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Explaining Why You’re Applying to Their Law School (The "Why X" Essay)

Among the many optional essays law schools may ask you to write, one of the most common is the "Why X" essay—essentially, an essay in which you describe to the law school why you are interested in attending that school in particular.

On a cursory level, it may seem very easy to write this type of essay. You write one template, drop in the proper nouns related to the specific institutions, and you’re ready to submit. This method can produce a very generic essay, though, and one that likely won't help your chances of admission. If it feels like fluff, it most likely is a bit superficial, and admissions committees will quickly make the same determination—they have seen this all before.

What’s the best approach, then, to craft a “Why X” essay that truly makes a positive impact on your application and is distinct for each school?

The University of Pennsylvania Law School, for example, asks the “Why Penn” question in a unique manner that is designed to get you to a deeper level. Essentially, Penn asks you to identify how your interests, goals, and values connect to Penn Law’s core values. This concept is a great direction for any Why X Law School essay. Figure out what motivates you, find those opportunities at each law school that requires a “Why X” essay, and then highlight those activities in your essay. Don’t just list them—instead, connect them to what motivates you.

“I’m an EMT and a Health Science major, and I’ve seen America’s health crisis from both the academic and practical level on the ground. I want to get involved in Princeton Law School’s Rural Health Clinic because too many people do not know how to navigate the system.”

“I’m an engineer, and Dartmouth Law’s Journal of Science and Technology would be an ideal way for me to take a leadership role in researching and recommending federal and state regulations that are necessary for the safe and orderly institution of artificial intelligence technology.”

Both of these statements specifically connect the applicant's background and experience to one of the school’s opportunities, rather than just saying "I'm very interested in X clinic" or "Y Journal really appeals to me." By personalizing why the school’s opportunities have motivated you to apply, you will help the school better understand how you fit with their institution, and it may also convince them that you are more likely to enroll than the next applicant (the core goal of submitting a Why X).

"Why X" Essay Dos and Don'ts

• DO check to see if the school has any specific formatting or length requirements or guidelines in their instructions, before you start drafting. If not, we generally advise applicants keep their "Why X" essay to about one page, at 1’’ margins and 11- or 12-point font.
• DON'T write a "Why X" essay for every school you apply to. Some schools don’t want them. Some schools ask for them specifically, which is a clear indication that you should write one. Alternatively, at other schools, a “Why” essay is not requested but has still been shown to be strategically advantageous to submit. So, read the application instructions and do your research to figure out for which schools you should be writing this type of essay, and which schools do not welcome them.
• DO lead with the personal . Start with a personal connection if you can. Have you ever visited the school? Do you know someone who attends and have you heard good things from that perspective? What was your introduction to the school? These are often the strongest and most differentiating components of a “Why X” essay, if they apply to you.
• DON'T rely on templates. Some templating is natural for "Why X" essays, but spend time personalizing the essay to the school beyond just dropping in relevant info. And be incredibly careful to avoid leaving in references that do not apply to a specific school (e.g. “I like the feel of a college town” when the school is in a big city).
• DO research. The ideal "Why X" essay doesn't start and end with information that can be found on the law school's website, but you should still spend some time there. In addition to learning about the school's areas of strength, clinics, professors, journals, etc., check out the news/updates sections of the website or watch a student video; perhaps there will be something that resonates and relates to your interests and goals, and you can comment on it in your statement. Outside of the law school's substantive offerings, you can also mention things like class size, location, and atmosphere (but make sure that you give a reason “why” that also tells the reader about yourself).
• DON'T make it all about them. The "Why X" essay should tell the school more about you than it does about themselves. They already know about their programs and the information provided on their website, so it's not about listing the programs or courses and saying that you would be interested in them—it's more about why you are interested in them and how that relates to your goals, interests, learning styles, and preferences.
• DO incorporate the law school's "brand" into your essay, if applicable. Reviewing the law school's website, if it is well-executed, will teach you how the law school likes to talk about itself. Do they focus on “breadth and depth” or “an intimate seminar-style environment” or “close attention from faculty”? These can be useful concepts to use in a "Why X" essay, especially if you can connect them to your personal background, values, and goals.
• DON'T write anything that conflicts with your other application components. Your "Why X" essay, like every other component of your application, will not be read or evaluated in a vacuum. If you write your whole personal statement about your background working in public service and how you want to be a public interest lawyer, your "Why X" essay shouldn't center on the school's corporate law offerings. The more cohesive your "Why X" essay is with the rest of your application, the more authentic it will read. For example, talking about your focus on health law and how you are interested in a school’s Health Law Clinic is more powerful if you can back it up with extracurriculars, jobs, and/or other experiences in the healthcare system that show up in other components of your application.
• DO visit the law school, attend a recruiting event, or otherwise personally engage with the admissions office if you can. A well-written "Why X" essay can pack even more of a punch if it's backed up by records of real engagement with that law school, whether through a visit to campus, stopping by their table at an LSAC forum, or even attending a webinar from the admissions office. Then talk about your experience and what you learned in your "Why X" essay! Be sure to give specifics.

These are just a few suggestions that can help you write a strong "Why X" essay, but we also recommend having someone else read your essay before you submit. It is essential to make sure that the essay comes across as well-written and sincere (and the more personal connections you can make to the school, the more genuine you will seem).

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Good "Why X" Essay

Good “why x” essay.

Penn Law no longer offers a straightforward "Why X" prompt, but the following essay is still a good example of the form.

Growing up in Philadelphia, the truism that Penn is an institution of nearly unparalleled academic excellence is about as common as (and consistently more accurate than) the idea that the Eagles will win it all this year. Academics – though paramount – have universal and obvious appeal. Instead, where Penn distinguishes itself for me is through its dedication to the public interest that it practically pioneered, and through its affirming LGBT-inclusive experience. As I wrote in my personal statement, past experiences and current engagements have cemented my desire to become a legal advocate for the LGBT community. In addition to being a superb educational environment, Penn is uniquely positioned to enable me to achieve this goal.

Penn’s location in a city marked by LGBT density but situated in a state devoid of most types of relationship recognition or employment discrimination protections will give me exposure to the types of issues plaguing LGBT individuals throughout the country. I am excited and encouraged by the opportunity to spearhead projects like the one designed by recent graduate Mike Nasaki (’17), who works with low-income LGBT people facing employment discrimination. That Penn has established connections with places like the Mazzoni Center and facilitates the type of work that I dream of being involved with indicates that I will be supported in my efforts and satisfied with their impact. Academically, Penn’s curriculum of LGBT-oriented courses and retention of faculty such as Tobias Wolff will expose me to the most current debates and scholarship concerning where issues of sexual orientation, gender, and the law intersect.

While these hands-on and scholastic opportunities will form the basis for a superlative education, it is Penn’s well-established support of students wishing to work for the public interest that will allow my plan to become a reality. Whether through its uncommonly generous (Tol)LRAP program or its multiple public interest scholarships, it is reassuring to know that the stellar education that I receive and the impact I have will not be limited by financial barriers.

Most "Why X" essays read like Mad Libs in which the applicant plugs various classes and clinics into a template. This one feels like it was written for Penn from the ground up. It's also on-brand, underlining the author's interest in LGBT-rights, and it does a masterful job of arguing that Penn Law will help him turn that brand into a fulfilling career.

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How to Approach the “Why Our Law School?” Application Essay Prompt

December 2, 2022

Todd Carney

Law school application essays frequently cause writer’s block. It can be difficult to respond to a school’s prompts within the specified parameters. One prompt that often challenges applicants is “Why (insert law school)?” This is where you need to explain why you want to attend that specific law school. A lot of applicants think, “Well, it is a good school, and I clearly would not be spending the time and money to apply if I did not want to go there.” Although this is a reasonable reaction, you ultimately must articulate clearly and in a professional manner why you want to attend the school.

In this blog post, we at Stratus walk you through how to best respond to this prompt.

Research the Law School

A lot of applicants have issues with this essay question because they do not investigate the particulars of the school. Many apply to schools where they have a reasonable chance of gaining admission based on their GPA and test scores. Others apply to all the schools in a particular state if they want to or must live in that state.

Although these are reasonable starting points, it is always a good idea to do more research about the school. Most law schools will have some interesting alumni and offer an abundance of resources, but you should look deeper than that:

• Research school offerings and organizations in areas of interest. If you have an idea of what kind of law you want to practice, investigate what the school offers in that area. For example, if you want to work in health law, maybe the school has some courses, a clinic, or a center related to that field. There might also be professors who are experts in the area. But rather than simply listing all these things, you should explain how your legal career would benefit from these resources.Similarly, there might be a cultural reason that you want to attend a particular school. You might be interested in being a civil rights attorney, and the school might be known for its activism on campus or have many active student organizations. To demonstrate your interest in the school, you could discuss the student organizations and other activities in which you might participate and discuss how they will help you fulfill your legal aspirations after graduation.
• Find ways to connect famous alumni with your career goals. The law school might boast some impressive alumni. When discussing famous alumni, it is a good idea to tie them to something of interest to you. For example, if a former US president attended the school, it is best not to say you are interested just because that president was a student. Instead, focus on the fact that the president worked in an area of law of interest to you before they were elected. It can be helpful to mention any famous attorneys, activists, or specialists who attended the school if they are of interest to you and you can tie them into your career goals.
• Seek informational interviews with alumni. You might have friends or colleagues who are alumni or are currently attending the school, but it’s not a big deal if you do not know anyone. You also can reach out to alumni via LinkedIn to request an informational interview, or sometimes they might post their contact information elsewhere, such as a law firm website. Although alumni will not put in a special word to get you into their alma mater, an informational interview might provide more content for your essay. In addition, being able to mention specific alumni who are related to your legal aspirations can help show that you have done your homework. Doing all this research can help you determine your areas of interest in the law, and thinking about this before you apply can help you later if you must decide between schools.
• Investigate school resources and events. Finally, you should see if the school has published any blog posts or podcasts that provide advice on application essays or if the school offers information sessions on this topic. Schools will never tell you exactly what to write, but they might share how to best structure the essays, what types of details are of interest, and what not to do in their essays, among other helpful advice. Tips like this can be the difference between writing a good essay and writing a great one.

Share Insight About You

Law school essays want to know about you—who you are beyond your test scores, grades, and resume. Consequently, you do not need to jump straight into explaining why you want to attend the school. You could start by sharing what made you interested in becoming a lawyer. This introduction could cover the areas of law that appeal to you and why, and it is a good opportunity to showcase your accomplishments and life experiences. You could also touch on your career ambitions in this section and then provide more in-depth details later in the essay about how the law school will help you realize those ambitions.

Consider the Essay Structure

In terms of structure, many applicants organize their essays chronologically, but you do not necessarily need to start at the beginning of your life. The important thing is to share some experiences from your life and tie them together in terms of why you are interested in the law. Given that the essay is asking why you are interested in the law school, such details should be the focus, but you can find ways to expand on your experiences along the way. For example, if you are interested in international human rights, you could share details on this topic when you discuss how one of the law school’s offerings would complement your goals.

Although this essay prompt can seem daunting and open ended, like the other prompts, it is an opportunity for the law school to get to know you better. Therefore, do your best to demonstrate how the school is the best fit to help you achieve your career ambitions!

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How to Write a 'Why This Law School' Essay

S trong law applicants tend to have carefully considered why they are applying to law school , and they understand that their application essays need to express their interest in a legal career.

However, many are stumped when law school applications ask them a narrower question: Why are you applying to this law school?

Most commonly, law schools may ask this question through a supplemental application essay , sometimes called a “Why X School” or “Why This School” essay.

For example, the University of Notre Dame Law School offers applicants an optional statement of no more than two double-spaced pages “to express a specific interest in Notre Dame Law School.” The School of Law at the University of California—Irvine has a mandatory essay of up to 750 words about why you are interested in their school.

Other schools may ask applicants to address this question within their personal statement with a short-answer prompt. It is also a common interview question.

By asking applicants about their specific interest in a school, admissions officers turn the table on applicants. After all, applicants take pains to distinguish themselves by showing that their grades and test scores don’t reveal other factors that set them apart. With a “Why This School” question, law schools say: We’re unique, too. Why are you choosing us?

