I'm curious if anyone has any tips on personal statements, particularly as they may relate to someone who's applying to law school after being out of school for a while.

I've been out of college for about three years and assume that writing about what I've been doing since graduating and why I want to attend law school is the best bet? Any good ideas out there?

Yeah -- I definitely would stick to what you've been doing since school. It's what sets you apart. Pick something that's been interesting to you and discuss what makes in interesting to you and what you've done around that topic. Try to choose something that has some sort of link to ideas associated with law -- or something about the rules of some body. When I applied, I had been working in schools for quite a while and I wrote about issues around discipline and their effect on student culture.

If you don't have a specific goal for what you'd like to do with law school, I would write about what makes you think the work will be interesting to you.

Feel free to keep asking questions as you narrow this down. Maybe some others have some tips on this.

In a way I've been working on my personal statement for over a month. Pretty much just brain-storming. There's far too much that I could talk about (and have the reader captivated), but I do agree with Noah that a major portion needs to be devoted to post-college. I'm not going to focus solely on this time frame because to do so would eliminate too many sub-plots. I'm just not going to spend 2 or 3 paragraphs talking about college/pre-college.

The one thing I've read regarding people in our situation (out of college for a while) is that we should be able to show how law school is a natural progression of what we're doing/have done.

I happen to find the "why law school" angle boring, but is necessary to answer, otherwise we might get slapped by admissions.

I've heard that a good guideline for a personal statement is 500 words / 2 pages.

Is this accurate?

The guideline is going to vary from school to school. You need to look at each application for details. Each has their own requirements and limits. Some give a word limit, some give a page/margin/font limit and some even have specific topics they wnt you to discuss. But I would say that a 2 page double space is a good generic guideline.

I really appreciate the feedback. Though I fancy myself a writer, the personal statement has been challenging in that it's not something one would write on a regular basis. I guess that's my excuse for why it's so incredibly difficult for me to get it going in a direction that I like, and that I think admissions folks will like, too.

I'm currently brainstorming, writing, and re-writing different intros and other parts and pieces of the statement with hopes of somehow tying it all together at some point (soon). I'm taking the approach of what I've been doing since I graduated college, and trying to turn it into a story of how I got where I am, and the natural progression to law school, because there are some major things I've done that I want to highlight that aren't necessarily tied to my current career.

So I guess that's the hardest part for me...narrowing things down and having the right balance, cutting out useless sentences and ideas, while also making it somewhat enjoyable.

Sounds like we're sort of in the same boat.

Ideally, in my opinion, the personal statement ought to reveal a bit about who you are as a person. This could include your motivating factors, what unique experiences or perspectives you bring to the table, and what lessons you've gained along the way in this journey of life. That's the way I choose to see the personal statement, but trying to explain why law school is a natural extension of this might be a tall order. I haven't decided how I'm going to deal with that.

What I can tell you is that the essay will take the reader from one point in time and one point emotionally and will cycle it through to another point at a different emotional reality. I'm really going to be aiming for a story architype where I play the hero - and the forces I'm fighting against vary from my own inner weaknesses to weaknesses of the culture around me. I'm quite confident that I will center my personal statement around this structure - how exactly, and what exact stories I put in there... haven't decided that yet.

What I've done thus far is to create a list of topics and insights that I could talk about. I actually started on one (the time I went head to head against an olympic gold medalist) but felt it took too much of the paper and didn't allow too many other ideas to develop. I'd recommend you do something similar where you play around with one theme and see how it might look in raw form just to see if there's something there.

In that story I tried to write about, I discovered that at best I could only give that experience a gratuitous mention. I have a feeling many other VERY significant experiences in my life will get similar attention while I attempt to focus on the primary theme (of what makes me, me), and the message I'm trying to convey.

As we get further along, we can kick ideas around if you like.

I hope they don't differ too wildly. I plan on applying to a number of schools, and if I have to re-write my statement a dozen times for a dozen schools, it will be ever so fun.

