Personal Statement

LR942311

Hi guys,

I've been reading up on personal statements and seem to be finding some conflicting information on whether or not the personal statement needs to address "why law."

Berkeley seems to suggest that the personal statement does not have to touch on why you're interested in law - "You don't have to write about your interest in the law. In fact, your statement will probably be more memorable if you don't!" However, other sources seem to suggest that the whole point of the personal statement is to talk about why you're interested in law."

Ideally I understand that the best case scenario is if the two happen to coincide, and your personal statement happens to explicitly or implicitly relate why you want to do law, but what happens if the story or stories you want to tell reveal growth that doesn't necessarily explicitly explain "why law"? Does anyone have any insight on this / or have any examples of essays that have worked (and how much or how little they addressed "why law"? Wondering if @david.busis has any words of advice. Thank you!

David Busis

There's a jungle of advice out there, but the schools themselves have the last word. When Berkeley says that you don't have to explain why you're interested in law, they really mean it. If another school doesn't ask why you're interested in law, you really don't have to explain. If, on the other hand, a school does ask about your motivation, well—you've got to address it.

Your best bet is to look at all the prompts of the schools to which you'll apply.

_oshun1_

Really wish there was a more in depth answer to this. I don't understand prompts like UCLA "Discuss any matters relevant to your ability to succeed in law school and the practice of law, and any attributes, experiences, or interests that would enable you to make a distinctive contribution to UCLA Law or the legal profession." This seems to be so narrow and just asking for a breakdown of your resume highlights. Seems like directly answering this would end up contradicting all the PS rules I just read about in the 7sage PS course. Can prompts like this be answered like the example one about the guy who passed his cooking class or the girl playing piano and just be concluded with something like -this is what i learned/how i grew from the experience and i will apply these qualities to law school- ?
@"David.Busis"