Ironically, many applicants have given little thought to what separates one law school from another! As you can imagine, admissions offices are not thrilled about this. They certainly don’t see themselves as gatekeepers to a generic, interchangeable institution. 

Answering a “Why This School” essay can be frustrating. How do you articulate your interest without resorting to boilerplate flattery about a school’s prestigious faculty and beautiful campus?

Learn About a Law School Through an Event, Interview or Visit

Since many applicants apply to a wide range of law schools, they may not know much about each one.

One of the best ways to learn about a law school is at a law school forum or information session. Many schools host online events, which can be convenient for applicants unable to visit the law school in person.

If you have a chance to speak with an admissions officer, you can ask good questions to learn more about how the school sets itself apart from others.

You may also learn about a law school by talking to current or former students about their experience on campus. 

Research What a Law School Offers

Law schools value applicants who show they have done their research about where they are applying, because the investment of time and energy shows genuine interest and because research is a core legal skill.

Use search engines like Google News or LexisNexis to find any mentions of the school in the press. Did the law school recently open a new building or center, or announce a new policy that might affect your interest?

Most importantly, carefully review the law school’s website . Law school websites are one of the best ways to learn about a school: how it sees itself, what it offers and what’s going on. While law school websites might look unremarkable at first, close reading can reveal valuable details.

Compare multiple law school websites and notice the differences between them in style and content. Often, the words and images they use are meticulously crafted to present and promote a distinct identity. Without copying their phrasing word for word, reference these ideas in your essays to reflect an understanding of a school’s unique character while avoiding cliches and generalities. 

Find Areas of Overlap

Law schools differ in their size, geography , culture, curricula, special programs, campus activities and many other ways. These distinctions provide perspectives on how each law school stands out.

Based on your research, make a list of strengths for each of your target schools that are relevant to your interests as a candidate. For example, if your personal statement is about your dream of becoming a prosecutor, look for clinics, research centers, programs, professors or distinguished alumni in the criminal law field.

Focus on a Few Specific Points

When elaborating on the reason you are interested in a school, don’t try to “flood the zone.” Broad compliments may sound insincere.

In a “Why This School” essay or interview response, center your answer on a few concrete reasons.

Try to keep the reasons varied. For example, rather than mention three clinics you find interesting, think about other potential points of intersection, like a personal connection or a geographic interest.

Think realistically about your plans for law school and beyond . It would be more effective to thoughtfully explain why a professor’s research interests align with your own than to rattle off every relevant course in the catalog.

Ultimately, “why” questions are about connecting a law school to yourself. Answer with confidence by researching and identifying a few specific ways in which a school’s unique offerings match with what sets you apart.

Copyright 2023 U.S. News & World Report

“Why This Law School?” Essay Example

Plus, an expert “why this law school” interview answer.

“Why this law school?” is a common law school optional essay prompt and law school interview question you must prepare for. This question is particularly intimidating because you need to do a bit of homework before you can compose a strong response to this question. How do you do this? In our article, we go over sample answers to this question, as well as explain the rationale behind it and provide you with the most comprehensive guide on how to compose your answer. Let’s dive in!

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

Article Contents 10 min read

Important note on the “why this law school” prompt.

Firstly, you should know that this law school essay prompt can be worded in many, many ways. It is not guaranteed that your chosen law schools in Canada and the US will present you with the exact prompt “Why are you choosing our school?”. But you must read between the lines. Some schools will ask you questions like:

“How do your goals and values match Penn Carey Law’s core strengths?” (University of Pennsylvania)

“what do you want to experience at stanford” (stanford university).

What are these prompts really asking you? They are asking why you are pursuing UPenn and Stanford specifically – in other words, “why this law school?”.

After you read this blog, you will have a strong strategy for writing this type of essay or answering this law school interview question and therefore will be able to compose a great narrative for any school you pursue. The key is not to miss identifying this common prompt among the prompts you encounter during the application or interview. So, it’s important to be on the lookout for this question even if it is not worded exactly the same way in every school.

Since we already mentioned a prompt from Stanford Law School , let’s review a sample essay for their prompt. And before we jump in, this is what Stanford Law School has to say about its culture:

“At SLS, we are driven by a passion for new ideas and a commitment to transformative solutions. True to our roots in Silicon Valley and our Stanford heritage, we focus on the future — not the past. Experimentation, exploration, the translation of new knowledge into entrepreneurial solutions: All are in our DNA.”

So, how can this inspire your essay? Here’s an example:

Prompt: “What do you want to experience at Stanford?" (100- to 250-word max)

Stanford Law School is always at the frontlines of innovation, and I want to experience and, more importantly, contribute to the transformations that will be taking place in our country's legal and social systems with the help of Stanford Law School, its faculty, and alumni. My background and achievements clearly demonstrate my dedication to innovation and progress. As the president of my college’s Law and Business Society, I have had the privilege of organizing and hosting our annual conference “Innovations in Digital Law” for three consecutive years. These colloquiums were a great chance to collaborate with and learn from my peers all over the United States and Canada. With over 2000 people in attendance, we were able to team up with many other college law societies to publish a small student journal “Law Innovations Today” that included 10 of the brightest works presented at the conference. The success of our conference led to an invitation to the Global Legal Innovations Summit in 20xx, which I attended as a speaker. Not only was I able to showcase my research and findings on global laws regarding terrorism, but I was able to meet with Stanford Law School faculty member Dr. ABC, whose course on Biomedical Innovation Law and Policy I look forward to taking at Stanford. (213 words)

By the way, try not to repeat yourself too much in your application. So if you already shared an experience with the admissions committee via your law school personal statement , then you should avoid telling the same story in your “why this law school?” essay. However, you can try to highlight different aspects of the same story in different application components. For example, your Stanford Law School personal statement can emphasize your leadership and logistical skills demonstrated in the Law and Business Society, but your “why this law school?” essay can emphasize your public speaking skills and dedication to innovation (as per the prompt). But keep in mind that we strongly encourage you to showcase different strengths and experiences in different parts of your application – so using different stories is best.

“Why This Law School?” Interview Answer

The last hurdle before the admissions committee makes its decision is the interview, which has a great effect on law school acceptance rates . This means that every one of your answers will impact your admissions chances.

You should also be expecting the "why our law school?" question in an interview. Along with “tell me about yourself” and “ why do you want to study law ?”, this is one of the most common questions in law school admissions. A verbal answer is a little more difficult to deliver, but a strong strategy and practice in mock law school interviews will lead to strong results. And remember that if you are asked the question “why this law school” both via application and interview, you should not provide the same answer. Use this as an opportunity to express other aspects of your candidacy to showcase further what a perfect candidate you are. To find more inspiration, check out the law school’s mission statement, research projects, faculty, and other academic and social goals. For example, here's a part of Stanford’s mission statement:

“[to] Bring legal services to those groups that would otherwise lack access to adequate legal representation.”

If we stick with Stanford Law School, here's a verbal interview answer you could provide for the question “What do you want to experience at Stanford?”:

Growing up, I did not know what it means to have a right to legal representation. I did not know that every citizen has the right to a lawyer. I might have heard of this in movies or TV shows, but I thought this never applied to me or anyone like me. Attorneys and the rule of law were something from a different life, not the one I was living.

But as our country went through social changes and upheavals like the Ferguson uprising, I became obsessed with learning about our legal system and the rule of law. It was disturbing to realize that while the law was used against certain groups of citizens, these groups could not use the law to defend themselves. I was about to start high school when the Ferguson uprisings began, and when I began grade 9, I formed a small legal club in my high school. There were just 3 of us at first, the other two being my best friends and neighbors since we were 6. But our spirits were not diminished due to our small size – we organized an assembly on racial disparities in criminal justice before a basketball game. While most students were bored and couldn’t wait for the game to start, we did get 2 new members after the assembly. This is how our club grew, and eventually, we started having assemblies before every sports game to educate our peers on their legal rights and opportunities. At Stanford, I want to be a part of the change that promotes awareness and knowledge of every citizen’s legal rights. As an institution that is dedicated to diversity, I hope that it will help me become an educational and helpful voice in my community.

Note that this essay would have also been a wonderful submission for the law school diversity statement , but it works really well here too because the speaker addresses the school’s prompt, as well as its values and goals. This just goes to show that you can speak to a variety of experiences and qualities in your application – use these opportunities to demonstrate your strengths and suitability for your chosen schools!

Best Step-by-Step Strategy for “Why This Law School?” Question

Here's why the "why this law school?" question is tricky: while the question is asking you why a certain school attracted you over others, it’s also asking you why you would be a good fit for it. So, you cannot and should not leave your answer one-sided. In other words, you cannot focus only on what the school can give you – you must also showcase what the school will gain by admitting you. And this is the balance you must keep in your essay or interview answer.

Note the two responses we include above. Why were they strong? Here’s why:

They use the tactic of \u201cshow, don\u2019t tell\u201d and express their suitability with strong and vivid stories of accomplishments that showcase why Stanford should want them to be a part of their upcoming cohort. "}]">

So, your number one strategy for the "why our law school?” question should be to identify which experiences and qualities make you a suitable applicant for the school you’re applying to and to demonstrate this suitability via an example of an experience that reveals that you share values and goals with your school.

Easier said than done, right? Here’re the steps you can take to accomplish just that:

• Thoroughly research the school you’re applying to/interviewing with. Find out everything you can about its culture, mission, goals, faculty, projects, course curriculum, diversity efforts, history, campus life, and so on.
• Write down the aspects of the school that most interest you and the ones you resonate with the most. For example, if you are a strong advocate for diversity, you may be drawn by the diversity programs of the school; or maybe there is a course that you are particularly interested in, or maybe there is an internship opportunity only this school provides.
• Brainstorm which of your experiences, events, and skills align with the most attractive part of the school for you. Essentially, you need to showcase what you can add to this already existing aspect of the school and improve it further. So, if it’s diversity, maybe you are an immigrant with experience advocating diversity in the legal profession. If it’s curriculum, you can demonstrate how you prepared for it via undergrad courses, work experiences, law school extracurriculars , and so on, and how your classmates will benefit from you being there.

Take your time to reflect on this. Your answer may change and morph over time. This is why it is so important to browse and brainstorm law school essay topics and learn how to prepare for a law school interview in advance. Once you narrow down what you want to say, follow this structure to formulate your answer:

• Give a brief statement about which aspect of the school attracts you most. It can be a couple of things, but stick to 1 or 2 at most.
• Use an event or experience from your life that demonstrates why you are interested in this aspect of the school and what would make you a valuable member of the law school community.  
• Finish with what you hope to accomplish at your law school with regard to its most attractive quality.

Follow this structure, and you will be sure to ace any “why this law school?” question variations.

If it’s an essay, make sure to keep it within the required length. Do not go over the word/character limit. However, you can keep it under the maximum length. If you can create a strong narrative under the word limit, that’s wonderful. Strong, succinct answers are always best.

If it’s an interview, try to keep your answer no longer than 2 minutes. Brief, but complete answers will be valued more than long and rambling ones.

Address the prompt

Remember what we said at the beginning: this question can be posed in many different ways. The intent of this prompt stays the same no matter how it is worded, but its wording may affect what qualities and experiences you highlight. For example, we referred to a prompt from the UPenn Law School earlier in the article and here it is again:

“How do your goals and values match Penn Carey Law’s core strengths?”

The prompt is very clear that you have to refer to a specific aspect of Penn Carey Law’s values and mission, so do not dismiss this and write about something else.

Keep it structured

There may be dozens of reasons you want to go to a specific law school, but for the best and most effective answer, you should choose no more than 1 or 2. This will help you keep your answer to the point and make sure you stick to answering the question. If it’s an interview, you do not want to ramble on; if it’s an essay, you do not want to submit an unstructured, confusing answer. Follow the structure we outline above and keep it sweet and short.

Show, don’t tell

We encourage our students to follow this rule for all essays and interview questions. It just makes for a better answer if you paint a picture by sharing an experience or a story that highlights your suitability. No number of claims that you possess a quality will replace a story that truly showcases that you possess it.

