Law school personal statement introduction

The introduction (or opening) is arguably the most important aspect of your whole law school personal statement. It’s the first thing your admission officers will read, and as you know, you only get one shot to make a first impression. Knowing that puts a lot of pressure on students, but I’m here to reduce that pressure. Yes, your law school personal statement introduction is important. But it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Here are a few dos and don’ts to help you master the opening paragraph: 1. DO Keep It Brief Most law school personal statement are between 500-700 words. That might sound like a lot now, but trust me, once you get going, you’ll actually find it difficult to stay within that word count! For this reason, it’s incredibly important to keep your opening short. You’ll need to provide some relevant background info – but limit it to the things that the reader truly needs to know about you. 2. DON’T Start With a Quote Enough said. 3. DO Jump Right Into the Action To grab your reader’s attention, bring them right into the “action” of your law school personal statement. Your law school personal statement should make your reader feel like they're on a train that’s about to leave, and they don’t want to miss it. 4. DON’T Write Your Opening First If you spend too much time worrying about the opening of your law school personal statement, you might find yourself never getting ANY of it done! One thing I encourage my students to do is sit down and just start writing. The text you come up with might wind up in the beginning, middle, or even at the end of your law school personal statement. It might get scrapped altogether. But, at least you’ll have something to work with. A good approach is to sit down and start writing a scene, like the one above. Chances are, it might wind up being an opening to your law school personal statement – even if you didn’t start off planning to write it like that! 5. DO Clarify Your Point Eventually, you’ll have to take the reader out of the “action” and explain why the story you’ve shared is important.  A lot of times, students struggle with the opening of the law school personal statement because they feel like they need to say everything all at once. But that’s what the rest of it is for! The primary function of the opening is to get your reader to keep reading. Focus on that, first and foremost, and everything else will follow. Until next time, Steve P.S. Now that I’ve shared how to craft a compelling opening, I’ll cover how to write the perfect closing in my next article. In the meantime, to discover more tips on starting your law school personal statement, check out these articles I wrote with more details about that.

Recommended Resources: 1. Law School Admissions Coaching Get personalized 1-1 help on every aspect of the law school admission process -- or just the law school personal statement. 2. Law School Admissions Guide I've written a concise guide to the law school admission process with tips on completing every aspect of your applications from start to finish. It's a small price to pay for a whole lot of guidance, and it's short enough that you'll actually read the whole thing. 3. Law School Admissions Cheat Sheet Quick-reference guide for the law school personal statement, the "Why X?" essay, and the law school résumé. (You can also get it with the LSAT Cheat Sheets.)

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