LSAT Blog: LSAT Unplugged YouTube / Podcast

Perfect Law School Admissions Essays (Supplemental)

In my last article, I shared why the “Why X Law School?” supplemental essay is so important. Now, I’d like to show how you can master that essay, showing why you've chosen a particular law school.

Here are 3 of my best strategies for these law school admissions supplemental essays:

1. Include Details

Which programs or courses interest you, and why? It may require a little digging to come up with those answers, but it’s worth it. It will show admission officers you’ve done your research.

Likewise, are there any professors or organizations you’re drawn to? Don’t just state that you’re interested in them, say why.

When we worked together, I encouraged my student Sarah to answer these questions. (We’ve looked at Sarah’s story in my last few articles.) In her supplemental essay, she specifically talked about a professor she admires at the law school.

Which details about your past education, work experience, volunteer work, and extracurricular activities support your interest in a particular law school program (and law school in general?

2. Link Your Objectives to the School’s Programs

How are you going to make an impact on the world? It’s a big question, but this is the time to start thinking about it.

It’s also time to start thinking about how your school of choice will help you do that.

My student Sarah, for instance, wanted to incorporate more sustainable options into the fashion world. Her latest projects included finding ways to reuse old clothing. But she needed the resources at Cornell, like “Walter the sweating mannequin” to see whether her ideas will work.

Sarah had very specific objectives that Cornell’s programs can support. It may seem challenging to identify your own right now, but with a little discussion and one-on-one work together, we can get there.

For instance, maybe you’re a prospective chemistry major. As you know, some chemistry labs are better-equipped than others. Does your top-choice school have the best chemistry lab in the Northeast?

Or is there a professor at your dream school who’s well-known in your major for making major advancements?

At the simplest level, try to show what excites you about your future, and how your school of choice can help make your future goals a reality.

3. Link to the School’s Values

A great way to show why you and the school are a perfect fit for one another is by linking your own goals or experiences to the school’s values or mission statement.

In doing this, you link your own goals to what the law school is best-known for. See how that might make a great impact on a law school admission officer?

You can apply all of these same principles in your supplemental essay, too.

But again, you’ll only be able to make a strong argument if you’ve chosen the right school for you in the first place.

If you’re still in the early stages of that process, head on over to my law school admissions resources page to check out articles on every aspect of the admission process, including choosing a law school.

Until next time,

Steve

P.S. If you’re further along in the law school application process, you might be wondering about how to connect your college major to law school in your application essays. Keep your eyes peeled for my next article, where I’ll share some strategies for dealing with this.

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.)

Supplemental law school admissions essays

In many of my previous articles, I’ve shared strategies for writing your main law school personal statement.

Many schools also require a supplemental essay that answers the following question: Why do you want to attend this law school?

On the surface, it seems like a simple question. You can probably answer it easily.

But it’s actually not quite as simple as most students think.

Here’s why: your main law school personal statement aims to show why you deserve to be accepted to the school. It should show what the school would gain by having you attend.

That’s only half of the equation.

Your “why this law school” essay addresses the other part. It shows why the school is a good fit for you.

Ultimately, law school admission officers need to be convinced of both.

Just how do you do that? As with your main law school personal statement, you must use the supplemental essay to make your case.

Remember Sarah, from my most recent articles? I showed you some examples from her law school personal statement, which revealed the powerful role feminism played in her education. Through her essay, we discovered how Sarah became passionate about using feminism to make a positive impact.

Sarah’s personal statement was thought-provoking, powerful, and ultimately did everything the PS should do. But it only shows why Sarah would be a great student to have.

In fact, it shows that Sarah would be a great student to have at any law school. But why Cornell in particular?

That’s what the supplemental essay explains.

Sarah could say that Cornell Law a top school. She could say she’s heard they have a great program in her area of interest. She also could have written that having a law degree from Cornell will increase her employment prospects.

But she didn’t write any of that.

Just as with your law school personal statement, you’ll want to use your supplemental essay to tell admission officers something they don’t already know.

Here are some things Sarah included, for example:

• She already visited the campus.

• She sat in on two classes and was excited by what she learned in them.

• She’s not only interested in Cornell Law’s academics, but also their legal clinics (which she names specifically).

As you can see, Sarah gave very specific examples about what makes Cornell Law the right fit for her. It’s far different from her personal statement, which, again, shows why she’s a good candidate for Cornell.

What about you? Which law school have you selected, and why do you think it’s the right fit? If you can’t answer that question or you haven’t yet decided on your top-choice schools, take a look at this video where I discuss law school selection.

Once you do find the right fit, it’ll make writing your supplemental essays much simpler. In fact, in my next article, I’m going to share some important advice for writing the perfect supplemental essay. Keep an eye out for it!

