Personal Statement

The personal statement is often a crucial and decisive part of your application package. As related by Eileen Doyle Crane of UVSC:

A lot of people think that they should tell the story of their life, or why they want to be a lawyer, or what they have done to prepare to become a lawyer. But admissions deans see thousands of those kinds of essays. A more effective essay is one that shows who the applicant is through a variety of stories that illustrate, without bragging or forcing the reader to wade through self-enhancing superlatives, who the candidate is [from NAPLA Notes, Summer 2007].

To learn more about writing a personal statement, check out the pages below:

• Personal Statement Warm-up Exercises
• Guidelines for Writing Your Personal Statement
• The Personal Statement: One Person's View
  [by Collins Byrd , Assistant Dean of Admissions, University of Iowa College of Law]
• Personal Statement Help Center ( from 4LawSchool.com; with sample statements)