Get professional help

If you are struggling with your applications and interview prep, get some professional help. Many law school applicants find it difficult to talk about their accomplishments, their unique qualities, and their suitability. In fact, one of the most challenging aspects of the law school application is the supplemental essays. Most students struggle with the law school diversity statement thinking that they have nothing to write about, or they really want to avoid speaking about their setbacks in prompts that ask for any gaps in their academic background. But all you need is a good strategy and even the setbacks will be seen as strengths! Professionals can help you get into law school with a low GPA , low LSAT, and other common setbacks. If you are not sure about your application or interview strategy, we strongly recommend getting the help of law school admissions consulting experts. 

The law schools want to see whether you are a good candidate for their schools and whether you are being selective or applying to any school. Demonstrating knowledge of the school’s mission and values will showcase that you have done your homework and selected a specific school where you will excel. 

In some way or another, most law schools will ask you this question in the supplemental application or the interview.

Yes, they are different. Whether explicit or not, your law school personal statement should answer a more general question “why do you want to be a lawyer?”. 

Some schools make supplemental applications a requirement that you must complete. Others make them optional. In the latter case, we advise you to submit optional essays because they are a great way for you to further demonstrate your suitability. 

Start by providing a brief explanation about why this school interested you so much. Then talk about an experience that would contribute to this aspect of the law school you’re pursuing.   

Make sure to follow the word/character limits provided. If they are not indicated in the instructions, try reaching out to the admissions office.

Keep your answer to 1 or 2 minutes long.

Law school supplemental essay prompts can include questions that ask you to discuss gaps and setbacks in your journey to law school, what you can contribute to the incoming class and campus, and what steps prepared you for the study of law. While these are the most common, you should be prepared for quirky and unexpected questions as well.

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Law School Applications: How To Approach the “Why” Essay

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The “why” essay question is commonly found in nearly all law school applications. Law schools include the question to understand why applicants want to pursue law and why they want to attend said law school. Schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law typically include some variation of the “why” question in the essay component of the application and ask applicants to articulate on how they would contribute to the law school community.

Gabriel Kuris, founder of Top Law Coach and contributor at US News , recently discussed how applicants can best align their traits and values to a law school’s in the “why” essay.

RESEARCH EACH LAW SCHOOL

While each “why” essay should be personalized to a specific law school, experts say the “why” essay should be more about you than the law school where you’re applying.

“They already know about their programs and the information provided on their website, so it’s not about listing the programs or courses and saying that you would be interested in them—it’s more about why you are interested in them and how that relates to your goals, interests, learning styles, and preferences,” according to Mikey Spivey, of Spivey Consulting .

That being said, it’s still critical to research a law school thoroughly and be sure that each essay is personalized to a specific law school.

“Compare multiple law school websites and notice the differences between them in style and content,” Kuris writes. “Often, the words and images they use are meticulously crafted to present and promote a distinct identity. Without copying their phrasing word for word, reuse some of these terms in your essays to reflect an understanding of a school’s unique character while avoiding cliches and generalities.”

LESS IS OFTEN MORE

Most law schools ask applicants to keep their “why” essay under 350 words, or one page. Thus, it’s important to focus on a few strong points rather than a variety.

“If someone asks what you like about him or her and you answer ‘everything,’ you better be able to back that up with a few specifics,” Kuris writes. “Otherwise, your broad compliment may sound insincere. Likewise, in a ‘why’ essay or interview response, center your answer on a few concrete reasons.”

Spivey says applicants can highlight aspects of a law school such as size, location, or atmosphere as long as they have a strong reason behind the “why” that ties back to their own traits or goals. Leading with the personal, Spivey says, can make for a strong “why” essay.

“Start with a personal connection if you can—have you ever visited the school? Do you know someone who attends and have you heard good things from that perspective? What was your introduction to the school? These are often the strongest and most differentiating components of a ‘Why X’ essay, if they apply to you,” Spivey writes.

Sources: US News , Spivey Consulting

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The University of Chicago The Law School

In their own words: admissions essays that worked.

Throughout this issue, countless examples show why we are so proud of the students at the law school. One might think that we get lucky that the students the admissions office chose for their academic accomplishments also turn out to be incredible members of our community, but it’s really all by design. Our students show us a great deal more in their applications than just academics—and we care about a lot more than their numbers. In these pages, meet five of our students in the way we first met them: through the personal statements they wrote for their law school applications. And through their photos, meet a sixth: Andreas Baum, ’12, the talented student photographer who took these pictures for us.

Tammy Wang, ’12

EDUCATION: Johns Hopkins University, BA in International Relations, concentration East Asian Studies, with honors (2007) WORK EXPERIENCE: AsianFanatics.net LAW SCHOOL ACTIVITIES: University of Chicago Law Review, Immigrant Child Advocacy Project Clinic, APALSA, Admissions Committee, Law School Film Festival I fell in love for the first time when I was four. That was the year my mother signed me up for piano lessons. I can still remember touching those bright, ivory keys with reverence, feeling happy and excited that soon I would be playing those tinkling, familiar melodies (which my mother played every day on our boombox) myself. To my rather naïve surprise, however, instead of setting the score for Für Elise on the piano stand before me, my piano teacher handed me a set of Beginner’s Books. I was to read through the Book of Theory, learn to read the basic notes of the treble and bass clefs, and practice, my palm arched as though an imaginary apple were cupped between my fingers, playing one note at a time. After I had mastered the note of “C,” she promised, I could move on to “D.” It took a few years of theory and repetition before I was presented with my very first full-length classical piece: a sonatina by Muzio Clementi. I practiced the new piece daily, diligently following the written directives of the composer. I hit each staccato note crisply and played each crescendo and every decrescendo dutifully. I performed the piece triumphantly for my teacher and lifted my hands with a flourish as I finished. Instead of clapping, however, my teacher gave me a serious look and took both my hands in hers. “Music,” she said sincerely, “is not just technique. It’s not just fingers or memorization. It comes from the heart.” That was how I discovered passion. Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn: the arcs and passages of intricate notes are lines of genius printed on paper, but ultimately, it is the musician who coaxes them to life. They are open to artistic and emotional interpretation, and even eight simple bars can inspire well over a dozen different variations. I poured my happiness and my angst into the keys, loving every minute of it. I pictured things, events, and people (some real, some entirely imagined— but all intensely personal) in my mind as I played, and the feelings and melodies flowed easily: frustration into Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique, wistfulness into Chopin’s nocturnes and waltzes, and sheer joy into Schubert. Practice was no longer a chore; it was a privilege and a delight. In high school, I began playing the piano for church services. The music director gave me a binder full of 1-2-3 sheet music, in which melodies are written as numbers instead of as notes on a music staff. To make things a bit more interesting for myself—and for the congregation—I took to experimenting, pairing the written melodies with chords and harmonies of my own creation. I rarely played a song the same way twice; the beauty of improvisation, of songwriting, is that it is as much “feeling” as it is logic and theory. Different occasions and different moods yielded different results: sometimes, “Listen Quietly” was clean and beautiful in its simplicity; other times, it became elaborate and nearly classical in its passages. The basic melody and musical key, however, remained the same, even as the embellishments changed. The foundation of good improvisation and songwriting is simple: understanding the musical key in which a song is played—knowing the scale, the chords, the harmonies, and how well (or unwell) they work together—is essential. Songs can be rewritten and reinterpreted as situation permits, but missteps are obvious because the fundamental laws of music and harmony do not change. Although my formal music education ended when I entered college, the lessons I have learned over the years have remained close and relevant to my life. I have acquired a lifestyle of discipline and internalized the drive for self-improvement. I have gained an appreciation for the complexities and the subtleties of interpretation. I understand the importance of having both a sound foundation and a dedication to constant study. I understand that to possess a passion and personal interest in something, to think for myself, is just as important.

Josh Mahoney, ’13

EDUCATION: University of Northern Iowa, BA in Economics and English, magna cum laude (2009) LAW SCHOOL ACTIVITIES: Student Admissions Committee, flag football, Tony Patiño Fellow The turning point of my college football career came early in my third year. At the end of the second practice of the season, in ninety-five-degree heat, our head coach decided to condition the entire team. Sharp, excruciating pain shot down my legs as he summoned us repeatedly to the line to run wind sprints. I collapsed as I turned the corner on the final sprint. Muscle spasms spread throughout my body, and I briefly passed out. Severely dehydrated, I was rushed to the hospital and quickly given more than three liters of fluids intravenously. As I rested in a hospital recovery room, I realized my collapse on the field symbolized broader frustrations I felt playing college football. I was mentally and physically defeated. In South Dakota I was a dominant football player in high school, but at the Division I level my talent was less conspicuous. In my first three years, I was convinced that obsessively training my body to run faster and be stronger would earn me a starting position. The conditioning drill that afternoon revealed the futility of my approach. I had thrust my energies into becoming a player I could never be. As a result, I lost confidence in my identity. I considered other aspects of my life where my intellect, work ethic, and determination had produced positive results. I chose to study economics and English because processing abstract concepts and ideas in diverse disciplines was intuitively rewarding. Despite the exhaustion of studying late into the night after grueling football practices, I developed an affinity for academia that culminated in two undergraduate research projects in economics. Gathering data, reviewing previous literature, and ultimately offering my own contribution to economic knowledge was exhilarating. Indeed, undergraduate research affirmed my desire to attend law school, where I could more thoroughly satisfy my intellectual curiosity. In English classes, I enjoyed writing critically about literary works while adding my own voice to academic discussions. My efforts generated high marks and praise from professors, but this success made my disappointment with football more pronounced. The challenge of collegiate athletics felt insurmountable. However, I reminded myself that at the Division I level I was able to compete with and against some of the best players in the country.While I might never start a game, the opportunity to discover and test my abilities had initially compelled me to choose a Division I football program. After the hospital visit, my football position coach—sensing my mounting frustrations—offered some advice. Instead of devoting my energies almost exclusively to physical preparation, he said, I should approach college football with the same mental focus I brought to my academic studies. I began to devour scouting reports and to analyze the complex reasoning behind defensive philosophies and schemes. I studied film and discovered ways to anticipate plays from the offense and become a more effective player. Armed with renewed confidence, I finally earned a starting position in the beginning of my fourth year. My team opened the season against Brigham Young University (BYU). I performed well despite the pressures of starting my first game in front of a hostile crowd of 65,000 people. The next day, my head coach announced the grade of every starting player’s efforts in the BYU game at a team meeting: “Mahoney—94 percent.” I had received the highest grade on the team. After three years of A’s in the classroom, I finally earned my first ‘A’ in football. I used mental preparation to maintain my competitive edge for the rest of the season. Through a combination of film study and will power, I led my team and conference in tackles. I became one of the best players in the conference and a leader on a team that reached the semi-finals of the Division I football playoffs. The most rewarding part of the season, though, was what I learned about myself in the process. When I finally stopped struggling to become the player I thought I needed to be, I developed self-awareness and confidence in the person I was. The image of me writhing in pain on the practice field sometimes slips back into my thoughts as I decide where to apply to law school. College football taught me to recognize my weaknesses and look for ways to overcome them. I will enter law school a much stronger person and student because of my experiences on the football field and in the classroom. My decision where to attend law school mirrors my decision where to play college football. I want to study law at the University of Chicago Law School because it provides the best combination of professors, students, and resources in the country. In Division I college football, I succeeded when I took advantage of my opportunities. I hope the University of Chicago will give me an opportunity to succeed again.

