Question about Personal Statement and LOR Overlap

Ron Swanson

I'm working through drafts of my personal statement and realized that it may overlap with one of my LORs.

Basically, I took Public Speaking and Storytelling as electives during my senior year of college. I had expected them to be complete fluff classes but they actually turned out to be really helpful and I connected very well with the Professor. My PS is going to focus on my personal development speaking, attempting stand up comedy, and how storytelling/public speaking has helped me decide that I want to be a trial lawyer.

One of my LORs is coming from the Professor who taught these classes. She has already submitted it to LSAC and I'm not exactly sure what she wrote about. Would it be a problem if my PS and an LOR overlap some? Should I ask this professor about the gist of what she wrote so I can tailor my finished product accordingly?

Ron Swanson

Giving myself a bump. Has anyone experienced something like this or have insight to offer? Thanks for any advice!

Cant Get Right

Yeah, I've got a similar situation. My PS is about an incident that happened at work, and I've also got a LOR from my boss, and that job also features heavily on my resume. I'm hoping it will build cohesion throughout my application in order to present kind of a unified front. I'm not really sure though, I could also see how it could potentially make for a rather flat application. That's a really great question.

Sprinkles

Maybe @david.busis can help out. This is a very interesting scenario.

David Busis

@"Ron Swanson" @"Cant Get Right" don't worry! I've only seen one bad situation with LORs, and it's the opposite: the recommender contradicts the applicant. Neither of you have given me any reason to suspect that the adcom will look at you as a one-trick pony, so it's totally fine—maybe even advantageous—if your recommender reinforces something you mention in your PS.

Cant Get Right

Thanks @david.busis ! I always feel at ease after getting your input!

Ron Swanson

Agreed, thanks @david.busis!