sample law school personal statement

Regardless of what university you feel like applying to, you must be prepared for whatever essay question they throw your way. Some universities give unique application essay questions designed to stimulate the creativity of students. If this eventuality arises, then it will be doubly important for you to be ready for wacky essay prompts.

Examples of wacky or unique essay prompts

The University of Chicago is famous for its wacky essay prompts. Examples of these are:

Essay question # 1 – How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.)

Essay question # 2 – “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust” wrote the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” What is human personality? Is it obvious what uplifts and what degrades it? Can law be justified on the basis of it? We want to hear your thoughts on justice as it relates to this human personality.

The University of Virginia also throws in its share of wacky application essays such as:

Essay question # 1 – Make a bold prediction about something in the year 2020 that no one else has made a bold prediction about.

Essay question # 2 – The past isn’t dead. It’s not even past. So says the lawyer Gavin Stevens near the end of Faulkner’s “Requiem for a Nun” To borrow Stevens’ words, what small event, either from your personal history or the history of the world, is neither dead nor past?

Tips in dealing with unique essay prompts or questions

Thoroughly understand the question. You can never answer an admission prompt if you don?t understand the question and that goes double for essay questions that are wacky. Don?t attempt to answer a question you don?t understand. Try to break down the sentences so you could have a smaller scale viewpoint of the prompt before advancing to the larger scale.

Other things to keep in mind when tackling wacky essay prompts

Make sure that the primary question is answered. With the proper words, you can give a simply stated answer to a complicated question. Answering wacky essay prompts is the same with answering any type of question. Formulate a plan. Rearrange the words in your head before finally putting them on paper.

Related links:

Tone in essays – How to improve the tone of your law school personal statement
Reading sample essays
Discussing motivations – Using motivation as content in structured essay
Weird college essays – Examples of wacky college essays
Common college prompts – About some of the common college prompts

In addition to passing the entrance exam and submitting a well-crafted personal statement, admission into law school also requires applicants to submit at least two letters of recommendation. If you’re at a loss as to what these are and whom to get them from, read on to find out the answers to these top two FAQs regarding letters of recommendation.

What are letters of recommendation?

Letters of recommendation are documents secured usually from previous professors and lecturers,  which serves as complementary documents to your law school personal statement. Letters of recommendation are used by admissions committees to gauge the intellectual capacities and academic skills of applicants. These also serve as backing proof of the self-evaluation you give in your law school personal statement. Letters of recommendation allow admissions committees to know more about you by getting the perspective and opinions of the people you’ve worked with.

Just like in other graduate schools, letters of recommendation are usually part of the basic requirements of getting into law school. These, along with your transcripts and personal statement, will be the admissions committees’ preliminary basis for considering your application. Some law schools provide a template for how your letter of recommendation should be written, while some let applicants structure their own. The main thing to remember in letters of recommendation is that they should detail your personal and professional traits as well as the writers’ experiences in working with you.

Who should you get to write them?

Again, this would vary depending on the law school you’re applying to. Some law schools provide key reference persons, such as your professors and lecturers in undergraduate schools, while some will require you to get a letter of recommendation from someone you’ve worked with professionally. Some may even require a combination of both. If the law school did not give specific references, it’s still wise to get recommendation letters from previous professors. You get plus points if you get them from instructors you were close with or got good grades from, because they are the ones who will most probably give a glowing evaluation of you and your work.

Law school applicants are not only preoccupied with writing an impressive sample law school personal statement. The financial cost of law school studies could also be one of the concerns of law school applicants. There are people who understand such a situation. That is why there are institutions that provide law school scholarships to people who they think are qualified.

If you want to get a law school scholarship, read the following list of organizations and institutions that offer such grants. The information below might help you find the law school scholarship program that you are looking for.

American Bar Association

The ABA gives legal opportunity scholarships to outstanding ABA-accredited law school students. The successful students would receive $5,000 per year. The association could also opt to renew the scholarship provided that the beneficiaries have maintained a satisfactory academic performance.

American Counsel Association

Third year law students with good academic performance could apply for the ACA scholarship. The nominations for these scholarships must be submitted by your law school dean.

