Duke: Personal Statement

LSATcantwin

So Duke's personal statement prompt is a bit different than most other law schools. They want to hear about significant experiences, and career and personal goals. The issue is I covered a lot of that with my diversity statement and my "Why Duke" essay. In-fact, I'd say I covered all of that in my Optional Essays 1&2. So I'm a lot less sure what to cover in my PS. I don't want to rehash what has already been said in my other essays, but I do want to address their prompt.

Should I risk sounding a little repetitive in order to make sure I hit the check marks, or should I just keep my PS individualized and address things not already covered?

Seeking Perfection

I went more with the later route and I got in. I was mostly worried about avoiding yield protection.

It is hard to know what you should do, but I didn't want my essays to repeat too much. I think the main reason to carefully address a school's prompt is to show that you have given some thought to your application to them rather than sending them the exact same essay every one else got. You have probably already done that with the optional essays.

That said I don't really know.

LSATcantwin

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
I went more with the later route and I got in. I was mostly worried about avoiding yield protection.

It is hard to know what you should do, but I didn't want my essays to repeat too much. I think the main reason to carefully address a school's prompt is to show that you have given some thought to your application to them rather than sending them the exact same essay every one else got. You have probably already done that with the optional essays.

That said I don't really know.

Yeah, it's rough lol Duke is one of my top choices and I don't want to leave anything to chance. Of course now I'm applying super late in the cycle because I've spent so much time making sure the application is perfect lol

Alex

I would personally craft a special PS that was for Duke without being too redundant. Perhaps try to take a bit of a different approach by being more specific and career-centric on your Duke PS.

username

your goals are your goals. try to show as many sides of yourself as you can, but you want your entire app to read as a cohesive, complementary whole.

I'd say just make sure they don't conflict, don't worry about a bit of repetition, just let it come off as focused.

westcoastbestcoast

I would go with the latter choice!