Is achieving sobriety a good topic for a PE or is that frowned upon Forum

[Anonymous User]

.

[Famous]

If you're set on T14 and willing to reapply next cycle, I feel like the most important thing you could do is retake the LSAT. A 25% GPA and above 75% LSAT would be much more beneficial to your outcome as an applicant than the quality of your essays.

As far as the topic goes, it is certainly a brave one that could work well, but execution is everything.

[Anonymous User]

.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I would probably avoid making my PS about this, mostly because I think you are still too close to the problem. If you'd been sober 10 years or 5 years - or even longer than you had the problem - that would be one thing, but this is all still very fresh, fresh enough that I think it would make a really risky topic (both in the sense that adcomms may worry about your long-term success, and in the sense that you may not have enough distance to write effectively about it right now).

I don't think an applicant should *never* write about substance abuse/mental health problems (although there are probably people here who would say that). But I think they're most effective if they play into why you've decided to pursue law and how. Like, someone for whom their experience has led to a burning passion to work to reform drug laws, or represent people in drug court, or to work for legal rights for the mentally ill - they can probably work their own experience into a compelling PS (if that is genuinely the case. I don't know if that applies to you, but if not, it's another reason not to go down this road.

I say this not at all meaning to minimize your success - congratulations on your sobriety and I genuinely wish you well maintaining it. But I'm not sure I would make it the center of a PS.

[brinicolec]

I don't think an applicant should *never* write about substance abuse/mental health problems (although there are probably people here who would say that). But I think they're most effective if they play into why you've decided to pursue law and how. Like, someone for whom their experience has led to a burning passion to work to reform drug laws, or represent people in drug court, or to work for legal rights for the mentally ill - they can probably work their own experience into a compelling PS (if that is genuinely the case. I don't know if that applies to you, but if not, it's another reason not to go down this road.

I say this not at all meaning to minimize your success - congratulations on your sobriety and I genuinely wish you well maintaining it. But I'm not sure I would make it the center of a PS.

Going off of this, I wouldn't even say it necessarily needs to be tied into a "why law school" thing if you can use the situation to create a compelling story about who you are as a person. If you want to write about this, I think you'd want to make sure you focus on what positive outcomes resulted from it. I'm really tempted to write about my mood disorder so I spent some time speaking to various deans of admissions and they basically said that if I choose to write about it, I have to be sure I show how it's helped me put my best foot forward/really focus on the strengths I've gained from it. They also said that they recommend having someone (or several people) that you don't know very well who don't really know your story read it to see what message they're receiving/what story they're hearing versus the message you're trying to convey.

[Clearly]

Don't do it. You can come up with a less polarizing statement. My rule of thumb is not to write anything that could be an issue for any portion of the population. I've told kids with wayyyyy longer sobriety and more inspiring stories to avoid it, and I'd tell you to just not do it. The reality is it CAN be endearing to certain sympathetic readers that you've turned it around, or it could be read by an adcomm who's dad got drunk and beat his/her mom regularly. That's not a chance I'm taking when seeking admission. Aside from this, you're notifying them you're a risk when they would have had no idea otherwise. Law school is a drink-centric world, they're gonna worry about you drinking, and they're gonna worry what happens when you do. Some might even think they're sparing you a relapse by not admitting you, some will question your judgement, some will feel warm fuzzies about your turnaround, but ALL will have a moment of worrying if you can handle law school without drinking, especially with 8 months behind you.