preLaw Magazine - Fall 2008 - (Page 37) The LSAT, personal statement and recommendations are all essential items to get you into law school. And each item holds its own weight. So don’t lag behind. If you think your LSAT score and GPA are of top priority, think again. Often touted as the “sleeper” of the admissions process, the personal statement can say a whole lot more to an admissions committee than what you scored on the LSAT. Personal essays might be the only form of cruel and unusual punishment never raised to the Supreme Court. How to find your soul — and then package it just right for some unknown admissions committee —is the critical strategy author Thane Messinger describes in his book “Law School: Getting In, Getting Good, Getting the Gold.” So get out pen and paper and write down these important tips to writing the best personal statement. Also, an excerpt from Charles Cooper’s book, “Later-in-Life Lawyers: Tips for the Non-Traditional Law Student,” provides advice to the nontraditional student. The application process [Excerpt from “Law School: Getting In, Getting Good, Getting the Gold,” by Thane Messinger] Your law school applications will each require a main form, a personal essay, letters of recommendation, perhaps a résumé and any number of housekeeping details. Just about everyone will remind you that your application should be spotless. This is correct. Even one misspelling can be the kiss of death where it counts: with the law school you really want to attend. More than one misspelling — or odd or poorly phrased grammar, or a rambling, incoherent essay — WILL be the kiss of death. Law professors, who are among the ones judging you, care about writing. Nearly every professor tasked with reviewing applications will take the process seriously. So if what you write does not meet their standard, you get dinged, if not rejected outright. Just one frown is usually enough. In their minds, this is exactly right. They’re looking not only for someone with the requisite knowledge and aptitude, they’re looking for someone with the right attitude. Someone who cares. In this context, a typographical error or sloppy grammar is nearly an “irrebuttable presumption” that you should not be in law school. Certainly not in their law school. Why? Because law, whatever you think of it going in, will require both techni- cal precision and a high degree of care over how documents are researched, prepared, proofread, revised and corrected. This is important. It’s so important that it can make the difference even in a school for which you are nominally above average. Many rejections to “safety” schools occur because of these types of errors. The perfect personal essay Personal essays might be the only form of cruel and unusual punishment never raised to the Supreme Court. How to find your soul — and then package it just right — for some unknown admissions committee? How to do so when you’re busy enough with part-time jobs, classes, crushes and the occasional all-nighter? First, your essay cannot be rushed. You should, optimally, think about it for years. If you’re reading this while contemplating law school once you graduate college (or high school and then college), that’s time enough to think about what it is that’s important to you, and then how you might — with at least some literary flair — present that to a group of law school admissions officers, professors and deans. What if you don’t have years? Well, this is hardly theoretical as most of us end up throwing something together in weeks, if not days. You must think of something unique. Not off-thewall. But unique. This means unique to you. The admissions committee will have read, hundreds if not thousands of times over, about “Why I love the law!” and “Why me? ’Cause I’m gonna’ save the world.” And so on. Does this mean you should not say that you love the law or that you’re planning to save the Fall 2008 37
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