A personal statement is really no more than telling a story—one that illuminates the “you” a law school would be lucky to have in its student body. In this series, “Telling Your Story,” a jdMission Senior Consultant will discuss how elements of storytelling can—and should—be applied to your personal statement.

When deciding what to write in your personal statement, do not make stuff up. First of all, doing so is wrong. That said, I have been around long enough to realize that this basic reason is not enough to stop everyone. So here are a few more reasons why it’s better to tell the truth in your personal statement.
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In this series, a jdMission Senior Consultant reviews real law school personal statements. What’s working well? What’s not? If it were his/her essay, what would be changed? Find out!

Note: To maintain the integrity and authenticity of this project, we have not edited the personal statements, though any identifying names and details have been changed or removed. Any grammatical errors that appear in the essays belong to the candidates and illustrate of the importance of having someone (or multiple someones) proofread your work.

Personal Statement

I don’t think I understood about being black. Everyone in my world just was. Of course there were white people and black people, but race and its complexities seemed to play out mostly on TV, in movies, in newspapers. But in my world, and let me try not to sound cliché, there were just deepening and lightening shades of people. Read more

A personal statement is really no more than telling a story—one that illuminates the “you” a law school would be lucky to have in its student body. In this series, a jdMission Senior Consultant will discuss how elements of storytelling can—and should—be applied to your personal statement.

About a year ago, my sister called and asked what I was doing.

“I’m brainstorming ideas for my book,” I told her.

“With whom?” she asked. I was alone.

“I’m pretty sure if you’re by yourself, it’s just called thinking,” she said. Ah. Indeed.

Brainstorming, as we all know, is a term commonly (over-)used today in business, education and pretty much any environment to describe how a group generates as many ideas as possible. Apparently, some of us use the term for individuals as well.
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In this series, a jdMission Senior Consultant reviews real law school personal statements. What’s working well? What’s not? If it were his/her essay, what would be changed? Find out!

Note: To maintain the integrity and authenticity of this project, we have not edited the personal statements, though any identifying names and details have been changed or removed. Any grammatical errors that appear in the essays belong to the candidates and illustrate the importance of having someone (or multiple someones) proofread your work.

Personal Statement

I love gardening: My hands in the dirt, the smell of freshly grown flowers or vegetables, the invigorating sensation of working the earth in the great outdoors. There is order to sowing seeds – steps and clear directives that allow life to reproduce generationally.

I feel like the law boasts numerous similarities to a garden. While there are no hard and fast rules, there are serious guidelines to each. In a legal environment, you have to understand the existing laws of the land. But you must also understand that public opinion shifts and makes room for subtle changes to the law. Read more

A personal statement is really no more than telling a story—one that illuminates the “you” a law school would be lucky to have in its student body. In this series, “Telling Your Story,” a jdMission Senior Consultant will discuss how elements of storytelling can—and should—be applied to your personal statement.

With respect to your law school personal statement, stories about how you came to be who you are today are interesting. On the other hand, stories about how you always were who you are today because you have not changed over the years are not.

“I have wanted to be a lawyer since I was three” may be true, but this kind of statement is not effective in a personal statement. Read more

In this series, a jdMission Senior Consultant reviews real law school personal statements. What’s working well? What’s not? If it were his/her essay, what would be changed? Find out!

Note: To maintain the integrity and authenticity of this project, we have not edited the law school personal statements, though any identifying names and details have been changed or removed. Any grammatical errors that appear in the essays belong to the candidates and illustrate the importance of having someone (or multiple someones) proofread your work.

Personal Statement

I never actually got to be Brutus, at least not on game day. But I was the next best thing. I actually got to spend every game day on the sidelines of Horseshoe Stadium, which was a childhood dream, and I got to make sure that Mike, who played Brutus, had enough water and didn’t fall over with the enormous weight of that giant head. (Trust me. On a hot autumn day after two hours, it’s hard to keep upright.)
Read more

A personal statement is really no more than telling a story—one that illuminates the “you” a law school would be lucky to have in its student body. In this series, “Telling Your Story,” a jdMission Senior Consultant will discuss how elements of storytelling can—and should—be applied to your law school personal statement.

You walk into a bookstore to browse, pick up a book with an interesting title and open it to the first page. It begins, “I was born on a sunny day in Indiana in 1955.” Do you keep reading? If you are like me, probably not. I know better than to overvalue book covers, but I do judge most books by their first lines.

A general principle of storytelling is that too much exposition or background before the action starts is a guaranteed way to lose readers. The same idea can make your law school personal statement stronger, hooking a reader from the beginning rather than the middle. (Let’s be honest, an admissions officer may not even make it to the middle, depending on the strength of your application.) Read more

In this series, a jdMission Senior Consultant reviews real law school personal statements. What’s working well? What’s not? If it were his/her essay, what would be changed? Find out!

Note: To maintain the integrity and authenticity of this project, we have not edited the personal statements, though any identifying names and details have been changed or removed. Any grammatical errors that appear in the essays belong to the candidates and illustrate of the importance of having someone (or multiple someones) proofread your work. Read more

In this series, a jdMission Senior Consultant reviews real law school personal statements. What’s working well? What’s not? If it were his/her essay, what would be changed? Find out!

Note: Although there are subtle differences in what each school asks for in a personal statement, in general the personal statement is a straightforward essay question that asks you to explain to the admissions committee why you are applying to law school. To maintain the integrity and authenticity of this project, we have not edited the personal statements. Any grammatical errors that appear in the essays belong to the candidates and illustrate the importance of having someone (or multiple someones) proofread your work. The names of identifying individuals and organizations have been changed for privacy reasons. Sign up for your own Free Personal Statement Review!

The Statement

In the aftermath of the Parker City tornado in the spring of 2008, an urgent call went out at 3PM from a first aid station in that beleaguered town to Grandview Hospital in Des Moines, where I was working as an EMT. A physician’s presence was desperately needed that very afternoon. I was not a physician, but I had been extensively trained in emergency medical care. If no one else could heed the call, I knew I would take it. Read more

In this series, a jdMission Senior Consultant reviews real law school personal statements. What’s working well? What’s not? If it were his/her essay, what would be changed? Find out!

Note: Although there are subtle differences in what each school asks for in a personal statement, in general the personal statement is a straightforward essay question that asks you to explain to the admissions committee why you are applying to law school. To maintain the integrity and authenticity of this project, we have not edited the personal statements. Any grammatical errors that appear in the essays belong to the candidates and illustrate the importance of having someone (or multiple someones) proofread your work. The names of identifying individuals and organizations have been changed for privacy reasons. Sign up for your own Free Personal Statement Review!

The Statement

My name is Min-Jae but I go by MJ. I am not trying to Americanize my Korean roots with this nickname. Read more