PS Topic- Too academic? Forum

[nutella3000]

I have heard conflicting views on personal statements re coursework. On the one hand, some people advocate talking about coursework and how that might influence the decision to apply to law school. For example, the TLS handbook gives one idea of talking about how a particular professor or course affected you. On the other hand, some adcomms say that it is dreadfully boring to hear about candidates' philosophies on the law or of resume/ transcript regurgitation.

My sample idea was going to be tracing out my coursework trajectory as ending up at law school. I am afraid that this topic may be perceived as being too cerebral as opposed to being personal.

Too boring or impersonal? Or does it depend more on my implementation? Thoughts?

[llachans]

It seems like you run the risk of regurgitating your resume. If you can do it in a way that shows you in a light different than your resume, you could do it. I just wouldn't waste the 2 (or whatever) pages that can be really valuable on something that a resume also shows. Just be very cautious of that when you approach it.

[FryBreadPower]

I have heard conflicting views on personal statements re coursework. On the one hand, some people advocate talking about coursework and how that might influence the decision to apply to law school. For example, the TLS handbook gives one idea of talking about how a particular professor or course affected you. On the other hand, some adcomms say that it is dreadfully boring to hear about candidates' philosophies on the law or of resume/ transcript regurgitation.

My sample idea was going to be tracing out my coursework trajectory as ending up at law school. I am afraid that this topic may be perceived as being too cerebral as opposed to being personal.

Too boring or impersonal? Or does it depend more on my implementation? Thoughts?

The underlined thought and the one before it are two entirely different concepts. Discussing how one professor effected the course of your life shouldn't be a regurgitation of your resume/transcript. It should speak to how someone actually challenged you and allowed you to thrive i.e. allows you to flesh out an experience that is shallow when just put on a transcript.

If you can't inject some personal story or emotions into something relating to your class experience, then your PS will probably be weak. Tracing out your coursework has a lot of opportunity to be stale and without any solid direction.

[nutella3000]

Thanks for the replies!

This seems to be a bit of dangerous territory in terms of it possibly being stale...

I might play around with the idea for a bit, but I am probably going to abandon this topic for something more "personal."

[Cinderella]

Scroll up to run42's personal statement:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... cs#p125948

This dude seriously outperformed his numbers as a boring white guy. His personal statement, which is about how being a Classics major made him very detail-oriented, is likely the only reason for that. I more or less modeled my personal statement after his, and I outperformed my numbers as well.

It can be done, and it can be done very well. If you don't have some good "overcoming adversity" stuff to talk about, I think this is the way to go.

[nutella3000]

Scroll up to run42's personal statement:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... cs#p125948

This dude seriously outperformed his numbers as a boring white guy. His personal statement, which is about how being a Classics major made him very detail-oriented, is likely the only reason for that. I more or less modeled my personal statement after his, and I outperformed my numbers as well.

It can be done, and it can be done very well. If you don't have some good "overcoming adversity" stuff to talk about, I think this is the way to go.

That revives the idea! I don't have a good challenge or adversity to speak of in my ps, so I am glad to see that some academic-oriented personal statements worked out. I will have to really work on this, but thanks for pointing this out.