Essays That Will Get You into Law School (Barron's Essays That Will Get You Into Law School)

 (18 customer reviews)

If you're writing a personal statement for a law school in the top 14, stay away from this book. You can already write something more interesting than any of their sample essays.
The advice they give is fine, especially the general tips on how to organize your thoughts. But the book is 90% a collection of essays, and they are uniformly atrocious.
Almost all of the essays are variations on the theme of 'experience in my life that made me want to be a lawyer.' This is not the kind of essay the admissions committee at Harvard or Yale wants to hear. They want an interesting look at the kind of person you are, not a cheesy story about how working for a state senator made you realize the importance of community service. Essays are not the time to list your accomplishments. That's why Yale's application doesn't have you fill out any forms, but instead asks for a resume.
If you're looking for good essays to get your creative juices flowing, avoid this book like the plague.

This book is an excellent guide for how to structure and write your personal statement. Some of the tips and writing exercises were a little too remedial to be helpful, but the authors really helped me understand what admissions officers are looking for. By following the guidelines in this book, I was able to make the final draft of my essay much better than the first version was. As this book points out, the key is to write your essay so that it not only grabs the attention of the reader like a commercial would, but also to make it memorable enough so that the admissions officer still remembers your essay after finishing reading a hundred other people's personal statements. This book helped me make the writing in my essay tighter, better organized, and more coherent.As for the forty sample essays, I was amazed at how dull and boring many of them were. But that actually boosted my confidence level, because I realized that my essay had a good chance of making a positive...Read more

As someone who works privately with students, helping them with admissions essays for law school, I highly recommend this book. When students call me in regard to assistance with their essays, I recommend that they first buy this book as a means to get started. The guidelines and essays have helped my clients not only to gather their thoughts, but also to organize and write them into interesting and creative essays. By the time they come to me for feedback and editing, they are well on the way to getting into the law school of their choice.