Alabama Law Foundation

This organization offers the Cabaniss, Johnston Scholarship to Alabama law school students who are studying at ABA-accredited universities. Second year law students who can show civic involvement and financial need should consider applying for this scholarship.

Columbian Lawyers Association of Westchester County, Inc

The association awards the Carl A. Vergari Scholarship to students who rank in the upper half of their class. The students seeking this scholarship must also be willing to reside in Westchester County.

Erie County Bar Association

Law school students residing in Erie County could very well apply for the Erie County Bar Association Scholarship. Students who can demonstrate their financial need could fill out the online application form provided by the association.

Krugliak Wilkings Griffiths & Dougherty Co., L.P.A.,

This company awards the Samuel Krugliak Legal Scholarship to currently enrolled law students who are studying in ABA-accredited law schools. The applicants must have resided or are currently residing in Wayne, Carroll, Holmes, Tuscarawas, Mahoning, Summit, Columbiana, or Stark counties. The organization is also looking for applicants who intend to practice law in the region of Stark County.

Minority Corporate Counsel Association

The Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr. Scholarship is being offered by the Minority corporate Counsel Association. The scholarship is created for US law school freshmen students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Orange County Hispanic Bar Association

This association awards the Wally Davis Scholarship to qualified Hispanic law school students from Orange County, California. Applicants who belong to the upper half of their class are qualified for this scholarship.

Photo Credit : Johnmarino92

Outsourcing could be a good equalizer for the law offices (smaller ones) in the name of competition. The company could have legal or technical assistance, but they are not forced to have a big staff. Plus, the bosses do not need worry that their workers are not doing enough for the salaries being given. Outsourcing is to bring work usually done by the employees- to outside entities. It is not just for companies, if you are an individual, you can also mention outsourcing in your sample law school personal statement.

Playing Devil’s Advocate Regarding Outsourcing

While it is my belief that outsourcing gives concrete advantages, there are experts who say this. That cost savings of oursourcing legal jobs is merely an illusion. According to Gartner Group (this is a consultancy entity), outsourced jobs are in the norm- 30% more costly than in-house operations. Plus, they say: sixty percent of those outsourcing some processes would result to defections of customers.

Evidence Screening on the Sample Law School Personal Statement

Let me take one example in the field of evidence screening, the sexual assault evidence. Outsourcing this kind of evidence would save one money and time. If you are well-versed in DNA analysis, you could put this on your sample law school personal statement
. That the average training of a DNA analyst is about a year, and he/she could just work about 3 cases (weekly) if not pressed by other priorities. Outsourcing this could free analysts to concentrate on more pressing matters.

Legal Documents Coding on the Sample Law School Personal Statement

Indexing, cataloging, and coding of documents are part of legal work. Yes, legal documents coding could be outsourced, and they are being outsourced. You could mention the following legal documents coding services on your sample law school personal statement: bibliographic coding, optical character recognition, determination of physical or logical document breaks, and data capture.

Another you can put on your sample law school personal statement is in-text coding. This is the process of finding many references of an entity in a multitude of documents. The goal is a stronger case.

Privilege Screening on the Sample Law School Personal Statement

Still another legal job that could be outsourced is privilege screening, and it is also worth mentioning on your sample law school personal statement, if you think it would create good points in the board’s assessment. Under American law, if an entity aims to protect client info, it should be mentioned in the outsourcing agreement.

General Outsourcing Mentioned on Your Sample Law School Personal Statement

The most beneficial opportunities most likely would be in outsourcing support (secretarial) and other legal administrative chores. At present, there are companies now offering the outsourcing of word processing chores.

Photo Credit : umjanedoan

Every year, hundreds and hundreds of lawyers make a career change. Due to the downsizing trends exhibited by so many companies, so many lawyers are seriously contemplating about doing something outside the main law practice. Still, deciding on which one could be a very scary and challenging issue, let this article help you out.

Questions You Have to Answer Before Working on Your Sample Law School Personal Statement

Besides people who are already lawyers, this article caters to another group: those applying for law schools. Indeed, if you put in “I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer since I was born”- the reviewer/reader might be tempted to tear your sample law school personal statement into shreds. However, if you put in there that you want to contribute to society by learning all the advanced tenets of the law so that you could become a successful entrepreneur, that would surely perk up their interest. Getting the admissions reviewers to be interested at the start of your sample law school personal statement is a crucial first step.

