Can anyone offer much-needed advice for writing Personal Statements? Thanks!

Hi ,
Personal statement naturally is a function of individual aspirations and also dependent on individual skills and talents andoften I have seen that while a general structure of what a personal statement should be all about is given in the requisite application itself it finally boils down to how an individual responds to those parameters with ones own self.
I hope I hadve not made what is obscure more obscure.
To make it short be yourself in such a situation -- i go so far as to say that attempt to camoufloage will come out at some point or the other. So shoot straight.
pappu

I agree with pappu. This may be give you some inspiration, though:
http://www.llm-guide.com/board/6200
http://www.llm-guide.com/board/6451
http://www.accepted.com/law/PersonalStatement.aspx

The good news is that if you take a walk to your local Borders bookstore, you'd see tons of books on writing that 'perfect essay' for law school admission. The bad news is that thousands of prospective students will be using those exact books.

A personal statement should tell a flowing story to the admission committee and who is in a better position to tell this story than U? A strong opening attention-grabbing paragraph has always done the trick.

Also limit the number of times you use 'I' statements. On my PS I wrote "coming from a third-world Country such as Nigeria.... Note, I could equally have said, "I'm from Nigeria."

They want to hear about your life experiences. They want to hear about those things that make you tick. How did you overcome obstacles/challenges in life? What are those things that make you THAT unique person? Why did you choose that particular law school? (Find out what the latest achievement the law school has achieved and gently slip that in. A line or two should be sufficient). This provides them with an insight that youre informed and also that youre not using the same PS to all law school applications you may be making.

What do you hope to bring to the law school? At the end of day what do you hope to take away? In additon to the advice & links provided by Pappu & Russ, definitely make use of the 'about' page on the various law school sites. " X law school would provide unparrallel opportunities for me to..."

Just my $0.02. Best of Luck!

my problem is that i dont know where to start as i feel i am applying to too many schools and am losing focus here trying tailor make for each of tehm and getting stuck at the begining what do i do? am also making shift from my corporate practice to human rights courses so how far should i justify that in my personal statement?

subslaw,
I guess the important question is: 'How do you justify it to yourself?' True, your motives may not be ideal - at least not in the eyes of an admissions committee - but it's an underlying question you have to sort out for yourself...before you take the plunge. It's hard-pressing to give a strong rationale for such a shift. If you feel burdened by the fact that you have a lot of applications, don't worry. Graduate applications are just that stressful and everyone else is going through the same hassles. Keep your chin up (a good table showing each school's requirements and checking off those you've completed might help too).
If you're applying for the same thing at most of the universities, you can usually take a paragraph from here and another from there to fulfill the personal essays they require. It is unlikely that a single one, continuously altered, will provide the kind of lucid and convincing communication you want to achieve.
Cheers!

thank you so much...am sort of juggling a full time job and doing my applications and have only 10 days off to figure the whole thing out so a bit more stressed than the others but your advice is very helpful. will keep that in mind. i ahve already made a detailed note of the individual University's requirements as far as personal statements go and since am applying for the same programmes in most places i think i can breathe a bit! thanx again