Politics or the environmnet?: That is the question Forum

[xlunax]

Hi everyone! This is my first post here. I'm a graduating senior planning to apply to law school this fall. I'm taking the LSAT in June and have started writing my essays. I'm getting a BS in Environmental Studies and a BA in Environmental Policy. I want my law career to be focused on environmental law. I am debating whether my PS should talk about my environmental commitment as well, since I'm worried that my application might look a bit one-dimensional and they might think that I'm not a well-rounded applicant. On the other hand, I fear that if I write about working for social causes, they might wonder why I took mainly environmental courses at my university and think that I am not committed enough to one thing. Since I'm not planning to work on social causes at all after I graduate from law school, it also feels a bit hypocritical, albeit (perhaps) more convincing as an argument to get into the schools I want. I have a first draft of my "social justice" PS; if anyone wants to read it, I would very much appreciate suggestions. I'll write my "environmental" PS this week, which will probably be about my experience doing field research and working on conservation issues in the SW.

If you don't want to read the PS but still have some thoughts about this dilemma, please do share them!

Thanks!!

[scoobysnax]

I'm not sure a social justice PS will make you seem more well-rounded, and it might come across as insincere as you mention yourself that you're not dedicated to it.

[TLSanders]

What you've done will show up other places in your application. In your personal statement, the school is looking for who you are and what you have to offer. While that could possibly be conveyed by either a social justice topic or an environmental one, your presentation here suggests that your focus isn't on illustrating characteristics you want to highlight so much as it is on pushing out information. Your law school applications offer many, many opportunities to share information and very few to really show who you are and what's most compelling about you. Don't waste one of those opportunities.

Your letters of recommendation offer an excellent opportunity to create the balance you're looking for.

[xlunax]

@TLSanders. You make a good argument that I had absolutely failed to consider. It's true that all other parts of my application will show my experience with both social justice and environmental issues. Therefore, it might be best to write my PS on something different highlighting an aspect of who I am that would be otherwise missing in the rest of my application. Thanks a lot for sharing your perspective