Essays That Worked for Law Schools: 40 Essays from Successful Applications to the Nation's Top Law Schools

A chart at the beginning of the book illustrates just how much importance various schools place on the essay (the University of Washington gives it little consideration; Harvard and Yale say it's a vital part of the application). --Jane Steinberg

Product Description
“Law school applicants should consider this a guide to producing a competitive, superior essay. . . . These successful examples speak louder than any written how-to instructions could.” –The Book Watch

Each year, thousands of people apply to the most prestigious law schools across the country, competing for an ever-smaller number of spaces. But each applicant gets one chance to distinguish himself or herself from the pack: the law school application essay. In the essay, you can spotlight the qualities you possess that transcripts and LSAT scores cannot reveal.

Essays That Worked for Law Schools shows that winning essays come in a variety of styles and voices. One student writes about running a day-care center. Another tells a harrowing story about driving a cab in New York City. And a third gives an incredibly convincing argument for why the world needs one more good lawyer. From the thousands submitted each year, the essays in this book were considered some of the best by admissions officers at the nation’s top law schools.

If you’re facing essay anxiety, this book will educate and inspire you–and most important of all, help you write an essay that will give you the best chance of getting into the law school of your choice.

One of the essays I remember particularly well basically read like a laundry list of things that can easily be found ELSEWHERE in his application, which I specifically remember reading in just about every other book/advice about law school essays NOT to do. There don't seem to be many truly revealing essays (interesting life events), essays that grab at you or cultural essays--all of which, in my opinion, are the absolute best ones. The essays do tell you something about each person's character and most are well-written, which probably contributes to why they worked, but the way in which most of the authors acheived their ends is not exemplary. Their methods are plain, as if they are too scared to really open themselves up or talk about something very personal. I believe you can write much better essays than these.

Perhaps the most exemplary and interesting essay in terms of writing style, topic and revelations about the author is the last one in the "Essays About Character" section where a young woman wrote about, what I will call, her conflicts with her mother. Her essay is an example of what I mean by very interesting life events that reveal something about the authors in a much deeper way than the average essay does.

The most helpful parts of the book, for me, were the questions in the beginning about essays that were answered by admissions officers and the chart that shows how much estimated importance each of the top schools places on essays. It's truly eye-opening to see how much schools like Harvard and Yale value personal statements while schools like Duke and Boalt place the least amount of emphasis on it out of the top schools listed on the chart (I don't consider Indiana a top school, and their were rated as seeing essays the least important). I would, perhaps, buy the book just for this information and maybe to get an idea of how much better you can do on your essays...and also for the one stand-out essay I mentioned.

Even if you're not a minority, I believe the best essays I've read are the ones in the upcoming book by Evangeline Mitchell entitled "Profiles and Essays," a book that is basically targeted at African Americans. Not all the essays are about being Black--in fact, most aren't--so you can still get some good ideas and see good, race-neutral essays. The book is likely officially coming out this fall, but you can probably order a rough copy of it now at hopespromisepublishing.com as I did. The essays I've read in other books are, more or less, boring as well...although Richard Montauk's "How To Get Into Top Law Schools" and Willie Epps's "How To Get Into Harvard Law School" present SOME good essays.


Perfect for applicants   August 14, 2003
 9 out of 11 found this review helpful

I am an educational counselor and received all four of the new "Essays That Worked" books recently. These newly revised editions are perfect for any applicant stumped by or anxious about writing a personal statement. The essays are inspiring, and the advice is frank and fresh. The authors did a great job of updating these classics, and I highly recommend them to anyone applying to college, law school, business school, or med school.