Until next time,

Steve

P.S. If you don’t have previous experience with a particular school like Sarah did, don’t worry. While it’s certainly a bonus, it’s by no means a must. So even if you’ve never set foot on your dream school's campus, there are still ways to link your experiences to the school’s programs and values. You’ll discover how in my upcoming articles.

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.

Does your law school personal statement have too much detail?

Great writing is all in the details. Well, that’s not all that great law school personal statements need, but it’s still very important.

The problem is, many students wonder: exactly how much detail do I need in my law school personal statement?

There’s no perfect answer. What makes it even more difficult is that some admission officers like lots of it, while others prefer less.

You have to include just enough to make everyone happy.

Maybe you’ve had similar experiences with professors. Some are always writing “Add more detail!” or “Cite some examples” in the margins of your papers. Others might tell you to tone down the details.

When it comes to adding detail, how can you walk that fine line between too much and not enough?

A lot of the times, less is better.

Let’s revisit Sarah’s law school personal statement, from my previous article.

Remember how she included details about the speaker’s voice in the auditorium? It created a powerful image. But the rest of the personal statement wasn’t loaded with detailed imagery.

You don’t need much of it. Just a few “sprinkles.”

Think about it this way. If Sarah used that level of description to write about every meaningful moment she had with feminism, her personal statement would become boring and overly detailed.

Instead, we decided it would be best for her to describe – using a few key details – the most important defining moment she could recall.

That’s not to say the rest of her law school personal statement is lacking detail. She includes some other details, such as the specific activities she was involved with during her time in the feminist society.

But they aren’t describing one specific instance in great detail.

So, how do you choose which instance to describe with lots of detail?

It should be the one defining moment that means the most to you.

Yet, the details you choose to incorporate are just as important as the moment itself.

For instance, if Sarah had described that the speaker’s shirt was red, that wouldn’t really matter, would it?

Instead, she talked about how the speech was so powerful that it drowned out everything else in the room.

The details have to matter.

If you’re struggling with including details in your law school personal statement, go easy on yourself. This is something that almost everyone has trouble with.

It takes a few tries, but I’m confident that I can help you get it just right.

Here’s a little secret I share with my students: details can always be added in later. In fact, the right amount of detail is what takes a good law school personal statement and makes it a great one.

Luckily, I know just how much detail you’ll need to add, and where it should go. After all, I’ve been doing this for years – I’ve chatted with dozens of admission officers and become friends with many more. Through our conversations, I’ve come to learn exactly what they’re looking for.

I’d love to share what I’ve learned with you, so you can write a law school personal statement with the perfect amount of detail to get into your dream school.

Want to make it happen? Just reach out so we can talk more about it.

-Steve

P.S. Where are you with the rest of your law school application tasks? I know there’s a lot to think about. From getting letters of recommendation to narrowing down your law school choices, you might feel overwhelmed with everything you have to do. My articles have focused a lot on the law school personal statement because it’s something students tend to struggle with most, but don’t forget to check out my other law school admissions resources to help you with all the rest!

P.P.S. Check out my law school admissions coaching sessions on YouTube to see what it's like to work with me 1-1.

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.

Is your law school personal statement idea good?

Last time, I showed you some ways you could tell your law school personal statement might need a do-over. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, the next question is: How do you know when you’re on the right track?

It’s not always as easy as you might think.

When you’re writing one of the most important essays of your life, you’re bound to have some doubts.

So, today, I’m sharing a few tips to help you know when your law school personal statement idea is working, and that it’s what admission officers will want to read.

How do I know? Because I’m friends with the people who’ve worked in admissions offices like Harvard and NYU – I can stay up-to-date on the latest changes at a wide variety of top schools. (You can actually listen to and watch our conversations on the LSAT Unplugged podcast and LSAT Unplugged YouTube channel.)

The students I work with get complete access to all the insights I’ve collected from these schools (and many more).

If you want to be completely certain you have a strong law school personal statement idea, just reach out, and I’ll do what I can to help.

In the meantime, here are two ways to tell you’re probably off to a good start:

#1: The words are coming easily.

When you’ve chosen a main idea that works for you, writing will become less difficult. It will still require you to think carefully. But, because it’s a topic that means something to you, writing will be easier.

Let’s talk about Sarah again for a moment, who I mentioned briefly at the end of my previous article. After some brainstorming and one-on-one work with me, she decided to write about her experience with feminism throughout college.

She listened to a prominent feminist’s speech in her freshman year. In time, feminism began to take on an important role in her education and life overall.

Soon, Sarah joined her school’s feminist society. She went on to become Vice President of the society. Finally, she became the club’s President.

Now, she can’t envision her future without feminism.

