Hi everyone, does anyone have any insight on the PS.

I am torn between writing a PS about my life and my background rather than 'why I want to attend this specific university and why this LL.M. is important to me".

When reading other PS from JD students one often finds captivating stories about their struggles, life events that changed them, their childhood. Is this the kind of PS that the Admission officers wants to read?

Is it too cliché to write about ones childhood and will that bore the Admissions officers?

Hi Sofia,

You have posed a very valid question. The way I like to approach a personal statement is by keeping in mind that the admissions committee goes through thousands of these documents. Therefore, ideally your statement should stand out from the crowd in terms of the fact that it should be an engaging read. Having said that, some people have experienced great struggles and their stories are naturally an interesting read. However, this is not the case with most of us. Therefore, it is about how you write the piece. The content will stay true to you. Hope this helps and all the best!

Hi,

I spoke to some recruitment officers at an LLM event a little while ago and got the impression that they don't really care that much about personal statements. They told me that they cared much more about transcripts, work experience and language proficiency. I'm sure this doesn't go for all schools, but the advice I got was 'don't sweat the personal statement, it's not that important.' (however, if your other credentials are a little weak, it may make the difference)

Good luck!

Hello SofiaM!

I second everything sah130 has mentioned. Just be careful that most sample PS online are undergrad level and therefore do not focus much on work experience and activities that demonstrate your legal skills. We as LLM applicants are expected to have actual legal knowledge and experience so it becomes important for us to let that show in the PS. More than a personal story in my opinion.

I have actually read that a lot of schools do not want to read legal essays. From what I've read, you should write about why you want to pursue an LLM, what your experience is and what your goals are. Some schools view it as a writing sample and form and writing style may be more important than substance.

I would recommend checking the application instructions for the schools you want to apply to. Many schools have clear instructions for the PS. And if you are still unsure, why not just contact them and ask? In my experience, most LLM programs are happy to answer any questions you have about their application process.

Although I do agree on some points, I beg to differ on what was said about PS not being as important as transcripts, work experience and language proficiency.

This could be the case in a UK university where they put too much weight on the University you attended etc; but this is not how US universities approach applications. PS play a very important role and there is a very clear reason for this:
For example Harvard gets around 1500 applications per year, most if not all of the applicants have first class degrees and are probably in the top 5-10% of their class. How do you choose 200 out of 1500 top graduates simply by looking at their grades??
Finally, 'language proficiency', yes they do want you to be able to speak and write english at an appropriate level BUT this would not make them choose a weaker candidate over a stronger one just because the weaker is better in english. Especially since US universities want to achieve diversity in their classes, having students from over 100 countries. But most importantly even if language was that important how would they judge if someone's english is better from someone else?? Exactly, through their PS! so the PS is a lot more important than people think ;)

A couple months ago I myself was pretty worried about what to put in my personal statement but then I spoke with some actual admissions people from US universities and they told me a whole other story. I was very surprised to hear them say that the personal statement was not that important to THEM. It helped me to let it go a little bit, so I wanted to share this information. But like I said, it's probably different for each school.