Applying to Law School 101: What You Need to Know to Succeed

Law School ApplicationsImagine, if you will, the plight of the poor admissions officer reading law school applications.

Day after day, she sits in her office, slogging through mindnumbingly tedious essays about how someone knew he was destined to be a lawyer from early childhood, because he loved to argue. Or because he believed in justice. Or because he read To Kill a Mockingbird. Or whatever.

Please, do this poor person a favor and write something interesting!

No One Wants to Read a Boring Application

What does “interesting” mean in this context? It doesn’t mean gimmicky, or weird for the sake of being weird. This is law school, after all.

What it means is that your application should sound like you, and reflect your personality.

It should tie together the disparate pieces of your background in a way that makes sense and answer some of the questions the reader would logically have about your application.

What it doesn’t need to do is use big words that you’d never actually say, in an attempt to sound smart. This doesn’t work – it sounds inauthentic, like you’re trying too hard to impress everyone.

When I see essays with convoluted grammar and fancy thesaurus words, I ask one question, “What are you trying to say here?” Inevitably, the response is much more comprehensible than what’s written, so I always give the same advice, “Great, write that down.”

Below, you’ll find advice from a variety of law school admissions experts — who know all about the law school admissions process, how to write a great personal statement, and more! Check out these series and Q&A for answers to all of your law school application questions.

Best of luck!

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