GSU Pre-Law

Why are you a good fit for law school in general, and our law school in particular? How do we know you’ll succeed in law school?

When you sit down to write your personal statement, law schools might provide you with a variety of prompts, and talk about how this is an opportunity to get to know you as a person. They might ask you to talk about a time you overcame adversity, or displayed leadership qualities. They might ask what makes you a good member of a community, or suggest that you talk about things that inspire you. These are distractions from the actual goal of a personal statement, which is to convince the law school you’ll fit in and do well.

In reality, the questions at the top of this page are the only things that they care about. Every other prompt they might choose to include is just a way to answer those underlying questions. Think about it like a job interview: the interviewer might ask you why you applied, or what your greatest weakness is, or what motivates you, but really the only thing they want to know is whether you’ll fit in with your coworkers and do good work. This should seem fairly obvious, but students often fall into a variety of traps when writing their personal statements that take them away from the main goal of convincing law schools that they are a good fit.

So what do you actually need to include to have a good personal statement? Let’s explore. This page provides some general things to keep in mind, and you can find links below to pages that focus on reflection questions to get you started, common mistakes to avoid, and other good advice.

How should I use these pages?

For Seniors & People Applying Soon: These pages will take you through initial brainstorming for writing your statement, through common mistakes, and the big goals you are trying to accomplish. The advice here is all general so you should still seek personalized feedback about how well you are executing it, but this will get you well on your way. Follow the advice on these pages before you seek additional feedback

For Underclassmen: Use the prompts and advice here to help plan your undergraduate career. You need to have evidence that you have investigated the legal field and that you are a good fit for it. Ask yourself: can I accomplish each of the goals of a personal statement? Do I have the type of evidence that schools want to see If the answer is no, plan your classes, internships, and extracurriculars around addressing those deficits!

Big Things to Keep In Mind;

1. You are selling yourself as a strong candidate to the law school – don’t get distracted.
   1. Every single paragraph, really every single sentence, should in some way contribute to the story of why you will be successful in law school. Don’t get pulled away from that as the main message. Common ways students get distracted are:
      1. Telling their entire life story. This isn’t your biography! Only tell stories that help show why you’re going to law school and that you’ll be successful. Don’t talk about everything, pick a couple of the most important parts of yourself to share.
      2. Don’t focus only on The Cause that you want to fight for. There are a ton of ways to fight for every single cause. Law school is almost never the best way. It’s okay to talk about making a difference, but you have to explain why law is the right way to do that.
         1. Similarly, don’t only focus on all the hardships you’ve faced, or that one book you read that inspired you, or the one experience you had as a child. Talk about the law and your legal experiences.
      3. It is often NOT about standing out – it’s about fitting in!
         1. This is advice I received directly from an Ivy League Admissions Official. Don’t worry if you don’t feel like the one law student they can’t live without. That law student doesn’t exist. There are millions of attorneys – it’s not that unique! Law is an old profession with a set way of doing things. It’s often more important to show that you can work within that system and succeed, rather than convincing them you’re that 1 in 1.33 million.
      4. Don’t make law seem like an afterthought. If you don’t talk about legal experiences you’ve had (classes, internships, shadowing), and why specifically law school (not grad school, or med school, or some job) is the right path, the committee is going to end up thinking “Why is this person even applying to law school?” This is, needless to say, very very bad.
         1. If your whole statement is about helping someone with medical problems,…why not go to med school? Or nursing school? If your statement is about your cultural identity… how does that tie into law school at all? It might, but you need to explain! The connection between your story and law school needs to be 100% clear every step of the way. If I start thinking “Why aren’t they doing X instead?” you’ve made a mistake.
2. You do need to address the prompt – but in a way that actually gets at the true goals of the statement
   1. Typically most schools will give you several options to choose from that are broad and would work for any other school. Common themes include leadership experience, overcoming adversity, etc. If a school gives you a specific topic or angle, you do still need to address that topic (even though they don’t really care about it that much). If you don’t address it at all, you’ll look like you can’t follow directions.
   2. The key is not to focus entirely on whatever prompt they give you. Instead, think of yourself as a politician. You should use that prompt as a jumping off point to answer the question that you really want to answer, which is to show you’re a good fit an that you’ll do well. Don’t spend the whole statement talking about overcoming adversity (for example). Start with overcoming adversity, and then transition into your real pitch.
3. It is not enough to just say that you know law school is a good fit. You have to prove it!
   1. It is NOT “why I want to go to law school” it’s “Why I’m going to do well in law school”
   2. Admissions officials have great BS detectors, and you should think of them as very skeptical. They want to avoid admitting students that are unlikely to do well in law school. Every single year they read hundreds of applications of students who want to go to law school but who haven’t ever taken a law class, spoken to a lawyer, or really know anything about the law at all. They read applications from students who want to go to law school because they don’t have another plan, or because they think it will make them a lot of money, or make them look good. You need to show them (not just tell them) that this is NOT who you are.
   3. What makes you think that you can sit around reading cases and writing dense legal arguments 50 hours per week for the next 40 years? Show them!
   4. What counts as evidence? Lots of things!
      1. Taking pre law classes (and doing well in them)! This is essential and everyone can do it – Check out our list of Pre-Law Classes to Take
      2. Legal internships
      3. Paralegal / legal assistant jobs
      4. Extracurriculars like Mock Trial, Moot Court, Pre-Law Clubs
      5. Experience with attorneys: shadowing, interviews, firm visits, etc.
      6. Experience in the court room: court observations, field schools etc.
      7. Anything that gets you seeing real attorneys, real cases, and real legal work.
4. Don’t highlight your flaws, and don’t be overly negative
   1. Students sometimes wish to explain away a poor GPA, or talk about struggles with mental health and anxiety along with other challenges in undergrad. You run a couple of very serious risks by doing that. (1) You draw attention to a weak part of your application, and (2) you make the admissions committee think you’re just making excuses, or that the same problems will happen again.
   2. Worse yet, if you blame others they may think you’re going to be an unpleasant person to be around. They have to put up with students for 3+ years at a time, they don’t want to bring in someone toxic
5. Be realistic!
   1. Don’t write about being a Supreme Court Justice, or working at the world’s most prestigious law firm. Don’t write about how you’re going to fix all of life’s problems. The reality is, you probably won’t and that’s fine! You don’t want the admissions committee thinking you are naive or unrealistic, and you don’t want them thinking you’re going to be miserable if you end up an “average” lawyer.
   2. It’s actually okay not to be passionate about the law. Sometimes passion comes with unrealistic expectations about changing the world. Lawyering is a job, often a tedious and difficult one. Most lawyers aren’t making big life changing decisions. It is enough to enjoy the work and find fulfillment in the day-to-day.

Remember, this is basically a job interview. Be a strong, positive candidate. They should end the statement believing that you can do well in law school and that you’ll be a person who is a good part of their community.

Next Steps:

START HERE: Personal Statement Reflection Exercise

Very Common Personal Statement Mistakes – Coming Soon!

Examples Of Bad Personal Statements That Are All Too Common – Coming Soon!