Law School Personal Statement — BRAINSTORMING

Brainstorming is the first stage in writing your law school personal statement. It is the process of gathering all of your ideas, and jogging memories of helpful information. It is important that you get these thoughts on paper, so do not edit or censor them!

Do not edit, there will be enough time to edit later. Your goal in this stage is to write down all of your ideas so that you don’t forget them later. Brainstorming is NOT a draft, NOT an outline and nowhere close to the final essay. You want thoughts, ideas and pieces of thoughts, without considering how the thoughts are connected to one another. Forget structure and form. What is important is that you are able to put your inner thoughts, really who you are, onto paper. This will be critical when writing, so that you communicate to admissions who you are. Now, get everything that is in your head onto paper!

Devote some time to reflect on some key questions. Discuss them with friends or family members. This is a very important exercise, so do not scrimp with your time. It should not be a fast process and could take days…perhaps a couple of weeks. The answers to some of the following questions could form the heart of your personal statement. It’s okay to not have a response to every question. These are brain-starting questions.

Personal Statement Brainstorming – Pre-college education:

How did this period in your life influence your decision to pursue law school?

Consider: Volunteer and community work, organizations, both community and student, course work, teachers. (High school is a formative time, and may be quite important to the development of your maturity. Remember however, that you must portray yourself with a high level of maturity so high-school experiences in general probably shouldn’t occupy a large percentage of your final essay.) Was your education non-traditional (such as performing arts, home school, etc.)

Personal Statement Brainstorming – College experiences:

In what ways have your college years influenced your decision?

Consider: Think about your decision-making process you underwent when choosing your major. Consider academic interests, research, special programs or independent study, student and community organizations, courses.

Personal Statement Brainstorming – Sports, Hobby or Travel experiences:

How have these experiences contributed to your personal growth and influenced you?

Consider:  Varsity or non-traditional sports, championships or special honors, endurance athlete or unique athletic accomplishments, such mountain climbing, free-diving, etc.  Travel, Travel alone? Lived abroad? Unusual living arrangements? Did you speak the language?

Personal Statement Brainstorming – Work experiences:

How have past and current work experiences influenced you?

Consider:  Internships, part-time and summer jobs, volunteer or community work. Did your financial situation require you to work while attending school? How many hours? Did you work for a family business, and was this required of you? Your work acquaintances…were they significantly different from you…younger, older, disabled, non-English speaking? Unique responsibilities or have you started your own company? Any unusual skills in any of your jobs?

Personal Statement Brainstorming – People:

Who, and how has an individual or individuals influenced on your decision to pursue law school?

Consider: Parents, siblings, relatives, teachers and professors, friends of your family, college friends, parents of friends, clergy, merchants, supervisors, coaches, doctors, lawyers, etc.

Personal Statement Brainstorming – Family Background:

How has your family influenced you?

Consider: Where did you grow up, are you or your parents/grandparents first generation US citizens? Languages spoken in your home. Are you an only child, or have more than five siblings? Are you adopted? Do you know your birth parents? Anything non-traditional about your household…significantly older/younger siblings, multi-generational? Did parents have unusual occupations, in the military? Did you have some responsibility for providing a degree of financial support to the family or have unusual responsibilities at home? Memorable vacation traditions? Unusual living situations such as: military base, farm, unique setting? How is your family different from the families of your friends?

Personal Statement Brainstorming –  Situation or situations that influenced you:

Were there one or several key events? Note any turning points in your life, travel experiences, important people, life lessons, etc.

Consider: Travel experiences, academic, work, athletics, family, academic.
Happy, sad, traumatic, moving or memorable events.
Past successes or failures–Record any major successes and how you accomplished them. Past failures are sometimes great motivators and where we sometimes learn the most…don’t be afraid of mentioning them.

Personal Statement Brainstorming – Personal Motivations and Goals:

What is your motivation to pursue law? Do you have a perspective that makes you unique or valuable. What about your perspective or experiences make you a valuable contributor to the field? What drives you…gets you up in the morning?

Your short and long-term goals–How would a particular school help you achieve the goal? Why would school “x” be the perfect place to help me meet these goals.

Consider: Personal skills, interests, values, goals… As a mind-jogger, what would you do if you were not able to attend law school?

###
This is a very important step you need to take when preparing to write your law school personal statement!

If you give yourself adequate time in this stage, you will have targeted your statement’s theme and be much better equipped to present yourself to the admissions committees as a valuable addition to their school.

Tags: applications, Law School Admissions, law school personal statement, personal statement