Personal Statement

jhanco10

Good afternoon 7sage community,

I have been brainstorming ideas and thoughts for my personal statement. Is it recommended to personalize each personal statement for each school? Same goes for recommendation letters, do you use a general letter for all schools or unique versions for each school? I am new to the process, please excuse my lack of knowledge.

Thank you

seharris14

Hi there! I used the same recommendation letters for all of the schools to which I applied. My personal statement was the same as well, but I wrote additional Why X essays where appropriate. My diversity statement was tweaked a bit for each school. I have heard other applicants say that admissions officers understand you are applying to a number of schools and are not necessarily expecting a personal statement tailored to them. Some schools with multiple required essays or optional essays even say "use the personal statement you send to law schools in general for essay X, but for essay Y do this." Of course, make sure to be meticulous that you send the right essays to the right schools and follow their instructions! hope this helps you some! Good luck

Seeking Perfection

@benhancock68 said:
Good afternoon 7sage community,

I have been brainstorming ideas and thoughts for my personal statement. Is it recommended to personalize each personal statement for each school? Same goes for recommendation letters, do you use a general letter for all schools or unique versions for each school? I am new to the process, please excuse my lack of knowledge.

Thank you

I think it would be all but impossible and way to much of a strain on your recommend ers to try to get them to personalize your letters of rec.

It's not a bad idea to fiddle with the personal statement and tailor it to each school a little to better answer their prompt or fit their school, but usually you end up with one that is enough better that you basically want to use it or a version of it for every app.

The Why X's are where you need to put in the individual school level work.