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When Applying to Law School, Avoid These Five Essay Mistakes

Posted Nov 12, 2009 6:33 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Applying to law school? If you think you’ve got a great famous quote to begin your personal statement, think again. It’s one of the top five mistakes you can make, according to a prelaw adviser.

Famous quotes and trite phrases should be avoided, according to Tatem Oldham, prelaw adviser for liberal arts career services at the University of Texas at Austin. Her advice is summarized on Psychology Today’s Career Transitions blog.

You really shouldn’t start your essay with, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." And these phrases are too trite to use: “I want to change the world," "I love the law," or "I want to be an international lawyer because I love to travel."

The other four points:

• Make sure you read the instructions before you start writing.

• Don’t proclaim that you tend to focus on a specific area of law, such as criminal justice, if nothing in your background backs it up.

• If you write about a mentor, make sure you explain what that person taught you.

• Proofread—more than once—for grammatical and spelling errors, and have someone else proofread, too.

Comments

1.

Steve
Nov 12, 2009 8:24 AM CST

Potential Mistake #6
Writing the essay at all if it is to an expensive lower-ranked school that represents a poor ROI.
(Unless money is no object or you have a guaranteed job - In that case lower-ranked is just fine because the lower ranked schools usually still teach the material as effectively as the higher ranked.)

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2.

Carl
Nov 12, 2009 9:13 AM CST

Agree completely with Steve, probably the best advice of all.

I don’t agree with the advice not to mention specific areas of law if they’re not already in your background. Unless you have a law degree already and have practised law, ANY area of law is likely to be one that is not in your background. And the fact is that some people do actually go to law school because they seek a career change.

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3.

Esq.
Nov 12, 2009 9:40 AM CST

Good Lord.  If the tips outlined first, third, and fourth bullet-points never occurred to you, don’t bother applying to law school.

I disagree with the second bullet point.

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4.

Jackcatscal
Nov 12, 2009 10:13 AM CST

Avoid trite phrases in law school applications?  if that were the test, there wouldn’t be any lawyers in this country.  For example, how many times have you heard a lawyer spew the dreadful phrase, “Slippery Slope”?

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5.

ded
Nov 12, 2009 11:30 AM CST

Mistake number #6

Applying at all.

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6.

Essay Blues
Nov 12, 2009 11:42 AM CST

Why should an essay have any impact on law school admission?  A lot of these essays are written by someone else anyway to make the candidate look good.  The shallowness of law school admissions continues to amaze.

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7.

tim
Nov 12, 2009 11:53 AM CST

@6 is 100% right on.  Almost everyone who went to a top 10 law school didn’t write their own essay.  You sit down with someone, they learn about you, why you want to go law school, your background, etc - then they write it for you.

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8.

Richard Kaye
Nov 12, 2009 12:35 PM CST

ded has it right.  I would add:  Look in the mirror and say “am I out of my freaking mind?  I could take the $200,000 that law school will cost and spend three years traveling the world and having a great time.  At the end of three years, I wil have had the time of my life and have as much likelihood of getting a job as a lawyer as somebody who spent three years locked in a room memorizing materila that wil be of no usse in later life as a fast food counter person.”

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9.

Nick
Nov 12, 2009 1:01 PM CST

You all (most of you) sound so bitter!  I’m assuming you’re all recent graduates from law school?    Bitter, bitter, bitter.

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10.

Brad Henchel, JD
Nov 12, 2009 1:48 PM CST

At the Calif Bar’s legal ethics symposium in March 2009 Prf. Erwin Chemerinsky said that law students all over the USA are NOT being hired.  He called for a moratorium on Student loans and law school loans.  He was met with silence by the crowd of lawyers and bar members.  But the more devastating effect on the new lawyer is the way discipline is handed out, at least in Calif.  4 years ago Scott Drexel was hired as Chief Prosecutor, then 4000 lawyers were on suspension, NOW there are 10,500 lawyers on suspension, some of that suspension is made permanent by a rule 1.4(c)(ii) that requires proof the member can practice law properly [read without any criticism of the bar or its discipline system].
  That 10,500 does not include those who were disbarred, made involuntary or resigned with charges pending, such as the lawyers hounded out of practice for performing loan modifications for those in foreclosure. 
  It is so easy to loose your law license in California that some recent law grads left California for New York after viewing the corruption that goes on in State Bar Court.  Most of the problems occur when you ask your client for money, they ask for their file, go to another lawyer who demands all the money paid to you returned.  When you refuse a bar complaint is made.  Charge: mishandling client $$$

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11.

Ford
Nov 12, 2009 3:09 PM CST

Surprisingly, my essays spoke about a mentor, probably used trite phrases, and were entirely about the only area of law I ever had any interest in learning about, and UT let me in.  I call shenanigans on their list.

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12.

nomoe
Nov 12, 2009 3:33 PM CST

Here is how I got admitted to law school thirty years ago. I was getting married to a gal in another state so I drew a circle within thirty miles of our residence. I called the dean at one of the law schools and gave him my credentials , Lsat etc. over the phone. I did not want to waste an application fee. He accepted me over the phone. I made law review and graduated Cum Laude. What is this essay stuff?

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13.

Ooona Boompf
Nov 13, 2009 7:29 AM CST

I would interview the law school, these days.  AFter all, if you have to pay money, you should get something back. 

Go visit the school, see if there are happy students there.  Find out what extracurricular activities are available to break the tension.  Mixers, men from local schools, women from nursing schools all help to break up the tension.

I would not go to law school again unless I knew all these things.

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14.

john
Nov 13, 2009 11:12 AM CST

I would write the following: I will give this law school $100,000 in exchange for a job that pays $50,000.  Since your recruitment materials state that 90% of graduates earn six figures, I forsee no difficulty in this school providing the same.

Of course if the law school would actually promise this, you’d be in a better position than most current grads.

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15.

randy
Nov 13, 2009 11:48 AM CST

where on the list is the biggest mistake: Applying to a law school?

It is a financial disaster for many!

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16.

Harry
Nov 13, 2009 4:27 PM CST

When I applied to Dalhousie Law School in 1982, the four page form included a full fourth page space for an essay entitled “why I want to study law at Dalhousie Law School”.
I wrote the following: I want to attend Dalhousie Law School because I think it would be fun.”
Twenty years later I was on the Bench, where I remain today.
Moral of the story: If you are not going to enjoy it, do yourself a favour, and do something else.

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17.

Steve
Nov 13, 2009 8:18 PM CST

to #14, that is an amusing notion.

There’s a reason law schools don’t over classes in exchange for a percentage of your future earnings.  :)

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