Personal Statement help

[hellofuturejdhopeful 2]

Hey all,

 

I have been working on my personal statements for two months now, and I'm still finding that its not all that great... Am i the only one who takes this long or has anyone else found the PS to be the hardest part of the application?!

[emasrbmk 5]

15 minutes ago, hellofuturejdhopeful said:

Hey all,

 

I have been working on my personal statements for two months now, and I'm still finding that its not all that great... Am i the only one who takes this long or has anyone else found the PS to be the hardest part of the application?!

They are hard !! I'm currently sitting here editing and re-editing ones I have already looked over a trillion times.... You're not the only one

[Notnotadog 212]

I've literally had like 10 drafts of my UofT PS so far and I'm spending all week on the Osgoode ones. So so much work.

[prohacvice 61]

For a variety of perspectives on this question, see this topic:

I agree with those who warn against spending too much time on your personal statement. Your statement doesn't have to be perfect, and it's probably not as important as your GPA or LSAT score. After a certain point, the time you spend working on your statement would be better spent on other things.

As for me, I worked on my statement a little bit at a time, with a few days between each session. The whole process took about two weeks. Rereading my statement now after all these years, I would say it's not perfect. But I got into law school.

[hellofuturejdhopeful 2]

ahh i guess thats true, i just feel like my PS doesn't flow and i don't have much to offer other than my EC's, which aren't all that outstanding lol 

[Megbean123 84]

oh my god, I felt this post in my soul. Good luck to everyone, I'm in the exact same boat. We'll get through it one way or another!

[hellofuturejdhopeful 2]

Just out of curiosity how good does everyone feel about their PS?

[anonymousanon 10]

I spent about 2+ months writing my PS as well. I would take a break from it for a couple of days, think about what you would like to say, go back read it and see if your PS actually gets that point across. Also, if you have someone you can trust and they have excellent editing skills, I would suggest you ask them to edit. But make sure to give them time.

At the end of the day, the PS is the only way the admissions committee gets to know you. Be personal, persuasive, and perfect (just kidding about the perfect thing).

[hellofuturejdhopeful 2]

I guess thats true, Im just stressing out about it because I have two people willing to read over it and I want to give it to them with enough time to tweak it after. 

[Megbean123 84]

I've had like 5-6 people go over mine and comments ranged from: very good to if I was an admissions officer I would throw this in the garbage bin (that was my first draft and from I professor I really respect who I know said it with the best of intentions because he really wants me to get in). I've reworked it time and time again, but at the end of the day I guess you just don't know because it is all evaluated subjectively. I can safely say this has been the most nerve-wracking part of the whole thing and I hate every minute of it....

[hellofuturejdhopeful 2]

1 minute ago, Megbean123 said:

I've had like 5-6 people go over mine and comments ranged from: very good to if I was an admissions officer I would throw this in the garbage bin (that was my first draft and from I professor I really respect who I know said it with the best of intentions because he really wants me to get in). I've reworked it time and time again, but at the end of the day I guess you just don't know because it is all evaluated subjectively. I can safely say this has been the most nerve-wracking part of the whole thing and I hate every minute of it....

Omg same here, this is truly the toughest part, I have been working on my PS for about 12 hours now and I still feel like all I have is a bunch of blurbs. Nice to know I'm not the only one!!

[Notnotadog 212]

I also had what seemed lil a bunch of unrelated points at the beginning. I had my girlfriend read it and she told me where she thinks I can tie a narrative into it. 

I was pretty happy with it, until recently where a good friend and 1L edited it and tore it apart. It's appreciated of course but will be a lot of work in the next 10 or so days.