How Not to Write a Law School Application Essay
Is there a type of essay that annoys admissions officers so much that they'll stop in the middle of reading an application to vent? Yep. Here's what just hit my inbox:
I doubt you'd let your clients do this anyway, but the most annoying kind of essay I see is the "Why I'm so perfect/how I've ticked all the boxes. Can I recite my resume for you?" essay.
It takes the form of: "Since early childhood, I have been an over-achieving perfectionist. Not content simply to excel at everything I have done, like be the president of the school paper and work for my state senator while maintaining a 4.0 GPA, I wanted to share my wonderfulness with the less fortunate. So I also have an extensive background in public service. I recognize that there are certain skills that one needs to excel as a lawyer, so I have acquired those, as well, by doing A, B, and C. Now I am primed to enter law school. Admission to [---] Law School will be the culmination of my decade of effort - nay, the laurel wreath crowning my wonderfulness."
By the way, that final sentence is only a slight adaptation of the one I actually just read.
We on the admissions committee will take the B+ student with 85% percentile LSATs and an essay demonstrating personal maturity and an interesting set of life experiences over the A student with 90% LSATs and an essay like the one above every time.
For those of you who haven't submitted your applications yet, or who are applying in the coming season, take heed. Anyone with law school admissions experience will have an allergic reaction to that kind of essay, and there are tens of thousands of them floating around every year. Treat that as a template for what NOT to write.
Former Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago Law School and a recovering lawyer, Anna Ivey founded Ivey Consulting to help college, law school, and MBA applicants navigate the admissions process. Read more admissions tips in The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, recently updated and available as an e-book. Follow Anna on Twitter (@annaivey).
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Anna, I will return the compliment of the earlier nice words.
I applied to law school a long time ago, so I don't remember if this particular acceptance letter came from Chicago or Northwestern, but I was accepted by both early in the process. I recall the letter saying the factors the admissions committee took most into account were my performance as an undergrad and my essay (I had okay but not stratospheric LSATs). (Just to insert the appropriate note of modesty here, I should note that the essay did NOT carry the day at Harvard or Yale - no doubt being insufficient to overcome the relatively mediocre LSAT score.)
I do remember the thrust of the essay. It was a reasoned explanation why it was that I had decided to go to law school rather than graduate school in history. I think what I said was that I suspected the intellectual challenges were similar, but that being a lawyer provided more of an opportunity to use intellect in action.
Probably the best way to say it is that, when you write it, you want the essay qua essay to be the equivalent of letting your bat do the talking (in baseball terms). And often the best way to do that is to write about something other than yourself!
Jeff Lipshaw