Osama Hamdy, '13

EDUCATION: University of California, Berkeley, BA in Legal Studies, AB in Media Studies (2010) LAW SCHOOL ACTIVITES: BLSA, Intramural Basketball I was a shy thirteen-year-old who had already lived in six locations and attended five schools. Having recently moved, I was relieved when I finally began to develop a new group of friends. However, the days following September 11, 2001, were marked with change. People began to stare at me. Many conversations came to a nervous stop when I walked by. However, it wasn’t until one of my peers asked if I was a terrorist that it really hit me. Osama, my name is Osama. I went from having a unique name that served as a conversation starter to having the same name as the most wanted man in America. The stares and the comments were just the beginning. Eventually I received a death threat at school. I remember crying alone in my room, afraid to tell my parents in fear that they might not let me go to school anymore. My experience opened my eyes up to racial and religious dynamics in the United States. I started to see how these dynamics drove people’s actions, even if some were not aware of the reasons. The more I looked at my surroundings with a critical eye, the more I realized that my classmates had not threatened me because of hate, but because of fear and ignorance. This realization was extremely empowering. I knew that mirroring their hostility would only reinforce the fear and prejudice they held. Instead, I reached out to my peers with an open mind and respect. My acceptance of others served as a powerful counter example to many negative stereotypes I had to face.With this approach, I was often able to transform fear into acceptance, and acceptance into appreciation. I chose not to hide my heritage or myself, despite the fear of judgment or violence. As a result, I developed a new sense of self-reliance and self-confidence. However, I wasn’t satisfied with the change that I had brought about in my own life. I wanted to empower others as well. My passion for equality and social justice grew because I was determined to use my skills and viewpoint to unite multiple marginalized communities and help foster understanding and appreciation for our differences and similarities alike. The years following September 11th were a true test of character for me. I learned how to feel comfortable in uncomfortable situations. This allowed me to become a dynamic and outgoing individual. This newfound confidence fueled a passion to become a leader and help uplift multiple minority communities. During the last two summers I made this passion a reality when I took the opportunity to work with underprivileged minority students. All of the students I worked with came from difficult backgrounds and many didn’t feel as though college was an option for them. I learned these students’ goals and aspirations, as well as their obstacles and hardships. I believed in them, and I constantly told them that they would make it. I worked relentlessly to make sure my actions matched my words of encouragement. I went well above the expectations of my job and took the initiative to plan several additional workshops on topics such as public speaking, time management, and confidence building. My extra efforts helped give these students the tools they needed to succeed. One hundred percent of the twenty-one high school juniors I worked with my first summer are now freshmen at four-year universities. I feel great pride in having helped these students achieve this important goal. I know that they will be able to use these tools to continue to succeed. Inspired by my summer experience, I jumped at the opportunity to take on the position of Diversity Outreach Ambassador for the San Francisco Bar Association Diversity Pipeline Program. In this position, I was responsible for helping organize a campus event that brought educational material and a panel of lawyers to UC Berkeley in order to empower and inform minority students about their opportunities in law school. In this position I was able to unite a diverse group of organizations, including the Black Pre-Law Association, the Latino Pre-Law Society, and the Haas Undergraduate Black Business Association. Working in this position was instrumental in solidifying my desire to attend law school. The lawyers who volunteered their time had a significant impact on me. I learned that they used their legal education to assist causes and organizations they felt passionate about. One of the lawyers told me that she volunteered her legal services to a Latino advocacy association. Another lawyer explained to me how he donated his legal expertise to advise minority youth on how to overcome legal difficulties. Collaborating with these lawyers gave me a better understanding of how my passion for law could interact with my interest in social justice issues. My experiences leading minority groups taught me that I need to stand out to lead others and myself to success. I need to be proud of my culture and myself. My experiences after September 11th have taught me to defeat the difficulties in life instead of allowing them to defeat me. Now, whether I am hit with a racial slur or I encounter any obstacles in life, I no longer retreat, but I confront it fearlessly and directly. I expect law school will help give me the tools to continue to unite and work with a diverse group of people. I hope to continue to empower and lead minority communities as we strive towards legal and social equality.

Eliza Riffe, '13

EDUCATION: University of Chicago, AB in Anthropology, with honors (2006) WORK EXPERIENCE: Sarbanes-Oxley coordinator and financial analyst, ABM Industries Harper Library, situated at the center of the main quadrangle at the University of Chicago, resembles a converted abbey, with its vaulted ceilings and arched windows. The library was completed in 1912, before Enrico Fermi built the world’s first nuclear reactor, before Milton Friedman devised the permanent income hypothesis, and well before Barack Obama taught Constitutional Law. Generations of scholars have pored over Adam Smith and Karl Marx in the main reading room, penned world-class treatises at the long wooden tables, and worn their coats indoors against the drafts in the spacious Gothic hall. Abiding over all of these scholars, and over me when I was among them, is an inscription under the library’s west window that has served as my guiding intellectual principle: “Read not to believe or contradict, but to weigh and consider.” Per this inscription, which is an abridgement of a passage by Sir Francis Bacon, we readers ought to approach knowledge as a means of enhancing our judgment and not as fodder for proclamations or discord. The generations of scholars poring over Marx, for example, should seek to observe his theories of economic determinism in the world, not immediately begin to foment a riot in the drafty reading room at Harper. The reader may contend, though, that too much weighing and considering could lead to inertia, or worse, to a total lack of conviction. The Harper inscription, however, does not tell its readers to believe in nothing, nor does it instruct them never to contradict a false claim. Instead it prescribes a way to read. The inscription warns us to use knowledge not as a rhetorical weapon, but as a tool for making balanced and informed decisions. On the cruelest days in February during my undergraduate years, when I asked myself why I had not chosen to pursue my studies someplace warmer, I would head to Harper, find a seat from which I would have a clear view of the inscription, and say to myself: “That is why.” On such a day in February, seated at a long Harper table with my coat still buttoned all the way up, I discovered how much I appreciated Carl Schmitt’s clarity and argumentation. I marveled at the way his Concept of the Political progressed incrementally, beginning at the most fundamental, linguistic level. As an anthropology student, I wrongfully assumed that, because Schmitt was often positioned in a neo-conservative tradition, I could not acknowledge him. That day in February, I took the Bacon inscription to heart, modeled its discipline, and was able to transcend that academic tribalism. I added the kernel of The Concept of the Political , Schmitt’s “friend-enemy” dichotomy, to an ever-growing array of images and ideas that I had accumulated, among them Marx’s alienation, C. S. Peirce’s indexicality, and Pierre Bourdieu’s graphical depiction of social space. This patchwork of theories and descriptive models, when weighed and considered, informs my understanding of new ideas I encounter. The academic dons who decided to place the Bacon quote under the western window intended that the idea would transcend the scholastic realm of its readers. Indeed, in my work as a financial analyst for a publicly traded company, it is often a professional touchstone. Though each day in the world of corporate finance is punctuated with deadlines and requests for instantaneous information, I am at my best as an analyst when I consider all of the data thoroughly and weigh the competing agendas. Like emulsified oil and vinegar that separate over time when left undisturbed, the right answer will emerge from among all of the wrong answers when I take the time to consider all of the possibilities. An extra hour spent analyzing an income statement can reveal even more trends than could a cursory glance. Moreover, the more I weigh and consider when I have the opportunity, the more I enhance the judgment I will need to make quick decisions and pronouncements when I do not have time.With inner vision sharpened by years of consideration, I am able to “see into the life of things,” as Wordsworth described in writing of “Tintern Abbey.” Wordsworth’s memory of the abbey provided him much-needed transcendence in moments of loneliness or boredom. The memory of the inscription under the west window at Harper—“Read not to believe or contradict, but to weigh and consider”—has a similar function. For Wordsworth, Tintern alleviated emotional anguish; for me, the Bacon inscription reaffirms a sense of intellectual purpose. The words under the window, their meaning, and the very curvature of the letters in the stone are fixed in my mind and will continue to be as I enter the life of the law. What intrigues me most about legal education is the opportunity to engage simultaneously in the two complementary processes the Harper inscription inspires in me—building a foundation of theories and descriptive models while enhancing my judgment with practice and patience.

Evan Rose, '13

EDUCATION: University of Otago (New Zealand), BA in Philosophy (1999) WORK EXPERIENCE: Ski and Snowboard Schools of Aspen/Snowmass, Eurospecs Limited (NZ) LAW SCHOOL ACTIVITIES: LSA 1L Representative, BLSA, Student Admissions Committee As I tumble through the air, time seems to slow. I have fallen hard many times before, but even before I hit the ground I can tell this fall is different. I complete one and a half back flips and slam shoulders-first into the slope. As I lie on the hill, the snow jammed into the hood of my jacket begins to melt, and icy water runs down my back. I do not yet know that the impact has broken my neck. I grew up only a short drive from some of New Zealand’s best ski resorts, but my family could never afford ski vacations. My first opportunity to try snowboarding came on a trip with my university flatmate.With expectations shaped purely by the media, I left for the trip assuming snowboarding was a sport for adrenaline junkies, troublemakers, and delinquents. Much to my surprise, I instead found that it provided me with a sense of peace that defied these preconceptions. Anxiety had been a constant companion throughout much of my childhood. I had not always been this way, but years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of my stepfather had taken their toll. My once carefree demeanor had changed, leaving me fearful, panicky, and timid. On a snowboard these feelings faded into the background for the first time in years, and the difference was profound. I never truly realized the pain I had endured until riding gave me the opportunity to escape it. I sought out every possible opportunity to go riding, and through the sport I pushed the limits of both my physical and mental courage. Snowboarding became a vehicle for regaining the confidence and self-worth that had been taken from me through the injustice of abuse. Even as I began to ride competitively in boardercross racing and halfpipe, launching myself into the air over sixty-foot jumps, the sense of peace I gained during my first day on a snowboard stayed with me. It did, at least, until that April afternoon. As I lay in a hospital bed a few hours after my accident, an overwhelming sense of fear replaced any confidence that snowboarding had instilled in me. I faced the prospect of a lengthy and complicated surgery, with no certainty about the outcome. I knew my shattered vertebrae could easily leave me paralyzed. I was lucky to be alive, but any sense of luck eluded me as pain sent me in and out of consciousness. Two days later, surgeons worked for seven hours to rebuild my neck. I awoke to learn that I had escaped any serious nerve damage. However, I would need to be immobilized by a brace twenty-four hours a day, and for over three months, before I could even contemplate rehabilitation. Those months passed slowly. When I was finally able to start the process of rehabilitation, I made recovery my full-time job. I quickly learned that pain was to become the central reality of that year. The first day I could walk to my mailbox marked a significant achievement. Determined to return to full health, and even hoping to eventually return to riding, I gritted my teeth through the daily therapy sessions. At each subsequent visit, my doctor expressed his surprise at the progress of my recovery. Only twelve months after my injury, he cleared me to make a few careful runs on an easy, groomed slope. While I made it through those first few runs safely, they left me shaking with fear. Since then, I have again found joy in riding, but no amount of determination will allow me to ride the way I had before. I won’t be attempting double back flips again any time soon. Rather than focusing on my own riding, I now direct my energy into coaching. My experiences showed me the transformative power of courage and self-confidence, and taught me to build these qualities in others. At the Aspen Skiing Company, I develop and implement teaching curricula for more than two hundred snowboard instructors. My goal is for my fellow coaches to recognize that snowboarding can offer much more than just a diversion. It has the potential to have a profound and inspiring impact on their students’ lives. In the ample time my recovery allowed for reflection, I found solace in the fact that the abuse in my childhood fostered in me not bitterness, but an enduring dedication to fairness and justice. As a college student, this dedication led me to seek out classes in ethics and morality. As a manager and leader, I strive to display both courage and enduring fairness. My interest in the legal profession stems from my belief that laws represent the concrete expressions of justice and fairness in our society. After discovering the salvation it held for me, I believed that I was reliant on snowboarding. Yet, being forced to face the grueling process of rehabilitation without it allowed me to take the final step to recovery from the trauma of my childhood. I realized I am much stronger and more resilient than I had previously believed. I realized that courage is not something that snowboarding gave me but something that has always been within me. These realizations have prepared me to broaden the scope of my dedication to justice. Secure in the knowledge that the courage and determination I have shown will help shape my future success, I am now ready to take on this new challenge: the study and practice of law.  

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How to write the “why berkeley law” essay with examples.

Reviewed by:

David Merson

Former Head of Pre-Law Office, Northeastern University, & Admissions Officer, Brown University

Reviewed: 12/20/23

Getting ready to write your "Why Berkeley Law?" essay? In this blog, we'll offer tips and examples to help you write a standout essay.

When applying to Berkeley Law , one of the most crucial components of your application is the optional essay. This essay provides you with an opportunity to express your genuine interest in the school and explain why you are a perfect fit. 

In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into strategies for crafting an effective "Why Berkeley Law?" essay, explore examples of successful essays, and address frequently asked questions.

Writing the "Why Berkeley Law?" Essay

If you’re applying to Berkeley’s Public Interest Scholars Program , you'll find an optional essay prompt that gives you up to 350 words to answer the following question:

“Tell us more about your interest in Berkeley Law. What makes our school a good fit for you in terms of academic interests, programmatic offerings, and learning environment?” 

