, I'm not sure it's as important.

Note: I changed the poll so you can now re-submit your response.

I don't think the PS is ever an appropriate place to state why you want to go to law school. Primarily because adcomms don't really give a shit.

In the situation I have given above I think an explanation is necessary. However, the explanation is perhaps best left to a addendum. If you can make a good story of it I don't think it can hurt you either.

Albatross wrote: Suppose you're UChicago adcomm member. Your main goal is to admit student who will pass the state bar and become good attorneys. Now, suppose you have one spot left in the UChicago 2014 class. Both have 3.73 GPA and 176 LSAT. Applicant A has written a PS about how much he wants to go to LS, as well as why he wants to go to law school (because said applicant wants to be the best contract lawyer in the state of Illinois). Applicant B on the other hand has written a PS about having to be the man of his house since he was 16 because his father died/went to jail/moved away. Obviously, the adcomm does not give a shit about why A wants to go, and they probably don't even give a shit if your dad died or went to jail. The applicant that shows leadership will be the stronger applicant.

CastleRock wrote:

Albatross wrote: Suppose you're UChicago adcomm member. Your main goal is to admit student who will pass the state bar and become good attorneys. Now, suppose you have one spot left in the UChicago 2014 class. Both have 3.73 GPA and 176 LSAT. Applicant A has written a PS about how much he wants to go to LS, as well as why he wants to go to law school (because said applicant wants to be the best contract lawyer in the state of Illinois). Applicant B on the other hand has written a PS about having to be the man of his house since he was 16 because his father died/went to jail/moved away. Obviously, the adcomm does not give a shit about why A wants to go, and they probably don't even give a shit if your dad died or went to jail. The applicant that shows leadership will be the stronger applicant.

I completely agree that a PS solely about why you want to go to law school is crap. That's why most people only hint at there reasons. I don't think that you should allow your reasons for wanting to go to law school detract from the rest of your PS, and most often, the best way to avoid this is to leave your reasons out altogether.

The personal statement is your opportunity to give us a sense of who you are beyond what we can glean from the rest of the paper we've required of you. The best use of that opportunity? Tell us something about yourself that we won't discover otherwise. As a starting point, we recommend you imagine that our admissions committee has one seat available, and is considering your file and one other, both with the same numerical qualifications. Your personal statement will be read aloud. What do you want us to know about you before we make a choice? What makes you who you are?

We know this is still a daunting prospect, so here are a few concrete guidelines:

We read thousands of files, so you should strive for your personal statement to be memorable... within limits. Accordingly, if you summarize your resume, you've wasted the opportunity. On the other hand, iambic pentameter, baked goods, photo albums or the necessity of a decoder ring are not the sorts of "memorable" we're after. (You think we're joking, don't you? We're not.)

Every year we receive numerous well-written personal statements that highlight the aspects of W&L Law the writer finds attractive. This sort of statement almost never hurts an applicant, but hardly ever helps as much as a personal statement can. Your discussion of an aspect of the educational experience available here, no matter how eloquent, is not likely to stick with us very long. We know about us; tell us about you.

Don't discuss your LSAT score or your grades in your personal statement. We accept any number of explanatory attachments to your application, and recommend you deal with these issues in a separate submission. There's more to you than your numbers, after all!

We're willing to take your application as sufficient evidence of your interest in studying law, so you needn't try to convince us of the sincerity of your ambition. Remember, we're trying to get an idea of the voice you might bring to campus. While you'll do a lot of talking about law here, of course, we're after a sense of what might inform your contribution to the conversation. So tell us about your losing season, your musical aspirations, that pivotal vacation experience, the single most important piece of advice you've ever received, your troubled (or wonderful) relationship with your sibling, why you volunteered… you get the idea. Those are the things that bring manila folders to life.

The personal statement is your opportunity to give us a sense of who you are beyond what we can glean from the rest of the paper we've required of you. The best use of that opportunity? Tell us something about yourself that we won't discover otherwise. As a starting point, we recommend you imagine that our admissions committee has one seat available, and is considering your file and one other, both with the same numerical qualifications.

doyleoil wrote:I don't really care to weigh in on this, other than to say that all of you better find damn good proofreaders for your personal statements.

Emma. wrote:I think it was Dean Deal who said that one of the biggest mistakes people make in PS essays is not giving her any idea why they want to go to law school.

If your school and/or career path makes law school an obvious choice then I think you can afford to be less explicit in your essay, otherwise I think it is generally a bad idea to not provide any hint of a "why law school?" in your PS.

Emma. wrote:I think it was Dean Deal who said that one of the biggest mistakes people make in PS essays is not giving her any idea why they want to go to law school.

If your school and/or career path makes law school an obvious choice then I think you can afford to be less explicit in your essay, otherwise I think it is generally a bad idea to not provide any hint of a "why law school?" in your PS.