Personal Statement Approval

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• 1 Like

  Ohnoeshalpme Alum Member ⭐

  August 2018 edited August 2018 2531 karma

  If you played D1 football then yes It can totally work. Usually sports essays are a bad idea but that's more due to the fact that they don't speak to a unique experience or characteristic. D1 definitely sets you apart from others because this is a very uncommon experience for someone going to law school.

  I think the main focus you should have when crafting a a personal statement is finding a theme that tells something about you. The theme should be a simple, meaningful and powerful one that resonates closely with you. The story itself should be equally strong as it enforces that theme but the content is relatively unimportant when compared with the theme and the method. That being said, some stories are going to be better at achieving these goals than other. So if the football story accomplishes all of these things than it has the potential to be good. But you should avoid writing anything that is cliche or contrived. Tell an unusual story, not something that they've heard a million times.
• PineapplePizzaSucks Member

  August 2018 534 karma

  @Ohnoeshalpme said:
  If you played D1 football then yes It can totally work. Usually sports essays are a bad idea but that's more due to the fact that they don't speak to a unique experience or characteristic. D1 definitely sets you apart from others because this is a very uncommon experience for someone going to law school.

  I think the main focus you should have when crafting a a personal statement is finding a theme that tells something about you. The theme should be a simple, meaningful and powerful one that resonates closely with you. The story itself should be equally strong as it enforces that theme but the content is relatively unimportant when compared with the theme and the method. That being said, some stories are going to be better at achieving these goals than other. So if the football story accomplishes all of these things than it has the potential to be good. But you should avoid writing anything that is cliche or contrived. Tell an unusual story, not something that they've heard a million times.

  Agreed. I think the sports no-no’s stem from the high school “big game” stories that are all too common. There are significantly less people playing D1 sports.
• Tom_Tango Alum Member

  August 2018 902 karma

  something related to playing college football would make for a great essay. Just don't be cliche and talk about some difficulty and how you persevered and overcame that adversity.
• _oshun1_ Alum Member

  August 2018 3652 karma

  I think you should include an academic element to it ie discuss juggling school work with sports. But, if one or both of your stats are above the 75th percentiles you can more or less write whatever you want. Schools want to know that you’ll succeed at their school and be employable. writing about lessons learned through a sport doesn’t necessarily say anything about how you’ll do in school/at a firm. I’m really passionate about sports but I changed my PS for schools that I’m median/below median at. I realized that, although I know that my perseverance through my sport makes me a better student/employee, law schools won’t know this from reading my PS and there’s no way to prove to them that there’s any correlation bn my success at my sport and my academic/work success.