Lesson One: The Essay: Your “Why”, Not Just Your “What”

By the time you open the application portal to apply to law school, you have done 90 percent of the work already. You have finished at least three years of undergraduate school, if not already graduated; you have put in plenty of hours preparing for the LSAT or taken it already; and you have already built relationships with professors and professionals who can write you glowing letters of recommendation. For better or for worse, there is not much more you can do—except for one crucial part.

The essays.

Your essays can tell the admissions committee not just what you have accomplished, but how you got here and why you are here. Your essays can give the committee a genuine sense of who you are and why you would positively contribute to their program. Your essays can set you apart from other applicants who may have the same GPA, the same LSAT score, and the same adjectives in their letters of recommendation, but not the same desire.

Your essays can make the difference between admission and rejection.

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“When I read your file, I want to know that you’ve given it your all, that what I’m reading is authentic and that can only happen if you’ve put your heart into it. Be in a good place each time you work on pulling your story together because you know that story side of your application is so very important.” -Faye Deal, Stanford Dean of Admissions

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One Story in Several Essays

In a typical law school application, you will typically be asked to write three essays:

• Personal Statement (~2 pages)

• Diversity Statement (~1 page)

• Addendum/Additional Information (~1/2 page)

Some schools may provide additional prompts, some schools may vary the exact wording of their prompts, and some schools may have different length limitations, but these three will encompass the vast majority of the content you work on. However, it would be a mistake to think of these three essays as independent of each other. Instead, it is far better to think of them as complementary to each other.

Think of each essay as a building block to the larger structure that is your application. Each essay needs to stand on its own, tell a compelling story of who you are, and flow easily, but each essay also needs to provide a cohesive narrative in conjunction with the others. For example, if you are talking about how you had to overcome poverty in your childhood in your personal statement, perhaps you have chosen an overarching theme of “resiliency.” Your diversity statement and addendum, while addressing different aspects of your life, would ideally still reflect this theme.

In short, each essay is a chapter, and you need each chapter to connect and tell the story of who you are.

How You Actually Write the Essays

In the pages that follow, we will tell you exactly how to write these essays—and other prompts that tend to pop up—as well as how not to write these essays.

In the rest of Section I, we will outline who you are writing for and why it matters, and we will then discuss how you should approach each essay from the start.

In Section II, we will dive into specific advice for tackling each prompt, including a checklist of what to do and what not to do. This advice will include excerpts from actual essays and highlight what they got right and what they got wrong.

Finally, in Section III, we will cover the last steps you should take when you finish your essays before you submit them. Too many applications get rejected because the applicant forgot to proofread an essay or because he or she failed to account for how the formatting of their file made their essay three pages instead of two. We will provide an actual checklist you can reference before submitting all your documents.

Your Last Chance to Make a Strong Impression

This close to the application deadline, it can feel easy to cut corners. You have pulled many all-nighters in college, stressed over the LSAT, and worked hard to network. It can feel tempting to believe the essays don’t matter as much.

But many other applicants will graduate Summa Cum Laude. Many other applicants will score about 170 on the LSAT. Many other applicants will have a letter from the dean of their school. So, there is only one way to make sure you stand apart.

Your essays.

Let’s get started by understanding just who, exactly, you are writing your essays for.