Let's explore how you can effectively respond to it. 

Discover What Sets Berkeley Law Apart

Berkeley Law has a rich history and a lot to offer prospective students. When tackling this extra essay, be sure to explore the school's traditions, the variety of programs it offers, and the unique qualities that align with your academic goals. 

Reflect on Academic Goals

Now, take a moment to think about your academic goals, including what you want to achieve in the short term and the long term. Think about the specific academic interests that have drawn you to Berkeley Law. Explore how the school's academic offerings can help you reach these goals.

Are there specific courses, areas of study, or research chances that align with your interests? Make sure to express these connections clearly in your essay to demonstrate how well your academic aspirations match with Berkeley Law.

Forge a Regional Connection

The Bay Area is a thriving legal hub, but breaking into it can be challenging without prior connections. If your goal is to practice law in California , don't hesitate to mention it in your essay. Take it a step further by aligning yourself with a specific Bay Area population or legal specialization, such as tech law.

Embrace Diversity and Activism

Berkeley prides itself on its diversity and rich tradition of activism, like the historic Free Speech Movement. Incorporate this culture into your essay to show your appreciation for a vibrant and inclusive campus if you want to stand out. 

Though this isn’t necessarily a diversity essay , it is a good idea to highlight any personal experiences or values that demonstrate your commitment to diversity and social justice. Whether it's through your own background, extracurricular activities, or future aspirations, make it clear that you'll actively contribute to and benefit from Berkeley's diverse community.

Highlight Leadership and Initiative

Berkeley values students who take the lead and make a positive impact. Share examples of your leadership roles, whether in school, work, or community organizations. Highlight instances where you took the initiative to solve problems or create positive change. Demonstrating your potential to contribute actively to the Berkeley community will strengthen your essay.

Connect Your Past Experiences to Future Goals

Your essay should tell a story of your academic and personal journey, culminating in your desire to attend Berkeley. Explain how your past experiences have shaped your ambitions and why Berkeley is the ideal place to continue your growth. Discuss specific resources or opportunities that will help you achieve your long-term goals.

Be Authentic and Reflective

Lastly, be yourself in your essay. Berkeley is looking for authentic individuals who can contribute to their diverse and intellectually vibrant community. 

Share your true passions, values, and aspirations. Reflect on your experiences and insights, and don't be afraid to acknowledge the challenges or setbacks you've faced. A genuine, thoughtful essay will make a lasting impression.

Structuring Your "Why Berkeley Law?" Essay

To effectively write the essay prompt, make sure to follow a structured approach:

Introduction (Approx. 50-75 words)

• Start by introducing yourself and your intention to join Berkeley Law.
• Mention your passion for public interest law and why you are excited to apply.

Academic Interests (Approx. 75-100 words)

• Talk about your academic interests and how they align with Berkeley Law's offerings.
• Highlight specific courses or professors that pique your interest.

Programmatic Offerings (Approx. 75-100 words)

• Explain why the Public Interest Scholars Program stands out to you.
• Discuss how the program's features, like mentorship or clinics, will benefit your career goals.

Learning Environment (Approx. 75-100 words)

• Describe what you admire about Berkeley Law's learning environment.
• Mention the diverse community and the emphasis on activism, and explain why these aspects resonate with you.

Conclusion (Approx. 25-50 words)

• Summarize your main points and reiterate your enthusiasm for Berkeley Law.
• Express your eagerness to contribute to the Berkeley Law community and make a difference in public interest law.

This approach will help you effectively convey your genuine interest in Berkeley Law's Public Interest Scholars Program within the 350-word limit.

Mistakes to Avoid in Your “Why Berkeley Law” Essay

As you work on your essay, it's crucial to steer clear of common mistakes that could hinder your application's impact.

• Generic Responses : Avoid generic statements that could apply to any law school. Your essay should be tailored to Berkeley Law specifically.
• Lack of Specifics : Provide concrete examples and specifics about Berkeley Law and how they relate to your goals.
• Negativity : Refrain from negative comments about other law schools or institutions.
• Ignoring the Word Limit : Stick to the specified word limit. Admissions committees appreciate applicants who can communicate concisely.

Examples of Successful “Why Berkeley Law” Essay

In this next part, let's dive into “Why Berkeley?” law essay examples that really hit the mark, demonstrating the applicants' genuine alignment with the school's ethos, academic programs, and dedication to public interest law.

Example Essay #1

“As an aspiring public interest attorney, Berkeley Law's commitment to social justice and its extensive programmatic offerings make it the ideal institution for me. From my research, it's clear that Berkeley Law's values align perfectly with my passion for advocating for marginalized communities. The Public Interest Scholars Program, in particular, stands out as an opportunity to further my commitment to public service.

Berkeley Law's wide array of clinics and centers, such as the Policy Advocacy Clinic and the International Human Rights Law Clinic, strongly resonates with my academic interests. These hands-on experiences will allow me to apply legal theory to real-world situations, honing my skills while making a meaningful impact on the lives of those in need. Additionally, the Pro Bono Program's emphasis on community service deeply aligns with my commitment to giving back.

The vibrant and inclusive learning environment at Berkeley Law is another compelling reason for my interest. The diverse student body and faculty create a dynamic atmosphere where I can learn from different perspectives and foster a global understanding of legal issues. The Berkeley Law community's dedication to activism and the Free Speech Movement is particularly appealing, as it mirrors my own desire to be a catalyst for change and contribute to a more just society.

‍ In my pursuit of a legal career focused on public interest, Berkeley Law's dedication to fostering social justice and providing extensive resources for students aligns perfectly with my aspirations. I am eager to engage with the Berkeley Law community, contribute to its legacy of activism, and take full advantage of the opportunities it offers to develop into an effective public interest attorney.”

Why This Essay Was Successful

This essay succeeded because it showed that the applicant's goals match what Berkeley Law offers. They clearly expressed their passion for public interest law and mentioned specific programs and opportunities at the school that interested them. 

They also talked about how Berkeley Law's diverse community and commitment to activism aligned with their values. Overall, the essay made a strong case for why the applicant would be a good fit for Berkeley Law.

Example Essay #2

“Berkeley Law is the epitome of my academic and professional aspirations as a future public interest attorney. Its exceptional academic offerings, programmatic diversity, and commitment to social justice have convinced me that this is where I belong.

My academic interests lie in environmental justice and sustainable development. Berkeley Law's esteemed Environmental Law Program, renowned for its interdisciplinary approach and impactful research, perfectly aligns with my goals. I am eager to engage with faculty members such as Professor [Faculty Name], whose work on environmental justice has been a constant source of inspiration for me.

Furthermore, the Public Interest Scholars Program is the embodiment of my career aspirations. It offers unparalleled resources and mentorship opportunities that will not only help me refine my legal skills but also empower me to make a meaningful difference in disadvantaged communities. The program's emphasis on experiential learning through clinics and community engagement resonates deeply with my commitment to public service.

The Berkeley Law community's dedication to diversity and activism is also a significant draw for me. Having been an advocate for social justice throughout my undergraduate years, I am excited about the prospect of contributing to Berkeley's legacy of activism and making a positive impact on pressing societal issues.

In conclusion, Berkeley Law's academic excellence, programmatic offerings, and unwavering commitment to social justice make it the perfect fit for my academic and career goals. I am enthusiastic about the prospect of joining the Berkeley Law community, where I can harness my passion for public interest law to effect change and promote justice for marginalized communities.”

This essay succeeds because it shows a strong match between the applicant's goals and Berkeley Law. They clearly express their interest in environmental justice and sustainable development and explain how Berkeley Law's programs align with these goals. 

The essay also mentions a specific faculty member who inspires them, demonstrating their genuine interest in the school. Additionally, the writer emphasizes their commitment to hands-on learning and public service, which fits well with Berkeley Law's offerings. 

Finally, they express their excitement about contributing to the school's diversity and activism, making a strong case for why they are a good fit for Berkeley Law.

Navigating the application process for Berkeley Law can be complex, but our FAQ section is here to provide you with clear and concise answers to your most pressing questions.

1. What Makes Berkeley Law School Unique?

Berkeley Law stands out for its commitment to academic excellence, social justice, and innovation. It offers a diverse range of courses, renowned faculty, and numerous clinics and centers focused on various legal fields.

2. What Is the Mission Statement of Berkeley Law?

Berkeley Law's mission is to educate leaders who will contribute to the development of law and society. They aim to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity while fostering a supportive and collaborative community.

3. What Is the Optional Essay for Berkeley Law?

Berkeley Law provides an optional essay prompt that allows applicants to address any aspects of their application they wish to clarify or expand upon. While it's not required, it can be a valuable opportunity to provide context if needed.

Writing the "Why Berkeley Law?" essay requires thoughtful reflection and a deep understanding of what makes Berkeley Law unique. By following the strategies outlined in this guide and studying successful examples, you can craft an essay that not only impresses the admissions committee but also conveys your genuine enthusiasm for joining the Berkeley Law community. 

Remember to be specific, passionate, and authentic in your writing, and best of luck with your application!

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Podcast: Dean Z on Underrated/Overrated Law School Admissions Advice + Answering Reddit Questions (Part 1)

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike has a conversation with Dean Sarah Zearfoss (also known as "Dean Z"), who in her role as Senior Assistant Dean at the University of Michigan Law School has overseen the admissions office for the past 23 years. Dean Z also hosts the popular law school admissions podcast A2Z with Dean Z .

In the interview, Mike and Dean Z discuss whether popular law school admissions advice is "overrated or underrated," including applying early, retaking the LSAT, making choices based on the new rankings, visiting law schools, and typos in applications (they agree about most, but engage in some debate about others). Then they answer some questions from Reddit about "Why X" essays, addressing "why law" in your application, applying as an international student, LSAT scores from 5+ years ago, second bachelor's degrees, and leaving application questions bank.

Mike and Dean Z mention My Rank in this episode, a free tool for applicants to make their own customized law school rankings—you can use My Rank here .

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Stitcher , YouTube , and Google Podcasts .

We also wanted to briefly elaborate on one topic—in this episode, Mike and Dean Z discuss whether and how to incorporate "why law" into one's application. Most applicants probably shouldn't write their personal statement with the intention of trying to answer "why law," since most often this results in explaining a series of different experiences they've had and classes they've taken to explain their reasons for wanting to attend law school, which typically ends up relatively generic/non-differentiating. However, that is not to say that it's not prudent to have clarity about why you want to go to law school—at bare minimum for yourself, but also, from an admissions strategy standpoint, so that you can answer that very common interview question. You may also incorporate part(s) of your "why law" in your personal statement or elsewhere in your application, but we don't encourage most applicants to write their personal statement as an answer to the prompt, "Why do you want to go to law school?"

Full transcript:

Mike: I am joined today with Dean Z, Dean Sarah Zearfoss, of Michigan Law School. She's been the longstanding—how many years, Dean Z?

Dean Zearfoss: This is 22—sorry, 23!

Mike: 22-ish years. “Legend” is a strong word, but I would say one of the most prominent people in the field. And we've done a few podcasts before. What we at Spivey Consulting like is that Dean Z doesn't spin, she doesn't sell her school, and she tells it like it is. And some of that telling like it is, is, even if she's like, “no, Spivey you’re wrong”—and we do this offline too from time to time—we'll have fun discussions, and we're going to do it. This is Part 1, and then we're going to do Part 2, where we're going to talk about rethinking admissions.

Dean Zearfoss: That is my goal. I want to have that conversation with you. Now is the time to be thinking about these things. A lot of changes in the world of admissions.

Mike: Definitely, another huge one coming in the next two or three or four weeks.

Dean Zearfoss: Sometimes between now and June 30.

Mike: Yeah, we’ll do Part 2 maybe right after that, we can talk about rethinking admissions vis-à-vis the U.S. News changes, the SCOTUS decision. So since it's the start of a new cycle, we thought we would do something where we talk about common admissions questions. And then I'm going to pose to Dean Z whether the common lore is overrated. Let me just give the starting example. When you submit your application, submitting it early, is the myth that that's important overrated or underrated? And we'll both chime in. Why? So let's start off, timing of submitting in September and October, some people make a huge deal of it. In fact, some consultants and even admissions officers have made a huge deal of it. Others don't. What do you think? Overrated or underrated?

