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Recs, Resumes, and Essays

Recommendations, Resumes,
Essays and Addenda

There are four opportunities in your file for you to take control of your own destiny:  the recommendations, resumes, personal statements and supplemental essays. Yet admissions officers tell me that most students waste these opportunities. They send superficial, undistinguishing information, with little personal character. They are afraid to take risks, for fear of alienating someone. This shows their misunderstanding of the admissions process.

When I first began learning about law school admissions, I got my most valuable bit of advice from the director of admissions at Duke. She said, "People are afraid to take risks in their personal statements; they're afraid they'll give me a reason to say 'no' to them. They forget that I already have a reason to say 'no' to every applicant. That reason is numbers. I have 3500 applicants and 200 seats. The applicant's job is to give me a reason to say 'yes.' If the personal statement doesn't take a risk, it's wasted paper."

Admissions officers state that recommendations could be valuable, but rarely are, primarily because they do not give the admissions officer the information needed to evaluate your potential. You can vastly improve the quality of your recommendations by choosing the best people and preparing them adequately by providing the information necessary. In addition, you must take the initiative to see that the recommendations are processed and reach the law schools promptly.

Sometimes a single essay cannot explain everything an admissions officer needs to know about you. Most schools offer you the opportunity to discuss your background either as part of the diversity you will bring to the law school or as evidence of the obstacles you have overcome in order to succeed as much as you have thus far.  Sometimes responses to questions about arrests, academic probation, and leaves of absence often require an extensive answer. In other cases, the law school specifically asks other questions: why do you want to be a lawyer, what is your proudest personal achievement, why do you want to attend our law school? In those cases, supplemental essays must be written to give the admissions officer the information they request.  Each of these essays is another occasion for you to present the picture of yourself that you want the admissions committee to see. It's your best chance to give them a reason to say "yes" to your application; don't waste it.

From Your Hand to the Admissions Officer's Eye

Preparing documents and getting them to the law schools are two entirely different tasks; for our help on getting these bits and pieces to the law schools in the proper way, see Completing the Applications.

Bad Advice

Several students have mentioned hiring one of our competitors for essay advice.  They were told to write an expanded resume.  I  said it was bad advice, and made a different recommendation.  

So what's an applicant to do? One of them went  with us to a Law Forum; we  imposed on two different admissions officers to look over her essay.  They both agreed with me -- bad.  So I don't care what you-know-who at you-know-where says.  An expanded resume is not a personal statement.