I don't mind changing font/margins every time, but I hope I don't need to heavily edit the content repeatedly. We'll have to wait and see, though, since apps aren't open yet I can't see specific guidelines. :-/

Most of the schools are very similar with the only difference being allowable font size and margins. Some give you up to 4 pages and up to 1,000 words. Some (I think USC is an example) have NO limit.

I think that if you try and stick to a two page, double spaced statement that you're going to be okay. Most the schools fall within that range.

Have a good idea of what schools you're targeting (or would like to) and visit their application page. You can then see for yourself how each compares.

The ones that ask for specific topics will be the ones that will have to be adjusted (more than likely), unless you write your original statement around one of them and just use it for all the others (which might actually prove helpful)

I made a little spreadsheet with the various schools and their requirements. The schools I put on the list ran from top 10 to second tier... a wide spectrum of acceptable schools depending on how this LSAT turns out for me.

I never thought about it that way, but I do like the idea of moving from different points in time to show perspective, etc. My goal this weekend is to have at least a very rough draft that will hopefully be the ultimate framework for me personal statement. I hope this comes from these brief introductions I've already written in an attempt to spur some kind creative genius.

I would love to kick around more deas as things progress in the writing.

I wouldn't say that it has to go from one point in time to another, but FOR ME, my statement will absolutely go from one point emotionally to another. This will probably mean it moves through time to put this into perspective.

Let me give you some examples (and mind you these aren't necessarily ones I will use) - mentioning the time I was living out of my car to contrast against the height of my career after college when making money hand over fist.
Going from depressed (feeling like a failure) to satisfaction from not only (finally) making it myself, but in helping others achieve (ie, University Athlete of the Year)
Or I could take on a more personal route and talk about growing up never knowing my father and touching on those that served father roles in my life and how this all played out in the above mentioned cases.

I have many, many more just from brainstorming. The tough part will be in selecting things that are important in discussing WHO I am, but also discussing how law school fits into everything... and then doing this in basically a page (2 with the double space).

I'd love to swap statements or review what you have. I don't want to put much more than I just wrote onto the board, but I'm sure we could figure out a way to swap statements... maybe Noah would have some ideas.

I can see where you're going, and in those cases I realize that going from one point to another makes great sense. But you're right: the key objective is to tell that compelling story while keeping everything to just two double-spaced pages.

I'm still brainstorming in a way and don't have anything too substantive, but would love to swap statements as well.

I really hit the writing hard this weekend, coming up with what I think is the start of several strong personal statements.

But I have a couple of questions that I'd appreciate any feedback on.

I've been out of college for three years now and have been working for the same company for two of those years in sales/marketing.

My senior year of college I was executive editor of my university's daily paper, which was essentially a full-time job (40+ hours per week) and I did that while maintaining my full academic scholarship.

Also, over the past 10 years, I've worked with an international non-profit organization as a volunteer. As a teenager I was international president of the youth division of that organization, and currently sit on the international committee/board of directors that oversees the youth division.

All of these things are, in my opinion, worthy of my time and consideration for my essay, but I just can't seem to figure out which one would be the best and most relevant. For one, the non-profit/volunteer stiff is on my resume in detail as I've served on many international committees for this organization.

Any ideas on what would be best, or how I could put them all together. I want to be concise and clear in my writing. If I could fuse two of the topics together that would be great, but I'm not sure how I could do it where it doesn't seem forced.

Thanks for any feedback.

You might want to enlist friends to act as readers for you. If you know any professional editors/lawyers/academics, even better.

I've found a mix of both is extremely helpful - someone to watch the Ps and Qs so to speak and others specifically for the emotional side of it.

You may want to use the angle that you've really been passionate about jobs/roles that have dealt with interesting ideas and how those ideas impact people. Law is a huge part about how we structure society -- and I'm sure your work on the paper and with that organization tie into that.

BTW, the folks at mbamission.com are starting up a JD admissions program. They do free half-hour consultation sessions for folks considering going that route - e-mail them at info@mbamission.com but be sure to say you're looking to apply to law school.

- N