Dean Zearfoss: Wildly overrated. Wildly. There isn't an advantage to applying sooner rather than later. But by sooner, I mean, I always think of it before January 1st. And that's usually because many schools take off in between Christmas and New Year’s and are closed down. So they get back after the New Year and are faced with a week and a half worth of mail, so things just really slow down. And it's an advantage to the applicants to get their answer earlier but the amount of difference it makes in terms of your outcome is very marginal. And certainly, there is no advantage to applying in September or October, as opposed to November or December.

Mike: Yeah, we're so we're in agreement here. I would say not only is it wildly overrated, when a consulting firm said, “if you don't apply in September, don’t apply at all,” I think that's almost malpractice if you think about the time, value of money. I can see your face, you're agreeing.

Dean Zearfoss: Yep.

Mike: The way I think of it is, yeah, if your best possible application, test scores, GPA, and buttoned up, sincere application are ready in September, sure. There's no reason to hold up.

Dean Zearfoss: There's no reason to hold up. And there’s certainly a sense of relief in checking a box when you submit. But there's no point in rushing in order to meet some made-up deadline that you arbitrarily pulled out of the ether.

Mike: And sometimes the ether is actually people saying wrong things online. So submit your best application. And if it's ready in September, great. If it's ready in November, literally what we see on our end, no difference. If you control for the fact that if they’re submitting in September, they’re probably done taking the LSAT, they're happy with their score. Their application is ready. So every time I post online, “there's no real difference between applying in September and October and November, December, as far as your application strength” someone will say, “well, I have two friends who applied in September, and they got into their dream schools.” Yeah, they had strong applications.

Dean Zearfoss: I like to think that there are people who apply in February who get into their dream school. I certainly admit people who apply in February and I hope Michigan is some people's dream school. I want to make one distinction here. There's a question of outcomes. Does applying earlier make it more likely you get admitted? Which I think is what you are focusing on with this question. And I completely agree that this is wildly, as I said, overrated. However, then there is also the question of when you get your answer. And because law schools are rolling, you’ll get your answer earlier if you apply in November than if you apply in February and many schools have deadlines that are April. So there's an advantage to you just to apply, as I said, a little bit on the earlier end, so that you can get your answer more quickly and figure out your options. But in terms of whether you get in or not, this is at best a marginal advantage if you apply earlier.

Mike: Okay, so we can close the door on that one. That's because we’re not debating it. I am curious, were you at the LSAC conference?

Dean Zearfoss: I was.

Mike: Okay, also 22, 23 years of doing this, what percentage of Deans of Admissions would agree, that's a huge myth that you need to apply?

Dean Zearfoss: I don't know all admissions deans, even though I've been doing this a million years. And the ones I talk to, everybody agrees with this. You said, it's not just consultants giving this advice but some admissions officers. I've never heard anybody do that.

Mike: It's outliers. And I think it's oftentimes either brand new Deans of Admission without much admissions experience or early data is great from the admissions side. So of course, they would rather get the data early. You would probably say they'd also rather get the best application later.

Dean Zearfoss: For sure.

Mike: Very small number of admissions officers, and it’s mostly just an online myth that hopefully we just killed.

Dean Zearfoss: And I hope so. I don't think we will, and there are many online myths that I have been endeavoring to crush over the course of my career. So far, not really seeing a big turn of the tide, but this could be it, Spivey.

Mike: I got it. But here's one that's most wouldn’t crush, retaking the LSAT and we'll even nuance it further. Retaking it till you get the score that you think is the score that puts you in the game you want to be in. Overrated or underrated?

Dean Zearfoss: I think that's overrated, but of course this is one that is a little more challenging because there's a wide range of LSAT scores. So depending on are you looking to get a 180 or are you looking to get a 160? Those are very different propositions, and are you off by one point from what you think your ideal score is, or are you off by 20 points? Those are different. And then this is one that I always think, “do you have any reason for thinking that this score is not reflective of your true score?” Are you seeing very different results in practice tests? And if so, are you sure that you are timing yourself correctly? But if you're not, I like to think that the best route is to make your peace with what that score is. And make all the other parts of your application over which you have considerable control the best they could possibly be.

Mike: This is one we're going to diverge; I’ll say underrated. It certainly was underrated when applicants thought schools literally took all LSAT scores, took out a calculator, averaged them, and reported the average to the ABA. Which they did many years ago as you know?

Dean Zearfoss: Yes, not even that long ago during my career, so please.

Mike: Twelve years ago is around when they changed?

Dean Zearfoss: Yeah, in fact, the person who was, I believe, Chair of the LSAC board when that change was made was your friend and mine Kent Syverud, Chancellor at Syracuse. And LSAC used to calculate the average for us and that was the one we had to use. But yes, now that we can use the highest score that definitely changes the calculus. So you say your defense and then I want a rebuttal.

Mike: I guess my point would be a couple things. One, the standard measurement of error for the LSAT, they haven’t released it in a long time. Which is interesting because LSAC usually, if they have a correlation report, LSAT versus first-year performance and they’re strong, you get that almost the date it spews out. But if something isn’t favorable, then you see these long interludes between the releases, but the last release of the standard measurement of errors was 2.6. So a 160 could be a 163 or a 157. Even the standard measurement of error on a given day could make for the difference between an admit or a deny or $100,000 of merit aid if there's a six-point swing. So that's number one.

Number two for me is I have found in doing this that people, not everyone, tend to feel more comfortable and less anxiety. And this is where people have to be introspective. But if you said yourself, if I put myself in a great set of mind, if I keep taking practice tests and hammering away, and I objectively think I can turn my 165 into 168, I don't see any downside to trying that in that range up to three times. It's when people with a 175 or 174 retake, where I think it looks really bad on their application.

Dean Zearfoss: Yes, okay. So I agree it depends on the range. I agree with if the person objectively thinks do you have a reason for thinking that or is it just a feeling, that makes a huge difference. There is the specter of you made the point about three scores. And that's I think a pretty good rule of thumb. I just think in general, if I'm looking at four or five scores, even if it’s that they score something tremendously strong, if there are four scores before that are quite weak, it really diminishes the value of that extremely high score. And one wonders, as if you see five scores, like why did it take so long to get the score that you wanted? What was going on there? And I also want to say I don't think there's any downside to taking it twice, if you feel like you really want to. But if you have taken it two or three times, what is preventing you from getting the score that you think you deserve or you can earn? And whatever that is, fix it, don't keep repeating the error.

Mike: Yeah, and it's often anxiety on test day. I’m not an LSAT prep expert, but one thing we try to get our clients to do is set conditions on their diagnostic test as stressful as they can. Even to the point where we say give yourself two and a half less minutes.

Dean Zearfoss: That makes total sense. That's great advice I’d say. Yes, I totally get the point of anxiety. But I guess that's the point. Do something to address it. Taking it over and over may diminish it a little bit. But if you have anxiety about taking the test, that’s the issue you want to deal with by some way better than just repeating it.

Mike: And I would say if for the person that takes it three, four, or five times, you better have a pretty nice concise but reasonable addendum. Here's an example. I worked with someone who was in Korea and his wife was in New York City. He really, really, really needed to be in New York City because his wife was in New York City. So he took it until he could get the score that got him admitted to a school in New York City. And on his fifth test, he got a great score and he got admitted to Columbia and NYU, but the addendum that he wrote made sense, strong reasons.

Dean Zearfoss: I think it's just helpful for the applicants to recognize that if an admissions officer is seeing a long litany of scores, it raises a question mark and it's best to address the question.

Mike: Yeah, a 165 three times and then a 175, you're going to pay a lot of attention to everything in that application versus a 173 and a cancellation.

Dean Zearfoss: Yeah, I feel like we've run this into the ground probably. I totally agree.

Mike: So U.S. News changes and there's two parts of this. There's the static changes that happen every year. So the volatility. And we can talk about this more maybe on this podcast. And then when we talk about rethinking admissions maybe the bigger change to me which was having what they call selectivity as the admissions metrics of GPA and LSAT. GPA is now 4% of U.S. News weight. LSAT is now 5% of U.S. News weight. Selectivity stayed at one. I don't think anyone really anticipated this, because they had already diminished them a little bit a few years prior. So U.S. News changes.

Dean Zearfoss: I know I should know this. But it was 25% total before, right?

Mike: Correct. And now it's 10%.

Dean Zearfoss: So big, big, big decrease.

Mike: We’ll take the first one first. One or two-year volatility, I’m not going to name any schools. But the school you've been dreaming to go to, oh wow, they went from 20 to 31st. Hopefully, there's no specific school that did that, because I don't mean to be naming them. Oh my gosh, are they a worse school? Underrated or overrated?

Dean Zearfoss: Totally overrated. Because of course, that could be a mistake in data or there are a million reasons why a school might change for one year in terms of its ranking. But institutions do not change quickly. Those of us who work in institutions sometimes lament that, you know, you may want a quick change in something or other and it is extremely hard to do that.

So for example, let's say, what would be something that would make a school change for the worse and that would be reflected in rankings at some level. Let's say 10 faculty left and the school can't replace them. That would be a significant, substantive diminution in the quality of an institution. And it would take a long time for that to stay out in the rankings. Part of that is the reputation that a school has, it would diminish that. But it takes a long time for people to change their minds about the perception of an institution. Bottom line, if a school changes dramatically in one year, the chances are it is some one-off cube, it has nothing to do with something that has actually changed in the school.

Mike: Yeah, a classic example would be a school sends a lot of people to one state for the bar. And that bar decides they're going to test 14 subject areas instead of 8 like they did the year before. The bar passes gets lower, and they take a huge U.S. News hit, you brought up a good distinction. Can a school get better or worse? Absolutely. Can rankings in a one-year slice of the timeline reflect that? Absolutely not. They don't. The faculty leaving is an interesting example. When I was at Vanderbilt, we hired Kip Viscusi and his whole team from Harvard Law. So he had three tenure-ships, law, political science, and economics, highest paid faculty member of Vanderbilt. He brought his entire law and economics team down with him. Did we get better as a school? Heck yeah, he's the second-most cited economist in the world and he does amazing things. Our assessment ranking got worse the next year and our running joke was every school ranked us the same except for Harvard who dinged the hell out of us. So things that matter are often not reflected at all in the rankings. Which is why we don't need one media source telling us, “hey, this is how you should value things.” A diffuse ranking system to me is the coveted goal out of all this rankings nonsense, have multiple ranking systems.

Dean Zearfoss: I totally agree. Everybody will emphasize different things, will draw out different strengths and they can get creative because there is so much more data available. Those ranking organizations can get creative about what they're actually going to pay attention to. I actually had a very fun conversation with our Director of Financial Aid during the odyssey of when they released the rankings, but then didn't release them, etc.

Anyway, he and I were like, what would we be ranking, if we were going to design a ranking system? And it was a ton of fun. He's great. He's very good with data. So it was a lot of fun. So that will be my next gig coming up with my own rankings.

Mike: My firm has one that’s free for – it’s not free for me. It's a lot of data entry so we have to pay and pay to get the data. It's myrankbyspivey.com. And the reason why we like it, although I hope U.S News does it better, with a better interface, is you could pick what matters to you.

Dean Zearfoss: I love that.

Mike: We'll put in the show notes the link to it. So the second part we can talk about on Part 2, because it's probably a long conversation, although I tend to agree with you, the change in higher education, legal education happens slowly. In this part of our Part 2 anyways, is admissions going to change with this de-emphasis on selectivity and that’s a long answer.

Dean Zearfoss: That is. I would say it certainly is possible that there will be individual institutions who under particular circumstances are going to say, “this year, I'm not going to worry as much. There are institutional reasons why an LSAT of one point lower than last year's LSAT, three LSATs, works for us institutionally.” Maybe because they don't want to give out less aid. Or they want to increase the size of the class or whatever it is. And so that's a trade-off that will now have slightly fewer consequences for our school. Whereas in past years, keeping your same medians or improving has been a constant pressure for schools.

