Now that you’ve made your way to the law school personal statement, you might think most of the options are behind you. Aside from choosing a law school personal statement topic, what else is there to think about?
This is where optional law school application essays come in.
Usually shorter in length, the optional essays are just that – “extra” elective pieces of writing you can submit to show another side of yourself.
It seems easy – you can either write it, or you don’t have to. It’s simply up to you.
Yet, many students struggle over what to do.
On the one hand, will you appear lazy if you don’t write it? Will it look like you don’t care that much about getting into the school?
On the other, what if you look like you’re trying too hard by writing optional essays?
Most law school admission officers I’ve spoken with publicly claim they don’t prefer applications one way or the other. If a student submits the optional essay, they’ll read it. If not, that’s fine, too.
Of course, this answer doesn’t make the decision any easier.
While this dilemma understandably tends to make applicants a bit nervous, I always tend to encourage the students I work with to submit them.
Why? It gives law school admission officers the opportunity to learn even more about you. The more you can show your uniqueness, the better your odds are of standing out.
Ultimately, the decision is completely up to you. But when you’re given the opportunity to possibly increase your odds of submitting a stronger, more complete application, I always say: Go for it!
Until next time,
Steve
P.S. If you’re like most of the students I’ve worked with, you probably have some other questions about the law school personal statement, too. Look for my next article, where I’ll share five of the most common questions I get asked and provide answers for each.
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