So, what questions do you need to contemplate on?

* What exactly do you desire
* Do you want to really get rich, or a lot of extra time on your hands
* What other motivations do you have, and you want to be in law school?
* What sacrifices are you willing to shoulder while in law school?

Five Alternative Careers that Could Be Mentioned on Your Sample Law School Personal Statement

1. “Entrepreneur” on the sample law school personal statement: a lawyer holds the mandated skills to become successful in this line. You could declare on your sample law school personal statement concrete experiences that show you have the following: time-management, fast thinking on your feet, and as a non-related (to law) skill- you could sell something.

2. “Administration” on the sample law school personal statement: I am referring to non-profit kind of administration here. Let us say that you were part of the Student Council in your college, you could put that down on your sample law school personal statement as a manifestation that you have powerful organizational skills. Actually, lawyers could be good choices for non-profit administration posts due to the same attributes mentioned in the first alternative-career.

3. “Corporate Position” on the sample law school personal statement: think of investment banking, just to give one. “I believe that a solid foundation in law school is a strong preparatory ground for a few corporate positions I will most probably be interested in in the distant future”- (then explain further)- will interest the admissions officer. They may not believe it at the end of the whole reading, but chances are, they would respect your assertions if your own supporting arguments are sincere and well-thought out.

4. “Consultants” on the sample law school personal statement: Fact is, management consultancies hire lawyers to be partners to business professionals. If you put on your sample law school personal statement that you intend to specialize in tax law, then becoming a tax consultant after law school is not going to be an outrageous vision.

5. “Writer” on the sample law school personal statement: well, people may think that a writing job is nowhere near the field of law, but that may just be splitting hairs. One strong field is in public relations, another is the journalism field. If you have good investigative prowess coupled with skills in written communication, then putting this on the sample law school personal statement would serve you well.

Photo Credit :  Danilo Prates

Yes, there are so many good law schools in the country, but there are those that are a class of their own. These are the very best, and needless to say, getting into them is really difficult. One concrete reason why they are considered as “first among equals” is that not every Tom-Dick-Harry-lawyer-wannabe could get in into these school. Without meaning to make this sound as gospel, here are five law schools where getting admitted in is a real challenge.

Do Your Best Sample Law School Personal Statement for Any of These Five Schools

# Columbia University: it offers their students many academic programs, this includes environmental law. Thus, if you have always been an “environmentalist”, it would be a good move to include that in your sample law school personal statement. Particularly if you have the deeds to back up your assertions- like, if you were an officer of the “Save the Trees” club in your college.

# University of Chicago Law School: one thing that stands out for this particular institution is their legal clinics. They have: MacArthur Justice Center, Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, and the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship.

# Yale University Law School in Cambridge: their very high standards has made this school into one of the most desired in the country. Indeed, it is no secret, that a Yale law degree would make most employers look at one’s CV with much scrutiny. If you turn in a very boring and mediocre sample law school personal statement, even if you made good in the other requirements, expect to be turned down.

# Harvard University Law School: this school does not just produce excellent practicing lawyers, they turn out the very best professors not just in the country, but on the world map. Need I say more?

# Stanford University Law School in Palo Alto, California: they offer different academic programs like the Biosciences and the Center for Conflict Resolution program. Just like the aforementioned schools, it is crucial that your sample law school personal statement is both substantial and interesting.

Some Hints for the Sample Law School Personal Statement You Would be Submitting

There is nothing bad in putting in all your experiences on the sample law school personal statement, but keep them short. Do not turn your sample law school personal statement into a tome. If it is very important for you to list down all of the past 25 jobs you’ve had, attach a resume.

Second, it is not all about bragging on the sample law school personal statement. While you need to sell yourself, the deeds you would be narrating on your sample law school personal statement are far more crucial than saying “I am good”, “I am committed to saving the environment”, “I hate injustices” without any of your experiences to give substance.

Photo Credit : Phillip Ritz