Yale’s Associate Dean of Admissions Asha Rangappa continues her Personal Statement Boot Camp series. This time, she focuses on essays written by applicants who have a background as teachers for Teach for America (a non-profit organization that strives to achieve educational equality).

Although the post is geared toward a specific group of J.D. applicants, it is of general interest to prospective LL.M. applicants as well. For one, it points out how your LL.M. personal statement (and overall LL.M. application) must not be seen in isolation, but rather as competing against the pool of applicants that have the same or similar basic qualifications. Thus, while your personal statement must be well-written and convincing if read by itself, it also has to stand out as compared to other, similarly situated applicants’ personal statements.

Moreover, the post also refers back to Dean Rangappa’s previous advice on writing a great personal statement for law school admission, which demonstrates “the applicant’s ability to reflect on experiences, think critically about them, and come to some conclusions – or additional questions – about his/her place in the world.”

Rangappa makes an interesting distinction between a good law school personal statement and a great law school personal statement. A good personal statement:

…provides a coherent narrative of what has brought you to this point (in your life, of applying to law school, or a combination of these two).  What this narrative consists of will depend on the person writing it.  For some, it may focus on their upbringing or cultural background.  For others, it may be an intellectual journey, where certain ideas or courses influenced you.  And for others it may be one or several experiences, personal or professional, that were meaningful.  Whatever the narrative is, the reader gets an idea of the major events, turning points, influences, or experiences that make up who you are.

However, a great – as opposed to simply “good” – law school personal statement goes beyond this descriptive narrative by connecting an applicant’s “story” with a meaningful, larger theme that shows the applicant’s reflective abilities. Writes Rangappa:

The applicant with a great personal statement takes the above personal statement, and goes a step further by relating the things they have chosen to mention to something that is larger than themselves.  Now, I don’t mean that they go on to pontificate about their own personal philosophy of life.  I also don’t mean that they have to choose some global issue or platform — this isn’t the Miss America contest.  What I mean is that the great personal statement makes connections between the experiences or events that the applicant has highlighted and, say, a larger idea or an theme that it made the applicant consider or explore further.  Or, for someone who wrote about their upbringing or background, perhaps they now evaluate those experiences from a new and different perspective and can make a connection between those experiences and issues they later became interested in.

These guidelines generally apply to LL.M. personal statements as well. The most important difference between a J.D. personal statement and an LL.M. personal statement is that LL.M. applicants already have a background in law, which will be reflected in their personal statements as well. Thus, an LL.M. personal statement will often contain more and more concrete references to the law and an applicant’s specific experience or achievements therein. Nevertheless, one of the major principles remains the same: Be unique and stand out.

Update: If you are interested in seeing actual samples of “great” LL.M. personal statements, make sure to check out our eBook Top Personal Statements for LL.M. Programs.

 

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