Personal Statement - Canadian Law Schools

Dropnikov

I'm currently finishing up the last element of my applications for a few Canadian law schools, and I'm beginning to solicit advice from friends, family and strangers about the impact of my personal statement. One of my reviewers noted that I should clearly exhibit what I can offer to the school in my statement, and stray away from solely focusing on what draws me to the school.

I've written a personal statement for Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops, BC, which closely adheres to their 'guidelines' for a statement, e.g. The law school is interested in 1). Your reasons for applying to law school 2). How you plan to use your law degree 3). Why you're interested in this school in particular and 4). Why you made certain academic or previous choices and how those choices affected your decision to apply to law school (readers familiar with UCalgary's personal statement requirements will notice these questions are rather familiar).

I've written a statement which I feel answers all of these questions clearly, drawing on my inspiration to attend law school gleaned through being involved in MUN and completing research on energy law and sustainability in my undergraduate degree. Furthermore, I have outlined what I plan to do with my law degree quite clearly as well. However, despite this, I cannot help but feeling like even after explaining my unique experience, motivations and career plans, I may have missed the mark in terms of illustrating "what makes [me] of particular interest to the Faculty of Law at Thompson Rivers University", especially after receiving this comment.

Does anybody have experience in this area and would like to weigh-in, or is willing to share (loosely) how they structured their statement?

LSATisland

It's difficult to present how you will benefit the law school over other applicants. I would try to highlight unique aspects/experiences that differentiate you from other applicants. Law schools value applicants that bring a unique perspective to the law school classroom, so I'd go that route. That being said, I don't think most PS expressly focus on what an applicant offers a law school as if negotiating an agreement.

Dropnikov

@LSATisland I agree, and that's what I have attempted to do in my statements. The direct "what I can offer you" stance seems to me to be an approach that is better suited for a job application, whereas the explanation of unique experiences, perspectives and skills aligns more closely with what law schools appear to be looking for in a personal statement.

Pacifico

The "what I can offer you" is essentially why in the US people write diversity statements because it allows one to show the different perspectives that one brings to the school and can therefore enrich the learning experience. That is why diversity in this sense stretches far beyond the confines of ethnicities or racial heritages. That sounds like the kind of thing this person was advising you to do.

If a school has a particular prompt for a PS then you should follow it and not go too far outside the bounds of what it asks since that illustrates a failure to follow directions. One school I applied to had such a ridiculous prompt (that also said I had to include diversity in the PS if I was going to address it at all) that I had to throw out my PS and carve up my DS and fashion a totally new essay that won't end up anywhere but in the hands of the readers of that particular school.

As an example of what you can bring to the table, you might have some type of life situation that has led you to develop an incredibly hard work ethic (e.g.- you worked full time throughout college and beyond) and therefore you will be a reliable member of the law school community that they know can be counted on unlike some trust fund baby that parties all the time and had their parents get them into the school. It may sound ridiculous but it's not outside the realm of possibility, and demonstrating that you are not a liability is not a crazy point to try to get across.

Dropnikov

@Pacifico Good points, thank you for weighing in. The challenge for a few schools in Canada (namely TRU and Calgary) is that the word limit for a PS is ~500 words, so there isn't much room to go beyond answering the questions in their prompt. The goal for me was to write a compelling statement answering those questions and also providing answers about my value and reliability indirectly through my response to the prompt. Hopefully I have succeeded in doing so.

harrismegan

I just checked the TRU website because I, too, applied there. Because TRU allowed me to clearly outline my employment/educational/extra activities, I strayed away from tailoring my PS in that way. Their website no longer gives explicit instructions for what to write in your PS (or maybe I missed it), so it leads me to believe that they want to get a sense of who you are, instead of focusing on specific questions to be answered.

From the PS help on this page, and having read a lot of other people's PS and having them review mine, I wrote mine on how my experience in a particular sport has lead me to be an ideal candidate for law school (this may sound weird, but if you want to read it, please DM me).

sarkisp23

Haven't read everything posted as I'm at work at the moment, BUT don't forget to answer the "why" part of the personal statement. Like you said, there are word/character limits, so don't waste characters on sentences like "therefore, this is why I'm the shit and you should accept me." Try to show them not tell them. Just like in a resume. You don't say "managerial skills." You say, "trained and supervised X number of employees." Let THEM decide your character without you telling them. That's more powerful. And it saves space. Good luck and I'm Canadian too so this advice is legit LOL

Dropnikov

@harrismegan You're right, there aren't any specific instructions on the website, but on the law application supplemental form, it explains that they are interested in learning about certain things, as I stated in the original post. I attempted to answer those 4 questions in addition to providing insights into my personality and strengths in the hope that they would then have a rounded impression of me. I kept employment and extracurriculars mostly out of my statement as well, but the supplemental form said this under the personal statement bit:

"The members of the Admissions Committee consider the Statement of Interest in the context of the rest of your application. Therefore it is useful for you to discuss how the
experiences you have listed elsewhere on your application are relevant to your desire to attend law school."

I tried to provide some context to particular relevant experiences I listed elsewhere as they related to my answers to the provided questions.

Certainly, I would love to read it. I'll send you a message.

@sarkisp23 Agreed, and that's what I attempted to do. It's much more persuasive and powerful when you can demonstrate an attribute instead of simply stating you have it. Thank you for your insight.