With law school application season approaching, many applicants have begun the process of writing their personal statements.
Writing a personal statement early accomplishes two goals. First, it gets the most significant and time-consuming aspect of preparing the application out of the way. Second, it enables one to submit the application as early as possible.
This week, I’ll outline the five-step process I use with my clients to make sure they write the best possible personal statement, and how much time one should spend at each step.
[Learn to polish your law school personal statement.]
1. Brainstorm: I encourage applicants to spend a lot of time thinking about all aspects of who they are long before they put pen to paper. This brainstorming and introspection process is essential to identifying the themes and experiences that will be the backbone of both your personal statement and your application as a whole.
Brainstorming often unearths characteristics and experiences that may not seem relevant to a law school personal statement at first glance, but provide important information about the applicant in a personal way.
Even if you end up writing a more traditional personal statement, such as one primarily about a significant academic accomplishment or work in the legal field, your essay will benefit from sprinkling in anecdotes from other aspects of your life.
One client of mine wrote an essay primarily focused on her academic successes, but she was able to connect her determination and perseverance in the academic setting to her passion for triathlons and the rigorous training involved. She would not have made that connection without the brainstorming process we engaged in together as a first step.
I encourage applicants to spend up to two weeks brainstorming, ideally bouncing ideas off friends, family and people familiar with the law admissions process.
[Get tips on what not to do in a law school personal statement.]
2. Make an outline: This may seem like an unnecessary step in drafting a personal statement, but it serves an important purpose. It separates the structuring of the essay from the writing and other more specific aspects of crafting a personal statement. Getting the structure of the essay settled before drafting enables you to focus solely on conveying your ideas as effectively as possible once you do start writing.
Once you’ve settled on the key themes for your application and personal statement, the outlining process will usually take less than a week. You should put together a preliminary outline, sit on it for a couple of days and then revisit it with fresh eyes.
3. Write several drafts: Many people I work with initially either want to write their personal statement quickly so that they can submit their applications as soon as possible, or simply want the process to be over so that they don’t have to think about it anymore. The tendency is to write an essay in one sitting without revising. Fight that tendency.
I remember working with one client who really struggled with the writing process, and wanted to submit his first draft with only a few minor changes. After some cajoling, I convinced him to work with me on several rounds of drafts.
His first draft did a great job describing his academic passions and achievements, but didn’t connect his academic interests to each other or to his interest in becoming a lawyer. Creating this coherence is essential to crafting a powerful personal statement. At the end of the process, he and I both agreed that the personal statement was worlds better than the first draft, and he ended up being admitted at both of his top-choice schools.
You should expect to spend two to three weeks going through the process of drafting and revising your personal statement.
[Check out five mistakes to avoid in law school application essays.]
4. Get feedback: Although it is always helpful to get feedback from an admissions counselor or someone else who knows the law school application process well, I recommend that applicants also get feedback from people who know them well as a person, such as a family member or close friend.
After people who know you well have read your essay, ask the if your voice comes through and if the essay captures an important aspect of who you are. Ask if there is anything else about you that you think might fit into the essay.
This kind of feedback will often lead to important additions and revisions that help ensure that the essay is an authentic representation of the applicant.
5. Proofread: This advice may seem obvious, but it is imperative that you proofread your essay at least twice. If possible, have someone else whose grammar and proofreading skills you trust proofread it as well.
Although making a minor typographical error in your essay will not automatically disqualify you, it does not create a good impression on admissions staff and suggests that you did not exercise the attention to detail that is so important as a lawyer. I recommend proofreading your essay twice, in two different sittings, on two different days.
What are you writing your personal statement about? Let me know in an email or tweet me.
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Take 5 Steps to Craft a Great Law School Personal Statement originally appeared on usnews.com
