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I'm trying to figure out how to construct my writting piece. So I am applying to UCLA, USC, and possibly UC-Berkeley/Boalt, but I dont know what to write about. I'm not sure what qualities I have that would benefit the law school....help!

The topics I was considering are:
I've been working and going to school since I was 16.
I've worked full-time while going to Ugrad full-time and have achieved a GPA of 3.45 (thus far, should be going up after this semester)
I'm a first generation HS grad and college grad.
I have a committed work ethic and have never quit anything.

........and thats where I draw a blank. Yikes!

Oh and a short background on me:
I work as an assistant to a 2-man criminal defense law firm, however I want to study corporate, environmental, and immigration law. Possibly criminal, but I'm unsure about it. At my office we take cases from misdemeanors up to capital punishment cases. A big part of my work involves constructing documents (save for the legal arguments). I've only been working in the legal field for almost 3 years but have gone from receptionist to legal secretary that does parallegal work within that time. No, I'm not a parallegal...I think you need a certificate for that right??

I attend UNLV (not a high ranking school for ugrad) because I didnt think I could afford moving out of state or even out of my city, seeing as how I'm paying my way through college. I graduated HS with a 3.787 GPA (which doesnt matter to law school but shows I could have attended much better ugrad colleges, I was actually admitted to Cornell) and many of my HS classmates (that had same grades as me) are currently attending MIT, Harvard, UCLA, etc.

I'm interested in this as well.

From what I have figured out, I believe a (genuine) interest in public interest is about the only thing. And even then, I think professing an interest in public interest may not be enough without a history of strong volunteer/community work.

Which is kind of unfortunate for me, because only recently (after talking to a law school professor) I have started thinking about going into public interest. I'm debating whether I should discuss this on my application, because my public service record is thin and probably isn't enough to back this up.

Knockglock wrote:I'm interested in this as well.

From what I have figured out, I believe a (genuine) interest in public interest is about the only thing. And even then, I think professing an interest in public interest may not be enough without a history of strong volunteer/community work.

Which is kind of unfortunate for me, because only recently (after talking to a law school professor) I have started thinking about going into public interest. I'm debating whether I should discuss this on my application, because my public service record is thin and probably isn't enough to back this up.

Same here! Aside from the CS I did back in HS, between work and school I dont have time for CS. I was considering becoming a CASA but now I feel like it would take too much time. I already live a tight schedule as it is. I was thinking about addressing that but I'm not sure if it will make me sound whiney.

mayra0509 wrote:I'm trying to figure out how to construct my writting piece. So I am applying to UCLA, USC, and possibly UC-Berkeley/Boalt, but I dont know what to write about. I'm not sure what qualities I have that would benefit the law school....help!

The topics I was considering are:
I've been working and going to school since I was 16.
I've worked full-time while going to Ugrad full-time and have achieved a GPA of 3.45 (thus far, should be going up after this semester)
I'm a first generation HS grad and college grad.
I have a committed work ethic and have never quit anything.

........and thats where I draw a blank. Yikes!

Oh and a short background on me:
I work as an assistant to a 2-man criminal defense law firm, however I want to study corporate, environmental, and immigration law. Possibly criminal, but I'm unsure about it. At my office we take cases from misdemeanors up to capital punishment cases. A big part of my work involves constructing documents (save for the legal arguments). I've only been working in the legal field for almost 3 years but have gone from receptionist to legal secretary that does parallegal work within that time. No, I'm not a parallegal...I think you need a certificate for that right??

I attend UNLV (not a high ranking school for ugrad) because I didnt think I could afford moving out of state or even out of my city, seeing as how I'm paying my way through college. I graduated HS with a 3.787 GPA (which doesnt matter to law school but shows I could have attended much better ugrad colleges, I was actually admitted to Cornell) and many of my HS classmates (that had same grades as me) are currently attending MIT, Harvard, UCLA, etc.

So you've worked in the legal field for three years. What have you learned, why do you enjoy what you do, what about being a legal career excites you? The typical "why I want to be a lawyer" essay is never a bad idea, especially if you have experience in the field.