So the pressure will be decreased slightly. But schools have all sorts of reasons why they still value metrics. They're the two objective indicia of your ability to succeed. It's not responsible as an admissions office to cling too tightly to medians in a mechanical and unthinking way. That is poor admissions practice. But we believe the LSAT and we believe the GPA do have the potential to indicate something about your future academic capacity. So there's all kinds of incentives that have nothing to do with the rankings. When I applied to law school a little bit before there were U.S. News rankings that involved LSAT scores.

Mike: Were you on the 1 to 40?

Dean Zearfoss: 48. I think it's 10 to 48. But I knew that the LSAT was very important. Everybody knew that, even though there were no rankings.

Mike: So my very short answer and then we'll discuss ad libitum on part two, would be how could it hurt you to have your best possible GPA and your best possible LSAT as an applicant?

Dean Zearfoss: GPA is trickier. I do lament the idea that you're taking classes for the sake of getting a particular GPA that you might not take a class that you’re interested in because you want to maximize your GPA. That seems like a less than ideal way to go through the educational process. So there is a little downside to focusing too highly on your GPA.

Mike: Well we'll brawl about that on Part 2.

Dean Zearfoss: Okay.

Mike: In short term, my personal takeaway is have a strong GPA, have a strong LSAT if you can. Neither is going to hurt you. Those are good aspirations and we'll deal with all the nuances on Part 2 of the U.S. News changes. Visiting campus in person, you know, that was shut down for a while, overrated or underrated now? Visiting the law school, not the campus.

Dean Zearfoss: Yes. Overrated pre-admit.

Mike: It's fascinating.

Dean Zearfoss: I think there are reasons why people want to check out a campus, but the cost of applying, the effort in applying to each additional school is pretty minimal. And I think that if you are visiting before you're admitted, you're not asking the same sorts of questions, you're not really kicking the tires to the same extent. You don't know if you're going to get in or not. And it costs a lot of money to do all these visits. So I would wait to see what schools you are admitted to, and then I think it is extremely important before you enroll at a school if you possibly can visit it.

Mike: Because you think fit is one of the most important, and the media keeps saying to me, “okay, in a world without U.S. News, how should people choose what law school to go?” Of course to me, fit and debt reduction and all those things that aren’t reflected in rankings are the most important.

Dean Zearfoss: That and I do think career opportunities are extremely important as a thing to weigh. But it allows you to dig in and it allows you to ask tough questions about the numbers or just get a sense of who are these people? Do I click with this community? This is the fit piece. Or do I get the sense that they are spinmeisters, right? Or do I see the substance when I go? There's a lot of things you could pick up in a visit and actually getting to meet people. Student happiness. You get to see other students, current students, do they seem content? Do they seem like they for the most part think positively of their institution? That's I think an important indicator.

Mike: Yeah, in-person student feedback is so much better than online, because online is usually the unhappy people that make posts. I could hug someone this morning on Reddit, someone asked about our services and this person was like, “there’s good things and bad things and there's also fake reviews.” And we can spot the fake reviews pretty quickly because they'll say things that we don't do. I think more and more people have the wherewithal that a student might be upset with X school and then they might make up a whole litany of fake things they’re upset about just because they have a grudge against one faculty member or the dean.

Or in a more extreme example, student gets denied, I hate the word rejected, so gets denied from a school, and then a year later this happened. “Oh yeah, I went to the school and I transferred out because it was miserable.” No, they're just in a maladaptive way trying to vent off what felt like a super-sized rejection.

Dean Zearfoss: Yes, that certainly happens. Every school and of course, you’re going to have some people who are unhappy, law school is hard. And it's a big group of people and there's no group of 500 to 1000 people anywhere where you're not going to get people who are unhappy. However, you do want to sort of get the context and see the extent of their unhappiness and judge it for yourself.

But to go before you're admitted, I don't know of any law school that rigorously tracks that kind of engagement and uses it as an important part of their assessment. I don't know of any school that does that.

Mike: Well, I think some do. It’s almost yield protect measures. Like the law school asks, “why our school? We’ll say Princeton Law School. Why do you choose Princeton Law School? We’ll say you lived in New Jersey or New York City, and you're able to take the train for $5 to Princeton Law School. And you can say, “X professor invited me into their classroom and even let me ask a question,” or “two students said, hey, you look like you're visiting. Do you have any questions?” “The campus was amazing. The fit felt beautiful for me at Princeton Law. So for reasons that have nothing to do with your flashy website, but how comfortable I felt being on your campus, this is what brings me to Princeton Law School.”

Dean Zearfoss: Yes, I just think that there are ways to get content for a ‘Why Princeton Law School’ essay that don't require a visit. And if it's easy to do it, sure, no biggie. But people spend a lot of money flying to different places in order to check them out at the front end. I feel like that's the wrong place to put that investment.

Mike: So we're going down on the record. I think it's underrated. You think it's overrated and people are going to listen to you over me. So United Airlines is going to be upset with you, not me.

Dean Zearfoss: Oh my god, I hope not. I have to fly United later this month. Next week and I've never flown it before.

Mike: I'm in Denver, it's their hub.

Dean Zearfoss: That's where I'm flying actually. I'm flying to Aspen.

Mike: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So AI in admissions, as you are probably more aware than I am, I imagine this was brought up at the LSAC conference, people are going to see more and more applications that are not done by the applicant but are done by a bot.

Dean Zearfoss: There was a good session on this. I mean, I think about it all the time. What’s the specific question?

Mike: There are companies out there now that say, “hey, we are AI driven in helping particularly down at the undergrad level, helping you with your application.” Is that helpful do you think to the applicant? So if it's helpful, it would be underrated or is it harmful and then it would be overrated?

Dean Zearfoss: I think I'll say overrated with an asterisk there. When we're reading essays at Michigan and at schools like Michigan, we're really hoping to get a strong sense of who we think you are in non-academic ways, right? What's your character? What’s your personality? What drives you? What motivates you? What kind of student are you going to be? The essays are very useful for telling us all about that. And we aren't going to be admitting any bots to law school. If you're leaning heavily on ChatGPT or some other AI instrument, it’s going to be hard for you to really insert yourself into that document. And I think that's a danger. Like the bland, anodyne essays where I don't get a sense of human life there, they already existed before ChatGPT existed. Those people don't get admitted.

I just came up with an example or an idea about how hard this is. So the idea would be that you're writing your essay, you give it a prompt just to get a rough draft. And then you edit it up and insert yourself in. That might be the way people want to use ChatGPT.

And when I first started in this job, my predecessors had a very different communication style than I do. And it probably took me a decade to thoroughly review all our correspondence and put my voice in there, the way I wanted it to be. It just took a long time, many, many iterations of editing to make that happen. And so if your intent is to get the rough draft in ChatGPT and then make it your own, I think that might be harder than people think it is. And by the time you do all the editing that will be necessary to do that, you might as well have just written it yourself.

Mike: Yeah, I mean, I see this as a huge win for our business. Because what do we do? We try to get to know our clients, find out what matters to them in life. Derek Meeker, who you know well, calls them the MWECs, Moments Where Everything Changed. I just say, you're sitting on the couch and you're thinking about your life, what makes your hair stand up or makes you just get up with excitement about an obstacle you overcame. To date, I can’t imagine ChatGPT can come up with that form of sincerity.

So as you alluded to, the common, banal, redundant essays that they would come up, you'll be the canary in the coal mine not us. But I think you'll see pretty quickly that these don’t have a theme to them. They're going to seem similar. There's an LLM personal statement that's going around that someone wrote in China, some admissions firm in China, is essentially the same personal statement with small permutations throughout that goes out to so many law schools. And when they see it, they deny the applicant because it's not their personal statement. You could almost see picking up on bot-created applications and default towards, “wow, I'm really distrustful of this person.”

Dean Zearfoss: One thing law schools in my experience try to avoid is taking risks. You don’t want to admit people who are actually not going to be successful in law school, not going to thrive. There are a lot of ways we look for what might be risky. And having a personal statement that seems to have been written by a bot is one of those risks I think people will want to avoid.

I also will say that for many years, I paid almost no attention to the LSAT writing sample because it was handwritten, it was impossible to decipher mostly. It's always a prompt that doesn't grab you. So I really paid very little attention to it. But then when it started being typed as it is now, I started paying a little bit more attention. We are definitely going to be paying more attention to the LSAT writing sample going forward.

I have developed a rule but I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it is certain things that we're going to be looking for that I developed in conjunction with one of our writing faculty about just very quick ways to get a sense of, “is this a strong writer or a weak writer?” So maybe like a 90-second evaluation of that writing sample.

Mike: Have you come across anyone who's typed in in the writing sample? “If you're still reading this...”?

Dean Zearfoss: Yes, all the time. It hurts our feelings.

Mike: It's amazing to me the risks people take in the admissions process. Like the stakes are so high in their minds, in many applicants’ minds which I would argue the stakes aren’t even as high as people make them out to be because most schools are really good. But given that the stakes are so high that people would also take risks like doxing themselves online, bad talking a school online. You can read every user's comments and it’s not hard for an admissions office to figure out who someone is. Or in the case we're bringing up, why would you ever take a writing sample and start talking halfway through, “I know you're not reading this so my cat fluffy is the greatest creature on the earth, hahaha fluffy.”

Dean Zearfoss: I don't know. I do want to clear up one thing because you know that I do not go online. Some people in my office like to go online and see what the mood is, but we have a pretty firm rule, “Don't go and try and figure out who it is.” Because I do think it is possible to do it, often probably easy, because sometimes people put their actual name in there so that's easy. But I think there's the higher chance of making a mistake on our end and painting someone with someone else's sins. So we don’t do that.

But you’re right. Many schools do, it is entirely possible that will happen and it’s silly. Some people call my office and are rude and they’ve left their name. That's strange. You think I don't talk to the person who answers our phones? I’m not going to admit someone who's rude to the person who answers our phone.

Mike: Yeah, I was a Dean of Career Services during the Great Recession and jobs were not being handed out and I can think of a few students who had jobs in hand and then were rude to the front office people at the firms and got their jobs rescinded. You just killed the start of your career by being a jerk.

Dean Zearfoss: Yeah.

Mike: There's no win. And this could be a next question, being upbeat and ebullient and kind in the admissions process, to me that is so underrated. We could almost data mine this. Like if there were a metric as construct to measure ebullience, the people who don't let one denial get them down, who still approach the world, not just admissions offices, with kindness, they almost always seem to win at the end of the cycle.

Dean Zearfoss: Yeah, it's not just your rational, it's not just like, I like to be around nice people because this is my personal predilection. No, it does indicate a certain amount of confidence and certain ability to succeed. Like your ability to engage with negative events and still keep going is a very strong indicator of success in life. And yes, I care about that a lot. Let’s talk about that in Part 2. That's one of the things I think about as a potential problem, the content of that is, but to be continued on that.

Mike: So we'll do one last overrated and underrated and then we'll get to a couple of questions people had asked online for you. They don’t care about my answers. Several typos or mistakes.

Dean Zearfoss: One typo is fatal. Just one.

Mike: Exactly.

Dean Zearfoss: No, that's a joke. Don't believe me. That was a joke.

Mike: So there's a lot of anxiety. I just submitted my application and I saw five typos in a 12-page application and I'm doomed. What do I do? So overrated, underrated, is that a mistake?

Dean Zearfoss: It's a mistake. So it's totally overrated. Now there are typos that are worse than others.

Mike: Like wrong school name.

Dean Zearfoss: Actually, that one I try not to worry about the wrong school name too much. Usually makes me laugh more than be outraged. It's in the very first line if you've got a missing word or a big misspelling or something like that, you just set the tone in the very first line. It's harder to come back from that.

Mike: “It was a dark and calm night,” instead of ‘stormy’.

Dean Zearfoss: Right. So you really want to proofread that first sentence, that's my big advice there.

Mike: And also not use, “It was a dark and stormy night,” as your first sentence.

Dean Zearfoss: Yes, don't use that. But yeah, five typos over the course of the whole thing, I just think it’s petty to worry about that. And when I practiced law, I don't think I ever turned in a brief when I went back and re-read it after submitting it and didn't find some typos. I don't like it either. I hate finding typos. But it isn’t the thing that's going to make the court rule against you.

