my personal statement thoughts on topic

[ukprincess1]

Ok
So I am starting to think about writing this thing and I don't know exactly what it is supposed to be about.  I am taking a class this summer which has focused on feminism.  I was thinking I might talk about feminism a little bit and how I feel law school could prepare me for a career in women's rights advocacy o something of that nature? yay or nay?

[The ZAPINATOR]

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[jacy85]

Nay.  It doesn't explain who you are.  It doesn't have to be something ultra dramatic, or completely unique, but something that is special to you, and has had an effect on shaping who you are.  With this topic, whatever it may be, you should discuss how the event shaped your character and developed the characteristics necessary to be successful in law school, and/or how you became interesting in studying the law.

Basically, the general guideline (and can be backed up by reading a handful of PS questions on applications) is to touch on the subjects of 1) what makes you unique, different, special, 2) why do you want to go to law school?  3) why would you be a good addition to our law school (as in, why would you be a good student there, and what could you contribute to the educational environment), and sometimes 4) what contribution do you feel you would make to the legal profession as a whole.

If you can find a topic/event/issue that would enable you to answer two or more of these questions while revealing a little bit of who you are, then that's an A+ topic.  I don't see you being able to write a stellar statement about one summer class on feminism, unless it's been a life long interest and you have stories/activities that back this up.

[ukprincess1]

Well....I honestly can not think of one thing that really makes me stand out.  Lemme just throw some stuff out here and if anything sounds like a potential topic will someone please yell?
1)Watching ym mom go from having a successful business to having nothing nd having to start from scratch and go to college.  How it has affected and changed me.
2)My father having a stroke when I was 1 years old and living with him and taking care of him because my mother was going back to school and working full time, how it changed me.
3)Talk about my transition from private schools to public schools and how hard it was and how it made me stronger and better able to relate to all social classes?
any of these worth exploring?

[The ZAPINATOR]

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[ukprincess1]

yes I did mean 11 years ago.  I could defnitely write about that but I think it might be kind of hard to keep the focus on me but I am thinking I will just talk about what I went through emotionally etc.  I still am kind of unclear as to how I would relate this to why I chose law school though.

[swifty]

Well....I honestly can not think of one thing that really makes me stand out.  Lemme just throw some stuff out here and if anything sounds like a potential topic will someone please yell?
1)Watching ym mom go from having a successful business to having nothing nd having to start from scratch and go to college.  How it has affected and changed me.
2)My father having a stroke when I was 1 years old and living with him and taking care of him because my mother was going back to school and working full time, how it changed me.
3)Talk about my transition from private schools to public schools and how hard it was and how it made me stronger and better able to relate to all social classes?
any of these worth exploring?

I think 2 is better than your original post, but if you could try to keep coming up with maybe 4 5 and 6, you'd be better off.  Look how quick it took to come up witrh 3 topics

[Lydia]

Hi UKPrincess,

Just so you know, I think the feminism topic can definitely work if it's something you believe in and part of the reason why you want to go to law school, provided you get your message across as "this is who I am and why I want to learn the law" rather than "I took a class about feminism and it was neat".  I'd been involved in the formation of a pro-choice women's rights student group on campus at my undergrad school, and my experience in this group and in various social justice movements was one of the focal points of my PS (the other being my study abroad experiences and how they affected my feminist views on a global/political level).  I think my PS helped me out a lot, especially since my GPA was on the low end for the top 14 schools.

Of course, I think you can weave some of the other topics into your PS as well - for instance the public/private school social classes aspect, etc.   

Off topic: are you from the UK?  where?  I lived in England for a while, so just curious.

Good luck with everything!

[nonobvious]

Well... it seems like #1 and also to some degree #2 could be written about with a feminist perspective in mind. Choosing #1 could easily fall into the trap of turning into a profile of your mom rather than you... but if you tweak it the right way, you can use it as a springboard for what it taught you about being an independent woman, etc. [and that would be a nice place to mention that you had to take on the responsibility of taking care of your dad]. And then the conclusion could be a sentence or two about going into women's advocacy.

As for #3, if you have specific examples to cite, or an emblematic event to tell a story about, then that could work...
The problem (challenge) with that sort of essay is that it falls into a genre of experience that many people have had--
and also, you run into the risk (much like the feminism topic) of talking too much in vague, impersonal generalities that don't give a meaningful or unique sense of who you are.

So I would think some more about what you could say in each of these topics, and as swifty said, keep thinking of other topics also.

Good luck..