personal statement topic Forum

[Anonymous User]

To make a long story short, I have been out of school for 2 years now. Throughout those 2 years I delayed my studying because of some personal issues with a man that I was living with and almost engaged to. I met him when he was sober from drugs, he actually was a year clean until he relapsed. A lot of my time and energy went into trying to get him clean, then later getting my life together and removing myself from the toxic situation. I wanted to focus my personal statement mainly on how I worked all throughout college and afterwards just to survive and save up money for school, which is what made applying to law school more difficult for me. Now I want to include some of the setbacks I had along the way such as living with a drug addict and how that changed my perspective on life. I'm curious if this is a touchy subject that I should not get into or if it shows my new perspective on life and adversity.

[darthlawyer]

i took many years off after college and before applying to law school. honestly i took a bunch of acid and took a good, hard, long look at everything, mostly myself and all. i wrote my ps about that. i wouldnt recommend that to anyone but im just saying you can write about whatever you want. doesnt matter.

[zvin]

IMO it would make sense to write about it if you can tie those setbacks and the perspective-change into a desire to practice law (e.g. maybe some interactions with drug law made you look into and get interested in criminal law)

it's great to tell a story about how much of a hard-working adversity-overcoming wizened-experienced adult you are, but even better if you have a good story about how those experiences generated in you the inspiration to go to law school.

[Stardust84]

I would not recommend this. It may cast doubt on your judgment and doesn't speak to your suitability to a risk-averse profession like law. I'm certainly not judging your decisions to put off school to help another person. Just trying to look at it hypothetically through the lens of an admissions officer, it shows a willingness on your part to take on risky elements in your life that affect your school and career. Again, not saying what you did was not admirable and such, just my two cents.

[CanadianWolf]

Any PS that shows personal growth through overcoming adversity & thoughtful reflection is fine.