must you mention the school in your PS? Forum

[sangr]

is it a bad idea to write a general PS and not mention the school and its merits? this is assuming youre applying to a top school and not writing a why? essay

thanks

[Moomoo2u]

it's not necessary. but why not write a why x essay? it's pretty quick/painless and gives you the opportunity to focus a whole essay on the idea rather than trying to tangentially link it to your PS.

[sangr]

well actually, its because im EDing to the school. haha

[Moomoo2u]

then no it's not necessary but if it fits in with your application package (i.e you want to do tax law and your essays are somehow related to tax law) then write it.

I would just toss it into the last 1/2 paragraphs of your essay and make sure it connects.

[sangr]

do u think its a bad idea to just use about a sentence or two at the end?

i know theres info on this but, generally how long should why ? essays be?

thanks for the help

[Moomoo2u]

they should be 1 page long generally. see: http://www.top-law-schools.com/writing- ... endum.html

one or two sentences at the end is tangential and is going to come off as lazy and a placeholder (i.e. you're going to replace X law school with Y law school depending on the application). Write a real final paragraph that shows how what you wrote about connects to your interest in law school.

I.e. you write about some engineering innovation you helped work on but when it came time to patent it you realized you were actually more interested in the patent process etcc and thats why you want to be a patent lawyer.

[Susan_Walid]

Okay, let me get this straight...a PS and "Why X essay" are two separate essays?

[Moomoo2u]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/admissions.html


yes.

EDIT: they don't have to be if you don't want to but many people write WHY X School essays in addition to PS/DS.