Personal Statement: broad or specific?

caffeine powered human

Hey all,

I am currently in a dilemma upon receiving a feedback from my old college professor on my personal statement.

My essay is concentrated on the timeframe between childhood and high school. It starts with an incident that happened when I was eleven. The impacts of the incident continues until high school and my essay covers what I've learned and how it sparked my interest in law. I am pretty confident that my story is unique, which is the reason why I wanted to focus on that experience. And I got the impression from 7Sage's curriculum about personal statement that it's better to focus on something specific rather than painting a broad picture.

But my college professor advised me to condense that story to half, and write the other half about my college experience. She recommended that I write about how I've worked to earn and advance the skills that will help me in law school and in a career as a lawyer. She told me to demonstrate that I am a good writer and researcher, but I am not sure how to show that as I have not written any thesis or did research outside class assignments. Some extracurriculars I've done and awards received could be indicative, but my resume already covers them and provide a good picture on how I spent my time in college. She also believes that I need to indicate why I chose my college in the US (I am Korean). Hmm.

I have so much love and respect for the professor that I feel like I need to follow her advice, but at the same time I am not sure if talking about my college experience will just dilute the impact of my story. What should I do?

HLEGC.2003

I think you'd be better off focusing on the specific experience you think is the most impactful, even if it's from before college. I'm no expert, but from my understanding, it's fine to talk about a past experience as long as you show how it's still relevant to your life or how it's shaped who you are now. UChicago Law has examples of "admissions essays that worked." In the first one, the author describes an experience that seems to be from high school and then in the last paragraph, describes how it's still relevant now.

Link to UChicago essays: https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/their-own-words-admissions-essays-worked

caffeine powered human

@"HLEGC.2003" said:
I think you'd be better off focusing on the specific experience you think is the most impactful, even if it's from before college. I'm no expert, but from my understanding, it's fine to talk about a past experience as long as you show how it's still relevant to your life or how it's shaped who you are now. UChicago Law has examples of "admissions essays that worked." In the first one, the author describes an experience that seems to be from high school and then in the last paragraph, describes how it's still relevant now.

Link to UChicago essays: https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/their-own-words-admissions-essays-worked

Thank you for your comment and the link! My essay and the first essay do have a lot of things in common, and it comforts me to know that her essay also does not address anything about higher education either. I do feel more comfortable sticking with my current focus, and I'm not sure if I would be able to write a compelling description of my years at college either. Thanks again!