Mike: Yeah. So you know much more than I. But I can remember when I was in admissions, I would say roughly 98 or 99 of every 100 applications had typos in them.

Dean Zearfoss: Again, as I say, sometimes they're particularly hilarious you know, because someone used the wrong word so that gets your attention. Often people will use a word that means the opposite of what they mean. Or when it's in the first sentence it just sets a tone and it’s not the tone you want the admissions office to have when they're reviewing your application. But I've actually tried lots of ways in the last few years to tell people like, “don't worry about it. Please don't worry about it.”

I have an annotated application on our website, I don't know if you’ve ever seen that. Where I give tips and tricks about this is what we're trying to elicit with this question. And in there, I specifically have, you know, a comment that says, “do not worry about small errors.” And then people write to us and tell us, “page three, I made this error, and I'd like to correct it.” We always write back and say, “we'll happily add this to your application. But please don't worry about this.”

Mike: Yeah and, “Dear office of emissions,” even that one I would get once a year and I would laugh. Let's shift gears. That was good, right? We're agreed and disagreed and that's always fun. There were a couple of questions for you. When answering the ‘why law’ question on applications, how specific do schools expect you to be?

Dean Zearfoss: That's a great question. I would say, first of all, when you say ‘expect’, I don't expect that everybody's going to have specific reasons that are unique to Michigan for why they want to apply to Michigan. Because again, it's hard to get to know a school from the outside. But if you don't have them, the utility of that essay really diminishes. If you could substitute in the name of five other law schools for Michigan, in your ‘why Michigan’ essay, it's probably not going to be helping you very much. So maybe at least for Michigan, my advice would be that's why we give you nine different prompts, pick a different prompt that will show me that you’re engaged, that will show me that you're making an effort and you don't need to blow smoke about how great Michigan is to get my attention.

And if you have a specific reason, I really find that winning. I do like that. If someone says, “this is what I know about your institution, this is why it appeals to me,” you name specific courses or specific professors or something about the area or some of your connection to the area. There’s a lot of different things that people can be specific about. And that does move the needle in a way that a bland one will not move the needle. It won’t count against you, it just doesn't really give the value-added as the business school people like to say.

Mike: The things in the category of ‘it doesn’t count against you’, I always think of as some negative though because the whole part of admissions is you have these objective numbers after you submit your application, obviously you can retake the LSAT. But a decision is going to be rendered based on two buckets, objective data and all these tiny things you can stack up. So if you're not stacking up these tiny things, I don't try to over-hype this, maybe it's 1%, but if you stack up 20 of those, it really can make the difference.

Dean Zearfoss: Could not agree more strongly. Yes, it's just wasted territory. You know an opportunity that you didn't take, if you have an essay that you've written and it doesn't move the needle.

Mike: Just for anyone listening, how to approach every application is every word matters. And we can talk about this on Part 2. I love the schools that ask, “here's six questions, pick one or two. There also might have been a second question which is, and I think this one's overrated. So many applicants think that they have to address why they're applying to law school, my default when I read applications was, if you're applying to law school, you've addressed why you want to go to law school.

Dean Zearfoss: I assume you know what you're doing. Yes, I’m assuming that there’s a reason.

Mike: Some schools like it more than others.

Dean Zearfoss: I think it depends on the reason. For me, like some people do have very specific reasons grounded in certain experiences that are interesting stories. But most people are applying to law school for fairly general reasons that don’t make an interesting story, “And I'm imagining this sort of career. I'm interested in this sort of type of issue. I like writing,” whatever it is. Those aren't too compelling. So if you have a compelling reason, great. But if you don't, lots of other topics that will be much more engaging and get the attention.

Mike: The worst possible opening line to a personal statement would be, “It was a dark and calm night and all my life I've wanted to be a lawyer.”

Dean Zearfoss: There we go. My vote to the worst start is always the Robert Frost, the road less traveled. I don't believe in starting with quotes from someone else.

Mike: Yeah. I mean, anything that doesn't differentiate can be as bad, and starting with a quote is not differentiating as so many people do. “I really want some insights regarding international applications, especially non-GPA!” Exclamation point. There's a big one, pressure’s on. “I believe Dean Z discussed this topic briefly during one of our application readings. In general, what is the most important aspect that adcomms want to see from international applicants? Is it a stronger ‘why law’?” We talked about that, “Or ‘why US law motivation’ and considering the non-GPA context, does it become more important in such circumstances?”

Dean Zearfoss: So I think the thing that I might have addressed in our A-to-Z episode is that if you don't have a GPA, if you know you were foreign-educated and it doesn't translate into a GPA for the Law School Admission Council purposes, then the only metric, we can see your transcript and we can understand mostly whether you performed well or didn't perform well. So we'll substantively know how you did.

But the one metric, the one data point we will have is the LSAT. So without a GPA and without a ton of knowledge about any individual non-US school, because we will obviously get many fewer applications from any non-US schools. We don't have the same base of foundation or information about it. Your LSAT takes on a lot more weight. That's just something to think about. If you have a zero for GPA, we’ll be looking more closely at your LSAT score to make sure that we think that you could do the work.

And then in terms of other things that you can do, even though we just talked about, you don't have to explain ‘why law’, there's exceptions to every rule. So sometimes if someone is really changing careers, then I am more, a little interested in seeing a ‘why law’ essay. Like you've done 15 years in this one thing, and now you want to be a lawyer and that's a big change. So I'm obviously curious about that. What would make you want to do that?

And by the same token, if you're an international applicant and you want to come to the United States to study law, that’s a huge undertaking and upheaval in life, so I might be more curious about that. I’m curious if you agree with this. I think the undertaking when you're putting an application together is to step back and think, what questions are going to be raised in the mind of someone who doesn't know me when they look at these materials and how can I address those questions. Whether directly, you know, with an addendum or indirectly by my essays or by letters of rec writers who might speak on my behalf. That sort of thing.

Mike: If you're curious if I agree with it, I would say the foundation of our 12-year running firm, is it's impossible with no admissions experience. It's not impossible, because some people actually have really good instincts and you can see it. But it's easy to do an application the way you think you should do it. It’s incredibly difficult to put yourself not in your shoes, but “hey, this Dean of Admissions has been reading applications for 23 years. She's read 80,000. How do I put myself in their shoes?”  That's not just admissions. That's part of life. It's trying to see perspective. It's very difficult as an applicant to see things from an admissions perspective. And because there's so much false noise out there, you see it all the time. I'm sure people tell you about it, then it becomes even harder.

Dean Zearfoss: I agree. And I also think there is by some applicants an unfortunate reluctance to listen to the signal, right. Sometimes people ask me advice and I will give it to them, and it's not the advice they wanted and they will either argue with me or just walk away clearly having rejected it, which is certainly their prerogative. You know, there’s no piece of advice that is universally true. Like I have different points of view from you. We both have different points of view from other admissions officers and so forth. So I'm not claiming that any advice I give is certainly correct. But you understand what I'm saying. There are people who have particular ideas in their head and it's very hard to sway them regardless of what kind of good advice they might get.

Mike: Yeah, like the expression, ‘Thou doth protest too much’, there’s a great book, Think Again.

Dean Zearfoss: I have that. I love that book.

Mike: Adam Grant, is that?

Dean Zearfoss: Yes. You probably recommend that to me! Somebody recommended it to me. Since you're saying it now, I’m guessing it was you.

Mike: All I do is recommend books so it's possible. He talked about at the very beginning, people who changed their test scores on standardized tests actually do better than people who say, “my gut instinct was option A, so I'm going to stick with option A.” So they've studied this at the macro data level.

Dean Zearfoss: Interesting.

Mike: So based on, this is not Mike Spivey or Dean Z speaking, but based on Adam Grant's research, if you have time and you’re thinking about a question, and you think your answer was wrong, you should change it. The macro-level data is trust those instincts. Just a side note.

Now we have do schools see LSAT scores that are older than five years old. Do those scores matter?

Dean Zearfoss: The answer is no, we do not see those. In the olden days and some point in the past, I believe we did. And LSAC has now changed it so we just don't see those.

Mike: So I remember when you could see them back from eternity.

Dean Zearfoss: I was thinking, so I didn't just imagine that?

Mike: No, it was like that. It’s an interesting change. Oh, I know why they did it. I bet because of LSAT Flex and how it changed from three sections to…

Dean Zearfoss: I think it's also because they put a lifetime limit on how many times you can take the test.

Mike: Okay. So they had the reasons for doing it. So the answer is no, that was a simple one. “Hey, Spivey, any chance you can ask Dean Z how admissions generally views second bachelor's degrees?” Just the broad idea as second bachelor's degrees aren't exactly common in the United States.

Dean Zearfoss: Yeah. As a practical matter, the initial bachelor's degree you earn is going to be the GPA that we use for our data and we will use as part of our assessment of whether or not we think you can do the work. Because that is the piece of data that LSAC uses for all of its correlation studies. And it's the piece of data that the ABA wants us to declare when we’re giving our data. So the first bachelor's degree will have more importance than the second. It's quite rare that anybody applies with two bachelor's degrees. And it's one of those things, it just raises a question I mean for me, why did this happen? Why did you go back and get a second bachelor’s? So I would think if that's your situation, it would be smart to just give me two or three sentences about that and it's like additional information. It's useful information. So it seems like a positive as a general proposition, but again, I'd want to know why did we go this route?

Mike: Yeah, my heuristic is generally don't leave a question unanswered. By the way, just filling in ‘Yes’ ‘No’s’ in the applications, just don’t leave anything blank if you can answer it.

Dean Zearfoss: Yes, when we're putting the application together, you know, we can say, this is required or this is not required if we're giving the question. And when you're designing an application, you want to, you don't want to make someone have to answer a question that they might not have an answer to.

So for example, we ask for information about up to two parents or guardians. Some people may only have one parent or guardian. So I don't want to force you to answer a question about a second parent when that may not be your situation. But then again, it really raises an eyebrow for me if someone only lists one parent and then elsewhere in the application makes it clear that they have two parents and talk about two parents. And I think why did you not give me that other parents' information, such a small thing? And it just makes me think, this is someone who is cutting corners.

Mike: Right.

Dean Zearfoss: It's a very small little bit of info, but as you said earlier, yes, these small bits of information add up to getting in or not.

Mike: No, I would say this is a good note to end on, cutting corners in any part of the admissions process is overrated. You don't want to do it. So be thorough. Proofread, don't rush. Don't submit on an arbitrary deadline. Always put forth your best foot on every nth nuanced degree.

Dean Zearfoss: And to the extent you can, do step back and think if someone doesn't know me, how does this application look to them? What kind of person appears to be applying to law school based on these bits of writing and this resume and these bits of data.

Mike: Yeah, it's hard. Introspection is hard for all, but yes, stepping back and saying, “okay, before I hit submit –”

Dean Zearfoss: Just to be, clear, I think it's perfectly appropriate to have someone else read your application or a couple of someone else’s to say, “does this sound like me? Am I adequately and accurately portraying myself in here?” I think that's an absolutely fine thing for people to do.

Mike: Yeah, and I think most people do it in some form or another.

Dean Zearfoss: Right. I didn't want to leave anyone with the impression that this is all on you and you’ve got to figure it out on your own. And it doesn't have to be, no offense to your people, the consultants at Spivey, but it doesn't have to be someone who's a consultant. A friend who's not a professional can still give you very good advice.

Mike: 100%. We're seven minutes over our timeline. I gotta jet, you gotta jet. We're going to pick it up maybe after the SCOTUS decision for Part 2?

Dean Zearfoss: Yeah, I’d love that.

Mike: Looking forward to it.

Dean Zearfoss: All right. Thanks, Spivey.

• Board index Law School Admissions Law School Personal Statements

"Why UCI?" essay (please critique) Forum

"Why UCI?" essay (please critique)

Post by 3v3ryth1ng » Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:39 pm

Prompt: We know that you have many options when applying to law school. Tell us why you are interested in the School of Law at University of California, Irvine. What do you believe we have to offer you? What will you bring to the School of Law? How would your experiences and perspectives enhance and enrich the quality and breadth of our law school community?

Re: "Why UCI?" essay (please critique)

Post by soitgoes9 » Mon Jan 02, 2012 2:21 pm

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