Sarah made this clear in her law school personal statement, and with some help from me, she did a great job of discussing how she’d apply her experiences with feminism to a future at Cornell.

It worked, and she got accepted.

Sarah still had to put thought and effort into her law school personal statement, but once she decided on her topic, the writing wasn’t so difficult.

We can find the topic that works for you, too.

#2: You’re recalling clear memories.

The right law school personal statement idea will require you to think back on experiences that shaped you into the person you are today.

Because these experiences were truly life-changing, you should be able to recall them with clarity

Let’s go back to Sarah’s law school personal statement. She opens it with that detailed memory of hearing a renowned feminist give a speech. Sarah includes details like hearing the speaker’s voice “vibrate through the auditorium.” She also says the speech drew her in so much that she didn’t even hear cameras clicking as they took pictures.

What are some of the most vivid memories you have from your time in college?

If they shaped you into the person you are today as well as the person you hope to be in the future, they might deserve a place in your law school personal statement.

Let me help you decide. I’d love to hear from you so we can work on getting you into the school of your dreams. It’s worked for my other students, so it can work for you, too. Just get in touch, and we can chat more about it.

Until next time,

Steve

P.S. Even though I talked about including memories in your law school personal statement here, not everything needs to go into your law school personal statement. It’s extremely important to include the perfect amount of detail in your law school personal statement. Look out for strategies in my upcoming article to help with this.

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.

Law school personal statement: 5 signs you should scrap it and start over

Any great writer will admit that there comes a point in time when an idea just isn’t working. A thought that sounded great in your head might not translate into a compelling piece of writing.

And that’s certainly okay. In fact, it can be helpful to know what doesn’t work before finding the thing that does.

But when it comes to writing the law school personal statement, you probably don’t want to dedicate too much time to something that isn’t working. After all, you have deadlines to consider.

So, how will you know when it’s time to scrap an idea and start over?

Sometimes it’s obvious. It might dawn on you suddenly. Other times, it won’t be so clear.

If you’re in the process of writing your law school personal statement and you feel like something just isn’t right, you’re probably correct. That said, for many of the students I work with, the writing process is never exactly fun, either.

So, it can be hard to tell the difference between a personal statement that requires thought, patience, and polishing (which – trust me – they all do) versus one that simply needs to be started over. When that happens, it’s time to start fresh.

Here are five signs that it’s okay to scrap your draft and start over:

1. You have writer’s block – not just the kind where it takes a little while for the words to start coming, either. This version of writer’s block leaves you feeling like you would have no idea where to begin, even after spending a lot of time thinking about it.

2. You can’t seem to put your ideas in order. You have plenty of thoughts to support your main idea. Yet, when you write them out in your outline or first draft, they become jumbled and you find yourself having to switch points around multiple times.

3. You left it, came back, and are still frustrated. When students say they’re having difficulties, I’ll sometimes recommend they take a break and come back to the draftg in a day or so. If you’ve done that and still can’t figure out where to go with it, you might need to move on and try something different.

4. You don’t feel a connection to the topic. You might find this out while brainstorming, writing your outline, or even during the first draft. Even if it's logical and well-written, admission officers can tell when your heart’s not in it.

5. You read it back and don’t like it. This does happen, and it can be disappointing – especially when you’ve already put the effort in. But like I mentioned in #4, admission officers can tell when something was (or wasn’t) written with passion. If you don’t love your law school personal statement, chances are, your readers won’t, either.

Now, for the good news: once you’ve found out your main idea isn’t working, you don’t have to waste another second on it.

You now have a blank slate. The second time around, you can begin with the perfect topic from the very start.

How? By working with someone who’s an expert in law school personal statements.

Countless students have come to me frustrated with drafts that just aren’t working. All it takes is a little bit of discussion with me to unlock the right one.

If any of the situations above sound like yours, I want to help. I have a number of useful resources you can check out on my website, but nothing compares to my one-on-one law school admissions coaching sessions. They’re what helped students like Michelle get accepted to NYU, and many of my other students are currently attending Top 14 law schools as well.

Are you ready to start fresh? If so, reach out and let me know how I can help.

-Steve

P.S. I know it can be frustrating to start over, but it will make finding the right idea that much better. In fact, in my next article, I’ll share with you how you’ll know when you’ve found the right topic. And I’ll include some examples to help!

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.

Want to increase your LSAT score? Get my free Easy LSAT Cheat Sheet today.

LSAT Blog: LSAT Unplugged YouTube / Podcast

Pages

Perfect Law School Admissions Essays (Supplemental)

Supplemental law school admissions essays

Does your law school personal statement have too much detail?

Is your law school personal statement idea good?

Law school personal statement: 5 signs you should scrap it and start over

About Steve Schwartz