What would be especially useful for you today in our conversation? So since we're dealing with the personal statement, I wanted to talk about, for those of us who are older and we're not young, how can we minimize our personal statement into a three page paper, given the fact that a lot of us like, for instance, for me, I worked for the federal government for like since 2004. So, how can I like put it in order of like how do we categorize what's important and say kind of like was really not that important for the end. So say for instance for me, I was a single mom, I'm a single mom, my son is 19 years old so I want to list what I've gone through in the beginning, and like do I go for the second part, the reason why I'm interested in this particular school, and then third on this like for me being a federal government employee my public service and how being at this particular law school that it can work in favor with me since being a public service and the courses or the major that are to put together it will work hand in hand, and then like how do I actually close my personal statement, do I reiterate what was already in the first part, or just give another paragraph for the ending.
These are all great questions and they're common ones I think part of the issue here is that the job of the personal statement is not to list all of your work or everything you've done up to this point or your entire life's journey. You can include a lot of that on your resume the resume is the place to have in reverse chronological order, your major academic and career experiences, but the personal statement is your opportunity to go deep on one particular area, not to mention everything you've done so your personal statement will not mention a lot of things that are impressive and that you want more schools to know, just the nature of the piece I mean you said three pages I actually recommend two. So you really got that yeah I know so you've really got to cut things down and keep it concise and it's a big impulse for applicants to want to cover everything and not leave anything out, but inevitably you will have to leave something out you can't compress an entire lifetime up to this point in an entire application unfortunately and certainly not ingest your personal statement so you may want to pick one thing to focus on in your personal statement and then you do have another essay or two where you can cover another one or two things, but again it still won't be everything. So how do I also with diversity statements.
Okay, so for me the African American woman, I come from middle class so I mean I went through struggles because I was a single mom, but how can I or should I write a diversity statement if I really never faced certain particular things in sure so you don't have to focus on obstacles you've overcome in the diversity statement that's certainly a common thing to do, but rather it's more about what your unique background brings the table so you talked about being a single mother you talked about working for the federal government. Those may have those may give you unique perspectives you could bring to a law school classroom and if you search a little bit more you may find that there are some struggles you face I imagine being a single mother isn't an easy thing to do especially while you're working and so those are obstacles you may not have faced every single obstacle that any African American woman out there has but there are still some that you have faced and you can focus on those. So also can I with the diversity statement. Maybe in the workforce.
I can list probably H has been something because I've always been the youngest in a department and it has been that oh you don't know much because you're young. So can I list that in a diversity statement that I've got with senior people in an apartment minimizing me because of my youthfulness. Yeah, you certainly can. Okay, the important thing to remember though is that you don't want this to be a laundry list of hardships you had you don't want to become a pity party is rather you can mention those things, but then use them as jumping off points to share what you've learned from the experience.
And how that will shape you going forward. Okay, so can I also list that what I have started going through is the reason why I chose to be in this particular major or this field of law that I have chosen because of the hardships of success is great in a single mother. Now my what I want to do is entertainment law, but like if that's what I always did like family law so because I was a single mom maybe I can focus more so like on family law with child support and all of that because I'm never receiving. During the 19 years of my son, you know, this got great earth.
So it's like, can I like close with the ending of what this has done for me this has caused me to be more motivated in life caused me to like be an advocate for a single mom's, you know, like, is that something I can use in a diversity statement. You certainly can and that sounds fantastic topic. Okay. Okay.
So I would include some things about your unique personal background in the diversity statement and then maybe pick the biggest thing that you want to go deep on for your personal statement because the personal statement should typically be a little bit longer than the diversity statement. Right. Yeah. And I think about it is just conditional to two pages because I've already got it like to three pages, but to make it two pages.
Now what the font is that important. I mean, because if you wanted to be to, I guess what the minimum is like 12. Yeah. So I mean, don't play any tricks with the margins don't play any tricks with the word count.
Obviously cutting it down requires a lot of tough decisions. That's where it may help to have someone other than yourself helping you with this ideally your rough draft should be long, it should be maybe 1500 words, and then just chop it down be by bit take out every unnecessary sentence. Every unnecessary detail. So at the end, your final draft is jam packed full of what really counts.
Okay. And another thing with personal statements. So, can we mention like what's on the law school page. Can we use it as a reference of why we want to be a part of this particular law school.
So, so this is the Dean mentioned something in his statement that like works together with what you want to be at this particular school. Can we list that in there and do we quote the source or do we just kind of like rearrange the words and that's it. I wouldn't mention it briefly, maybe, but definitely don't use quotes that just takes up too much valuable space. And you also don't want to tell them all about why they're great is really more about what unique characteristics of the school make you want to go there specifically so if you want to work on family law, and they have a unique program in family law, or unique clinic of some kind or other extracurricular that could be a thing to mention.
Right, because I did see like in the personal statement that I've been doing like what I saw, I took a sentence of what the Dean said and it worked perfect like what, why wouldn't it be there so they have like the clinical law they have people who are not fortunate to hire attorneys. So they use law students or those who like in the third or fourth year. And I thought that was like something like this is what I wanted to do like to actually get in and see what it's like. So I mentioned it in the personal statement.
Take what is already mentioned, but kind of like put it in with what I'm saying because it's like what I wanted to do. As far as like, for example, they have like, you know, clinical working and, you know, actually going to court and you know, just helping out and assisting so. Yeah, that's awesome. I think that's definitely worth doing.
Okay. Okay. Now, another thing about a personal statement. Should we mention is it wrong to mention that alumni who have gone to this particular school that has like, give you the confirmation of why this particular law school is great.
So say for instance, I spoke to Stephen about this law school because he was a president of the law school there. And by me talking to him really confirmed that this is the school of why I want to be here. Is that possible or should you just leave people names out. Okay.
Okay. That's a great thing to include. Okay. Any personal connection you have with the school and direct connections have with the school shows that you're especially likely to choose them if they accept you.
Right. Okay. Okay. That's what I wanted to know.
Excellent. I really thought I was able to help. What would you say is the biggest insight you got from our call today. I'm going to talk about the first thing that I want to say is basically with personal statements, you have to really be strategic about what you want to put in there.
And things are already listed on your resume. So you don't have to go back and reiterate the same thing that's already on your resume. Do a draft. And if you have 1500 words, start cutting down that other people view your work.
Also with a diversity statement, don't make it like a pity party. And also to include people that has been like alumni members in your personal statement. Awesome. Great.
Well, I think you're on your path now. Please keep in touch and let me know if you need anything as you move forward. Great. Thank you so much.
I pleasure to take care. Thanks for tuning into the show. Please subscribe if you haven't done so already to be notified of new episodes.