No Resumes Allowed... and the Personal Statement Quandary

FerdaFresh

This post comes from an Ontario student, but it may apply to certain students applying in America/elsewhere as well.

U of T and Osgoode Hall, two of Ontario's -- nay, Canada's -- premiere law schools, do not want their applicants' resumes unless they're "mature" students (i.e. 5+ years out of post-secondary schooling). This presents a personal statement quandary for applicants like myself who are fresh out of the school game: do you tell that coherent, engaging story that omits several achievements, or do you try to fit in your achievements/extra curriculars where you can?

I feel that a lot of the personal statement resources offered throughout the internet are targeted towards students who can already use their resumes in the application process. Thus, they are implored to not "rehash" their achievements... but this advice does not seem as applicable to Canadian students who wish to apply to schools like U of T and Osgoode (among others).

What would you advise when presented with this difficulty? Do you sacrifice mentioning that award you received for graduating with the highest GPA in your department to talk about your (almost invariably) more personal accounts about volunteer positions/personal struggles/etc.? Do you sacrifice the telling of your accomplishments for consistency's sake?

Thanks for reading! If I could catch a glance from Mr. @David.Busis himself that'd be especially helpful

Cant Get Right

This is a really interesting question. I'd suspect that the answer would be similar to the advice for applying with a resume. The personal statement is supposed to be your opportunity to humanize your application: to add a personal touch to something that is otherwise very cold and analytic. Listing achievements will not serve this purpose effectively. If they don't want a resume, they don't want a list of accomplishments. The resume would have been a much more concise way for them to deal with that if it's something they wanted.

FerdaFresh

That is a very insightful consideration @"Cant Get Right". I won't take it lightly!

I'm still not convinced the single narrative method is as applicable to these particular schools as it is to others. Hence I still feel pressured to force a few achievements into the pages. Their template personal statements are definitely borderline resume rehashes... but they are also very humanized at the same time. They still manage to provide that personal spark you describe.

Thanks for the reply

kshutes13

I have this predicament as well but remember that OLSAS asks you for your sketch & verifiers - that could be your place to delve deeper into ECs, job experiences, etc.

A lot of schools recommend that you spend less time explaining what you did and mores what you learned from it, gained out of it, and how that applies to law school. I would focus your character count more on that (rather than trying to squeeze in many experiences).

FerdaFresh

Thanks for the tip! I tried to find a happy medium. I hope your (potentially) two writes go well!