Writing about highschool experiences within a personal essay

anamaria

Hi everyone! I'm wondering what folks' perspectives/ advice would be on talking about highschool extracurricular involvement within a personal statement (Part B of a two-part personal essay).

For context, I live in Canada and all schools in the province that I live in use one standardized application form. The form specifically instructs applicants to only list post-'high-school' involvement, work experience, etc. This question relates to one school in particular that I'm applying to, which has two parts to their personal essays section; Part A is open-ended and I spoke only about broader lived experience and University involvement, my vision for law school, all the basics (no specifics about highschool), and Part B, which has various question prompts, the one that I'm leaning most towards answering is, "Discuss a challenging ethical issue or a serious interpersonal conflict that you have encountered and explain how you resolved it".

The specific experience I want to talk about (being as vague as possible here) is what I learned being a student representative at the board-level during my senior year and the ethical dilemma I encountered when the board was considering a motion regarding school policies that did not align with my own views of equity/ justice and I faced public backlash from other (adult) board members for voicing the opinion of the many student constituents that I represented on the issue. I don't think this is a controversial topic but I would still frame the topic as neutrally as possible to avoid bias from the application selections committee.

Thanks for reading and any input/ advice anyone may have and best of luck to fellow November LSAT takers

mikalyn.greenzweig

Hey there!

I found myself in a similar situation. I wrote about a high school experience that influenced me to not only pursue law school, but to continue getting involved with my community at the collegiate level. From what I've gathered, I think it's okay to talk about these experiences especially if they are integral to your decision to attend law school. However, I also do think that it is really important to mention how your high school experience possibly motivated you to continue getting involved in public service or legal work. Whether you got involved with an organization at college, majored in something related to law, had an internship, or got a legal job, I think you should mention how this high school experience led you to doing more if that makes sense. Personally with my essay, I tried not to make the sole focus about my high school experience. I kept it short and sweet, but still got to the point of why this experience was important and how it influenced me. I wanted to still show admissions what I've been doing since my high school experience so they could see how I've actively kept pursuing law. Hopefully this helps, but this is also just my opinion! Everyone's story is different and I think it's more important about how you tell your story than the story itself.

Johnny Tsunami

I am not entirely sure about Canadian law admissions but I have spoken to US law school admission departments about this topic.

I have been writing a few personal statements centered around my reason for wanting to be a lawyer and, like you, I wanted to mention an experience that took place during high school. I did a work experience at a big law firm whilst in my junior year and most of my essays were centered on it, which I felt was appropriate given that it solidified my desire to become an attorney.

However, after speaking with numerous admissions officers (for US law schools), all of them did say that whilst it is ok to mention it, do not make the entire essay about your time in high school as they wish to see who you are now, not in the past. What they want to see in this case is a progression of your interest in law from that high school experience to now. Essentially your journey.

I must ask, are you heading straight from undergrad to law school? If not, then the admissions officers warned it may be better to write about more current experiences.

I hope this has helped in some way.

anamaria

@"Johnny Tsunami" said:
I am not entirely sure about Canadian law admissions but I have spoken to US law school admission departments about this topic.

I have been writing a few personal statements centered around my reason for wanting to be a lawyer and, like you, I wanted to mention an experience that took place during high school. I did a work experience at a big law firm whilst in my junior year and most of my essays were centered on it, which I felt was appropriate given that it solidified my desire to become an attorney.

However, after speaking with numerous admissions officers (for US law schools), all of them did say that whilst it is ok to mention it, do not make the entire essay about your time in high school as they wish to see who you are now, not in the past. What they want to see in this case is a progression of your interest in law from that high school experience to now. Essentially your journey.

I must ask, are you heading straight from undergrad to law school? If not, then the admissions officers warned it may be better to write about more current experiences.

I hope this has helped in some way.

Hey Johnny! Thanks for your input and taking the time to write a thoughtful response. That's helpful! I finished my undergrad in December of last year so yes and no? I've been gaining some work experience within the public service but I haven't spent a substantial amount of time out of school either.

As mentioned, my main personal essay (Part A of this school's application) follows a general progression from my family's personal circumstances to where I am today and my current/ previous experiences and involvement. It doesn't have any mention to highschool, so I think I will go ahead and write Part B based on this specific experience, but I'll take your advice for emphasizing how this led to my current understanding of conflict resolution, ethical dilemmas, etc.

Thanks again and best of luck to you!

anamaria

@"mikalyn.greenzweig" said:
Hey there!

I found myself in a similar situation. I wrote about a high school experience that influenced me to not only pursue law school, but to continue getting involved with my community at the collegiate level. From what I've gathered, I think it's okay to talk about these experiences especially if they are integral to your decision to attend law school. However, I also do think that it is really important to mention how your high school experience possibly motivated you to continue getting involved in public service or legal work. Whether you got involved with an organization at college, majored in something related to law, had an internship, or got a legal job, I think you should mention how this high school experience led you to doing more if that makes sense. Personally with my essay, I tried not to make the sole focus about my high school experience. I kept it short and sweet, but still got to the point of why this experience was important and how it influenced me. I wanted to still show admissions what I've been doing since my high school experience so they could see how I've actively kept pursuing law. Hopefully this helps, but this is also just my opinion! Everyone's story is different and I think it's more important about how you tell your story than the story itself.

Thanks for your insight that sounds like a strong and well-structured approach!! I personally didn't speak to high school at all in my main personal statement, so I think you and Johnny's input solidified my decision to go ahead and answer Part B based on an experience I had in high school, tying it into the rest of my application -- especially given that I'm not able to mention this involvement anywhere else and I believe its a strong motivating factor for me in pursuing law (and, at the end of the day, it was only 5 years ago lol).

Best of luck and rooting for you!!