Am I choosing the best PS topic? Forum

[Gitaroo_Dude]

Hello. I'm a 28 year old who's been out of school for six years now (which is thoroughly depressing to type ) and am trying to settle on a personal statement topic. I'd like to apply on each school's Day 1, or as close to it as possible, so I'm hoping to have my various personal statements finished by mid-August. I've been jotting down ideas throughout the year and have some rough outlines drawn up, but am looking to begin outlining in earnest and getting some actual essays written up to revise throughout July.

Currently, my PS topic revolves around how I came to the point in my life that I was finally ready to pursue law school at the age of 28. Basically, the lessons I learned from working between UG to now, developing the interpersonal skills I lacked coming out of college and how I'm a much stronger candidate now than I would have been back in 2010/2011. My big concern though is that the topic might come across as boring and cliche. I've been re-working it to include what I consider my whole catalyzing event, a road trip around Iceland with my friends, but I'm unsure of whether or not that makes the PS interesting enough in and of itself.

Is the current topic strong enough to continue using, or should I scrap it and go with something else? I don't want to waste too much time working with this and figuring out a coherent structure to my story if it's only going to bore readers and adcomms. What say you, TLS?

[cavalier1138]

My personal statement (non-traditional older student as well) was exactly that: why I was transitioning to law school. It seemed to work pretty well for me.

[bigdreams44]

I have not applied yet and am somewhat struggling on my statement, also. Most of the advice I have read online states that you should choose one big topic or theme and revolve your statement around that, rather than telling a story of your life in chronological order and covering many different topics or events.. It can't hurt to google other PS and PS advice to get an idea of successful PS, that is what I have being doing (still haven't figured mine out yet, though)..

[34iplaw]

At six years, I'm not sure if all of the conventional non-trad stuff really applies to you. It starts to, but, from what I've read, non-trad are usually more like people in their mid to late 30's... not people who just took an extra two years of work experience over the typical work break.

[gery0n]

I'd suggest focusing on work experience, over the road trip; I think the whole "discovering yourself on a trip abroad" topic has been done to death.

[Gitaroo_Dude]

At six years, I'm not sure if all of the conventional non-trad stuff really applies to you. It starts to, but, from what I've read, non-trad are usually more like people in their mid to late 30's... not people who just took an extra two years of work experience over the typical work break.

So are you saying I should scrap the PS revolving around how taking so much time off made me a stronger candidate/what I learned during that time?

I'd suggest focusing on work experience, over the road trip; I think the whole "discovering yourself on a trip abroad" topic has been done to death.

I was worried it would be a little cliche, but I feel like any of my alternative PS topics would fall into that trap too. I guess I could just stick to the work experience thing and not use the road trip element, but I'm not sure how interesting and readable that'd be.

[34iplaw]

At six years, I'm not sure if all of the conventional non-trad stuff really applies to you. It starts to, but, from what I've read, non-trad are usually more like people in their mid to late 30's... not people who just took an extra two years of work experience over the typical work break.

So are you saying I should scrap the PS revolving around how taking so much time off made me a stronger candidate/what I learned during that time?

I'd suggest focusing on work experience, over the road trip; I think the whole "discovering yourself on a trip abroad" topic has been done to death.

I was worried it would be a little cliche, but I feel like any of my alternative PS topics would fall into that trap too. I guess I could just stick to the work experience thing and not use the road trip element, but I'm not sure how interesting and readable that'd be.

I'm not certain. I think you can actually write a DS about that. I'll be a year younger than you I think, so I need to figure out if it would qualify for a DS. I may... not sure.

I don't know about the work experience stuff though. It could work, but it'll just read like a cover letter in all likelihood IMO.

[FayRays]

a story is only boring if you make it sound boring.

the main point is you, you have to make them like you even though they don't know you.

Choose any story or event in your life that made you the person you are today

Tell them why did you decide to become a lawyer.

Show them it is not a whim, it's a decision that you chose because now you have become more aware of what you are capable of and what kind of career you wish to spend the rest of your life doing.

Read short stories that are written in first person, that will help you or at least get you motivated

Best of luck!