how much do law school personal statement prompts differ? Forum

cdotson2 · Post by **cdotson2** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:28 am

Is It bad to just send in one general personal statement to all the schools you apply to?

Clemenceau · Post by **Clemenceau** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:46 am

I don't think I actually read a single one of those prompts. Just sent the same PS to every school.

cdotson2 · Post by **cdotson2** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:49 am

Clemenceau wrote:I don't think I actually read a single one of those prompts. Just sent the same PS to every school.

If you send the same one to each school is it good to do any of the additional essays they ask for? I imagine that a generic ps might be the cause of yield protection a lot of the time, thoughts?

Clemenceau · Post by **Clemenceau** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:58 am

cdotson2 wrote:
Clemenceau wrote:I don't think I actually read a single one of those prompts. Just sent the same PS to every school.
If you send the same one to each school is it good to do any of the additional essays they ask for? I imagine that a generic ps might be the cause of yield protection a lot of the time, thoughts?

I think additional essays can be worthwhile. Alot of top schools YP pretty heavily. Cls, penn, uva, mich all come to mind. A decent 'why x' essay can help avoid that. Personally I was accepted everywhere I wrote a why x essay, but I did get a few WLs at places where I didn't write one. My numbers were also kinda funky/january application tho.

I don't think tossing the schools name somewhere in your personal statement would have much impact though. Felt kinda contrived to me.

slippin_jimmy · Post by **slippin_jimmy** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:18 am

Post removed.

pittsburghpirates · Post by **pittsburghpirates** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:37 am

Post removed.

shump92 · Post by **shump92** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:40 am

pittsburghpirates wrote:
Question for you on the "Why X" essays you wrote. I've been struggling to find advice on how long these typically are... Did you keep yours to about a page or less? Or longer? Figured that it's important to have something more meaningful to say other than that "I want to go to X because X is a great school" just wasn't sure about length. Any advice on content would be appreciated too. Sorry to hijack your thread OP, but figure this could be helpful in terms of whether to tailor a PS as well

I feel like a page sounds right. If a PS is only 2, nothing else should be more than 1. Being really specific to your actual interests probably is best.

Clemenceau · Post by **Clemenceau** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:45 am

pittsburghpirates wrote:
Clemenceau wrote:
cdotson2 wrote:
Clemenceau wrote:I don't think I actually read a single one of those prompts. Just sent the same PS to every school.
If you send the same one to each school is it good to do any of the additional essays they ask for? I imagine that a generic ps might be the cause of yield protection a lot of the time, thoughts?
I think additional essays can be worthwhile. Alot of top schools YP pretty heavily. Cls, penn, uva, mich all come to mind. A decent 'why x' essay can help avoid that. Personally I was accepted everywhere I wrote a why x essay, but I did get a few WLs at places where I didn't write one. My numbers were also kinda funky/january application tho.

I don't think tossing the schools name somewhere in your personal statement would have much impact though. Felt kinda contrived to me.
Question for you on the "Why X" essays you wrote. I've been struggling to find advice on how long these typically are... Did you keep yours to about a page or less? Or longer? Figured that it's important to have something more meaningful to say other than that "I want to go to X because X is a great school" just wasn't sure about length. Any advice on content would be appreciated too. Sorry to hijack your thread OP, but figure this could be helpful in terms of whether to tailor a PS as well

Yep one full page. Content varied from school to school. For a couple, I sold ties to that geographical area. For others, I mentioned relationships I had with alumni of that school, and thus concluded x school would be a great fit for me etc etc etc.